Customers who are willing to communicate with their equipment dealers deserve to be heard because they’re your best source for product performance and service issues. Of course, these communications usually come in the form of compliments, complaints and/or “I wish …” or “This would work better if …”

Compliments are always good because they reinforce that you’re doing a pretty good job. Complaints can be difficult, but they also provide you with the opportunity to see how the dealership or product might be falling short of customer expectations. The “I wish …” and “This would be better because …” feedback can be extremely helpful because they provide ideas on how to improve your service and create input for your manufacturer.

As precision equipment, systems and techniques continue to develop and are introduced to farmers, everyone needs to know what they’re thinking. Because so much of the market segment is so new, it’s absolutely critical to know what’s on their mind.

That’s what we’re doing starting with this issue of Precision Farming Dealer.

You’ll notice that we’ve added two new features: “Straight from the Farmer” and “What Farmers Want from You.” This input is being gathered by talking to farmers specifically about their experience, frustrations and what they like about the new precision farming tools they have to work with. Our editors and contributing writers are regularly speaking to producers face to face and via telephone interviews and email surveys.

 To make this a two-way street, we’re inviting you — equipment dealers and manufacturers — to continue giving us your input on how we can make this e-newsletter more thorough and helpful to you.

So, in the same way we’re communicating with your customers, we want our customers to communicate with us. This is an open invitation to you to let us know what you think.