Since February 2019, Ranger Lift Trucks has been part of the LiuGong family of dealers, providing quality customer service and product support of its forklift line representing 31 models of ITA Class 1, 3, 4, and 5 industrial forklifts. The dealership had recorded steady increasing growth as word continues to spread about the reliability, low cost of ownership, operator comfort, and safety of the LiuGong forklift line throughout its local market.
Ranger Lift Trucks initially specialized in sales, service, and rental of used material handling equipment. The dealer has 16 full-time employees, including four field technicians who its customers with full-service shop and field support. Most customer operations are outdoor applications in the precast concrete and waste management industries and are located within a 150-mile radius of Ranger Lift Trucks’ Baytown, Texas, headquarters. Working with a 3rd-party agency, however, extends the dealer’s reach to overseas customers, with two customers as far abroad as Nigeria.
Founder and co-owner Ronnie Ruffeno said Ranger Lift Trucks had always been able to locate and acquire used forklift models on a case-by-case basis of brands his customers specifically requested. Becoming a brand’s authorized dealer, however, had not been a company objective. That changed relatively quickly after first learning of the LiuGong brand of forklifts in 2017.
Ruffeno said he recognized that the product line allowed him to offer his customers “a great value on high-quality, low-hour machines at good prices,” he said. The first 20 or more units were sold “one here, one there.” By the end of 2018, Ranger Lift Trucks had become “so comfortable with them,” he said, that he embraced the opportunity to support the LiuGong brand of forklifts as an authorized dealer.
“Ranger Lift Trucks offers the same level of high-quality customer and product support for its LiuGong lines as it does for all equipment it rents and sells, Ruffeno said. “Our technicians are all OEM-trained and receiving continuing education in them.”
The decision to become a LiuGong dealer was based on more than just its quality machines, Ruffeno said. It had much to do with how LiuGong NA supports its dealers. “There’s this family-like inclusiveness and connection. LiuGong NA is relationship-based, treating customers with the same fundamental, hallmark principles as we do at Ranger Lift Trucks – responsiveness, product support.”
That relationship is key, Ruffeno said. “It means we know we can fix, repair, and support these LiuGong lifts with our same, quick response. And that’s it right there. That’s what counts. It’s what happens ‘after’ customers buy a machine. How is service? Do they answer the phone when you call? That’s what customers are looking for. When you call, someone picks up the phone.”
It may seem ironic, but the greatest feedback from customers regarding their satisfaction with equipment is hearing none at all. Ronnie explained: “That’s actually a good sign, really. When I’m not hearing from the customers it’s because the forklift is fulfilling every need the person bought it for, just as they expect it to. It’s not often they take time out to celebrate that fact with their dealer. They just keep working, not having to think about it.”
In contrast, Ruffeno said, at Ranger Lift Trucks, “The ringing of the phone is most likely another LiuGong sale.”
