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15.04.2021

The Border Crossers

DMK is growing together and it’s transcending national borders in the process. Team leaders Robert Brünjes and Martin van Dijk describe the challenges involved.

Martin van Dijk

“Our careers mainly ran in parallel during the past few years and our paths only crossed when one of us needed help from the other. But we’ve been working more closely together ever since the customer service teams at the Dutch sites Hoogeveen and Kaatsheuvel were integrated into the Bremen customer service team. Robert Brünjes and I work as managers in the Maxima project team that focuses on enabling the Dutch companies to grow closer together. We’re integrating the tasks and responsibilities of the Dutch Customer Services teams into the German Customer & Commercial Services team. It’s a delicate and complex process that requires us to have a clear understanding of each other’s processes and at the same time understand the wishes and needs of customer service users.


Customer service is the heart of the company. It’s at the center of all departments and aims to achieve customer satisfaction and the best possible customer experience. Therefore our team members are constantly in contact with all of the departments. We also measure our results and know what we do well and where we can improve.


I like doing business internationally and the different kinds of customers are also a challenge. Retail customers expect very different services than export customers and the other way round, so each day can wind up being different to what you expected. The job is never dull. Beyond that, I like and learn a lot from working with all departments in the company – from quality to the sales department.”

Martin van Dijk Dijk, Manager Customer Services, DOC Dairy Partners / Uniekaas

Robert Brünjes

“I want us to understand each other well. We need to, in order to adapt our work processes to one another, create new teams and develop joint recommendations for different approaches. It’s really important to be willing to work as a team and be open.


It’s challenging to optimize such a large number of projects. No two days are alike. We at Customer & Commercial Services are the link between many internal customers: Sales, supply chain, production, accounting and others. Our broad product and customer portfolio also provides plenty of new challenges. And we also need to constantly adapt to the different needs of the business units – and therefore the market requirements. But that’s also helped us find some good solutions so far!


What’s most impressed me is how the company has developed over the last 20 years. That change has allowed me to be involved in more and more cross-departmental projects and processes, which has further increased my job satisfaction.


In the future, what I hope is that DMK is able to keep finding the right balance between providing a high level of service and having cost-oriented processes. However, positive interaction between colleagues, farmers and consumers will be the most important thing.”

Robert Brünjes, Team Leader CCS Excellence, DMK

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