Now in its 75th year and fourth generation of management, Strong’s Marine has long been the home of Super Service, and it’s not uncommon to hear President Jeff Strong speak on the importance of “client delight.”
So it comes as no surprise, then, to note that when the topic of Repair Event Cycle Times surfaced around in the marine industry in the early 2020s, Jeff and his team sat down for a conversation on what they could do to address the issue.
The result of this conversation generated nearly a dozen ideas for Strong’s and its manufacturer partners to consider in getting boaters serviced and quickly back on the water.
Check out this list here, and then entertain a similar conversation in your dealership. Not sure where to begin?
Your service department holds the key to a quality customer experience.
With the twists and turns of every new season, the needs and demands of boater buyers and owners change. These evolving needs, of course, are brought on by the ever-changing economy, technological advances, product development, consumer sentiment and satisfaction, and experiences found elsewhere in the market place.
For dealerships like yours, it can feel impossible to stay up to date and meet the sometimes-insane demands customers place on you and your team. Nowhere is that more evident than in your service department, where you feel handcuffed by unavailable parts, worldwide supply chain issues, and not enough technicians to go around. Yet the market place has conveniently timed those issues with the reality that everyone wants a boat and everyone who has a boat seems to have a service issue that needs rectified TODAY.
The whole mess is enough to make you second guess your career decisions, but I digress.
As the market place changes with those evolving needs, so should your focus on where to improve your go-to-market strategy. Today, partially due to the issues outlined above and partially due to the fact that your sales department is selling everything it can get its hands on, that means putting the focus on strengthening your service department.
Assuming you don’t want to philosophically rethink your entire service department by asking the one question this dealer asked, you can make an enormous impact simply
by focusing on your Repair Event Cycle Times. Not familiar with Repair Event Cycle Times, or RECT? You should be because it defines today’s leading customer experience metric.
Repair event cycles time is defined, most simply, as the amount of time it takes to repair a service issue and get customers back on the water. For some dealers, that means the time between drop-off and pick-up; for others, it means from the opening of an RO to closing it out and accepting payment.
How, exactly, you measure it is not as important as just making sure that you are measuring it, and more importantly that you are working to shorten the amount of time it’s taking to get customers back on the water.
Caption: This chart above shows the average number of days between the write-up and the close-out of the average repair order in the boating industry over a 12-month period from April 2020 through March 2021. These benchmarked statistics are being used to drive change in the boating industry. How do your numbers compare?
The chart should be enough evidence to convince you that we need to do better. If not, a recent survey MRAA conducted in partnership with the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation and Discover Boating, notes that one of the top two drivers of dissatisfaction among boaters who purchased their boat over the past couple years was the total turnaround time to get a boat in and back out from a service appointment. (For more insight into what’s happening with RECT at the dealership level, check out this study, too.)
I get it, and you get it. There’s a lot of factors working against you in this realm. The customers don’t get it, though, and candidly, I’ve heard many dealers report that their customers don’t care about supply chain or workforce shortages. All they care about is having a boat that runs.
The best dealership and service department managers will work to shield their customers from the ongoing, behind-the-scenes challenges we face, and rather, will work to instill better steps and efficiencies into their systems and processes. And the best managers will communicate in a much more proactive fashion like this dealer did.
6 fundamentals and 1 Pro Tip worth revisiting to help service to drive a better customer experience.
By Jesse Swain
Vice President of Customer Experience
Barletta Boats
Today’s dealers operate in an entirely different service environment than they did just a few short years ago, and some of the most successful dealers have started running their service departments a little differently to remain successful. Some of the service department fundamentals that I’ve identified in these dealers and that I’d like to share with you today are nothing new, and they will not only help drive greater efficiency but also help deliver a much better customer experience. Besides, these 6 fundamentals are always worth revisiting to help sharpen up your business.
1.Internal Communication
Highly successful dealers often practice excessive internal communication between department managers. Quick, daily huddles within the dealership can help ward off many unforeseen hiccups throughout the day. A great tool that helps keep everyone on the same page is software that can help with efficiency and aid in delegation. As a manufacturer, we can see the benefit this offers dealers, oftentimes, unfortunately, through the interactions we have with less-organized dealers. At those dealerships, lack of effective communication, delegation and accountability lead to multiple people from the same dealership contacting us for the same issue.
