What beekeeping can teach us about customer support at Cummins

For Matt, success isn't measured by the problems he solves, it's measured by the trust he builds along the way.

Standing beside one of the beehives on his property, Matt watches thousands of bees move with purpose.

Some gather pollen and nectar. Others receive those resources and store them. Each bee plays a role in supporting the health of the hive, and no single bee could accomplish the work alone.

The more Matt observes them, the more he notices parallels to another team he knows well.

As Technical Support Manager supporting Cummins' largest on-highway national accounts, Matt and his team help some of the country's biggest trucking fleets navigate technical challenges, solve complex problems and keep their businesses moving forward. Whether he's caring for bees or supporting customers, he sees the same principles at work: curiosity, teamwork and a commitment to helping others succeed.

Long before he worked with engines and customers, Matt regularly disassembled any machine he could get his hands on.

Growing up near Columbus, Indiana (U.S.), he was the kid who viewed broken appliances as opportunities.

"When I went into my mom's laundry or utility room to be able to try to figure out how these things worked, something drove me," Matt said. "Anytime something broke, I looked at it as a toy or something I could play with."

A broken vacuum cleaner wasn't something to throw away. It was a puzzle waiting to be solved.

He strove to understand everything including the wires, the motors, the moving components and the role each part played in the larger system.

"I had an inquisitiveness and desire to truly understand how all the little things work," he said.

That curiosity eventually expanded from appliances to lawn equipment, passenger vehicles and engines. One memory still stands out decades later: finding an engine intake valve in a nearby mechanic's garage and becoming fascinated by how one small component fit into a much larger machine.

When Matt joined Cummins in 1998, that same mindset came with him.

Today, he still views every challenge as an opportunity to learn something new.

"It's perpetual learning that really drives me at the end of the day," he said.

Matt now leads a team of seven technical support managers who support Cummins' largest national accounts.

Their role extends far beyond answering technical questions.

"We're dealing with the largest of the large fleets day in and day out and making sure that they get the support that is required for them to be successful as a trucking company," Matt said.

Customers often turn to the team when they need help understanding technical issues, troubleshooting fleet challenges or finding solutions that require specialized expertise. While the engine may be at the center of the conversation, Matt believes effective support comes from understanding the bigger picture.

"To understand the value of the engine, you have to understand the whole rest of the truck and how it all fits together in one piece," he said.

Just as importantly, his team bridges the gap between technical complexity and customer understanding.

Team members must be able to understand intricate details about engines, electronic controls and vehicle systems while also explaining those concepts clearly to customers with varying levels of technical experience.

"The communication barrier of technology can be crossed so that everyone's on the same page," Matt said. "That's vital at the end of the day."

For Matt, technical expertise creates value only when it helps customers succeed.

Building trust with Cummins customers

Whether the issue involves equipment, maintenance, paperwork or something entirely unexpected, he enjoys helping people work through challenges and find solutions.

Over time, consistently helping customers solve difficult problems has created something more valuable than technical credibility alone: trust.

Customers frequently contact Matt and his team because they know someone will respond quickly, listen carefully and help them work through an issue. He even has a personal goal when it comes to responsiveness.

"I have a rule that if a customer calls me with a problem, I like to return their call or return their email in no later than 30 minutes," he said.

For Matt, the strongest indicator of trust isn't found in a report or a performance metric.

It's found in completely different conversations.

"One of the questions I get asked sometimes is, how do you know when a customer trusts you?" he said.

"The best answer that I have ever found is when that customer calls me on a Saturday afternoon just to talk to me about their family, their friends, how their weekend was going and life in general."

Those conversations tell him everything he needs to know.

"That's when I know that the customer that I'm taking care of truly trusts me."

Matt didn't originally become interested in beekeeping because of teamwork or leadership.

He was simply trying to solve a problem.

Years ago, he struggled with seasonal allergies and heard that consuming local honey and pollen could help. What began as a practical experiment eventually grew into one of his biggest passions.

The deeper he became involved in beekeeping, the more he appreciated its complexity.

Like customer fleets and engines, bee colonies are highly interconnected systems. Every season presents new challenges, and success depends on understanding how many moving parts work together.

"They're the epitome of nature's teamwork," Matt said.

When he opens a healthy hive, he watches bees move continuously between responsibilities. One bee gathers resources. Another receives them. Others store and manage what the hive needs to survive.

"The reason why it works is teamwork," he said.

Those observations have influenced how he thinks about leadership.

If one member of his team is traveling, on vacation or focused on another customer, someone else steps in to help. Team members understand one another's strengths and know when to ask for support.

"It's like the whole team's working together for all of our customers at the same time," Matt said.

The similarities between successful teams and thriving hives continue to stand out.

"There's an eerie similarity between how bees work and how teams at Cummins work."

Looking back, Matt sees a common thread running through his family's history at Cummins: people sharing knowledge so others can succeed.

His grandfather worked in Plant One after World War II and helped oversee engine test cells. His father spent nearly 50 years with the company, helping build information technology systems that connected Cummins operations around the world.

Today, Matt sees mentoring as part of carrying that legacy forward.

He regularly works with employees across the company, helping them better understand customer needs and strengthen their ability to support customers.

Many of the people he mentors don't interact directly with customers every day. Helping them understand the customer perspective often leads to stronger collaboration, better decisions and improved customer experiences.

"It's vital to have that mentorship and help those people out," he said.

Whether he's mentoring coworkers, helping friends repair vehicles, teaching others about beekeeping or supporting customer fleets, the motivation remains remarkably consistent.

"The drive comes from knowing that if I can do one thing for whoever I'm helping today, just to make their life a little bit easier, that they're going to remember it," he said.

Like the bees in the hives he tends at home, Matt believes the best results happen when people understand their role, support one another and work toward a common goal.

Whether he's solving a technical challenge for a customer, mentoring a colleague or caring for his bees, the purpose is the same: helping others succeed.