Customer Satisfaction Is Our Only Policy®
Silver Service®. It’s the best heavy equipment customer service in the industry. Customers aren’t buying a product or service from us. They are buying our Silver Service® guarantee – that they will always be left happy, no matter what, as long as all actions are ethical.
NO POLICY BOOK
There’s no policy book to limit what every Arnold associate can do with Silver Service® to guarantee satisfaction.
SMILES, GUARANTEED!
Our associates are not only empowered Silver Service®, but are obligated to make you, our customer, smile.
NO SALE IS FINAL
“FINAL” is not in our vocabulary — that is because Silver Service® provides ongoing peace-of-mind to every customer for years after the initial purchase.
WHAT OUR CUSTOMERS ARE SAYING ABOUT SILVER SERVICE®
CORE COMPANY VALUES WITH SILVER SERVICE®
INTEGRITY
Integrity means you act with sincerity, honesty, and candor. Having integrity means you return phone calls promptly. If you say you are going to do something on Tuesday, you do it on Tuesday, or you call your customer in advance and tell them why you can’t.
DISCIPLINE
Discipline means you must always exercise self-control and self-restraint. Discipline means that you gather accurate data about your business, you review this information in a timely manner, and you use it to guide your decision making.
EMPATHY
It is the capacity to experience another person’s feelings or ideas. In business, this means that you must always put yourself in the position of the customer. In order to structure a deal that satisfies the customer, you must always take the time to truly understand their needs and concerns.
DON'T BELIEVE US? HEAR MORE FROM OUR CUSTOMERS IN OUR COMPANY VIDEO
READ MORE ABOUT SILVER SERVICE® IN THESE BOOKS WRITTEN BY SILVER SERVICE® CREATOR AND OUR LATE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, AL RICHER
Silver Service® – The Foundation of a Management Philosophy
&
Arnold Machinery Company – The First 75 Years
(Click the books to open up the pdf copies)
SILVER SERVICE® FAQs
Silver Service® is Arnold Machinery Company’s commitment to providing the best heavy equipment customer service. Al Richer developed the Silver Service® policy in 1986 at a strategic planning meeting with the conviction that the company’s attitude toward its customers had the potential to set it apart in the marketplace. He said, “The most important element of the Arnold Machinery company culture is a total commitment to customer satisfaction that starts with the top of the organization with the Chairman and the President and that influences everything we do every day.” Years later, Silver Service® continues to be the best customer service in the mining, material handling, construction and general implement industries. Every associate at Arnold Machinery, from a field tech to the parts department, from our financial services to the upper management, all have the same responsibility to our customers, our vendors, and each other to give excellent service, SILVER SERVICE®.
Most company’s have great customer service where they provide their customers with friendly, timely, and attentive service. They make sure their customer’s needs are met in a way that reflects positively on their business and leaves the customer feeling satisfied with their experience. Silver Service® is a step far beyond this. While most companies have limits on how much they are willing to do to keep their customer’s satisfied and returning, in addition to protecting their financial losses, these limits are usually based in fear that customers will take advantage of them if given the freedom to do so. We at Arnold Machinery Company do not have this fear. It has been our experience that most people are reasonable and honest. We give our customers the freedom to define what will make their experience with us an excellent one. And THIS has made all the difference when building relationships with people. Where there is freedom over fear, trust is able to flourish.
We know owning heavy and industrial equipment can be costly. If your equipment goes down, it can be stressful and affect your business. At Arnold Machinery Company, we are committed to help you keep your business running. Silver Service® is a safety net for you. It’s peace of mind that you will always be happy with every single purchase and service you receive from us, and if you’re not happy for any reason, we will do everything we can that is ethical to make it right and leave you 100% satisfied.
Owning heavy equipment is a long term investment. Silver Service® can begin with our new equipment sales associates making sure you are comfortable through the purchasing process. Beyond that, Silver Service® continues into our parts department with parts associates that make sure they find you the exact part you are looking for, the day you need it, and into our service department where you get the top field techs in mining service and in each of our other equipment divisions.