2.Customer Communication
Great dealers practice “getting ahead of it.” It’s always better to call a retail customer with a potentially disappointing update than it is to bury your head and wait for the customer to call requesting the status of their repair work. Some of the most common customer complaints we see on social media relate to a lack of communication — “They never called me back!” Once this complaint surfaces, it doesn’t matter how well you take care of them, because the customer experience has been spoiled.
3.Training
Ongoing training and cross-training helps service teams know their product and allows them to be capable of completing tasks in multiple areas of the department (Service Advisors who know how to handle warranty claims in the event the Warranty Admin is absent, etc.). Training opportunities at successful dealers can be as simple as sending Service staff to work Boat Shows for some much-needed customer face time. This helps your service staff get to know existing and new customers in a different environment than at the Service counter. Additionally, the best technicians in the industry are those that are invested in by their employers, whether that’s through manufacturer or other industry training opportunities, particularly to help them find be successful in the high-tech world we work in.
4.Dealer/Manufacturer relations
When dealers and manufacturers work together on all levels, the customer experience has a much better chance of being a great one. Nowhere is that more evident than in the service department, where dealers oftentimes rely on manufacturer support to take care of the customer. The most successful dealers typically strive to build good working relationships with manufacturers, and vice versa. One of the worst things a dealer could do for a customer is to not raise their hand and ask the question when something out of their realm or reach comes up. Strengthen your communications and relationships with manufacturers to improve the customer experience on all levels.
5.Parts Department Inventory
Great dealers know their fastest-moving parts and keep an inventory of them to minimize downtime and help keep customers on the water. Not only will it help keep customers happy, but it will help your service team become more efficient. Think about how much time is spent pulling the boat in from the lot, uncovering it, diagnosing the problems, and then covering it back up, and taking it back to the lot. Do you really want to do it more than once if you don’t have to? Keeping fast moving parts on your shelves will help.
6.Service Writing
The Service Writer has one of the most important roles in the dealership. Great Service Writers practice the “one and done” approach by touching on every different system within the boat and confirming that the customer doesn’t have any complaints other than the obvious one that the boat is in for. Many times, a small repair need gets overshadowed by a large one, and when the time comes to pick up the boat the customer realizes that they forgot to mention that the anchor light wasn’t working, which can cause more delays in getting to the water. Service Writers also have to opportunity to upsell other services and accessories during the initial boat check-in process, and some dealers even offer an incentive or commission for doing just that.
And here’s a Pro Tip: As they grow and add boat and engine brands, great dealers assign their Service Writers to specific brands, which helps with product familiarity and drives greater efficiency throughout the entire department.
There you have it. As dealers run into higher levels of customer demand and more challenges on the workforce and supply chain side of the business, getting back to some of these basic fundamentals. While they’re not necessarily new, they offer a good refresher in case your service department needs a good kick-start to get moving again.
A graduate of Universal Technical Institute, Jesse Swain spent 6 years as a technician at marine dealership and marina before spending another five years working for two different marine engine manufacturers. Today, Jesse is the VP of Customer Experience at Barletta Boat Co., where he uses his expertise in service management, warranty administration and troubleshooting to help Barletta and its dealer network drive outstanding levels of customer satisfaction.
MINNEAPOLIS, March 1, 2022 — The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, in collaboration with VRZ Consulting, released the results of a comprehensive, marine industry service department study. The survey results, which featured insights from more than 260 marine service departments, outlines some of the challenges dealerships face in repairing boats more quickly.
The genesis of the study came out of a summer 2021 meeting that the MRAA Executive Committee held with its colleagues on the National Marine Manufacturers Association Executive committee, and specifically upon review of data supplied by MRAA’s partners at Lightspeed DMS. That data showed that industry repair cycle times, or the amount of time it’s taking to get customer boats serviced and back on the water, was exceeding industry expectations and only worsening.
“Today’s most significant metric when it comes to monitoring the boat ownership experience comes down to the repair event cycle times,” explains Matt Gruhn, MRAA President. “With a pandemic-inflamed perfect storm of issues on dealership service departments – impacted by technician shortages, supply chain issues and unprecedented demand – it has become critical for us to not only benchmark where we’re at as an industry but also to begin showcasing opportunities on how the industry can collaborate to begin implementing new approaches to getting customers back on the water more quickly.”
The study was sparked by the collection and publishing of Repair Event Cycle Times, or RECT, which when presented to the two associations’ executive committees showed that it was taking more than 50 days, on average, to service and return boats to customers. In the event of warranty work, data showed that it’s taking more than 70 days to repair boats.
