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AFTERMARKET SERVICE AND SUPPORT
ACCESS, LIFT & HANDLERS
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2013
Competitive parts provide
Travis Myers
, director of customer support for JLG
Industries, Inc., explains how offering a range of OEM
aftermarket parts to customers can expand business –
for both the buyer and the manufacturer.
reconditioning, used equipment sales, JLG
OEM and competitive parts, safety and service
training, component rebuilding and paint and oil
programs.
“Our relationship with JLG has continued
to evolve over the years, more in terms of
what JLG offers than how we work together,”
says McGinley. “There are still a handful of
core people at JLG I’ve known since I first
began working with the company, and those
relationships have helped me meet other people
there, keeping the lines of communication open.
I take responsibility for those relationships and
they are definitely a key part of our business
today.”
Although his company uses a variety of
Ground Support services, McGinley identifies
JLG OEM and competitive parts as an important
part of the work he does.
“That’s because we buy new parts for our
rental fleet as well as for our customers’
machines, supporting our repair and
maintenance service as well as our retail parts
sales,” he explains. “Since our customers own
and operate machines from a variety of OEMs,
I need to have access to competitive parts. JLG
gives me that access, allowing me to service
equipment I normally could not buy parts for.
And because JLG sells these parts at a good
price – a better price than I could secure if I
bought them directly from the manufacturer –
it allows me to be profitable as I provide these
parts.”
McGinley also appreciates the convenience
and the efficiency of the ordering process with
JLG. Using Online Express, JLG’s customer
portal for parts shopping, warranty processing,
technical research and visibility of machine
orders, he can identify a part, check its
availability, and, if he orders it before 6 p.m.,
expect delivery the following morning, provided
the part can be shipped via UPS or Federal
Express.
“The fact that I can count on next-day delivery
helps me reassure my customers that they
will be up and running tomorrow,” he says.
“And it’s a great benefit when you’re in used
equipment sales. This way I can tell potential
purchasers with certainty that I will be able
to get competitive replacement parts for their
used equipment, should they need them, which
might just be the thing that gives me the edge
over my competition. What’s more, we only
buy OEM parts for the machines we sell and
service, including fasteners in critical areas, so
we can make sure we use the correct parts that
engineers designed into the machine.”
According to McGinley, identifying those parts
is made easier by build sheets, which JLG
makes available through Online Express.
“Knowing the machine build history is huge,”
he says. “If I know the serial number of a piece
of equipment, I can call up the build sheet
and see exactly what parts were used when
the machine was built. There is no guesswork
involved, and I no longer have to take the
machine apart to identify the part.”
Help is also available in the form of the JLG
call center, designed to help customers look for
parts, get technical assistance, or order new
machines quickly and easily.
“Sometimes we get stuck with an unusual
situation or problem,” McGinley notes. “We
can either call the call center, where people
F
ifteen years ago, JLG Industries made the
decision to add competitive parts to their
JLG Ground Support parts offering. JLG
Ground Support is a comprehensive collection
of after-sales services designed to help JLG
customers get the maximum return on their
investment by ensuring them convenient access
to the solutions when they need it, where they
need it. The introduction of competitive parts
was a carefully measured decision, prompted
by the transformation of JLG’s customer base
from a dealer network that once included
approximately 60 customer distribution points
to a smaller collection of much larger national
rental companies.
During the consolidation process, emerging
rental companies acquired fleets comprised
of multiple brands of equipment, and as a
result, required access to a variety of other
manufacturer’s parts. Recognizing this
challenge to their changing customer base, JLG
Ground Support enlarged its existing JLG parts
offering in 1998 with the addition of a variety of
competitive parts, leveraging its buying power
with suppliers to secure attractive pricing based
on volume and provide a one-stop shopping
experience for its customers.
The competitive parts offering that originally
included 500 parts, today provides people,
like Jim McGinley, vice president at Action
Equipment & Supply, LLC in Fort Edward, NY,
with a choice of 10,000 parts, even as the
program continues to grow.
Customer support
McGinley’s career in the industry began in
1984, working for a JLG dealer. As the industry
consolidated and moved to national rental
companies, so did he. Eventually, he left the
national arena and accepted a position with
Action Equipment & Supply, where today he
focuses his attention on customer support and
vendor relationships.
Action Equipment & Supply is an American
Rental Association (ARA) member rental house
that specializes in aerial lifts, rough terrain
forklifts and support equipment. Its product
offerings include rental equipment, parts and
service, construction supplies and new and
used equipment sales, supported by JLG
Ground Support programs that offer machine
As the economy recovers, the construction
industry rebounds and more machines are
in use, it follows that more parts will be
consumed.
