A recent Equipment World poll found that a majority of contractors are satisfied with their primary equipment brand and that much of that satisfaction is determined by their dealer.
Among 129 responding contractors, 55% said they were very satisfied with their current primary equipment manufacturer, defined as the brand that makes up the majority of their fleet. Another 33.3% said they were somewhat satisfied with their primary OEM.
Only 9.3% of contractors said they were somewhat dissatisfied with their primary OEM, and just 2.3% said they were very dissatisfied.
Among contractors who said they are very satisfied, 31% named Caterpillar as their primary OEM, followed by John Deere at 17%. Other manufacturers listed among “very satisfied” contractors included Kubota, Case, Komatsu, Hitachi, Takeuchi, New Holland and Volvo.
When asked to explain their current satisfaction level with their OEM, a key theme among “very satisfied” contractors was prompt communication and service. These contractors pointed to benefits like always being able to get someone on the phone when they needed help and good parts availability from their local dealer.
However, even these “very satisfied” contractors had issues they wish would be addressed. These included getting faster quotes on machines and rising repair and parts costs.
Among contractors who were somewhat satisfied, key issues surrounding their partial satisfaction included slow service and bad communication from their local dealer, issues with electronics on the machines and concerns about the durability of some replacement parts.
Among the minority of contractors who were overall somewhat dissatisfied or very dissatisfied, bad service from their local dealer and frustration surrounding maintenance dominated the conversation.
One “somewhat dissatisfied” contractor expressed not feeling like a priority customer to their OEM due to having a smaller fleet, saying, “I only own 11 pieces from my OEM. When I have an issue, I am nobody.”
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One contractor simply requested that their local dealer “have the parts in stock to make up a [expletive] hydraulic hose.”
One of the few “very dissatisfied” contractors was unhappy their primary OEM did not easily share equipment data with their fleet management software.
