What matters: the connection with the customer

Strengthen the dealer network and expand it where necessary. Because the bond with the customer is what it's all about. It is perhaps the most important task that Julien Lefebvre, regional director France and Benelux for Yanmar Construction Equipment Europe, gave himself when he took office. What exactly that means for the garden and landscaping sector, he explains in consultation with Bart Verstraete, commercial director Benelux.

As a global brand, Yanmar Compact Equipment EMEA in Europe works with more than 170 dealers in 37 countries. It is a multinational approach, ensuring that a close relationship with customers can be maintained anytime, anywhere. The result is that Yanmar, as a manufacturer of compact excavators, wheel loaders and dumpers, has gained a deep understanding of the peculiarities of diverse market segments. This benefits quality and ease of use, and through the dealer network, sales and further support can be realized as close to the customers as possible.

Bart Verstraete: "In Belgium, we have a dealer network with history, if only because Yanmar has been building mini excavators for an incredibly long time. The network is not large and was traditionally heavily focused on construction equipment. But since the compact Yanmar machines lend themselves very well to greenkeeping and landscaping, we are becoming increasingly active in this sector. And by 'we' I mean our dealers more specialized in this field, such as Cebeko, FM Construction Machinery and Gecimat."

Optimal after sales service

Julien Lefebvre foresees a growing demand for compact machines and expects customers to place higher demands on after-sales service: "That makes it necessary for us to strengthen our regional organizations through better coverage in the other parts of Belgium. A distance of 50 kilometers is my maximum, and we are almost there." 

Bart Verstraete calls Cebeko a good example of successful aftersales service: "In Torhout they have full-time aftersales people working. You can for example give your machine in service there during vacations, ideal."

Yanmar's strength, according to Julien Lefebvre, lies not only in its high-quality machines, but also and especially in its many attachments. "Because of the close contact between dealer and customer, Yanmar understands the wishes of those end users and translates them into convenient products," he says. "That applies not only to the 'iron,' but precisely also to matters such as maintenance, financing, warranty and the like. A longer warranty period can be more financially attractive to the customer, is the thinking. That is why the new program runs for as long as six years. Other kinds of 'tailor-made' solutions in the financial field are also being worked on."

Constant stream of innovations

Another Yanmar strength is its constant stream of innovations, such as the powerful and durable C50R-5A rotary track dumper, which more or less celebrates the fact that Yanmar has been building compact dumpers for half a century; the Stage V engine-equipped, extremely powerful B75W-5 tire crane and its recently presented large wheel loader brother, the highly efficient V120. Also current are the three brand-new, robust mini-excavators SV15VT, SV17 VT and SV19 VT with their Stage V engine and combination of power with compactness, making them particularly useful in the green sector.

Another type of innovation is the track-and-trace system SmartAssist Remote, which allows the dealer to intervene more quickly, thus preventing high repair costs and unexpected downtime. In addition, it provides the user - the company - with more information about the deployment of the equipment and can even be used to recover a machine more quickly in case of theft.