Page 216 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong
P. 216

and service. But once Peterson-Cat came along, people started seeing it as real competition to John Deere.” In 2013, Moote hired on at Peterson’s Al- bany branch, which made him an eyewitness to the changes in the area from both sides of the fence. “What I’ve experienced since coming to Peterson is that the farmer has been looking for a reliable source of machinery other than John Deere be- cause of cost, which is outrageous. But also be- cause of the bigger corporate feel the Deere dealer has these days. People want a small, family-owned operation, and that’s what our Albany store offers. People like that.”
Moote provides the kind of service he always want- ed as a customer. “Customers don’t want to call a dozen people to get an answer. That just wastes their time. Here, the customer calls the tech di- rectly.” And each field tech at the Albany store has his specialty—someone for combines, someone for balers, somebody else for traditional tractors. An- nual training also gives them each the ability to cover whatever comes up. “The customers all have our phone numbers,” said Moote back in 2016. “It’s a very tight-knit community here, where ev- erybody knows everybody. So whoever they call, we either answer their question or direct them to the tech that has the most knowledge on that piece of machinery.”
Peterson’s ag techs are on-call 24/7 three specific times a year: during harvest, planting, and spray- ing seasons.That’s when time is money.“As long as harvest goes, I’ve got keys to a truck and that truck moves at whatever hour they call,” says Moote. “In the summertime, these combines are how these guys make their living. If it’s not running, they’re not getting paid. They base their whole income off a two-and-a-half-month window.” Currently, there are sixty-one combines in the valley owned by thirty customers. And each year—from June to September—Moote is focused on them. “I give each of these guys a call on my way home every night to make sure everything is running fine. If they have any questions or concerns or some-
thing’s acting funny, I’ll go out there and see what the problem is.” That’s all based on the relation- ship he has built with these customers over the years—something he’s really proud of. And during that time, Moote has watched the valley shift from green to yellow.
The product support required to regain and retain ag customers in Peterson’s territory fell largely to Paul Grove, Peterson’s ag product support oper- ations manager, who had spent twenty-two years with Holt of California. “Many of our customers had John Deere combines in the beginning, and they’ve slowly converted to Claas. Many were skeptical whether Peterson would be able to sup- port them during harvest season.” He points to Parker Farms, who took the first plunge. “We were there for him twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week during harvest season. If Parker had any problems, he could call our on-call mechanic who would go out and fix it, no matter what time it was. That happened several times.”
Smith Brothers Farms also depends on Peterson during harvest. According to Moote, they were one of the early adopters of Claas combines. To- day, they own six. “One night in late fall 2014, I’d just gotten home and taken off my boots, ready for dinner, when I got a call from Seth Smith,” says Moote. “The pump on his chemical sprayer had broken. So I pulled my boots back on, logged into DBS [Peterson’s database] and found the part in stock, then headed for the shop to pick it up. He didn’t want me to because I was home. But the thing about our industry is if it’s going to rain, you really don’t have a choice. We live in Oregon, and if it starts raining in the fall, it might not quit for a week or two. If you’ve got a dry day, it’s time to go.” Moote got the part and went out to the Smith farm to do the repair. He was home by nine o’clock that night; the customer was back on track and happy. “Now that we can support these customers, the green guys are getting scared. We’re actually stealing customers from them. The Claas combine here in the Valley is taking over.”
214 | PETERSON: 85 YEARS AND GOING STRONG
 



























































































   214   215   216   217   218