Some customers always want to do their own maintenance. But as farms get larger, some will want to delegate this out at a fixed cost per year. We tell them how much this will cost. Rick Anderson is the manager of agricultural equipment at Finning Canada Ltd., an Edmonton-based Caterpillar dealer with 7 agricultural branches. He says farmers are slowly developing the same attitudes toward product service as industrial and construction clients.
Customers have very high expectations.
Anderson thinks the growth he's seeing in customer support agreements relates to a change in equipment ownership patterns. At Logan Farm Equipment, a John Deere outlet in Mitchell, Ont., mobile service is nothing new. Service technician Dave Wood has been on the road for the past 15 years and he's seen an increased demand for on-farm repair work. He works out of a 16' foot aluminum cube truck similar to those used by courier and tool companies. Over the years, he says, they've modified the service truck to meet their needs.