In agricultural machinery, loyalty is everywhere. Farmers talk about the brands they trust. Generations of farming families stay with the same manufacturer. Dealers build relationships that can last decades. Customers value reliability, service, product knowledge and the reassurance that someone will be there when a machine is needed most. 

But there is an interesting disconnect. 

Agricultural machinery is built on long-term customer relationships, yet formal loyalty programmes appear surprisingly rare across the UK market. Despite the strength of these relationships, formal customer loyalty programmes appear to be largely absent from the UK agricultural machinery manufacturing sector.  We explore what New Holland, John Deere, CLAAS, Fendt and Massey Ferguson currently offer, where the loyalty gap lies, and what manufacturers could achieve by turning existing customer loyalty into a strategic, measurable advantage.

At this time of year farming and agriculture is at the forefront of our minds as the harvest is brought in and farmers begin to cultivate fields for planting crops and drilling seed in the autumn. It started us thinking about loyalty in this sector; what the customer loyalty journey looks like and how engaged farmers are with the tools of their trade.  

We looked at five of the biggest names in the UK market: New Holland, John Deere, CLAAS, Fendt and Massey Ferguson. Our review of their UK customer propositions found plenty of offers, service programmes, digital platforms, newsletters, finance options and customer engagement activity, but no obvious UK-wide loyalty proposition built around rewarding customers for their ongoing relationship with the brand. 

That may represent one of the sector’s biggest untapped opportunities. 

Loyalty exists. But is it being actively managed? 

Agricultural Machinery is not a Conventional Consumer Purchase. 

Any machine, be it a tractor, combine harvester, baler or telehandler can represent a significant investment, with the relationship continuing long after the initial transaction. Parts, servicing, maintenance, upgrades, technology, finance and replacement machinery all create opportunities for manufacturers and their dealer networks to engage with customers. 

The brands understand this. 

New Holland, for example, has a comprehensive UK proposition spanning machinery, parts, servicing, finance, digital tools and its dealer network. Its UK website highlights New Holland FieldOps, MyCNHStore, genuine parts, finance and dealer support. 

John Deere has built an extensive digital ecosystem around its customers, including the John Deere Operations Center, JDLink and SmartLine finance. Its UK SmartLine proposition covers parts, services, equipment inspections and precision agriculture technology, with promotional offers available through participating dealers. 

CLAAS uses newsletters, exclusive offers, events, training and customer communications to maintain engagement, while its UK lead-generation journey captures information such as farm size, role and investment intentions. 

Fendt places considerable emphasis on customer satisfaction and aftersales. Its Customer Feedback Programme actively collects feedback following purchase and then again after a year, while Fendt Care provides maintenance and repair cover beyond the statutory warranty period. 

Massey Ferguson similarly puts customer service and dealer support at the heart of its proposition. Its MF Always Running programme, for example, provides participating customers with access to replacement machinery when their own machine is unavailable. 

The Ingredients of Loyalty Exist 

What appears to be missing is a mechanism that brings those ingredients together and gives the customer a reason to keep engaging, not simply because they own a machine, but because they are recognised and rewarded for the relationship that they have with the brand. 

A useful distinction: customer loyalty is not the same as customer satisfaction. This is an important distinction for agricultural machinery manufacturers. 

• A customer feedback programme can tell a manufacturer how satisfied its customers are
• A warranty or service programme can reduce risk
• A finance offer can make a purchase more accessible
• A newsletter can keep customers informed
• A dealer relationship can create trust

But a loyalty programme can connect all of these interactions into a single customer proposition. It can answer a different question: 

“What are we doing to actively recognise and reward the customers who continue to choose us?” 

That could be particularly powerful in a sector where repeat purchasing and long-term customer relationships are so commercially important. 

What Did We Discover Across the Five Brands? 

Our research suggests a clear gap in the UK market, although there are some important nuances. 

New Holland 

New Holland has a strong ecosystem of products, services, digital tools, finance, parts and dealer support in the UK. 

