So you’ve decided to buy a new farm implement.
Or shall we say, you were planning to buy until you saw the prices. It is enough to discourage anyone.
Where can I get the best deal?
Don’t ask.
Instead, ask yourself what else you are getting when you buy the machine.
It is frustrating to travel far from home to get a good price on a combine and then not be able to find anyone to fix it when it’s broken down.
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The customer might be able to convince his local dealer to come out, but only after he takes care of his regular customers.
Let’s say you’ve bought an implement from far away and would like to develop a relationship with a local dealer.
Will he be good to work with and how will he treat you, knowing that you didn’t buy from him?
What do you look for in a dealership to instill confidence it can keep your machine running?
First, some do nots:
- Do not think you can tell whether a machine is reliable by seeing how many of them are in the shop being serviced.
A good dealership gets customers’ machines into the shop for a variety of reasons. The dealer might be keeping a record of all his machines to see when they need servicing, such as oil changes.
The season or the weather might be right for bringing them in, or there might be a brand service deal underway.
- Do not ask a mechanic for his opinion on a product.
He has been trained to look for problems, so naturally he will tell you all the bad things about a product. He might not even be aware of how well it performs in the field.
Things to consider:
- Customers should be recognized within a couple of minutes of entering the dealership.
Are customers standing around talking to each other about their problems? Visiting is good, but their problems should be so well taken care of that they are not problems anymore. They should be talking about the weather or markets, not machinery problems.
- Who writes the work order?
Is it the same person who sells the parts? You can be sure what the parts person’s job is.
He is there to sell parts, not solve your problems, so the chance of him missing something are higher than if a service person handles that work.
- Don’t be afraid to talk to other farmers who own your brand of machine and who frequent the dealership. They will have opinions and while they might not always be unbiased, you will get an idea about the dealership.
Peace of mind sometimes comes with a price tag. This is all part of the good deal.
Henry Guenter is a former service manager for Massey Ferguson. Contact: insidemachines@producer.com.
