5 Ways to Evaluate your Dealership’s Customer Service

Every year before harvest, we evaluate the performance of our dealerships’ service and support to customers. We look at not just business results but specific things like parts availability, machine delivery and inspections, and other key variables. It’s a healthy discussion of how we’re doing, how we can be better and what we need to do to overcome past pain points moving forward.      

This year’s pre-harvest discussion at CLAAS FARMPOINT focused on parts logistics. Every team member offered ideas on how we can work together to improve customer service. It spawned some key questions we are continuously working on answering:  

• What does “better customer service” mean?   
• What matters most to our customers?  
• How do we measure the results of changes we make to improve customer service?   

At CLAAS FARMPOINT, our technicians, parts runners and parts specialists all play key roles in maintaining the highest level of service to our farmer customers. We’re focused on the farmer. So it just makes sense to first see how they evaluate us so we can make informed improvements to what we do for them.  

5 key areas for evaluating dealer service  

When evaluating our service performance, I think about the SERVQUAL model that breaks down customer service into five key areas:  

• Reliability. How you consistently deliver on promises made to customers.  
• Responsiveness. How quickly and efficiently you react to customers’ needs.  
• Assurance. The knowledge and courtesy of your team, a major contributor to customer confidence.   
• Empathy. The ability to connect with customers and understand their needs, often with a personalized touch.  
• Tangibles. The physical of what you do, often including minor details that contribute to customer confidence.   

Thinking in these terms, we can adjust how we work with farmers so service is productive and profitable for everyone involved. For example, we work hard at CLAAS FARMPOINT to ensure our parts runners and service technicians are available to customers as quickly as possible. This contributes to strong reliability, responsiveness and the assurance that we will be there where and when our customers need us.   

Because our technicians, parts runners and everyone else at CLAAS FARMPOINT are all members of our local communities, it’s natural that they will have empathy for what customers need, especially given many of them are involved in agriculture themselves. Finally, it’s hard to miss our trademark CLAAS FARMPOINT colors; we make sure all equipment is clean, well-organized and always prepared to do what our service team needs to do to keep our customers up and running.     

Why this matters to us at CLAAS FARMPOINT  

Especially at hectic times like fall harvest, the quality of service you receive from your dealership can make or break your operation. Equipment breakdowns, delays in service or poor communication can lead to significant losses. By accounting for these five variables in the SERVQUAL model, we can make sure we’re doing everything we can to stay ahead of customer needs. That means smoother operations for everyone involved.   

But do we always hit the mark? No! That’s when it’s important our customers let us know how we can do better. Doing so will not only enable us to make changes to get better but also help build a strong relationship with the CLAAS FARMPOINT team. That way, the next time you need service in the field, you’re not just calling a dealership. You’re calling someone you trust and know well.   

We’ll continue to work hard to always be the best dealerships we can be. As we enter the fall harvest season, we’ll be ready with whatever our customers need. That way, we can all celebrate a successful, bountiful harvest together soon.