The following stories are real life examples of Greenway employees going above and beyond for our customers!
Each of the employees listed were recognized by receiving the “Employee of the Month” award. These are just a few of MANY examples.
A customer near Lula, MS called and requested that the Augusta location work on one of his tractors on a Friday morning. Mike Shou was sent out on the call. The customer asked if Mike could check out a couple of tractors on his way back to the store. Mike discovered that one of the tractors had broken an axle in the middle of a mud hole. The customer was told by a neighboring dealer that he would be down for at least 2-3 days because of the weekend. Mike, with help from the customer’s crew, got the tractor to dry ground, where he was able to remove the axle housing. The customer loaded the axle housing and wheels onto a trailer so it could be hauled to Augusta for repairs, while Mike went to the next tractor and got it going. At 9:15 p.m. Mike called the Service Manager and told him that he was at McCrory with the axle housing and wanted to rebuild it and have it ready for installation the next morning. The Service Manager called Paul Morgan and informed him of the situation. Paul headed to the dealership to help with the axle. By 1:30 Saturday morning, they had the axle re-worked, re-loaded, and strapped on the trailer. They all returned back to work at 7 a.m. on Saturday. The tractor was up and running by 10:30. The customer could not believe it-total down time of only 19 hours.
At 5:00 am on a Saturday morning, John left for Brownsville, TN to pick up a tractor from a customer who already had one in our Augusta Service dept. He delivered the tractor back to Augusta by 11:30 am. After the required service work was performed, the customer stated that he had to drive the tractors to Mississippi. John offered to stay at the dealership until the tractor was finished and then haul both to Mississippi that same evening. He delivered the units to the customers place by 6:15 pm and then returned home that evening.
Service Technician Hershel Smith was working on a John Deere mower that would not go into reverse. After a quick inspection, Hershel found the problem. There was a broken spring on the shifter. Hershel soon found that the needed part was not in the parts system to stock or order. With the help of DTAC, he identified the part and got it ordered. He then found out it would be several days before the part would arrive due to this omission. Hershel owns the same mower model, so he decided to remove the spring from his personal mower and then proceeded to install it on this customer’s machine, so the customer would not have to wait for the part to arrive. Hershel delivered the Greenway Mission by building the trust and respect of this customer.
Lisa Dement deserves recognition for successfully organizing our very first “LADIES NIGHT OUT” at the Walnut Ridge location. She began by compiling a list of nearly every customer we have at this location, and then invited their wives and/or daughters to this event by mailing personal invitations and making a lot of follow-up calls. She then lined up several small girls, teens, and adult women to take part in a fashion show featuring John Deere clothing. Prior to the party, she made sure the store was very well stocked with John Deere merchandise for the attendees shopping spree. In addition, she personally prepared a wide selection of appetizers and snacks for the guests to enjoy during the fashion show. There were over 50 attendees to this first ever event. Our customers can’t thank us enough for thinking of their wives and daughters and telling us how much they really enjoyed the event. Most of our customers see the inside of our location almost daily. Lisa found a way for the rest of the family to see what we have to offer. Lisa did a great job in sending a message that we are more than just a place to buy nuts & bolts; we are a shopping destination!
Danny Shackleford should be commended for his recent extraordinary effort to fix a valued customer’s 8300 tractor. On May 21, the Thursday afternoon before Memorial Day, the engine on this customer’s 8300 tractor went down. We got the unit hauled into the Wynne store by 6:00 pm and Danny, with assistance from Service Manager Jeremy McCommon, stayed after hours and pulled the engine that night by 8:30 pm. One month ago, Danny had requested vacation time over the Memorial Day weekend to travel to Oklahoma to visit family beginning on the morning of May 22. On the morning of the 22nd, Danny showed back up at work. He had cancelled his trip because our customer needed his tractor back! He worked on the unit all day Saturday and for half a day on Sunday. He finished the overhaul and had the tractor running on Tuesday morning, after the final parts arrived (incorrect parts were shipped on Monday or it would have been completed then). Our customer was thrilled that Danny completed this large repair in such a short time over a holiday period, when all of our competitors were shut down for the holiday. Danny truly delivered world class product support!
A customer had ran a chunk of concrete through his 9750 combine in the middle of harvest. This caused severe damage to the shoe, auger pan, auger hangers, rotor tines, and grates - all of which had to be replaced. A group of Jonesboro team members started work on this unit at 10:00 in the morning on a Saturday morning and worked non-stop until 10:30 Saturday evening to repair this combine. A few of the team members drove to four other Greenway locations and to Poplar Bluff, MO to obtain all of the parts necessary to make this repair. Through their combined efforts, our loyal customer was able to get back in the field on Sunday morning – only one day after this serious accident!
In the middle of a late harvest, a Walnut Ridge customer experienced a combine engine failure at 3:00 in the afternoon. A group of Greenway team members didn’t hesitate to tackle the problem immediately. One employee jumped in his truck and drove all night to the John Deere Parts Depot in Milan, Illinois (nearly 500 miles one way) to pick up a replacement engine and bring it back to the store. Two other team members got the combine into the service department and worked until 9:00 that evening taking the failed engine out. When the team member with the replacement engine pulled on the lot at noon the next day, work began immediately to install the new engine. These two technicians worked until 8:00 that evening to complete the installation. Because of these outstanding efforts, our customer only lost one day of harvesting.
A customer had a new tractor that would not start and was stranded in a muddy field. Knowing that the customer needed this unit in the field when it dried up, this Greenway team member went to work at 4:30 in the morning, wading through mud and water to get to the unit to diagnose the problem. After DTAC had exhausted all of their assistance, this team member went about proving that this unit was struck by lightning. It had blown all sensors, controllers, harnesses, radio, and some seals in the transmission which all needed to be replaced. This team member worked on this unit non-stop for more than 2 weeks beginning at 4:30 AM and working as late as 11:00 in the evening. Needless to say, the customer was “WOWED” and is now a stronger advocate for Greenway than ever before.
During the planting season, a Greenway team member was working on an electrical problem on a customer’s farm when he called into the store at 5:30 pm asking for parts. His Service Manager took him the parts and stayed with him until 9:00 that evening, at which time they came back to the service department. This team member asked his Service Manager to clock him out at 6:00 pm because he did not fix the problem and did not want the customer billed for his time, nor did he want Greenway to be charged for his time. The next day this team member fixed this customer’s problem.