There are also examples of New Holland loyalty activity internationally. The Mera New Holland app in India, for example, includes a rewards component and loyalty points. 

However, we found no obvious equivalent formal, customer-facing loyalty programme for New Holland agricultural customers in the UK. 

That raises an interesting question: if loyalty mechanics can form part of the New Holland customer proposition in another market, why could a carefully designed version not have a role in the UK? 

John Deere 

John Deere is perhaps the most interesting example because the brand does operate a formal John Deere Rewards programme in the US, including membership levels and equipment discounts. 

However, we found no comparable formal John Deere Rewards proposition aimed at UK agricultural customers. 

The UK business already has many of the foundations a loyalty programme would need: connected machines, digital customer relationships, dealer interactions, parts, service, finance and precision agriculture. 

In other words, the infrastructure for loyalty is already there. The opportunity may be to connect it. 

CLAAS 

CLAAS has a strong emphasis on customer relationships, product support, events, training and communications. Its UK newsletter specifically promotes exclusive offers and campaigns to subscribers. 

Yet there appears to be no formal UK customer loyalty programme rewarding customers for their wider relationship with CLAAS. 

For a manufacturer with a broad product portfolio and an established dealer network, that leaves considerable scope to turn engagement into something more measurable and valuable. 

Fendt 

Fendt is particularly interesting because customer loyalty is already central to the brand story. 

The company highlights the importance of customer satisfaction, gathers structured feedback and provides ongoing service support through programmes such as Fendt Care. 

Fendt also has a strong reputation for brand loyalty. Its UK customer stories regularly highlight customers who have stayed with the brand over many years. 

But loyalty as a customer behaviour is not quite the same as a loyalty programme. 

There appears to be an opportunity to take the loyalty Fendt already earns organically and turn it into a more deliberate, measurable and rewarding customer strategy. 

Massey Ferguson 

Massey Ferguson openly talks about the loyalty it has earned from farmers, with its UK content highlighting customers who have stayed with the brand for decades. 

Its current UK proposition includes offers, finance, parts and service support, alongside programmes such as MF Always Running. 

Again, however, we found no obvious formal UK customer loyalty programme that rewards the broader customer relationship, although there is such a programme in the US. 

And that could be significant. 

If a manufacturer already has customers demonstrating decades-long loyalty and a programme operating in another part of the world, a loyalty programme could provide a structured way of recognising and reinforcing loyal customer behaviour. 

What is Missing? 

The opportunity is not necessarily a traditional points-for-pounds scheme. 

In fact, that could be the wrong model for agriculture. 

The real opportunity is to build an agricultural loyalty ecosystem around the things customers already value. 

Imagine a programme where a farmer could earn recognition or rewards for: 

• Purchasing machinery 
• Buying genuine parts 
• Booking servicing and maintenance 
• Using connected machinery and digital services 
• Completing training 
• Attending manufacturer events 
• Taking part in product trials or feedback programmes 
• Renewing service agreements 
• Introducing another customer 
• Buying across multiple product categories 
• Choosing approved sustainability initiatives 
• Staying with the brand over multiple replacement cycles 

The reward does not always need to be a discount. It could be priority servicing, exclusive technical content, preferential event access, training, enhanced support, invitations to product previews, access to demonstrator machinery, dealer benefits or targeted commercial offers. 

Most importantly, it could be personalised. 

From Transactions to Relationships 

This is where loyalty becomes particularly interesting for agricultural machinery manufacturers. 

The traditional customer journey can be highly transactional: Purchase → service → parts → replacement → purchase. 

A loyalty strategy can create something much more connected: Engage → earn → recognise → reward → personalise → retain → advocate → repeat. 

That shift matters because the value of an agricultural customer is not contained in a single machinery sale. A customer may generate value through parts, servicing, technology, finance, upgrades and future machinery purchases over many years. A loyalty programme can give manufacturers a way to understand and influence that entire relationship. It can also help bring manufacturer and dealer data together around a shared customer view, subject to the appropriate permissions and data governance. 

