Another week under lockdown ticks by. How has it been for your dealership?

Service Dealer held another video conference call with a panel of dealers from across the UK this week, which once again offered a fascinating snapshot of the situation for the network.

Following the call, Duncan Murray-Clarke, owner of Service Dealer who chaired the meeting said, "Once again our dealers on the call showed resilience and inventiveness.

"I was particularly pleased with the sentiment that the servicing dealer industry should pull together by sharing best practice and knowledge during and beyond this difficult time. We will be focussing on this over the coming weeks and will report back.”

Whilst we have a reasonable sense of how many ag machinery dealers are coping with the restrictions (which was superbly illustrated by the video which Ripon Farm Services produced last week) – the situation for outdoor power equipment (both commercial and domestic) is more varied it seems.

We heard on Wednesday that perhaps the customer demand which had been very high online and on the phones under the first few weeks of lockdown amongst the domestic users, might have eased off a little? Perhaps those customers who are living off their 80% wages at home are thinking they may have other bills, besides from their gardens, where they should be focusing their limited funds currently? If your dealership is open, have you felt this?

The big problem for dealers of commercial machinery of course, is the lack of work being carried out by professional end users. The continued closure of golf courses was talked about as a very real issue. If those facilities are not taking money off their golfer members, they therefore do not have the funds to spend out on new machinery or the servicing of older kit. It appears to be a very real problem right now for commercial dealers.

There was however, slightly better news this week when it was announced that parks won’t be closing and that councils seem to be maintaining those spaces. It is more the professional sporting shutdown and very specifically the golf courses, which are causing concern for some dealers.

To hopefully bring some more clarity for dealers of professional turfcare machinery, on our next dealer conference call we will be joined by senior representatives of the professional trade associations BIGGA and the GMA (formally IOG). It'll be interesting to hear from these bodies, how their members are faring in the current situation and how that is impacting on dealers.

Returning to furloughing for a moment, the HMRC portal for companies to make claims for their staff’s wages opened on Monday this week. Those dealers on the call who we spoke to, who had used the system, seemed fairly happy with how it all worked. Certainly, there were no horror stories about sites crashing or being kicked out of the portal. How did the rest of our readers find it? If anyone would like to share their experiences, please leave a comment below this article.

Talking about staffing in general, we heard a mixture of experiences. The good news for those who have remained open, is it seems that a lot of employees want to come into work – as long as the correct safety provisions have been made of course. In fact, those provisions which dealers have conscientiously undertaken can actually make the workplace quite an appealing place to be at the moment. Dealers are having to put trust in their employees, that they are following the rules in the rest of their lives!

Family businesses or dealerships where there are family groups employed, are doing well. Where people are living and working together the complexities of distancing are eased a little.

We did hear reports of employees who feel less comfortable in the workplace – or in certain cases, some parents who are less keen on their offspring coming into the dealership. In these situations, there is little the employer can do at the moment, other than respect those wishes.

Mostly positive also was the discussion around the supply chain. We heard some dealers particularly impressed with their manufacturer suppliers who kept them informed regularly and have kept the flow the parts coming through as best as could be expected.

This might have been helped by many suppliers, prior to the outbreak, stocking up their warehouses in preparation of any disruptions which may have been caused by Brexit (remember that?!). Concern was expressed though for what may happen to supply the further we move through this thing – and indeed what might lie ahead on the other side? The worry is the stores of parts could become stretched. Obviously it is speculation at this stage, but on more than one occasion it was raised how 2021 could prove very interesting for the industry.

As has been talked about in recent weeks, keeping up communication streams is more vital than ever. Regular contact with customers via social media is proving invaluable for many. Updating customers, letting them know about working practices and the changes which have been implemented within the business, is appreciated. We are lucky in many ways because gone are the days when dealers needed a huge advertising budget to get their message out to their local communities.

Other digital tools are also playing their part in this too – video in particular. Ripon’s professionally made film last week, magnificently told the story of how they are running their business in these unprecedented times. But on a smaller scale, smartphone-shot clips can also get your message across effectively and economically. Machinery demos for instance, lend themselves particularly well to the medium. You can see a great example in this Update today from David Withers of Iseki, which may inspire some ideas for your own opuses!

Progressive dealers have been utilising digital tools such as these and others, for some time now. With consumers getting ever more used to dealing with retailers remotely, it would appear they will become increasingly ubiquitous across the network. The cliche of necessity being the mother of invention, applies.

What was inspiring once again, listening to our panel of dealers, was how forward thinking the network is. Already considerations are turning to an exit strategy and what comes next. It isn’t simply about surviving lockdown, it’s about considering how what is happening now will change the way business will be achieved down the line. Because there seemed little doubt that things will be altered.

Obviously protecting the industry is paramount and dealers are concerned that manufacturers and trade bodies will be doing all that they can to ensure there is a functioning servicing dealer network after this. But there seems to be an acceptance that business will have to evolve.

We know the network has had to reinvent itself many times in the past - it seems it’ll be forced to do so again.