Last fall, MRAA convened a work group of dealers, manufacturers and suppliers to begin addressing the issues and identifying solutions for reducing RECT. The results of that and subsequent conversations has transitioned into a focus MRAA will place on helping the industry improve its repair cycle times.
“I just love looking at what it takes to flip the switch from more of a reactive service department to more of a proactive service department operation,” says Valerie Ziebron of VRZ Consulting, who moderated the RECT strategy meeting. “When we’re talking about Repair Event Cycle Times, we’re talking about customers waiting for their boats. Ideally, we should be asking how we can make sure that we are fast tracking or expediting our service work when we can. We can be training our service writers and technicians to be looking for opportunities to get more work done more quickly and boats back in the hands of their customers. This study, the workshop and other subsequent conversations are already bringing ideas to the forefront.”
For those interested in viewing the full results of this survey, you can find them under the Free Resources Tab at www.MRAA.com/improveRECT. On this page, viewers will find numerous resources and opportunities to help them improve upon the repair event cycle times that challenge their profitability, CSI scores and overall customer experience.
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.
About Valerie Ziebron President VRZ Consulting Valerie and her team have decades of experience helping marine dealerships learn and adopt more proactive process. www.vrzconsulting.com
Discover Boating, powered by NMMA and the MRAA, debuted its 2022 campaign last night during the Discover Boating® Miami International Boat Show®’s Opening Night Industry Bash. The campaign, set to launch this spring, features the theme, “See You Out Here,” creating a unifying voice and addressing the changing interests of boaters and prospective boaters.
The industry’s brand strategy remains steadfast and three-fold: Invite the next generation; retain the influx of new boaters; and engage legacy boat owners. To address these needs, Discover Boating has been working behind the scenes to evolve the brand, alongside a new agency partner, Cutwater, while maintaining momentum in 2021 and successfully attracting more than 5 million unique visitors to Discover Boating websites for the first time in its 17-year history.
“Our new campaign is an invitation to boaters and those interested in exploring boating, to join us on the water and experience the adventures and joy that only boating can provide,” said Ellen Bradley, senior vice president of NMMA. “We learned through extensive research of legacy, new and prospective boater behaviors and motivations that their interest isn’t on the boat but where it takes you. Those learnings informed our creative approach and all aspects of our new campaign.”
With the shift in the make-up of the U.S. population, boaters too are increasingly diverse. Growth segments for boating, especially among the younger set (18-34), look and behave differently than traditional boaters. They are more likely to be ethnically, racially and attitudinally diverse. To attract and engage this generation, Discover Boating is welcoming them by sharing stories of boaters across the country who come from similar backgrounds or have similar interests.
Boaters featured in the new campaign include: • Khristian Rousseve: Fishing runs in this 19 year old’s family and he was inspired by his father’s and grandfather’s passion for the sport, leading him to become the first African American to receive a bass fishing scholarship to Louisiana State University and the state of Louisiana. • Cindy and Jana Zontek: Lifelong adventurers, this couple includes a licensed boat captain at the helm who considers boating more than a vocation—it’s a lifestyle filled with freedom and joy. • Andy Mann: An avid boater, National Geographic ocean and adventure photographer, and marine conservationist whose imagery and advocacy is helping tell the story of our rapidly changing planet.
Added Bradley, “Seeing yourself on a boat and getting a feel for the larger boating community makes a significant impact on whether or not you feel welcome.”
To reach current target and nexgen boaters, the campaign’s marketing mix features advertising, digital and social content, influencer partnerships, experiences, and PR. This includes the launch of a robust media buy across Google search, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, and exciting partnerships such as TikTok, Vice, ESPN, Ebony, CTV and Telemundo.
Stay tuned for further campaign details leading up to the creative campaign launch this spring.
COVID-19 Pandemic Triggered High Demand of First-Time Boat Purchases in 2020
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (February 15, 2022) — The Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation (RBFF), the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas (MRAA), and the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) today announced the findings from a comprehensive study conducted by Left Brain Marketing, Inc. with individuals who purchased a boat in 2020 or 2021. The study was fielded to better identify and understand challenges associated with boat shopping and ownership experiences.
“This study has helped us identify the boat buyer and boat owner’s journey,” said MRAA President Matt Gruhn. “We will be using this knowledge to help the industry understand how they can take better care of our boat owners and keep them in boating for the long term.”
