Proudly serving the industry for which it was named for more than 50 years, Outdoor Power Equipment provides dealers who sell and service outdoor power equipment with valuable information to succeed in a competitive market.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/306984
1030 W. Higgins Road, Suite 230, Park Ridge, IL 60068 Phone: (847) 720-5600 • Fax: (847) 720-5601 www.outdoorpowerequipment.com OPE Staff Group Publisher Jeff Patterson Associate Publisher John Kmitta Editor Steve Noe Art Director Brian Snook Production Manager Karen Kalinyak Direct Mail List Sales MeritDirect, Jim Scova, (914) 368-1012; e-mail jscova@MeritDirect.com Reprint Service Debra Welter, Circulation and Audience Development Manager, e-mail dwelter@specialtyim.com Editorial Advisory Board Former Executive Director, EETC (retired) Jim Roche Senior Advisor, Servantage Dixie Sales Jim Starmer Pres., Plano Power Equipment and Whipper Clipper Glen Whitt Director of Sales and Marketing, Central Power Distributors, Inc. John D. Hedges Circulation For subscription inquiries and customer service questions, please call (847) 763-9565 or fax (847) 763-9569 business hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. EST Publisher's Notice: We assume no responsibility for the validity of adver- tising claims in connection with items appearing in Outdoor Power Equipment. Commercial product names are used for the convenience of the reader. Mention of a commercial product does not imply endorse- ment by Outdoor Power Equipment or Specialty Information Media, or preference over similar products not mentioned. Account Representatives: EAST Chris Pelikan Senior Account Manager Phone: (954) 964-8676 cpelikan@epgmediallc.com MIDWEST Peggy Tupper Senior Account Manager Phone: (763) 383-4429 ptupper@epgmediallc.com WEST Leslie Palmer Senior Account Manager Phone: (248) 731-7596 lpalmer@specialtyim.com Upfront Editor Steve Noe snoe@specialtyim.com 6 O U T D O O R P O W E R E Q U I P M E N T w w w. o u t d o o r p o w e re q u i p m e n t . c o m 1030 W. Higgins Road, Suite 230, Park Ridge, IL 60068 Phone: (847) 720-5600 • Fax: (847) 720-5601 pril showers bring much more than flowers for all outdoor power equipment dealers in May. All of those customers, who you haven't seen since the fall (and perhaps the spring or summer if they don't own a snowblower), are now coming out of hibernation and wanting you to most likely service their lawn and garden equipment — yesterday. In the case of my local OPE dealer, he quoted me a two-and-a-half week wait to get my self-propelled 21-inch walk-behind mower serviced, and he said that was with having his service technicians working 12-hour days! Fortunately, I brought my mower to him before the grass turned green and started to grow. As editor of Outdoor Power Equipment, I'm also very sympathetic about his situation and tend to exhibit more patience than most people. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been for my dealer to tell the same story to the customers who fol- lowed in my footsteps by bringing their mowers in to be serviced only to walk away disgruntled and perhaps take their mower elsewhere to be serviced. Fittingly, we chose to make customer service the theme of this issue and will do our best to lend a helping hand with dealing with difficult customers. Jeff Sheets, who recently launched his own consulting company called OPE Consult- ing Services, provides us with the cover story on how to use technology to win over customers and how to handle customer complaints (see page 14). Greg Car- radus, director of sales for Ideal Computer Systems, Inc., gives you seven proven ways to create the ultimate customer experience and breed customer loyalty in the process (see page 18). If you would like to know how your fellow dealers han- dle customer complaints, be sure to check out "Dealers' Domain" on page 24. On another customer-related note, Heather Blessington, ARI's chief marketing officer, gives you some excellent advice on how to boost customer referrals (see page 16). I hope that you will find all of this advice helpful in delivering excellent cus- tomer service and wish you the best of luck this season. Timely customer service advice A