Q: You have been in the boating world for some time, what is the most interesting decision you’ve made while in the boating business.
Lewis: To stay in the business! (Kidding). The most interesting was to get into the business as a full service marina/dealership instead of a land-based dealership. It cost more up front, but it’s paid dividends over the years.
Q: Your family works along side you in the dealership. Do you have certain family values you carry over into your business?
Lewis: At the risk of sounding a bit cliché’, yes. We try to treat all our customers like family, but not like your brother or sister!
We’re are also a marina so we see our customers a lot more than the average dealership. Our goal is to make all those customer experiences as easy, as fun and enjoyable as possible. Not sure you’d call them family values, but whenever issues arise that get in the way, we treat people the way we’d expect to be helped if we found ourselves under the same circumstances.
That’s one of the dividends I was talking about in my first answer. We’re able to build relationships because we see them much more than the sales or service experience once or twice a year. We’re able to connect with our customers, boating and local communities more often. Each time we deliver a positive experience our stock goes up and we achieve a level of trust that’s hard for the competition to beat.
Q: As the MRAA Board of Director’s Chairman, what do you see for the future of the association?
Lewis: A very bright and exciting time ahead. Over the last decade MRAA has become a trusted and valuable resource for marine retailers interested in improving their businesses. Since forever sales and product information has been readily available from manufacturers. But information about how to structure and operate a successful dealership business has been hard to come by. MRAA has stepped in and is providing these resources in a “BIG” way.
Look for us to continue to expand these offerings as we begin to work on big picture issues like work force development. Plus we’ll be making an announcement soon about something we believe will have an enormous impact on the success of our dealers and our industry.
Q: In addition to being the MRAA Chairman, you are also the Chair of Discover Boating. What is one thing you hope to see the industry get behind in regards to attracting more people to boating?
Lewis: I’d love to see dealerships with access to the water rent boats. The First Time Boat Buyer research DB did two years ago revealed an incredible amount of information about who our FTBB’s are and what motivates them to buy a boat. We learned about the five “D’s”(Develop, Desire, Dream, Decide & Do), stages they experienced in their journey to boat ownership. The most important, that moment when Desire to own occurred, was during a boating experience. The more we can do to get people on the water for the “AH HA” moment to occur the better. Boat rentals is just one way that we’ve seen some success at our dealership.
Q: Let’s finish this interview on a lighter note! What are 5 things that people may not know about you?
Lewis:
- Just celebrated my 26th anniversary with my wife Susan.
- We’re expecting to meet our first grandchild any day; Connor will be Julia’s first baby.
- I’m a model railroader and collect HO model trains.
- Enjoy scuba diving with my son Jay, wreck & cave diving especially.
- I’ll be reaching retirement age in two years. People tell me I look much older!