There is Another Prize: Customer Data 

Perhaps the most valuable benefit of a loyalty programme is not the reward itself. It is the insight. 

A well-designed programme could help manufacturers understand which customers are highly engaged, what they buy, which services they use, when they are likely to replace machinery and what motivates them to stay with the brand. That creates the potential for much more relevant communications. 

Instead of sending every customer the same offer, manufacturers could start thinking in terms of individual customer journeys. 

• A customer who has just purchased a tractor could receive relevant servicing and training rewards. 
• A long-standing customer with multiple machines could receive recognition based on tenure and fleet size. 
• A customer who regularly buys genuine parts could receive targeted parts benefits. 
• A customer approaching a likely replacement cycle could be offered an incentive designed around their actual relationship with the brand. 

That is loyalty moving beyond points and into customer intelligence. 

What Could This Mean Commercially? 

For manufacturers, the potential benefits are significant. 

Higher retention - The stronger the relationship, the harder it becomes for a competitor to win the customer purely on price. 

Increased customer lifetime value - Rewards can encourage customers to consolidate more of their spend with one manufacturer, rather than switching between brands, suppliers or aftermarket alternatives. 

Greater parts and aftersales engagement - Loyalty mechanics could encourage customers to remain within approved parts and service ecosystems. 

Stronger dealer relationships - A well-designed programme could include dealers rather than compete with them, giving dealerships another tool to retain and engage their customers. 

More effective marketing - First-party customer data can enable more relevant communications and reduce reliance on broad, untargeted campaigns. 

Increased advocacy - Farmers who feel recognised by a brand are more likely to become advocates. In an industry where peer recommendations carry significant weight, that can be extremely valuable. 

The Opportunity is Bigger Than a Loyalty Card 

The agricultural machinery sector does not need another plastic card or generic points scheme. It needs to ask a more fundamental question: 

How can we make loyalty to our brand more valuable to the customer? 

The answer could be a digital-first programme that recognises the full customer relationship. It could sit alongside existing dealer networks, connected machinery platforms, finance products, service contracts and marketing activity. 

And it could start small. A pilot could focus on a particular customer segment, product range or dealer network. The manufacturer could test different earning mechanics, rewards and engagement journeys before expanding the proposition. 

The important thing is to start treating loyalty as a strategic commercial asset rather than simply an outcome of good products and good service. 

The Agricultural Machinery Loyalty Gap 

Our research into New Holland, John Deere, CLAAS, Fendt and Massey Ferguson suggests that UK agricultural machinery manufacturers have built many of the components required for customer loyalty, but have not yet widely brought them together into formal customer loyalty programmes. 

Whilst this may come as a surprise, our research within the farming community has highlighted the fact that farmers are intrinsically loyal to their chosen brand, so much so, they are unlikely to be swayed by traditional points mean prizes transactional loyalty programmes. In addition, these brands tend to focus their attention on their dealers as a dealer will influence more purchases than a farmer.  However, a modern approach to loyalty, as highlighted above – including building an agricultural loyalty ecosystem around the things farmers already value – would be well regarded. 

That creates an unusual market opportunity. 

The sector already has strong brands, loyal customers, long customer lifecycles and extensive dealer networks. It already has connected technology and digital customer touchpoints as well as parts, service, finance and aftersales relationships. 

What is potentially missing is the loyalty layer that connects them. 

For a sector built on long-term relationships, that feels like a significant opportunity. And perhaps the most interesting question is not whether agricultural machinery customers are loyal. They clearly are.  

So, the question is: what could happen if manufacturers started rewarding that loyalty deliberately and directly? 

This article is part of Stream Loyalty’s Power of Loyalty series, exploring how customer loyalty strategies can create new opportunities across industries where loyalty already exists, but is not always formally recognised or rewarded. 

If your organisation is exploring what a loyalty strategy could look like across customers, dealers, parts, service or connected machinery, Stream Loyalty can help turn that opportunity into a measurable programme designed around your commercial objectives.