XtraBlatt Issue 02-2020

INTERVIEW
staged, or only with tremendous difficulty. Interaction with
customers at such events, and the emotions that we all know
when seeing, and laying hands on, solid technology can be
forgotten for the moment. Communication with customers
will have to be substantially changed and this means that
digitalisation clearly wins in importance.
XtraBlatt: ...and replaces direct contact?
Eying: Not really. Nothing can replace direct contact and
personal conversations! But new, complementary concepts
will be developed for communication. Let me take a moment
here to mention our internal processes. There, digitalisation
has succeeded in freeing up time in some areas, time which
could be used for increasing direct customer contact. For
example, events with live contact will tend to be relocated
in the regions. This can mean direct interaction between customers
and our dealerships, or our own field service personnel.
On the other hand, acceptance of digital procedures in this
respect is increasing substantially. In Scandinavia it’s already
part of daily life and socially accepted in substantially larger
measure compared with here in Germany, for example. Still,
I’m convinced that sooner or later the trend will be similar
here and in other countries.
XtraBlatt: A general social
trend is the increasing
ordering of products in
Internet, bringing substantial
problems to the retail
branch. Is this feasible with
farm machinery?
“COMMUNICATION WITH
THE CUSTOMER WILL CHANGE
SUBSTANTIALLY.”
HENRICK FELDMANN,
MARKETING MANAGER MACHINENFABRIK KRONE
Feldmann: Not in the same form and scale as, for instance,
the purchase of clothing in Internet. But already replacement
parts are increasingly traced and
ordered online by end customers. An
example here with farm machinery is
our XtraPower online offering, whereby
a flexible power boost is transferred
into an appropriately preconfigured
machine, e.g. silage harvester, for
a limited period of time. But even
online auctions for used machinery
are experiencing a boom. If, perhaps in the medium-term,
rather less complex new farm machinery such as tedders or
swathers should be marketed online is difficult to assess so
far. But this isn’t our aim. And with more complex machinery
it is not really feasible, I would think.
Eying: More promising than in sales is, I find, the concept of
digitalisation in customer service and maintenance. More
than ever, technically increasingly complex machinery requires
rapid help in the field so that stoppages or downtime
are avoided. If a service mechanic is in a position to login
online straight from the workshop and diagnose a fault, this
could avoid the necessity of driving out to the field or customer.
Instead, there’s the possibility of helping the driver per
telephone or even adjusting the machinery software online.
And if the mechanic still has to
drive out, in the ideal case he or
she will be able to take along the
correct replacement parts.
XtraBlatt: Is every Krone dealership
then qualified for such
technically complex diagnoses,
especially when they might concern
software and electronics?
Martin Eying (l.) managing
director sales/marketing, and
Henrik Feldmann discuss the
consequences of the corona crisis
including the rapid expansion of
digitalisation.
Eying: In principle, yes. Hereby, all our dealership partners
regularly complete the necessary schooling. Certainly, there
are differences in individual cases. For instance with our
BiG product line: BiG X, BiG M and the large square balers.
Not every dealership has responsibility for particular types
of machinery in any significant number and therefore
individuals may not be able to immediately answer every
problem from own experience. What applies in this case is
close cooperation between dealership and factory. Here too,
digital tools offer a key to finding solutions. On top of this,
our customer support specialists are always directly available
per telephone for service partners – also in this aspect we
differ significantly from other machinery makes, a fact we
are continually reminded of by our dealerships.
“FOR GENERATIONS, THE CORE
VALUES OF THE KRONE COMPANY
INCLUDE ABSOLUTE ORIENTATION
ON CUSTOMERS AND SERVICE.”
MARTIN EYING,
MANAGING DIRECTOR SALES/MARKETING MASCHINENFABRIK KRONE
XtraBlatt: Do the efforts of the big long-liners to tailor their
dealership networks towards offering exclusivity mean
there may no longer be room in the market for specialist
dealerships such as those with Krone? Or must manufacturers
increasingly take dealership tasks into their own hands?
Eying: All those responsible within Krone have not changed
their minds on this question. As a manufacturer, taking
over sales and customer services in general would be neither
feasible from a personnel standpoint nor financially
supportable. Our aim is therefore to support our dealership
partners as much as we can in all respects where this support
is required and/or expected. When, in this respect, there arises
the requirement for a company support facility in a particular
region, we would do this. However, there’s also the feasible
solution of dealerships themselves able to offer a strong support
point function. We will react flexibly and undogmatically
to changes in structure and market. Always, two maxims
stand fast for us: First of all, the operational reliability of the
machinery in every case must be ensured, no matter what.
And secondly, that our competent and committed specialised
dealerships remain on their respective locations as first choice
for sales and service. «
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