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North Dakota | This has been a very interesting thread to read. Before I say anything I do work for a Case dealer that sells a fair amount of trimble stuff.
As a dealer we have talked about this very problem a few times in the past but so far have decided against it in any form preferring to provide "free" telephone support for the equipment that we have sold. The John Deere dealer in town has decided that they will be using the fee for service format for this year and then will reexamine their choice next year. I believe how they work it is they will charge $300/farm/year for tech support for any equipment not under a warranty program. What I was told was they would provide 2 on the farm service calls and all the in shop and telephone support with no extra charge. I'm not 100% sure but I thing Stellarsupport charges a per problem or an annual fee.
From my side of the discussion we provide 24/7 phone support with a cell phone that I carry even when I'm away from the shop and the only time it is turned off is Sunday morning when we go to church. We have made enough on sales every year that we are in the black at the end of the year with precision equipment. I have a couple of problems with this business model, first is obvious I'm expected to answer questions even at 2 AM, it's not bad out of season but spring and fall it makes for some short nights and I might be a bit cranky the next day. The other is if I'm working on another unit and I get 10-20 calls a day then the guy I'm trying to get done does not get finished as fast. Now I know that some will say that someone else needs to carry the phone to stop those problems but we have tried that and then they just call my home phone or even come into the shop because they don't trust or believe the other guys on the phone.
Phone support is an ongoing problem from a service standpoint, you can't stop doing it and risk making the customer angry, but how do you make the bean counters happy at the end of the month when they tell you that you recovered less than 50% of flat rate hours.
I will say 90% of our customers will try to solve a problem on their own before calling. But you can't spend 2-3 hours looking for something before you call and I have taken a number of those calls too. I figure that if you can't solve a problem in 10-15 min it's time to call.
From a dealers standpoint it has to be everyone or no one, because even if the owner hasn't purchased any of his precision stuff from you but bought a new combine from you last summer you don't want to risk sending him away. On the other hand who should get priority service the guy that buys $100.000 worth of stuff or the one that buys a $1000 used lightbar, usually it is the $1000 guy that needs more help. | |
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GPS "Service" Contract?
