Anderson Rental Trusts Bobcat Reliability

In the rental world, it’s all about reliable brands. And as Anderson Rental owner Steve Dietsch says, that means Bobcat. 

“Most renters aren’t brand-specific because they’re not buying it. But, they will notice if the brand that you’re offering them is something that they’re not familiar with. That is not a problem with the Bobcat product. I don’t sell equipment. I sell time. People walk in, and they want to see brand names that they’re familiar with, that they know and trust. Bobcat is one of those names.” 

Steve didn’t always go straight to Bobcat for compact track loaders and excavators, though. Before buying Anderson Rental, he worked as a sales rep for multiple rental companies, and he ended up doing national accounts for another big name in construction equipment.  

“I had always been pretty loyal to that particular brand,” he said. “Over the years, though, eventually the quality of the dealership and the quality of the product wasn’t there anymore.” 

Though he enjoyed working for that company, Steve wanted to spend more time with his daughter and less time on the road. So, he bought Anderson Rental and moved with his family to Kansas City in 2002. “When I bought them, they were mostly just homeowner stuff: wallpaper steamers, floor sanders, tile saws…things like that. I don’t own any tile saws or wallpaper steamers anymore. Now, we are 90% contractor equipment, and we’re ten times bigger.”

He bought Anderson Rental’s first Bobcat machine in 2017. “We did a small deal on five or six excavators to start. We really liked that deal, and we really liked the service that we were getting from KC Bobcat specifically. It’s just grown from there.” 

Today, Steve says that Anderson Rental is unlike other independent rental companies because they act as a bridge between large rental companies and smaller companies that won’t spend the money to keep their machines in good condition. 

“You know, the tagline in the TV show Cheers is ‘I want to go where everybody knows my name,’” he said. “That’s what I’m trying to offer here. That’s how I’m trying to differentiate myself from those larger rental companies. Our customers want to go someplace where people are going to pay attention to them, where they’ll get the kind of service that they feel like they deserve. But our customers also spend good money. They rent it for a purpose and a time, and they want that machine to show up and be ready to work. You can’t have old equipment and make that happen.” 

I don’t mean to be cliché, but everyone at KC Bobcat, from our sales guy Andrew Drummond all the way down to the guys in the yard, have been fantastic. Everybody does a great job.

Steve Dietsch
Owner, Anderson Rental

For Steve, the key to that customer service mindset is consistent access to parts and service for his machines. “KC Bobcat keeps me up and running. I have a great relationship with the parts and service people, especially the field service guys. Hardly anything breaks in my yard; it’s going to be on a job site. If it’s under warranty, or if the problem is beyond our skillset, we’re on the phone calling you guys, and the field service guys are coming out.” 

Recently, KC Bobcat’s field service technicians Matt Whittle and Jon Reeves went above and beyond to help Anderson Rental out. 

“A customer had a machine go down last week on Wednesday, with a fan breaking due to an alternator bolt backing out,” Steve said. “We called KC Bobcat field service. Matt and Jon knew we had a reservation for Friday. Nobody had the fan. They overnight aired it, and the machine was back at 10am Thursday morning with the replacement. They fixed it before we missed a rental.” 

Steve’s right: in the rental business, “time is money, and money is time.” That’s why, for him, KC Bobcat’s day-in, day-out commitment to reliably deliver Bobcat equipment, parts, and service is a big part of what helps Anderson Rental continue to grow.

“Everybody that we’ve worked with at KC Bobcat has bent over backwards to keep us up and running. And that is the name of the game in the rental business: staying up and running.”