As you may have already read, I was invited along to Kew in southwest London this week, to attend a launch event that Husqvarna were holding in the world famous Royal Botanic Gardens.

I was there, along with a handful of other members of the trade press, to hear the company announce that they are teaming up with the UNESCO World Heritage site as part of the garden's "ambitious climate positive plans". What this means in practice, is that there will now be three Automowers trundling about the grounds at Kew - plus one other off site at Wakehurst, their wild botanic garden in Sussex.

This partnership does seem quite the coup for Husqvarna considering just how high profile a site like RBG Kew truly is. It is quite the shop window in which their robotic solutions now find themselves displayed. I was there on a Wednesday during term time this week, and the number of people enjoying a walk around the rose garden where a unit was on show, was not insignificant. Just think what it will be like during peak visiting periods.

Now admittedly, the priority for most won't be to concentrate on what is cutting the grass, they will be there to view the flora and fauna on display. However, it's undeniable the level of visibility that will be generated for the technology because of its usage there. 

Alongside all the commendable carbon positive talk, raising the profile of the company's robotic machinery amongst all those horticulturally interested members of the buying public, is clearly a hugely desirable outcome for Husqvarna - and, hopefully, for their dealer network too.

A changing approach for dealers?

Talking of their dealers, I took the opportunity whist at Kew to speak with some members of the manufacturer's senior management team regarding how they saw the current role of their dealer network - both specifically in placements such as this one and in the broader sense.

As everyone reading this will know, the past couple of years hasn't seen the smoothest sailing on occasion, in terms of the relationship between the dealers and Husqvarna. The issues that have been faced by dealers are well known and have been discussed much in recent times.

Therefore bearing that in mind, it was fascinating to hear the manufacturer's take on how they believe the dealer network is going to need to adapt and evolve, to keep pace with the changing desires of customers. 

Jonathan Snowball, head of business unit professional UK, told me the company are working with their dealers all the time to help them plan ahead – to essentially future-proof their businesses in regards of where Husqvarna are convinced it is heading.

Jonathan Snowball at Kew this week

"There are some key trends that we observe in the market, especially regarding customers’ requirements," Jonathan explained. "As a consequence, we believe that some dealers need to have a bit of a rethink about their operating model."

Jonathan went on to explain how the company has now developed what they call their Pro Partner dealer programme. What this is, is identifying dealers across the UK, Europe and globally, with firstly, what he described as 'very strong after-market capabilities'.

"Although there is a shift towards more electronic and technology-enabled products," Jonathan told me, "we actually see that requirements of aftercare through the dealer network will increase. However, it will be less of maintaining oily petrol and diesel machines, but rather providing a different kind of service with these new electronic machines."

Jonathan continued, "With these new aftercare requirements, we’re looking for dealers who have the capability of actually going out into the field to look after customers’ machines - to visit their customers more. We don’t want Kew Gardens for example, to have to take their machines to a dealer - the dealers should be able to go to them to try to diagnose and fix issues out in the field. And then if that's not possible, take it back to the workshop."

I also heard that wrapped up in this new service offering, are different ways of customers paying for their machinery. It was explained to me that Husqvarna are launching in the UK an Operational Lease function for their dealers. "This allows customers to spread the costs over a 3 or 5 year period," said Jonathan. Within those costs customers will apparently receive extended warranty and, on some products, a winter service package.

A third strand of what the company is looking for in its modern dealer I heard, was a strong field sales focus. This means that the company wants their dealers to go out there and visit the customers more. "We want dealers to understand users' challenges and their applications out in the field," is how Jonathan put it. "We believe you can’t understand as much about your customers when you are stood in your showroom. So it’s important for dealers to have that good facility of being able to get out there and mould a package to suit an individual customer’s requirements. We see that as the way forward for our Pro Partners."

I'll include some more from my talk with Husqvarna in an upcoming issue of Service Dealer magazine, but for now, I found what the company said they are looking for from their progressive dealers as a fascinating insight into how they see the future prosperity of the network.

It's clear that great swathes of the products dealers sell today are radically different to years gone by, so it seems logical that the methods used to sell and care for this new technology will need to evolve also.

But what do you our dealer readers think? Do you agree that tweaked means of fixing, financing and selling machines is important for dealerships to thrive into the future? Or with everything that you've gone through these past few years, are you not so sure that changes are necessary? 

Let us know in the comments below.