Florida Coast Equipment recently moved in to its new facility in West Palm Beach and celebrated with an open house. A large crowd was on hand to tour the facilities, view the equipment, and enjoy the music and a barbeque lunch.
The company's new facility includes a 23,000 sq. ft. (2,136 sq m) building sitting on 3 acres. Nearly 18,000 sq. ft. (1,672 sq m) of the building is dedicated to the service department and new equipment storage.
Todd Bachman, the president of the company said, “We made a heavy investment on the shop side because we want to move away from the perception of a dealer being primarily a sales center and move much more to a service center mentality.
“I think what we have really worked to do is at the end of the day we want to be the premier dealership of our size in south Florida. We don't want to be the biggest or the most profitable but we want to be a premier dealership. What that means is that we have the parts to keep our customers running and the service techs that are trained and will be efficient.
All of those things are what we want to be."
"The key to this is that when you get up in the morning and you make a living off of your equipment we want to be the place you come. The way to do that is through service. Anyone can sell a machine but can you keep the guy running and can you sell him a second machine. At the end of the day that happens through parts and service. That's really what we want to be.
“That is what I tell my guys on the parts counter or in service. When someone calls he isn't calling to say hello, he has a problem. Our job is to keep him running and to understand that he is feeding his kids through that product and if you think of it that way, through that mind set, you are more willing to help him through some situations. You are more willing to make that extra call.”
The location has a lot of indoor storage space for equipment because, according to Bachman, Florida is tough on equipment.
“If you have new equipment on your lot for a few months and it is sitting out in the sun it can get worn pretty quickly. So it is nice that when a customer gets a piece of equipment it looks new.”