Building trust in a new community
Calling for help when it’s needed most
Around 10 p.m. on July 5, 2016, Greg Koster received a phone call nobody ever wants to receive. The John Deere dealer shop in Beatrice, Nebraska—one of the 17 dealer locations he oversees—was up in flames.
Koster was two and a half hours away from Beatrice, so he packed a bag and headed to the shop. He knew he had a lot to do to ensure the shop could recover—and that speed would be a critical factor in determining the outcome.
That’s where Sentry came in.
Koster contacted his Sentry account executive, Drew Sevic, the next morning. Sentry quickly sent a claims adjuster and restoration crews to help get things moving.
Getting back to business
The shop had completely burned down and the showroom had suffered heavy smoke damage. It was clear both would be unusable for some time. But within a week, Koster had a blueprint in hand and knew the total costs to repair the showroom and rebuild the shop.
Moreover, within 48 hours of the fire, Sentry and their contractor located a temporary rental facility for technicians to work on equipment while restoration crews worked to rebuild the shop. Sentry also transformed one of LandMark’s storage facilities into a temporary shop by running electricity to the building and stocking it with tools.
On March 3, 2017—less than eight months after the fire—LandMark held an open house at their new shop in Beatrice, Nebraska.
Impacting a new community
LandMark Implement had just moved to Beatrice six months prior to the fire. So Greg knew it was important to put their best foot forward and show the new employees and the surrounding community LandMark was there for them—and Sentry could help.
“Sentry was fantastic. It was the first fire I had ever been involved in. The community around the shop had seen it on the news,” said Koster. “Our goal was to show not only the community, but our 28 employees in that location, they were still going to have a job and they weren’t going to miss a paycheck.”
“For them to know they had a place to go to work in under a week after suffering that fire, I believe they felt amazed and appreciated, being up and going and not missing a lick.”
In addition to getting LandMark’s employees back to work, Sentry helped take care of LandMark’s customers.
“Sentry did an awesome job taking care of our customers’ equipment,” Koster said. “We had approximately 14 customer machines in the shop, and within three weeks, all of those negotiations had been settled with the customers.”
Continuing a relationship
Koster admits he was nervous to talk about premiums when LandMark’s insurance renewal came up in 2017. “I expected to have a deep conversation with Drew about the loss Sentry experienced with our fire.” Luckily, with Sentry’s help, LandMark had all the coverages they needed when the fire struck. “The fire had surprisingly little impact on our renewal in 2017. We spent our time talking about new threats and new concerns,” says Koster.
“It was refreshing to know that Drew had set us up with the coverage we needed.”
