Just one call does it

AgroCentre both sells agricultural equipment and provides prompt year-round servicing. To instantly response to customers' requests and to be always just one telephone call away is the professional credo of the company's servicing department.

Today, the AgroCentre servicing department employs over 50 professionals who ensure trouble-free operation of agricultural equipment and 40 duly equipped maintenance vehicles. It has high-tech servicing centres in Moscow, Kursk, Orel, Belgorod and Tyumen oblasts and a large regional spare parts depot in Voronezh oblast. The servicing specialists steadily improve their professionalism. Regular training sessions, seminars on all types of farming machines, and practice abroad at the equipment manufacturers' facilities help the engineers to carry out a complete range of work on consultation, installation, commissioning, diagnosis, and warranty and post-warranty repair. This year, the servicing specialists underwent over 40 training sessions and received professional development certificates.

Each regional servicing centre has repair zones and workshops fitted with modern equipment that enables work of any complexity. Gantry cranes are installed for unloading and repair of heavy machines. They have spare parts and expendable materials depots with an addressed storage system, significantly reducing order execution time. This year, servicing centres in Yaroslavl, Chelyabinsk, Bryansk, Lipetsk and Tambov oblasts will be opened. There are plans to open centres in Penza and Kurgan.

“Our chief job is to prevent idle time of the farming equipment whatever the circumstances”, says Aleksandr Neklyudov, technical director of AgroCentre-Holding LLC. “We appreciate each customer, and do our best to meet all his demands and requests, offering him a wide range of services”.

The farmers can choose various types of agreements for maintenance. The optimum is the subscriber contract. This enables scheduled comprehensive examination of the agricultural equipment before the season starts, which saves the farmers from idle time during field work. Furthermore, the farmers can acquire a personal helper known as "a family doctor". He is assigned to a concrete farm and is ever ready to provide emergency aid to his "charges".

“‘The family doctor’ not only helps in emergencies”, explains Aleksey Dudchenko, chief of the engineering department of AgroCentreLiski LLC. “The servicing engineer regularly visits the farm, examines the agricultural machines and gives advice on whatever problems may occur. Also, he issues prescriptions for prevention of equipment ‘illnesses’. In difficult situations ‘the rapid response service’ of the centre may help. This is an engineer of the technical support department. He is an expert in resolving technically complex issues. Within two to four hours after a request was made, the servicing engineer will arrive on the farm to fix the problem”.

When the season is at its height, the servicing department works round the clock, helping to promptly resolve any technical problems. Using the hotline telephone, farmers can at all times contact the servicing department and make a request.

Under the trade-in scheme, farmers can pay for new machines by old ones. AgroCentre provides discounts of up to 30% to regular customers acquiring spare parts and obtaining servicing.

Servicing specialists pay much attention to the training of the farms' engineering personnel. On average, they hold around 30 training sessions. The training course programmes are drawn up individually for each farm with due regard to the equipment it uses. If the customer so desires, the training may proceed both at the servicing centre and on the farm itself.