The right quality parts in its $6 million parts inventory, competitive pricing and convenient locations for truck operators to access was the “winning formula” for the innovative and customer-focused Peterbilt of Sioux City (Sioux City Truck Sales, SCTS). That formula was validated by the dealership’s recent recognition as Peterbilt’s 2010 North American Dealer of the Year for Parts & Service, from among 250 locations in the U.S. and Canada.
“Peterbilt of Sioux City delivers the highest levels of quality customer service by continuing to invest in an outstanding facility with a service center staffed with experienced factory-trained technicians,” said Bill Jackson, Peterbilt general manager and PACCAR vice president.
The dealership’s director of parts, Eric Madsen, told Fleet Equipment exclusively, “We’re fortunate to have a business partner like PACCAR Parts that continues to add more product lines; supply marketing tools like flyers, websites, posters and displays; and ongoing development and promotion of the new TRP parts brand by PACCAR Parts—all of which appear to pay off in the long haul.
“PACCAR Parts is a pleasure to do business—responsive, helpful and progressive,” he said, attributing his department’s 20% average annual growth rate to stocking the right parts, offering an array of brands for Petes and other truck makes, plus on-time dispatching of its delivery vehicles.
“Our customers trust our outside sales force because of their expertise and continuity, and we’ve added more salespersons to delight even more customers. Our in-store parts pros enhance their knowledge of parts and keep current through frequent training,” said Madsen. “Through our centralized parts and service management system, our highly-mobile customers are comfortable knowing they receive the same level of quality products, pricing and services at all of our locations.”
SCTS wisely focuses on communicating to its customers—via its marketing manager Tom Schoening—
with store newsletters, posters, flyers, websites, search engines, advertising, news releases, e-mail blasts and truck photo calendars.
Madsen offered three reasons for the department’s success, “Our employees truly serve existing and potential customers, plus we emphasize training and stock the best or better level of brands, with a recent trend to customers buying trusted brand names again rather than focus on low price alone. The PACCAR Parts nationwide billing and warranty programs make it easy for our large national fleets to stop at any Peterbilt or Kenworth dealership and have PACCAR send the bill to the fleet office,” he pointed out.
Interestingly, the dealer’s service department has experienced even more customers wanting maintenance and repairs at each SCTS location. Revenues from truck maintenance and repair have nearly doubled since 2005. Jerry Hale, director of service, maintains an emphasis on training technicians with the right facilities and specialized tools. (SCTS operates four locations: Sioux City, Council Bluffs and Des Moines, Iowa, and Norfolk, Neb.)
Across the company, not only did the sales of parts grow by about 20% annually during the last four years, revenues from truck maintenance and repair rose 26% in the same period. The award-winning dealership embraces all PACCAR Parts promotions and marketing strategies.
PACCAR Parts general marketing manager Karl Mowat emphasized to Fleet Equipment, “We certainly cover the initial owners, yet also the second and third owners who want the right part every time.
“We offer over a million part numbers (truck, trailer) with coverage from tail lights to front bumpers, including a partnership with Cummins and an all-makes engine program. The dealers/end-users deserve high levels of parts service and we in turn offer a loyalty program to end-users complete with specials and rewards,” he added.
Mowat underscored PACCAR Parts’ intention to know the customers’ needs, solve problems, be a better partner and “focus its energy on the customer.” It seems Peterbilt of Sioux City caught that energy.
