A core memory for Chris Oldham, a product support rep at MacDon, was a call he received from one of his dealers who needed immediate help. A family emergency for a customer required additional support to set up an FD2 FlexDraper® header on very short notice.

Oldham’s response? “Well, absolutely, of course.”

So he made the necessary arrangements, traveled the eight hours from where he was to where he needed to be, set up the header with the team there, waited for the customer, and then went out with the customer to make sure he was totally happy.

“It was a positive experience that I was able to help with. I don't think you see that in other companies that have product support where you've got guys that are going to go out in those kinds of conditions,” says Oldham. “I'm always getting comments from the individual farmers – ‘I can't believe you're at my house. I can't believe you're on location.’ I'm like, this is normal. That's what's different about MacDon… not only do we take care of you, but the company takes care of me. That makes it very easy for me to take care of you.”

And this isn’t an uncommon situation; almost every MacDon product support rep has a similar story (or, more likely, many stories) that exhibits the same dedication to their dealers and customers. One thing is for certain: When a MacDon customer needs help, the members of the support team go out of their way to ensure a resolution is reached as quickly and painlessly as possible, and they pride themselves on building long-lasting, trust-based relationships along the way.

Incomparable customer service is baked into the core of MacDon as an organization; the old-school ideas of a handshake being as good as a contract, and facetime being the best way to maintain a relationship, are values that the support reps live by every day.

“One of the things I hear from the dealers I report to is that we come by quite often. We are always coming to visit with the technicians and the service managers, showing them some of the changes. Whether it be on the portal or just stopping by to make regular visits to check on how the factory is doing with releasing another year of production to make sure we are doing a good job,” says Bernie Adams, a product support rep who has been with MacDon for almost 25 years.

“They’re all important, every visit. I guess one of the things for me with my longevity at the company is that I've got to look after a lot of states, and now I look after Manitoba, so I've got to see a lot of different areas and the topography where our product works. And it's simple, that it's one great product that works in a multitude of areas for different customers… It all works the same, and it just functions well.”

Joshua Josephian, a product support rep with MacDon who has covered California, Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon for the last six years, agrees that relationship-building is a “crucial” part of the job. He makes sure his customers and dealers know MacDon is there for them; they’re not just another piece of equipment or another serial number on the lot, but important members of the MacDon family.

“I like to make sure that I meet that customer or I'm thoroughly connected with that selling dealership every step of the way. From the PDI process to delivery, to maybe issues in the field in the near future, or just maybe utilizing that customer for running prototype parts. So that connection, I think, is absolutely crucial. To put a face to the company, whether it's on a dealership level or with the customer, it's absolutely crucial,” says Josephian.

Many of the support reps interviewed for this piece credit MacDon's status as a short-line manufacturer with the company’s ability to be so hands-on and available to its customers and dealers. When there’s an issue, there’s a human waiting and willing to resolve it; there aren’t long queues in online support portals, or endless hours spent on hold over the phone, it’s just person-to-person contact with direct access to the folks up the chain who have the answers.

When things do go wrong, and fixes are needed, this accessibility, in combination with the facetime from reps on the ground, makes what can be an awkward situation easier for everyone involved.

“It just seems to make us a lot more personable when there are some things that are sometimes hard to resolve. We know what it's like when things are good, and we're very approachable and easy to resolve anything that might seem to others as a challenge,” says Adams.

‘We always talk about the short-line companies, and that's what MacDon is viewed as. Because we are shortlined, there's still a small enough group of people that an email, a phone call, an FSM report can take things quite far in a matter of quick time.”

“If I tell somebody I'm going to be there, I'm going to be there,” says Oldham. 

“If I tell them I'm going to do something, it's going to happen. And that's what I like about ag, is that it's not just making a sale, it's making a relationship with guys. It's not just, in my case, solving an issue. It's solving an issue, making a call back after I've made the fix. ‘Hey, is everything still going good?’ It's those sorts of things that I enjoy about it. You get to know these guys. Basically, I like to think of my dealerships or my customers as family, you might say.”

From a dealer perspective, both Matt Krupski from Mazergroup and Byron Hlavinka of Hlavinka Equipment, who together have been MacDon customers for decades, have glowing reviews of their interactions with the MacDon product support team.

