MINNEAPOLIS — July 6, 2020 — With first-time boat buyers flocking to boat purchases in record numbers and overwhelming dealers across North America, the buying and ownership experience is at risk. With this in mind, the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas has announced a new education series of insights and resources designed to help dealership teams deliver world-class customer experiences.
MRAA’s “Operation: Keep Your Customers Boating” will culminate in a series of blogs, videos, a white paper, a webinar and more, designed to help dealers ensure their customers are well taken care of and that the ownership experience remains of the highest quality.
“We’ve heard time and again over the past couple of months that dealership teams are overwhelmed, as customers, especially new buyers, are clamoring to get out on the water in a safe, socially distanced and fun summer activity,” said MRAA President Matt Gruhn. “However, dealers are concerned that with the rush of sales, their customer experience efforts are falling short, so we are offering these quick, easy-to-understand and implement, series of tips to help them improve upon their customer experience efforts.”
The blog series debuts Monday, July 6 on the MRAA site’s Keep Customers Boating portal. It is designed to offer easily digestible insights on how dealers can positively impact the ownership experience. Certification Manager Liz Keener will touch on each topic daily in an MRAA Facebook Live video, giving dealers a chance to consume the content in whichever format works best for them. When the series is complete, the resources will be combined into an “Operation: Keep Your Customers Boating” white paper.
This valuable resource will feature not just insights and overviews of best practices, but also numerous useable resources, such as process maps, scripts, job descriptions and more. Additional resources are being created for and many are already available to MRAA’s Certified Dealers through the initial program and the continuing education it offers.
“2020 has been a rollercoaster of a year for dealers. And this spring and summer has brought the kind of results we want — new buyers pleading to get into boats. Now we have to focus on serving those first-time boat buyers with the best customer experience we can offer,” said MRAA Certification Manager Liz Keener. “By improving all of our customer experience efforts, we will not only keep those customers boating into next season and beyond, but we’ll earn loyal customers, who will want to upgrade and become boaters for life. They’ll also be the people who will refer boating to their friends and family and further feed into the industry’s pipeline of new buyers. These customer experience tools are designed for our entire industry to thrive going forward, feeding off the excitement we’ve seen thus far this year.”
“Operation: Keep Your Customers Boating” adds to the variety of customer experience resources MRAA already offers through its free Resource Center, its members-only MRAATraining.com, and the Marine Industry Certified Dealership program.
About the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas
At the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, we believe that for the marine industry to thrive, the retail organizations that interact with the boaters in their community must thrive. With that in mind, MRAA works to create a strong and healthy boating industry by uniting those retailers, providing them with opportunities for improvement and growth, and representing them with a powerful voice. For more information, visit MRAA.com or contact us at 763-315-8043.
