Parts availability helps Northland JCB gain repeat business with support of Syncron solutions
When an industrial machine breaks down, construction stops. Every minute spent waiting for a part to repair the machine drives up operating costs and decreases the ability to complete a project on-time. That’s why parts availability can result in new business or lost customers, depending on a dealer’s performance. In this video, learn how Ben Rowland, a Northland JCB dealer, uses Syncron solutions to increase parts availability and stock efficiency.
Transcript of interview
Ben Rowland, Corporate Parts Manager, Northland JCB
About Northland JCB
JCB is the worldwide manufacturer of construction equipment. And we at Northland are a separate company, but we represent JCB construction equipment. It’s a very competitive industry now compared to 33 years ago when I got into it, not that it wasn’t competitive then, but the competition and what customers expect from an equipment dealer have grown exponentially. The key is to just make sure you have what the customer needs when he needs it and provide a really good service. That’s how you keep the customers. That’s how you win them over in the first place.
Parts availability equals happy customers
JCB presented us with the opportunity to engage with Syncron. If we have the parts the customers need when we need them, that is going to leave very happy and satisfied customers who will become repeat customers, not only on the parts, but on machines. If you’re an owner of an excavator, and when your machine goes down and you call the dealer, us in this case, and they have the part nine out of 10 times you call, that’s going to leave you with a warm and fuzzy feeling. And Syncron helps put us in that position to have the parts here when our customers call. And then down the road, when he’s deciding on his next piece of equipment he’s going to buy, in the back of his mind, he’s saying, “Northland had what I needed and was there for me when I called.”
Staying alert to inventory trends
The technology has picked up on the parameters that say, “This part is trending, you need to have it in stock now.” Syncron is very good at picking up on trending items. And that’s what I need because, sure, the 10th guy down the road, you’ve figured it out by then. But if you’re the first, second, third, fourth customer coming for a part, and their machine’s down in the middle of the road or on a job site, you don’t want someone to tell you, “Well, we weren’t really ready for you yet. We didn’t know this was going to be a part that everyone would need.”
Syncron solutions increase efficiency
This is a stock where efficiency is a metric we watch, and Syncron has helped immensely with that. I’d like to dig deeper into the Syncron system because I’m sure it can help me more than it already does. I would absolutely recommend it. And one of the things we had thought of when we took on the Syncron system is spreading it out to our other lines. We always had in the back of our minds that down the road, we might, as we expand and we take on other brands of equipment besides JCB, we may expand its role to be used through those other line.