I received an unusual phone call this week.

Out of the blue, a number I didn't know rang me. It was a rather animated, verbose chap who had come across Service Dealer and my number online. He was a retired end-user who, during the course of his career, apparently had cause to buy plenty of equipment from a variety of dealers.

And he had a very low opinion of the network.

He took a long while to get to the gist of his call, but essentially his reason for getting in touch with me was to inform that in his experience, outdoor powered machinery dealers are all terrible - but that he has been surprised just recently, by finding a good one!

He spoke of dealers not phoning him back when they said they would, of an 'old boys club' (whatever that means), of poor business practices and of dealers in general being a difficult breed to get along with. He really wasn't happy with a multitude of experiences which he said he'd had with many dealers, over many years.

He went on to explain though, how he's recently moved to a new area where he's found a dealer who he described as "a breath of fresh air."

He said this new dealership were approachable, honest, went the extra mile to help him, with the clincher for this chap being that the dealer principal gave him his mobile number, making himself contactable, seemingly at all times. The boss of this dealership, he said, was leading by example, setting a standard for the rest of his helpful staff.

When I eventually felt like I could interject, because thus far it had been a mostly one-sided conversation, I did attempt to stand up for the dealer network as a whole. I explained that the bad experiences he was describing were perhaps more of a symptom of days long gone?

Modern dealers, I proposed, know the value that exemplary customer service holds for their business. They want to exceed customer expectations, making sure that they and their staff are doing all that they can to guarantee customers have a good experience and thus return to their stores.

I explained to this chap that as the organisers of the annual Dealer Of The Year competition, Service Dealer hears directly from dealers' customers across the country every year - who in their droves are positively brimming with enthusiasm. We hear so many stories of why their local dealer deserves the recognition of their peers and the industry as a whole, for the great work they're doing serving their community.

Every year we receive praise for garden machinery dealers, ag dealers, professional turfcare machinery dealers and ATV dealers - large and small. Multi-branched and single, family-run concerns.

We know first hand, I said, that there's great work going on out there in the network and that it's really unfortunate that you have formed this negative view of dealers in general. I would argue, that things now, really aren't like how you perceive them.

With that, the chap said, "Well, I just wanted to let you know my thoughts," and rang off. Whether I convinced him that there are way more good dealers out there than the single one he had come across, I'm not sure.

I suppose the wider point to perhaps bear in mind, is that there could be droves of customers out there like that. Ones who have had, shall we say, less than perfect interactions with dealers in the past.

It's not your fault the baggage they might bring through your doors, but by maintaining your own high-standards of customer care and aftersales service with every single new person who walks into your showroom - or indeed interacts with you online or on the phone - you'll be doing all you can to convince these people, that bad dealers are those guys from the past.

They certainly aren't you.