“Most likely their truck is down. They need something,” says McCoy, president, Stoops Freightliner-Quality Trailer. “No one ever wants to stop by and use our facility. I think that’s true for all dealers. These [customers] make a living with these trucks.
“If they are coming in to see us, something is wrong.”
While McCoy admits Truck Country and Stoops Freightliner-Quality Trailer doesn’t immediately solve every customer issue every time, it’s clear the efforts made by the dealer groups are paying off.
With more than two dozen locations across the Midwest, Truck Country and Stoops Freightliner-Quality Trailer (and parent company McCoy Group) represent the largest Freightliner and Western Star dealer group in North America. McCoy Group employs more than 1,000 associates in its dealer operations alone and, combined across its two brands, has now earned four nominations for the Successful Dealer Award (2013, 2014, 2016, 2019).
Customers might enter McCoy Group dealer locations in bad spirits, but they definitely don’t leave feeling the same way.
“My grandfather Bob McCoy sold his first truck in 1958 and we’ve been trying to do the best we can to take care of our customers ever since,” says Brian McCoy. “We want to be the experts they can rely on … the people who can get their truck in and out and back on the road as fast as possible with a quality repair at a fair price.”
McCoy says Truck Country and Stoops Freightliner-Quality Trailer (the latter acquired by McCoy Group in 2014) are able to do that thanks to a carefully crafted service culture that emphasizes customer solutions and satisfaction at all times. The company uses time-tested processes and procedures to maintain efficiency throughout its business while also relying on a continuous improvement team to expertly implement new best practices whenever necessary.
“We try to stay nimble so we’re able to change what our customer focus is based on their needs,” McCoy says.
Another resource in the company’s drive toward customer satisfaction are a pair of corporate training centers found at Truck Country’s Dubuque, Iowa, headquarters and Stoops Freightliner-Quality Trailers’ location in Indianapolis. These facilities serve primarily as technician training centers — where new technicians are briefed on the business and existing techs undergo new component education — but also can be used as continuing education centers for other departments.
McCoy says the dealer group also is building a technician career path development program that will complement an existing mentoring program. He says the latter program, which was first developed for technicians, was recently rolled out companywide due to its overwhelming success in the company’s service business.
He says the program’s biggest advantage has been opening the lines of communication between new and/or younger employees with their coworkers and immediate supervisors, resulting in higher employee engagement, reduced corporate turnover and, most importantly, increased customer satisfaction.
“We’ve found with the younger generation, sometimes they aren’t as comfortable going to talk with a manager,” McCoy says. “By connecting them to a mentor, we’ve given them someone they can talk to whenever they need to.”
McCoy’s dealer businesses also spend a lot of time in direct conversation with their customer base. The two dealers’ sales teams schedule plant tours with customers on a regular basis to update them on new components and OEM news, while each of the McCoy Group’s dealer facilities also double as product training centers.
The company also invests heavily in marketing to alert all customers in its area of operation to the full breadth of products and services available through Truck Country and Stoops Freightliner-Quality Trailer stores.
“We are consistently trying to find different ways to connect with our customers,” McCoy says.
On that note the company’s reputation in its local communities has been key.
McCoy Group has always been community-minded and supports its 25 hometowns through a variety of local charitable and non-profit causes. On a larger scale, McCoy also is a major donor to Habitat for Humanity and has pledged time and resources to supporting veterans causes such as the Operation Half Pint tank project and customer Horizon Freight Lines’ Mission 22 trailer, which serves as a traveling billboard to promote awareness of an increasing suicide rate among U.S. military veterans.
