Arizona Contractor & Community Fall 2015 V4 I3 | Page 72

1990 - Arnold Machinery Company - 25 Years of Silver Service® in Arizona - 2015

Company Values

T

he most important element of the
Arnold Machinery Company culture is
a total commitment to customer
satisfaction. This starts at the top of the
organization with the Chairman and the
President/CEO and influences everything
they do every day.
To survive, flourish, and grow in the
competitive machinery equipment
industry, the Arnold Machinery Company
has had to stay true to its core principles:
● Our success depends on our
customers’ conviction that they will
receive better service from us than
from our competitors,
● No machine is more reliable than the
people who stand behind it, and
● A customer unsatisfied for any
reason will soon become someone
else’s customer.
The company’s management system
is designed to make sure their associates
provide absolute satisfaction to the
customer in every interaction. How do
they accomplish this remarkable feat?
Through Arnold Machinery’s registered
trademarks, “Silver Service®” and
“Customer Satisfaction is Our Only
Policy®.”
“Silver Service®” consists of one
simple rule: always leave the customer
smiling! “Our employees will never get
fired for doing too much for the customer
as long as it is ethical,” Al Richer,
Chairman of the Board, says. “But they
will be in big trouble if they don’t leave
the customer smiling.”
And how do employees make the
customer smile? “Ask them the simple
question: ‘What will make you happy?’”
Richer says.
That means communication with the
customer is key. There’s no fine print in
Arnold Machinery’s policy and there’s no
concern for buyer beware for their
customers. All sales are not final until
customers are satisfied, because

EIGHT - ARNOLD MACHINERY COMPANY

“Customer Satisfaction is Our Only
Policy®”
“’Silver Service®’ is the safety net we
put under the customer to assure them
they’ll never get in trouble by doing
business with Arnold Machinery,”
President and CEO Kayden Bell says.
“We tell our associates that if there
is a problem to take care of it right then
and there,” Richer says. “We have been
doing this since 1986 and
nobody has been
criticized for making the
decision, on the spot, to
take care of the
customer. In instance
after instance where that has occurred,
the reaction of the customer is, ‘Really,
you don’t have to call anyone? You don’t
have to get any permission?’ No you
don’t!”
Most importantly, however, is that
“Silver Service®” is more than a
guarantee of what customers can expect
from the Arnold Machinery Company.
“It’s a reminder of what we must always
expect from ourselves,” Richer
emphasizes. “With “Silver Service®,” you
can be assured that “Customer
Satisfaction is Our Only Policy®”
The best example of this may be the
jargon with which many associates now
use the phrase. “Some associates use the
term as a verb, as in “I Silver-Serviced®
the guy,’” Richer says with a laugh.

growth and expansion. His first move was
into the agriculture industry offering farm
equipment through his company. The
decade was also when Doc’s son, Ray
Arnold joined the company.
Ray would prove to be a major factor
in the company’s success, serving as
president from 1944 to 1968. The 1940s
were also when Arnold Machinery
expanded into the material handling
industry by becoming a
distributor of Hyster
forklifts.
Although the company
had expanded its
product lines, Arnold
Machinery didn’t expand geographically
until it moved to Idaho in 1951. A fullservice branch office opened in Idaho
Falls, followed by expansion into Boise in
1954. During this time the company
formed the General Implement
Distributors to sell farm equipment lines.
Arnold Machinery later acquired the
International Harvester and Hough
Construction lines in the 1960s. Doc
Arnold’s other son, Bob Arnold, took over
as president and CEO in 1968, holding the
executive positions until 1984.
In 1970, the company moved into a
new headquarters facility in Salt Lake City
that was designed to accommodate
machinery sales and service operations.
The following year, Arnold Machinery
opened a branch office in Twin Falls,
Idaho.
During the 1970s, the farm
equipment line, General Implement,
became a division of the company. The

“Some associates use the
term as a verb, as in 'i
Silver-Serviced the guy.'"

History of the Company

A

s the nation’s fortunes were
declining, Arnold Machinery
Company was just starting its more than
85 years of providing superior products
and services to the Intermountain West.
The year was 1929 and the stock
market crashed, sending the country into
the economic tailspin of the Great
Depression. But that milestone year was
also when L.E. “Doc” Arnold and Floyd C.
Stannard incorporated a machinery
company that represented several
construction lines in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Originally called the Stannard-Arnold
Machinery Company, Mr. Stannard
resigned later that year and the company
was rechristened Arnold Machinery
Company.
Even during the 1930s when the U.S.
was still mired in the Great D