Thurday last week saw TurfPro's sister magazine Service Dealer, hold its annual Conference and Dealer Of The Year Awards ceremony at the Oxford Belfry Hotel.

The event is a rare opportunity for representatives of dealerships large and small from across the country to get together to discuss the issues which are currently affecting their businesses and to share knowledge and experiences. The UK dealership network is made up of a disparate collection of independent businesses, so a forum like this to collaborate and pool ideas, doesn't present itself very often and is therefore a valuable event.

The tone for the day was set by a wonderful Keynote speech delivered by maverick high-street retailer John Timpson of the shoe-repair chain Timpsons. His philosophy of recruiting his staff based on personality rather than pre-learned skills, and then giving these recruits the agency to fulfil their job the way they see best was refreshing and inspirational.

Even though he was taking about shoe repairing and key cutting, delegates could easily draw parallels to their own, independent, service-focused, businesses. His 'upside management' idea of making sure that the guys facing the customers are the most important in the company, with management there to support them, was fascinating to hear.

He said they only had two rules in his company. 1 - Look the part. And 2 - Put the money in the till! "Beyond that, " said John, "I say to my staff, do whatever you feel you need to, in order to get the job done."

He also had an incredible policy of allowing any of his staff to spend up to £500, without consulting management, to settle any customer dispute. "You can't give great customer service by simply following a set of rules," said John. This notion seemed to capture the imagination of many of the delegates.

The bottom line with John's business is that his independent way of doing things has allowed his company to thrive, through providing customers with a level of satisfaction which sees them returning time after time.

It was something which the dealers in the room could relate to and draw inspiration from.

As turf professionals, I'm sure you can all relate to the value of having a local dealer on whom you can rely for expert advice and exemplary customer service. Listening to these guys speak last week you can see that they are all facing some very real challenges in running their businesses at the moment - but that they are all dedicated to providing the highest level of service for you, their customers, as they can.

I was speaking to a professional buyer of turfcare equipment at Saltex recently and he was telling me one of the most important things a dealer can do for his business is keep his machinery running following a breakdown or an accident. Obviously as soon as a machine is out of action and not cutting the grass, money and time is being wasted.

I know on occasions things do go slightly awry and matters don't run as smoothly as everyone would like, but hearing these professional dealers talking last week, the innovative and dedicated processes they have in place to make sure customers are satisfied at all times, was truly impressive.

As an industry UK turf professionals can feel confident that the specialist dealers they deal with year round are striving to create lasting professional relationships which do indeed always put the customer's needs first.