Prepare Your Team for Peak Season
Preparing for the peak season is important because it sets the tone for your dealership’s success throughout the year. It impacts not only your immediate sales and service efficiency but also your long-term reputation and ability to attract and retain both customers and talented employees.
It’s imperative to prepare for many tasks to help your dealership run more smoothly, from onboarding seasonal hires to helping your team prepare to be successful with a changing customer. By focusing on all of these areas, you can create a resilient, customer-focused dealership that thrives even in the busiest times.
Team Training & Onboarding
It’s hiring season with summer right around the corner. As you head into your busiest season, be sure to incorporate onboarding processes to help your seasonal hires understand your culture, mission, vision and values as well as what is expected in their role. You can help your whole team grow and be more successful with a changing customer by offering ongoing training.
DEALERSHIP CERTIFICATION
Waves are good for boats.
But bad for dealerships.
Stay afloat with Dealership Certification.
Dreading the busy-season rush? Becoming a Certified dealer can be your secret weapon. Certification not only builds trust with customers, you will also gain access to exclusive resources and training, making your team sharper and faster at handling sales and service. Less stress, more efficiency – a Certified win for your busy season.
Added Bonus!
PLUS, enrollment in either spring webinar series grants you access to the 2024 Continuous Certification Courses. Giving you access to the exclusive Continuous Certification program now – where you can dig into this year’s educational trends, and more — for free — a $1,099 bonus!
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Onboarding with Purpose
Proper onboarding, which includes planning, checklists and implementing processes, prepares your new employees for the upcoming seasonal surprises and the potential challenges of peak-season expectations.
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A 5-Part Training Schedule to Set Up Your Team for Success
Ongoing training of your team is essential for your dealership and for their personal growth. So why do businesses find it so hard to create a plan and execute it? Dom Zappia, Relentless Dealer Services, shares with you his secret weapon — a 5×5 plan you can implement to find more success in training at your dealership.
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Culture of Training
Training your team is not a simple task. In his column for Soundings Trade Only, MRAA President Matt Gruhn shares with you how artificial intelligence has helped the MRAA team and how a commitment to education and focus on improvement can directly enhance workplace culture.
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A Resource for Your New Hires
When you hire a new employee they’re going to have many questions. The MRAA is here to help them grow in their current role and build a long-lasting career in the marine industry. We welcome your new hires with open arms to the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas (MRAA) and the boating industry. We made this quick video, starring Liz Walz, Vice President of Education, to congratulate new employees and help them understand the valuable education, resources and benefits they can access because their employee is an MRAA Member.
This video is a suggested onboarding and training assignment prior to visiting MRAAtraining.com.
CASE STUDY
Education, Team Learning & Career Growth
Need help deciding on courses or setting up a training routine for your team? Martin Motor Sports, an MRAA Silver Member, has created a training system for much of its team to learn and grow together using MRAATraining and MRAA education.
CASE STUDY
Onboarding Tactics to Prepare Your Team
Employee success drives your dealership’s success. A top priority for any dealership is to prepare employees in a manner that helps them successfully deliver your company’s mission, vision and values daily. Proper onboarding of new employees is critical this time of year as you add new staff and prepare them for peak season. Learn onboarding tactics from MRAA Certified Dealership Alpin Haus that you can use to help your business improve and prepare for 2024.
Silver & Gold Members ONLY:
Not a Silver Member? Learn more about
GUIDE
Growing the Workforce
Workforce development continues to be a major obstacle for many dealerships and the marine industry itself. The challenges with hiring, engaging and retaining employees continue to hamper dealership’s ability to prepare for peak-season readiness. Without enough staff, your processes (or lack of) will lead to bottlenecks, inefficiency and stress. The Strategy 10+1 guide: A Marine Industry Guide to Growing the Workforce helps employers establish or reinforce their current efforts toward creating a solid workforce. The handy Employer Toolkit at the end of the guide will help you determine your needs and where to begin.
Members ONLY:
Not a Member? Learn more about
MRAATraining
Training Your Team
On-demand, self-paced training courses are available to all MRAA Silver and Gold members. With more than 260+ marine-retailer focused courses on sales, marketing, leadership, management, customer service, the service department and more, you can be certain you’re finding the best education to help your team improve.
Silver & Gold Members ONLY:
MRAA Bronze members can upgrade to gain access to more course? Email Director of Membership Sherri Cuvala.
Not an MRAA Member? Sign Up Here.
Improving in Service
Your service department is busier than ever and plays a vital role in the success of your dealership. It’s critical to get it on the right track and keep it there for your employee’s success, to maintain a good customer experience and keep your business running effectively and efficiently.
CHECKLIST
Monthly Checklist for Dealership Service Managers
Dealership service departments are busier than ever. In any given day, a Service Manager may need to:
- Hold a morning meeting with technicians to identify challenges
- Review technician daily schedule and make sure everyone is clocked into a Work Order
- Run a Job Status Report
- Review appointment calendar and make sure appointments are entered properly
- Review technician timecards throughout the day
- At end of day, update technician timecards with billable hours
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! To help you stay on top of your daily and monthly service responsibilities, use this IDS checklist based on their experience working with hundreds of marine dealership Service Managers. This checklist is customizable, so you can add your own to-dos. Be sure to print it off and pin it up in your workspace.