This Silver Service® standard doesn’t stop with our mining division, it continues onto our other divisions: Construction, Material Handling, and General Implement. You have to experience it to believe it!
Silver Service® might be something you have to experience to believe but we hope the following examples will start to convince you of the power of Silver Service®:
1.Once, we gave an unhappy customer a check for 500K. The customer had purchased a sand plant, and the salesman gave them inaccurate advice about how the equipment would perform. The field technicians could not get the machines to work satisfactorily, so the purchase price was refunded, and the customer kept the equipment. -Silver Service® The Foundation of a Management Philosophy, page 34.
2. A few years later, a big cleaning supplies company in Salt Lake City ordered a fleet of gas-powered forklifts, but they failed to take into account that they would be using them in a closed warehouse most months of the year. Of course, emissions were a problem. Arnold Machinery took all thirteen machines back, without any obligation on the part of the customer. Then the company bid on replacing the gas machines with electrically powered lifts. Arnold Machinery got a $1M sale, and became the customer’s materials handling supplier nationwide. -Silver Service® The Foundation of a Management Philosophy, page 36.
3. From Kyle West in Denver on Google Reviews: “Being a small business operator I can say that you learn a lot about areas you never thought you need to learn about almost daily. One of those areas for myself was learning about purchasing used forklifts. I can say I know my way around a tool box and most mechanical pieces of equipment but I’m defiantly no forklift mechanic. This came into play with our first experience purchasing a used lift from another local forklift dealer. The different experience between Arnold Machinery’s “Silver Service” and other dealers “used car salesman” service, has been night and day. We were sold into a beat-up old Nissan for $9k at the other dealer. At the point of purchasing I noticed the forklift wasn’t sounding right. Again I’m no expert. It was a bit of a grinding sound. I noted it to the sales person and the notation was shrugged off. Less than 5hrs of use on the machine we had a push cylinder blow a seal. When the other companies tech came out to do that repair he made a comment about how bad our drive motor was… Nothing changed and we haven’t used the machine more than 5 hrs! About a month later and about another 5 hrs it blew its other push cylinder. So ultimately in my opinion that company sold us a lemon. We reached out as we understand purchasing a “as is” machine, however, good business ethics is standing behind what you sell. If you can’t stand behind it… don’t sell it. Ultimately we found out this forklift was a ticking time bomb. After trying to work with this other local forklift dealer, to meet halfway on ways to fix our forklift they told us they would just scrap it if we brought it back to them so it had no value to them.. This brought us to a roadblock with this other company and started our relationship with Branch Manager Mark Hudson. My experience with their “Silver Service” started when we were looking into parts to fix our old Nissan. At this point they automatically offered to do more to help and I haven’t spent a dime with them. After we couldn’t find the parts to fix the Nissan Mark continued helping us and checking in on us. After many discussions admittedly this other company made it “right” by refunding our purchase. If you’ve made it this far reading this comment you can bet where I brought my money for our next forklift purchase! Not only did Mark see to it that we were taken care of getting us a great used Hyster forklift he also went out of his way to make sure we had a unit to hold us over. In a time where customer service is all but lost, you can trust in the Arnold Machinery Silver Service.”
