In mid-May, the heart of planting season and the beginning of the first hay cutting in Northeast Wisconsin, Sara Loritz, parts technician at Vanderloop Equipment (VE) in Brillion, is in high demand.
Standing at her desk near the front of the dealership are Ed Vann, who runs a small vegetable operation in De Pere, Wis., and Dennis, an employee from the nearby Hornstead Dairy, a sixth-generation dairy with 1,500 cows.
Vann is up first, needing help with one of his old Masseys. He and VE techs have been working on a complete rebuild of Massey for about a year. Dennis, meanwhile, is in need of a parallel switch for his Claas 970 chopper. After answering Vann’s questions, Loritz starts a search of the dealership’s inventory to find a switch for Dennis.
Sara Loritz
Years with Organization: 2
Role: Facilitates communication between service technicians and customers.
Quotable: “If I can’t answer a customer’s question, I will usually grab one of my technicians and try to stay involved. I don’t just say, ‘Hey, take the phone, tell them what to do, and come back.’ I want to hear what’s going on because it’s all about learning.”
The search comes up empty, so Loritz and a service tech decide to send Dennis home with the dealership’s tester and guidance about what to check on the machine’s engine. That way he can figure out if the switch is the real problem or not and try other troubleshooting steps while they wait 2 days for the part to arrive.
“I suppose we can trust you. I know where you work,” she jokes. “I’m going to order a switch regardless because I should have one on the shelf.”
Growing up on a small grain farm, Loritz is empathetic to the needs of customers, especially small ones like Vann, who can easily become a low priority amidst big customers like Hornstead Dairy asking for help at the same time.
“I remember my dad telling me he always felt like he got overlooked because he only had a couple hundred acres,” Loritz says. “I don’t want any grower to feel that, so that’s my motivation to keep a good relationship with customers. I’m a people person, so having that positive connection fits my personality.”
Restructured Role
In mid-May, Loritz was just 3 weeks into her restructured parts technician role, which was the result of sales manager and co-owner Mark Vanderloop’s efforts to make the dealership more efficient (see p. 28). Loritz has worked at the dealership for 2 years, but the new role has her focused on managing inventory, warranties and service calls.
“Mark and I were talking the other day about all the changes, and he asked me, ‘What do you want to do? Where do you see yourself?’” she says. “We both agreed, don’t take me away from the customers. I like working with them, and I’d say the majority of them like working with me.”
Take an Empathetic Approach to Customer Service
Sara Loritz, parts technician at Vanderloop Equipment in Brillion, Wis., is a people person with a deep understanding and empathy for the problems faced by farmers.
“I grew up on a farm,” Loritz says. “Farmers can be a unique breed, and I’m very fairly used to them because they’re kind of like my old man. These are the people I actually like talking to. There are days that are draining, don’t get me wrong, like during second cutting when everybody’s freaking out and stuff’s breaking. It gets exhausting answering the phone constantly and working with people because they’re frustrated. It gets hard, but I don’t mind it.”
Loritz spends 75% of her time talking with customers, whether on the phone or in person, and estimates she’s handling 10-15 walk-in customers per day. Managing so many interactions requires attention to detail and good communication with customers and dealership staff.
“The biggest thing is making sure I get all the information and ask questions that lead to solving the problem,” Loritz says. “Once the problem is recognized, we know what we need to do. I stay in contact with the technicians in the back as well as the customer, shooting them a text or leaving a voicemail on where the technicians are in the repair and what we’re waiting on; to keep them going in a timely manner.”
The new distribution of responsibilities at the dealership presents a learning curve for Loritz and the rest of the team. In the new parts technician role, she’s responsible for managing warranties at VE’s 3 locations as well as answering parts and service calls at her home base in Brillion.
Tracking the number of open service calls, warranty and over-the-counter tickets is one of Loritz’s key performance metrics. She tries not to have more than 5 open service and 5 open over-the-counter tickets at any time. If a part needs to be ordered, the over-the-counter ticket may take 2 days to close, but usually it’s completed sooner. The goal for warranties is no open tickets unless someone is actively working on them. Even then, she aims to close service and warranty tickets within 1 week.
“I hate open tickets,” Loritz says. “It drives me nuts because it’s basically sitting on money at that point. If I can keep my open tickets minimal, I feel like I’m doing OK.”
Serious About Winter Service Programs & Results
Vanderloop Equipment (VE) found success in its seasonal service program, maintaining efficiency and providing the best customer assistance.
“80% of our winter service is scheduled, and 20% is unscheduled. In the summer, it’s the other way around: 20% is scheduled work that’s in the shop, and 80% is whatever happens when the phone rings,” says Robb Vanderloop, CFO and owner of VE.
VE created a value program that helps even out demand and pricing. It incentivizes customers to schedule their winter maintenance ahead of time by providing valued-added storage for their machines as well as a washing and detailing service that customers appreciate. By providing storage, the techs are able to service the machines on their own schedule and it provides predictability for parts, as 70% of the parts volume comes through the service department.
Tractors see service year-round while forage harvesters are winter based corn heads and kernel processors are worked on in summer. VE is in the process of creating a similar scheduled maintenance program for corn planters to maximize uptime and reduce unneeded stress.
“Our machine population on corn planters isn’t near as much as our forage harvesters,” says Robb, “But we’ve only been into the planter business for about 3 years now, and it’s been good so far.”
