To gain further sector insight,  TAP has commissioned a survey in Turf Pro, the industry’s leading Weekly digital media offering. A total of 77 groundcare professionals responded making this a valuable piece of research.  This follows on from TAP’s first phase of research targeting the actual machinery dealers themselves, helping build a picture of perceptions from a retailer and customer perspective.

Part One - Where and why do groundcare professionals choose to buy their equipment? 

The Professional end-users of groundcare machinery are often looking to get the best for their money, whilst making sure they purchase from a reputable dealership. At TAP we work closely with both the professional end-users, and also the dealerships so the unique research we have gathered will be shared with you over the coming weeks and the findings will be posted below.

A summary document of the findings will be available from TAP.
Register Below to receive the FREE summary document in the middle of October. 

A local dealer's expertise and support is the most critical purchase factor for professional end-users.

When groundcare professionals are looking to purchase a new piece of kit from a dealership, they will consider a number of factors which will influence their final purchasing decision. Compared with our previous research on the buying behaviour from a dealer’s perspective (which can be found here), there is a significant difference in the factors affecting what individuals choose to buy and from where.

In this part of our groundcare research, we wanted to focus on a number of key areas that would be crucial to professionals in the industry - specifically those who subscribe to the Turf Pro weekly update (7,000+ distribution).

In our survey, we asked groundcare professionals to rate the level of importance associated with various attributes that influence where they shop. These were rated from 1 to 5; 5 being the most important/critical and 1 being of least importance.

Interestingly, our respondents valued ‘local dealer expertise and support’ as the most critical buying consideration, with 91% of individuals giving this a score of 4 or more. At the lower end of the scale, heritage is viewed as the least important with only 30% of individuals giving this a score of 4 or greater. 

‘Price’ was the second most important factor with 90% of individuals rating this as important - this is unsurprising given that at least 50% of consumers have shifted towards a more price-driven mind set (Stax Inc, 2016).

Many professionals look to upgrade their equipment to better suit their own uses, so it is interesting that 83% of individuals thought ‘attachment options’  were important.

This page will be updated with our next instalment over the next week.  If you would like reminders then follow us on Twitter or Facebook (just click icons at the top of the page to follow).

We aim to release a full report in the middle of October, so if you don’t want to miss out then sign up below to receive the full PDF report when released or if you'd like reminders, don't forget to follow us on Twitter & Facebook.