Rural Lifestyle Dealer offers a comprehensive analysis of the 2017 Equipment Dealers Assn.’s 2017 Dealer-Manufacturer Relations Survey in the summer issue. Here's an excerpt featuring comments from Wright Manufacturing, which earned a Gold award. Wright's highest score among the 12 criteria as ranked by dealers was in the area of product quality. Wright's score of 6.29 was higher than the average mean score of all OPE manufacturers of 5.88.
Ed Wright, director of engineering for Wright Manufacturing, comments on the company’s rankings:
On proud criteria: Over the past 20 years, we have always had a focus on quality. In the past few years, we’ve had a special emphasis in quality and it’s good to know that dealers are seeing the results.
On short-term focused improvement area: We realize that dealers are independent small businesses that hang their reputation on the quality and support of the equipment they sell. Backing our dealers and providing the bests products leads to phenomenal success.
On recent changes: We recently launched a serial based parts lookup system that allows for unit-level parts accuracy.
On current trends: For us, the biggest indicators of success are the condition of the U.S. economy and the weather.
On strategy when missing the mark: We have certainly created some of our own problems over the years. But what remains true in a small company is that we have a personal relationship with many of our dealers, and we have to listen to them to be successful.
On plans for dealer network: We still have many markets that are underserved, and as the “stand on” concept continues to grow, we are looking to partner with dealers that are leaders in their market.