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Loritz says AGCO and Claas are good about providing reminders a month before machines are going out of warranty. A notice about the warranty expiration pops up in AGCO’s Tech Connect dealer platform when searching the machine’s serial number. Loritz says some VE customers are aware of their warranty expiration dates, but customers who have a lot of equipment or who don’t monitor their fleet as closely will be contacted by dealership staff, more often via text than phone call.
“Text messages are a fantastic thing,” Loritz says. “Phone calls are good, too, but a lot of these guys are so busy that you call them, they hit ignore, and then they forget about it. So we’ll shoot them a text saying, ‘The warranty is about up. Let’s get in for one more.’”
VE doesn’t use a texting platform, instead relying on traditional texting because it’s simpler for the customer and doesn’t require any extra app downloads.
“My dad got overlooked because he only had a couple hundred acres. I don’t want any grower to feel like he did…”
AGCO also offers maintenance warranty packages for customers to purchase that provide 100-hour service or extended coverage over the initial warranty.
“Our AGCO and Claas reps are pretty good about goodwill, too,” Loritz says. “If the machine is a little bit older, but it’s a weird, unique problem, we cover some and they cover some.”
Customer’s Perspective
Monitoring the number of repeat customers is another metric Loritz uses to gauge her own performance. She takes note of how many customers return to VE after one interaction with the dealership and what kind of follow-up encourages them to come back.
An important part of ensuring a positive interaction is knowing how to read people, Loritz says. Some customers come in or call wanting to get right to the point, while others want someone to listen to them vent.
“Filters don’t exist with most farmers,” she says. “You must have tough skin and know when they’re joking or they need to vent. Just know it’s not about you, and let them do their thing. Usually if you let them vent long enough, you’ll actually figure out what the actual problem is, and it’ll help you diagnose.”
Before joining VE, Loritz worked as a technical field agronomist and field scout for Country Visions Cooperative and then as a sales rep for a precision ag dealer that sold Trimble.
Both jobs prepared her for taking on her customer-facing parts technician role at VE.
“I’m a plant doctor. I like dirt,” Loritz says. “Sometimes I know more about the dirt than I do about the tractor itself, and that helps.
Refurbished Forage Harvesters Boost Second-Owner Experiences
Developing a 3-tiered program for refurbishing Claas Jaguar forage harvesters has helped Vanderloop Equipment (VE) turn second machine buyers into valuable repeat customers.
Building on nearly 30 years of experience with Claas forage harvesters, Robb Vanderloop says VE’s long history and knowledgeable technicians lead to a used owner experience they believe is second to none.
Utilizing only genuine Claas parts and lubricants, the resale program refurbishes all key machine components while guaranteeing a ready-to-work forage harvester. Serviced components are warrantied for 1 year or 350 hours, whichever comes first, with 3 levels of remanufactured or rebuilt Claas forage harvesters:
1. VE offers a basic refurbishment program for high-powered, high-age, high-hour machines.
2. VE also offers a program that includes an annual inspection and whatever service work is needed for the next season.
3. Their self-designed “Green Envy” program was developed for refurbishing 3-5-year-old forage harvesters with less than 1,500 hours of use.
“With this program, we redo the chopper from front to back and make it basically like new,” says Vanderloop. “This program isn’t cheap, but the goal is to provide just as good — if not a better — for the customer as would be the case with a brand new chopper. If we can sell a second owner a machine that runs for 3-5 years without a lot of repair expense, that customer will be a repeat buyer.”
VE is always seeking new ways to promote services other dealers aren’t offering. “It’s a challenge to figure out how to do things differently than what’s always been done,” he says. “We want to offer something different, something better and something with a higher value than just price.”
For details on the dealership’s personalized refurbished forage harvester program go to www.vanderloop.com/greenenvy.
— Frank Lessiter, Editorial Director
“As an agronomist, I used to watch moisture and plants to determine when we needed to cut. That ties in with the chopper if we’re having plugging issues. Is it actually the chopper itself, or is it because the moisture content of whatever you’re chopping is too high? They go hand in hand, but dirt and parts are still a lot different.”
She estimates field conditions are the cause of equipment issues about 25% of the time, but the majority of problems are due to something not working right on the machine. However, her agronomy background lends credibility 100% of the time.
“It’s good for connecting with farmers,” Loritz says. “If they come in and say everything is lodging, it keeps building the relationship if you have a well-rounded understanding of everything.”
Her agronomy knowledge also builds trust with customers, something that must be earned as a woman in the ag industry.
“When I first started, there were a few male customers who didn’t want to talk to me,” Loritz says. “It’s not that uncommon — every job I’ve had has been like that. I had to earn their trust. They’re not just going to hand it over. If you can earn their trust, you’re golden.
“But going from fresh out of college to now, it isn’t just a guy’s world anymore. There are oodles and oodles of girls in parts. I think girls are generally more detail oriented and more likely to follow up, so that’s why parts is almost a girl position now. And maybe that’s why growers as a whole have started to adapt.”
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Dealership Minds: Service Department Manager: A True Passion for Customer Service
Dealership Minds: Service Department Lead: Service: Beyond Just Repairs
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Dealership Minds: Brillion Sales Reps: Building Relationships Beyond the Sale
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