Krupski is located just outside of Regina, Saskatchewan, and heads up a service team of around 25 staff for Mazergroup, a dealership with locations in both Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Krupski comes from a farming background himself and understands the importance of the type of customer service MacDon provides.

“When it comes to that interpersonal relationship, I can't stress it enough, the importance of it, particularly in the ag industry. It doesn't matter what facet of the ag industry it is. It's taken me a long time in my role to get to that point, and I think when it comes to the MacDon representation in that way, I see it, I feel I do,” says Krupski, who works mostly with Jared Kornelson at MacDon.

“Taking the phone call or having someone that's a voice rather than an on-hold message as much as possible is huge. I've had good luck with that, just dealing with MacDon directly myself.”

Hlavinka has had a similar experience; he’s been a sales director with his family-owned Hlavinka Equipment for much of his life. Hlavinka’s great-great-grandfather started the company in 1939 as an equipment, lumber, and general mercantile business and has since grown into a six-store dealership with locations along the Gulf Coast of Texas.

Hlavinka Equipment has been a MacDon dealer for nearly 25 years. Hlavinka recalls working on and operating a 963 offset Harvest Header in the early 2000s and receiving consistent, high-quality care from the MacDon team.

“Over the years, if you followed the farm equipment dealer magazine surveys about how customers rank dealership qualities and criteria, usually parts availability is number one, or service support is number one, and they go back and forth. Normally, it's parts, service, and quality. Those are usually your top three, so, of course, it's very important. And that's one thing I can say, we've been very fortunate over the years working with MacDon and have always had a very linear relationship with MacDon's product support,” says Hlavinka.

“In other words, we don't have three or four layers to go through. We don't have to put in technical cases on a computer and wait days for responses, and then get engineers involved in Canada, and then filter that back down. We have a dedicated product support rep who answers his phone when you call him, and that certainly sets a shortline manufacturer like MacDon, that certainly sets them apart compared to others.”

Hlavinka’s dedicated rep is Rusty Alexander, who has been a product support rep with MacDon for 12 years. Alexander is a big believer in treating people the way he would want to be treated and actively shows that reliability is not only a key trait for MacDon products, but for MacDon employees as well.

“They know they're going to be able to call us with a question, and we're going to work through it. Any kind of situation, you've got to be up front, honest, and take care of what you say you're going to take care of,” says Alexander.

“We've got to take care of our people as far as dealers and customers. At the end of the day, they're making a living with our products, and farming, agriculture in general, does not sleep… It's something that can go on 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. And so we, at my level, we try to operate on that schedule also because we know that's important, that's their livelihood to get that crop out of the field.”

“That presence, that dedication and availability of your field-facing staff, whether it be in product support or sales support, is what makes the relationship, because those guys are coming around regularly and calling on the dealership, wanting to go see customers, asking you, ‘Do you need help with anything? What can I do?’” says Hlavinka.

“In today's world, that's what cements those relationships, because there's far too many short-line manufacturers out there whose reps are perfectly okay with checking in with you a couple times a year to get your orders in for the next order-writing period, and then when you need them, it's usually days before you get a response, and we're very fortunate because not only with Rusty and his role at product support, but with Bobby Craig, our territory sales manager as well, both of those guys, if they don't answer, they're going to call you back before the day's out, so that's critically important”

It’s clear that MacDon support representatives take real pride in their work, building lasting relationships that often grow into genuine friendships, showcasing the full capabilities of MacDon products, and ensuring customers receive exceptional value along with the support and troubleshooting they need.

But it’s also a point of pride simply to represent the MacDon brand out in the world, maintaining the product's impeccable reputation through their equally impeccable customer service.

“To represent MacDon, I want to strive to do the best; I believe in the equipment, so we want to support that equipment, make sure it runs good, make sure the customers, the dealers, they know that we stand behind the product. We make good products, quality products, and if there are issues, we’ll handle them,” says Kornelson.

“It means a lot to me,” adds Josephian, when asked what it means to represent MacDon in the field. “The company's family-oriented, family-based customer service is number one. The communication line between me and the dealer, me and the customer, is why I do this. I meet a lot of cool people, a lot of good people out there, and to be able to represent this company, it's great.”

“The thing with MacDon equipment, MacDon's been in business 77 years, and they have the reputation for standing behind their product, good quality product, and it's a good group of people to work with,” says Alexander.

“Everybody's driven for customer support. Customer and dealer support is what drives the company.”

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