4. Recently our Phoenix CE branch sold a new Volvo L110H to Arizona Grain that previously was a 100% John Deere customer. Jake Zayas, then the Phoenix CE branch manager, tells the story: “Arizona Grain sells seed, feed, and grain to the vast majority of the dairies in Arizona and the reason they even allowed us to quote/demo a unit in the first place was, because all of the positive feedback they heard from their customers about Volvo and specifically Arnold Machinery’s Service Department. Once we delivered them their new loader, we had a problem right out of the gate with the scale system. We learned the Volvo scale system would not work properly with the customer’s application due to how light some of the material they needed to weigh was. Without hesitation we replaced the Volvo scale system with an aftermarket system that would work properly and re-delivered the unit to the customer. The customer was very surprised to learn we were not going to charge them for it…to which we responded, ‘We sold you a loader that we told you would work in your application and it didn’t, so we made it work. That’s not your problem, that was our problem. Why on earth would we charge you for that?’ A few weeks later, the John Deere dealer followed up with the customer (after they learned of them buying their first Volvo) with ‘one of their big bosses’ and asked the customer why they bought a Volvo. The customer told them that all of his customers have been bragging about Arnold Machinery’s unbelievable service and support and that they flat out told him, ‘he’s an idiot if he buys anything else.’ He said he was a little skeptical at first, however, he got to experience first-hand how we take care of problems and take care of customers, so he told the John Deere rep and his boss to not worry about calling on him anymore and that from here on out he was going ALL Volvo and ALL Arnold Machinery! “I hope this story shows you that [your effort to make everyone happy] is not going unnoticed. It’s one thing to make a customer happy, but it’s a completely different level when that customer is so happy he tells his supplier that if he doesn’t buy from [Arnold Machinery] he’s an idiot. Then multiply that by 3-4 different customers telling that same supplier the same exact thing! If that’s not Silver Service then I don’t know what is!”
5. From Michael Bias in Johnstown, CO on Google Reviews: “Okay! These guys are awesome! Jason is the guy I dealt with. The guy was a big help and all the guys saved the day on my equipment. They had two days to find and fix the problems and they did just that!! Friendly and helpful.”
6. From Quent Judd in Salt Lake City, UT on Google Reviews: “Having dealt with other Equipment companies, Arnold not only make sure that you get what you need, they also make sure that it is maintained to what the factory spec are. There Silver Service is a program unmatched anywhere. They live by it and we have used it in the past without any repercussions. This is why we continue to use Arnold. Our Salesman John, Manager Russ and Field Tech Paul all go well beyond what we ask for. Would recommend to anyone with equipment needs.”
The Silver Service® policy is an investment in the future. Whatever expenses are incurred delivering Silver Service® are more effective than any advertising and well worth the relationships we nurture with it.
Here at Arnold Machinery Company, we have three character traits we want every associate to have: Integrity, Discipline, and Empathy. Al Richer, our late Chairman of the Board and creator of Silver Service® believed these qualities to be the traits of a great leader. Associates are continually reminded, “You can’t be part pregnant. Either you are ethical or you are not. Either you behave with integrity, discipline and empathy or you do not.”
Silver Service® is not just the service we give our customers, it is the service we give our vendors and each other. It is a way of life and woven into our company culture. In addition to the character traits of integrity, discipline and empathy, our associates need to be team players, working together for a common goal, the greater good, and give Silver Service® to everyone.
Every associate at Arnold Machinery Company is expected to give Silver Service®. Our “Policy Book” is actually not a book at all – it is a small card every associate keeps on them at all times and it states: “You will never get fired for doing too much for the customer as long as it is ethical! But, you will be in big trouble if you do not leave the customer smiling! How will you know what will make them smile? Ask the simple question: ‘What will make you happy?’ Then Do It!”
From the parts counter associate to the sales person, from the field technician to the president of the company, every associate at Arnold Machinery has the freedom and ability to make decisions on the spot and/or execute the customer’s request without getting permission from a manager or supervisor first. This freedom gives the associate the autonomy they need to do their job to the best of their ability and leave the customer happy, as long as all actions are ethical. Not only is the customer left satisfied, but the associate is happy with the work they are able to perform and the service they are able to give. At the end of the day, both parties can rest well knowing they are giving and receiving the best heavy equipment customer service in the industry.
Do you think you have the character traits to be a great Arnold Machinery associate? Would you like to work in this kind of company culture of growth and teamwork? You can view all open positions and apply on the Arnold Machinery Company Careers page.
Our goal when providing Silver Service® is that we create a lifetime partnership with our customers, vendors and each other. Not only do we want to provide the best heavy equipment customer service, but we try to provide the best customer service regardless of industry. When you think of who is providing you the best customer service, we want you to think of Arnold Machinery Company, because Silver Service® is a step above the rest.