Here’s the very real workforce conundrum many of you are facing: Retaining staff when times get tough. However, hiring them when you need them is just as difficult and more expensive. The Service Management Special Report showed that the workforce shortage is not just an issue in most service departments, but perhaps the No. […]
Author: Bernie DeGraw
Discover Boating’s New PSA Campaign Airs on News Stations, Streaming Platforms
Discover Boating, in collaboration with Progressive Insurance®, recently launched a new television public service announcement (PSA) campaign, and in just two months the PSAs have aired 550 times, delivering more than 1,000,000 impressions and equating to $63,000 in donated media value (the cost it would take for the same media “real estate” if the news […]
Repair Event Cycle Time
• Industry survey – Your feedback will help to uncover unexpected and effective service items that influence RECT We have heard it before. We will hear it again. Repair Event Cycle Time is the most important KPI to influence customer satisfaction. Boaters only have so many days to get out on their boat. Wind, Waves, […]
Drive Up Your Service Revenue in the Coming Year
[Editor’s note: This is Part 2 of the two-part blog exploring more strategies to improve your service department from Bernie DeGraw, MRAA Senior Education Developer] In part one of this special blog series on boosting service revenue, I shared three things to do now, or as soon as possible, to help your dealership. In this […]
Drive Up Your Service Revenue Now
As dealers, we have all heard a lot this year about diversifying our revenue and increasing our income streams. We hear a broad range of ideas on what to sell and how, how to market and when, and where to get financing and floor plans with different rates. During these unusual times a main area […]
Fuel the Future: Invest in Local Trade School Scholarships
It was early July and the back-to-school advertising started. Back to school can mean a lot of different things. For parents there may be a sigh of relief, for teachers a gasp of “uh-oh” but in the marine industry it signals that the sales will likely slow and the preparation for the offseason gets into […]
‘Pop-up’ Boat Show
Sales have slowed and are struggling to recover. Customers seem to be hiding from dealers. Banks appear scared of lending. Inventory is back to normal, or worse even higher. Almost everyone has a trade-in vessel where they owe a lot more than it is worth. As a dealer principal, sales manager, or other leader in […]
Yard Manager = Head Nurse
In an emergency room at the hospital, every second can count on making sure patient care is at the highest level possible. “The surgeon doesn’t roll in his own patient,” said Jordon Schoolmeester, an MRAA Dealer Week Conference and Expo educator. “He doesn’t administer the anesthetics. He doesn’t stage the scalpels forceps or gauze …” […]
Onboarding With Purpose
For me, the coming of peak season is like when I have already seen a horror movie. I remember the moments when the bad guy starts the chainsaw or when the monster pounces out of the darkness. It is exhilarating, but I’m ready for what is coming. But my friend hasn’t seen it before, and […]
Stories Give Service Data Meaning
Dan Heath, a New York Times best-selling author once said, “Data are just summaries of thousands of stories – tell a few of those stories to help make the data meaningful.” The MRAA collected a great deal of data in the survey process for the Service Management Special Report. In a sense, we collected thousands […]
