This autumn Rain Bird distributors from Central Europe gathered together in Stuttgart in Germany for the first time. Those making their way to this prosperous city, where many companies including Daimler, Porche, and Bosch are headquartered, included Roal GmbH from Switzerland, Stock GmbH from Austria, Smits from the Netherlands, and Pipelife. The aim of this event was for Rain Bird distributors to hear directly from Golf Service Plan (GSP) engineers about a range of different topics, as well as having the opportunity to meet colleagues and exchange ideas.
After being welcomed, Alastair Higgs, National Service Manager for Europe outlined ways that Global Service Plans and new products will help distributors to deliver more dedicated customer service and highlighted how Rain’s Bird is investing and expanding the service in Europe to benefit both customers and distributors. Service Engineer Xavier Bernard shared his insight into setting up the mobile interface and specification requirements for maintaining Central Control Systems.
In the evening, the group enjoyed a special visit to City Golf Stuttgart, where participants were organised into mixed groups of four for a minigolf adventure where the most challenging part was overcoming nerves on the trickier artificial turf! Didier Genty, Tina Baumgärtner, Christian Stock and Jan Smits took top positions on the podium and after dinner participants enjoyed getting to know each other.
The second day involved a presentation on the new features of Rain Bird Central Control Version 8, how to maximise all its elements, and how customers could better use and operate the mapping facility. Xavier Bernarr shared helpful examples of decoder and interface fault-finding along with a presentation about servicing and maintaining the Interface module and the IC System, which distributors found interesting. Didier Genty gave an overview of the Rain Bird leadership team and Mike Nunheim shared Turf division news.
Finally, each distributor shared their own plan for sales and service in their region. It was encouraging to see so many different ideas for generating future success and that the relationship between distributors and Rain Bird remains strong.