What Hillco Customer Service Looks Like—According to Our Customers

Equipment support matters most when it moves beyond answering questions and helps solve real problems in the field. While catching up with our customers in the field this year, we asked Hillco customers to describe what Hillco’s customer service has meant to their operations.

Their experiences have communicated this: good support means listening, showing up, and staying involved until the equipment works the way the customer needs it to.

Adapting Equipment to the Operation

Christensen Farms uses the Hillco SC1500 Specialty Crop Header to harvest crops including peppermint and carrot seed. Each crop has different requirements, and the farm needed a narrower windrow for its mint choppers than what is typically used for grass seed.

“We needed the windrow more narrow than what they were used to for the grass seed. He spent two or three days with us all day trying to help design and come up with these forming rods to make the windrow narrow so it worked for our mint choppers.”-Chance, manager of Christensen Farms

For Chance, the experience stood out because the support extended beyond delivering the header and explaining how to operate it.

“We were really happy with the customer support and engineering side of it. They weren’t just giving us a product and wishing us the best of luck. They wanted to make sure it fit our needs before they left.”-Chance

That same level of involvement continued when Christensen Farms transitioned from peppermint to carrot seed. A few parts of the setup needed to be adjusted for the different crop, and a Hillco team member stayed in the field to help.

“He was out there with us at three or four in the morning making sure it was good,” Chance recalled. “He wasn’t going to leave until we felt satisfied that it was performing the way we wanted it to handle our crop.”

Hillco is located approximately six hours from Christensen Farms. Chance said the focus remained on getting the header adjusted to the farm’s needs before the Hillco team headed home.

A Family-Business Approach

Palouse farmer Seth Millhorn of Millhorn Farms described his experience with Hillco in more humorous and personal terms.

“My summary of Hillco’s customer service? Really nice snap-on Channellocks I got in the mail…” Seth laughed but then continued: “The Hillco customer service has been excellent, Hillco is a great locally owned family business, and they still run it like that.”

For Seth, that family-business approach is reflected in the way Hillco continues to work with its customers. Questions are handled by people who understand the equipment, the conditions in which it operates, and the importance of keeping it working when it is needed most.

Different Operations Require Different Solutions

Sometimes support means answering a question over the phone. Other times, as Christensen Farms experienced, it means spending several days in the field, developing a solution and making adjustments before sunrise. Either way, customer feedback is multifunctional. It gives Hillco’s engineering and product-support teams a clearer understanding of how equipment performs under different conditions. That information can help address an individual customer’s needs while also identifying opportunities to improve products and support for other operations.

Support When It Matters

Harvest schedules do not always follow normal business hours, and equipment challenges rarely happen at a convenient time. When a problem or question arises, Hillco’s stance is that customers need support that considers the crop, the equipment and the conditions in front of them.

Chance and Seth’s experiences are different, but both demonstrate being heard, receiving knowledgeable help and knowing the people supporting their equipment are invested in the outcome.

To learn more about Hillco equipment or discuss the needs of your operation, contact Hillco Technologies.