Members ONLY:
Not Registered for Dealer Week?
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Yard Manager Checklists
The yard manager maintains the balance of operations between service, sales, safety, customer care and facilities. Heading into busy season, you need to revisit the processes and role for the yard manager and yard crew. Use these checklists as you prepare your dealership for the approaching peak season.
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Tips to Boost Service Efficiency
Gain tips from MRAA Member Woodard Marine about installing better processes and tactics in your dealership to enhance service efficiency.
Members ONLY:
Understanding Data & Improving Your Dealership
Learning to use data can separate your dealership from the competition. From internal data about your customers and service efficiency to external about buyers and the marketplace, it crucial that you get a handle on the data available to you so you can comprehend what it means for your business and the marine industry and how you can use it to make informed business decisions.
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Examining the Future of Buying
In late summer/early fall of 2023, MRAA Platinum Partner Rollick, a national leader in marketing, technology and market research in the outdoor recreation industries, conducted the Future of Buying study (FOB), which examines how recreational consumers engaged with their brand and dealers in their most recent shopping and buying experience and, more importantly, the tools, technologies and resources they relied upon.
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Tracking RECT
Discover how tracking Repair Event Cycle Time (RECT) can transform your dealership’s efficiency and customer satisfaction. RECT, the measure of time that it takes you to repair a customer’s boat in your service department, reveals crucial insights for enhancing service speed and competitiveness. Dive into this free infographic, generated by IDS, an MRAA Platinum Partner, to learn strategies for improving RECT and see where your dealership stands on a regional and national scale.
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Stories Give Service Data Meaning
In collecting all the data within the process for the creation of the MRAA Service Management Special Report, Bernie DeGraw, Senior Education Developer, said they found stories from all across North America. When you combine the stories with the data, well, that’s when you find true meaning. By using one or more of the insights and taking action at your dealership, you discover the true value of report like this.
2023 Service Management Special Report
The Service Management Special Report takes a deep dive into all things service. Access data and information on dealer demographics, employee resources, pain points, and key service department metrics.
Use this report to determine where you stack up against others in the marine retail industry.
- “Does my average proficiency fall above the average of the survey participants?”
- “How does having a process map influence various service pain points?”
Answers to these questions and more can be found within!
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Let Data Be Your Pathway to Insights & Predictive Solutions
As a leader and manager at your dealership, you need to learn to understand data and let it be your pathway to insights and predictive solutions. The MRAA has continued to add to its Data Hub to help you on your continuous journey to improve.
The Guide to Navigating 2024
You need strategies you can use to strengthen your dealership’s position in the market no matter what the year brings and no matter how busy you get. The MRAA built the Guide to Navigating 2024 to provide you with actionable steps, tools and resources to help you execute and implement proven strategies at your dealership. Best practices that will help you overcome any hurdles slowing you down and find the flexibility to meet both the internal and external changes happening in your dealership. This guide offers you strategies to fine-tune your processes and enhance your recruitment, as both topics are critical for peak-season readiness.
Members ONLY:
Not a Member? Get a preview of the Guide to Navigating 2024, here.
Recalibrate & Renew Your Dealership for What’s Ahead
with John Spader
Being ready for whatever the future holds falls upon the leadership. However significant change and internal and external dynamics will often derail poor planning and unpreparedness. It’s important to understand your environment and put the right strategies in place. In this new MRAATraining course, veteran dealership expert John Spader shares how to recalibrate and renew your business and your balance sheet. You’ll get tips to help you better prepare, so you can adapt and succeed while navigating turbulent markets.
Silver & Gold Members ONLY:
Not a Silver Member? Learn more about Silver Membership!
Overcome Objections with Next Level Desking and Financing
with Dom Zappia & Jamison Carrier
Customers have changed. They have certain demands, are highly informed and are not afraid to object to prices and rates. But it’s your duty as a business owner or manager educate your customers about their options, overcome any objections and get them in a boat they can afford. But doing this, you create a win for them and your dealership. This training course with dealership finance experts Dom Zappia and Jamison Carrier, of Relentless Dealer Services, shares finance department strategies that your team can leverage throughout the buying process.
Silver & Gold Members ONLY:
Not a Silver Member? Learn more about Silver Membership!
TNT
How to Fix Breakdowns in Dealership Communications
with Marcus Sheridan
A challenging marketplace, combined with ongoing workforce issues and a changing customer can keep you up at night. You’re not alone if you have doubts, struggles and concerns about what’s ahead. However, you don’t have to let it control you. Dealer Week Education host, author and boating enthusiast Marcus Sheridan shares with you tips for using transformative communication methods for helping your team improve. He offers tactics to help boost team energy, understand their needs to build stronger bonds so you can convert them into leaders and create a better culture.
Silver & Gold Members ONLY:
Not a Silver Member? Learn more about Silver Membership!