Know Your Client Needs

The first rule of any education program is knowing what the client needs.

Businesses sometimes take for granted that they know what their customer wants.

Conduct a formal or informal survey of customers through mailings or driver contacts.

Establish what motivates farmers and other rural customers regarding fuel storage issues. Then, use that information as the focal point for incentives to get clients to an event.

Enlist Partners

You can do it alone, but you can do it better with partners.

Contact your county agricultural extension agent and your county community resource development agent. One or both will likely want to help you and they have access to supporting resources.

Identify appropriate regulators who would be willing to provide answers to your customers' questions in a neutral forum that you provide.

Contact insurers of farm and rural properties and invite them to help plan and implement the event.

Work with local fire departments, emergency response teams, health departments, veterinarians and others who can address issues such as safety, spill responses, farm family health and livestock health.

A local environmental organization may welcome the opportunity to build positive relations with the farm community by endorsing or co-sponsoring your event.

Invite other members of your cooperative system or work with fuel marketer associations to identify additional resources, partners or information.

Planning an Event

Establish a planning committee with representatives from at least some of the partners you have identified.

Drivers or salespersons for marketers may be the most important members of the planning team, since they know the customers best.

Use available Farm*A*Syst materials to support your efforts.

Identify all appropriate literature, brochures, forms and other pieces of information from educational and regulatory sources that are important for your customers to have.

Select a time and location that is the most convenient for the audience you want to reach.

Allow enough advance time to plan the event so that facilities, locations and other resources can be secured or reserved.

Develop incentives -- such as service or product discounts, free lunch, or prize drawings -- to attract customers to come to your event.

Develop a program agenda that includes a variety of speakers that can address all key issues related to on-farm or rural residential fuel storage systems. Consider attaching other activities to the event, such as well water testing for nitrates, or an update on crop or livestock market information from the agricultural agent.

Selecting an Event Forum and Format

A simple event can be planned at the fuel marketer's facility, if space and time of year are appropriate.

Use workshops through the county extension office, community college, local high school or other public facility.

Coordinate the event with annual meetings of the cooperative or other association meetings.

Conduct farm demonstrations on farms that have storage systems which can be demonstrated as being easily upgraded.

Having a system that needs modest improvements will match what many tank owners will have on their own property.

Set up demonstrations at county fairs or collaborate to develop a program for larger events, such as state fairs or Farm Progress Days.

Address for this site: http://www.wisc.edu/farmasyst/private/petro/tip5.html
Created by: Richard Castelnuovo, rcasteln@students.wisc.edu
Last modified: February 10, 1997