Page 474 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

Top left, clockwise: Doyle family at Family Fun Day 2016; Duane working on ranch tractor with Bill Doyle & Howard Peterson looking on in early 1990s; Seven yr old Peyton Sorgel’s Peterson Review in 2019; Box full of Doyle grandkids in 2020
Peterson is so engaged and consider ourselves to be the same as everybody else. But how can I ex- pect people to move out of their comfort zone and change their behavior if I’m not willing to be there too? We hope that what we’re teaching and trying to model will rub off on everyone else.”
Put the customer first—Howard really estab- lished the Customer First culture by taking care of the customer, not just always taking care of Peter- son. We look at what’s good for the customer and believe that it’s going to turn out good for us too. With a lot of companies, it’s a me-me-me philos- ophy. One of the things Howard did was to have empathy and understanding for what customers were going through and then help them through it. In return, they became very loyal. A good exam- ple is Ferma. In the beginning, they had no repu- tation. They had no credit. They had nothing. But Howard let Roy Ferrari have a couple of tractors on a handshake to really get their business going. They joked about it because Roy Ferrari is obvi- ously Italian. And Howard, being Swedish, looked him up and down and said, “Well you look like a good Swede. I’m going to trust you with it.” A couple weeks later, they needed another tractor, but they still hadn’t paid for the first one yet. But Howard loaned him another one. And the Ferrari’s were loyal customers for years and years. Those are the kinds of things that have endeared Peterson to customers for decades.
472 | PETERSON: 85 YEARS AND GOING STRONG