Posts Tagged ‘Lenny Mangnall’

Exmark Employee Profile: Lenny Mangnall

Thursday, August 6th, 2015

Lenny Mangnall of Exmark

Where are you from?

I’ve lived 50 miles from Beatrice, Nebraska my whole life. I currently live about ten miles away, with my wonderful wife and my three boys, ages nine to sixteen.

Tell us about what you do at Exmark.

I work in customer service, which has two groups: customer care and technical service. I’m in technical service, where we focus on the technical aspect of the product, and assisting our distributors. Typically we’re on the road about 50 percent of the time January through March. We go to different regions and do hands-on sessions on-location at dealers, making sure they are up to speed on our latest products.

For the rest of the year, we’re tied to the phone the majority of the time. For instance, last year Exmark customer service took 6,500 phone calls. If there’s a major issue we can’t resolve over the phone, we hop on a plane and go out to help resolve the problem firsthand.

The main parts of our job are preparing our service people with hands-on service and knowledge, and answering the customers’ needs. We combine those two and become both the voice of the service guy and the eyes of the customer.

What’s your favorite thing about working with Exmark?

This industry is amazing, full of such great people. I’ve built amazing relationships with end users, dealers, and distributor partners. It’s something that I look forward to each day.

At Exmark, we focus on doing the right thing and developing partnerships with our distributors, dealers, and our end users. By working together and helping our partners, whether distributors, dealers or end users, we’re making our own jobs a little easier in the long run. We’re all interrelated.

What do you like to do in your free time?

With three boys at home, I don’t have much free time! But my main passion for the last 7-8 years has been coaching baseball for my boys. It’s so much fun. The organization does it right. Even though we want to win, the more important priority is building character. And the people are great. There’s nothing better than getting a group of parents and kids together and watching them grow together as a secondary family.

If you could have lunch with any person, who would it be?

I’d like to talk to somebody who lived through the Great Depression or The Dust Bowl. We take so many things for granted and must remember to be careful with what we continue to take from Mother Nature. Any person that lived through such trying times and fought through that: it’s just remarkable to me. Those people just didn’t have the same benefits we do today. You see pictures of what they went through with the Dust Bowl and it’s remarkable they could persevere. We take a lot of things for granted today.

What’s something surprising about you not many people know about?

I graduated in a class of just 8 people. When I was in 6th grade, the entire school from kindergarten to 12th grade had about 110 people in it so I knew everybody by name. Most people are surprised to hear that.

Lenny Mangnall has been a member of the Exmark family for 17 years.

Dealer-scheduled Maintenance is Key

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

This is the final post in Exmark’s ten part Service and Maintenance Series.

Even if you are a do-it-yourselfer, it is important to realize that the dealer is your best friend when it comes to extending the life of your mower.

Your local dealer knows the conditions you mow in, your local area, your machine and how you use your equipment to get the job done. Your local dealer can also recommend a customized maintenance routine for your unit that ties directly to how you use it, which is going to be better than any generic manufacturer maintenance program available.

It may save you money to do things yourself in the short run, but since dealers are factory-trained to fix and spot issues before they become serious problems, they could save you time and money in the end. Dealers are also aware of any out-of-the-ordinary maintenance routines or new and improved repair methods sent directly from the factory. Exmark recommends that even the do-it-yourselfers make the effort to find a dealer they trust. And then making that dealer their best friend.

Regular maintenance cycles are important for the longevity of your equipment. Whether you are a homeowner or a commercial landscaper, knowing the most important parts to check and what types of maintenance needs to happen regularly is key to having beautifully cut grass this spring and a successful landscaping season.

That concludes our maintenance series. Hope you found it helpful in getting ready for a positive and profitable mowing season. The series will be archived on this site so you can refer back to the posts at any time.

Fresh Air Filter

Monday, March 29th, 2010

This is the eighth post in Exmark’s ten part Service and Maintenance Series.

Your engine needs to breathe. It does so through air filters—preferably, clean air filters.

So just like the oil in your engine, you should check air filters on a daily basis. It’s essential to clear the filter of debris. If the filter gets clogged at some point, the engine will find other ways to breathe, through any available gap or crevice. Typically, these crevices don’t have filters and will allow the machine to suck in dirt, sand and debris to places where they really shouldn’t go. That’s why there’s a filter in the first place.

It’s also important to note that you should never clean your air filters with compressed air. This can cause holes to form in the filter and it will cease to keep unwanted particles out.

In the next post, we’ll discuss walk-behind versus riding mower maintenance, so please check back soon.

When it Comes to a Quality Cut, It’s All About the Blades

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

 

This is the seventh post in Exmark’s ten part Service and Maintenance Series.

The purpose of the mower is to cut grass, and the whole process starts with the blade. A mower with dull blades has to work harder and usually results in shredded rather than cleanly cutting grass. Keeping your blades sharp and replacing worn blades will deliver a better quality of cut, resulting in happy customers.

The correct angle to sharpen a blade is 28 degrees. Users should sharpen blades and replace damaged blades after every eight to 10 hours of use, or even more frequently under certain conditions. As mentioned, a dull blade forces other parts of the mower to work harder, including the belts, bearings and engine. The harder those parts have to work, the more inefficient your machine becomes.

Having a balanced blade is also extremely important to the overall longevity of your machine. An out-of-balance blade can cost you more than the price of a new blade. That’s because unbalanced blades actually swivel and wobble, causing the solid metal of the deck to flex many times per second. Not surprisingly, unbalanced blades can take a toll on bearings, significantly reducing their life span. This will eventually lead to damaging the deck shell itself, which is one pretty expensive problem to resolve. Thankfully, there are inexpensive blade balancing tools out there, and you can remedy the blade balance before it turns into an even bigger issue.

Better yet, we recommend keeping several extra sets of sharp, balanced blades on hand. Having these blades available will save you fuel and money in the long run. It doesn’t take much to make a big difference in the overall performance of your blade. If you’re looking for more information on blade maintenance, visit our YouTube page here.

Our next post will cover air filters. Remember to come back soon.