Dealer or user ?

[Peter]

Do you do any arb contracting then? Or are you purely machinery sales?

 

I"m sure you wont mind me asking.

[Dean Lofthouse]

By the way your comments about some chippers looking the same carry's no merit what so ever. .

 

Did you used to be a car salesman?

[Steve Bullman]

play nice please guys

[TREELINE]

i think this is a common attitude.....we all like to shop around for a decent price......but just to put the cat amongst the pigeons, isnt this exactly the kinda of attitude that we moan about when people go for a lowball quote over ours with regards tree work? double standards??

 

btw, this isnt a dig at you buzz, as i shop around also

 

My new mower is costing extra because I'm using a local dealer for most purchases over the thieving vagabond of a dealer 20 miloes away. I'll probs get better service and save eventually on fuel.

[Dean Lofthouse]

play nice please guys

 

There was meant to be one of these on the end of my last post

[Liston]

Do you do any arb contracting then? Or are you purely machinery sales?

 

I"m sure you wont mind me asking.

 

No don't do any contracting, Im in sales but purly from the point that I was a field service engineer servicing and repairing chippers and grinders in the 90's cos not many people did that kind a thing , most tree company did not have a chipper most used to burn or haul and log.

The sales thing just grew as tree company started find the use for the chippers and grinders.

so from my side the sales is based on the fact that I know how they work and sell on knowlage and not on a broucure which I think is why the chipper sale person seams to be tared with the same brush, cos ther seams to be a lot of people selling tree equipment who dont know what they are talking about and the end user soon finds out that they have the wrong machine for the job:ohmy:

Problem is the trust seams to be getting lost over the years between users and dealers.

It has been interesting to see over the past few years how dealers who before dident even know what a chipper was, now seam to be experts in the tree care industry (well untill the margins drop off then they be off to sell what ever is the hot thing of the day:bored:)

One thing is for sure in tree equipment you get what you pay for in quality and running costs.

[Dean Lofthouse]

All that can be said about any equipment supplies in any trade.

 

I used to deal Dewalt power tools, Ebay came along and all of a sudden, people are buying multi packs from america, splitting them and selling them here. All of o sudden the market is flooded with rogue dealers.

 

It killed the market overnight and sent a lot of dealers down.

 

Thats the hazard of the trade, move on, diversify or die.

 

It's no good complaining about who's doing or selling what, if you haven't put all your eggs in one basket and have a good business stratergy and not rely on mainly one product you will pull through while the rest fall.

 

Customers are only loyal to their pocket not you, I found that out through 14 years in the harshest retail enviroment know to man, I used to work markets and shows. We used to recon power tools and generators and sell them at not much more than another tool retailer who was selling them as they come in, battered and knackered.

 

The customers would bypass a fully serviced, fully reconned and checked over 3.5kva generator for the sake of £30 to buy a right heap of crap next door.

 

Loyal customers are hard earned through politeness, helpfullness, knowledge and running round after them wiping their arse basically.

 

If I were retailing at the moment I would be selling as many lines as possible and lowering overheads by getting rid of idle lay about staff

Edited February 5, 2009 by Dean Lofthouse

[Liston]

Yea your right with some of that.

 

We got good product lines and have a very good customer following mostly because we do make customer service a big part of business.

 

But this thread does show that at the end of the day the tree care industry really is only interested in price and not so much the after sales stuff.

We will still be giving the service

[Dean Lofthouse]

We will still be giving the service

 

Good on you, I hope things go well for you this coming year and may even take a look at the 1260 at the end of the year if things pick up, because customer service for mine is absolutely crap and to me that's very important.