“Understanding what is driving, influencing and impacting today’s prospective boat buyers and boat owners is crucial to retaining current boaters and attracting the next generation,” said Ellen Bradley, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications for NMMA. “Findings from this study will help us, as an industry, improve and enhance all stages of a boater’s journey to purchase and throughout their ownership experience.”
See below for the top takeaways from the study: • Though finding a boat during the pandemic was difficult, boaters were satisfied with the shopping and purchase experience. However, better product training in delivery is desired. • Boaters are often dissatisfied with the cost and turnaround time for dealer maintenance/service work. • Used buyers are just as satisfied as new purchasers with their boat but are far less likely to visit a dealer for maintenance or service work. • Those who visit a dealer for maintenance or service are mostly happy with the quality of the work performed but feel that the cost and turnaround time are unreasonable. • A vast majority of first time and repeat boat owners intend to remain in boating. However, underutilization and the cost of ownership are key risk factors for defection.
“In addition to what we observed in the study, the data gathered also uncovers common misconceptions among the industry,” says RBFF Director of Marketing, Rachel Piacenza. “This research can guide actions for the industry to improve the boat shopping and overall ownership experience.”
RBFF, NMMA and MRAA will present all findings and other takeaways in an industry-wide webinar on Wednesday, March 9.
REGISTER HERE for the Enhancing Boating Ownership Experience webinar.
ABOUT RBFF RBFF is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to increase recreational angling and boating participation, thereby protecting and restoring the nation’s aquatic natural resources. RBFF’s 60 in 60 effort strives to attract 60 million anglers to the sport by the end of 2021. To help recruit, retain and reactivate participants, RBFF developed the award-winning Take Me Fishing™ and Vamos A Pescar™ campaigns to build awareness of boating, fishing, and conservation and educate people about the benefits of participation.
The campaign websites feature how-to-videos and an interactive state-by-state map that allows visitors to find local boating and fishing spots, helping boaters and anglers of all ages and experience levels learn, plan, and equip for a successful day on the water.
RBFF also offers its industry stakeholders many tools including a Fishing License & Boat Registration Plugin to connect their customers with the information they need in just one click, as well as an embeddable Places to Fish & Boat Map to help their customers discover places to fish and boat near them.
ABOUT MRAA 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.
ABOUT NMMA The National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) is the leading trade organization for the North American recreational boating industry. NMMA member companies produce more than 80 percent of the boats, engines, trailers, marine accessories and gear used by millions of boaters in North America. The association serves its members and their sales and service networks by improving the business environment for recreational boating including providing domestic and international sales and marketing opportunities, reducing unnecessary government regulation, decreasing the cost of doing business, and helping grow boating participation. As the largest producer of boat and sport shows in the U.S., NMMA connects the recreational boating industry with the boating consumer year-round. Learn more at www.nmma.org and get engaged with us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Chances are you know the importance of the digital landscape. In fact, your team probably invested in building an attractive website, created social media channels and ponied up for a CRM tool to help manage these relationship and leads. How will your plan, moving forward, reach all the customers in the digital spectrum? You know, all those customers out there who are not walking through your front door. At least not yet!
Consumers, over the last decade, have made a paradigm shift in how they research and buy products, shifting from traditional means to doing much of their own research at home or on their phone or tablet before making contact with someone on your team. You’ve probably heard it yourself, knowing full well that 95 percent of them do nearly 80 percent of their research online before ever contacting you or stepping foot in your store.
Another way to reach consumers and engage them is by expanding your online presence anyway you possible can. That’s why it’s critical to make sure your dealership’s MRAA profile is up to date, so all information will be accurate within the Discover Boating Dealer Locator Tool, which is coming soon. It’s also wise decision because you’re filling another box in the omni-channel experience for modern-day consumers and ensuring they find you.
Sign in to your MRAA account and examine the info for your business. It’s wise to confirm your dealership’s address, website and the boat types and brands (new boats only) you carry. Periodic audits are conducted to verify the information.
Have questions about the Dealer Locator tool, or need assistance logging into MRAA.com? Contact Certification Manager Liz Keener at 763-333-2417 or lizk@mraa.com.
If your MRAA membership reads “expired” during login, please contact Membership Manager Sherri Cuvala at 763-333-2420 or sherri@mraa.com. We would love to have you back!
Pre-season is in full swing! Some dealers are smack-dab in the middle of their boat show, and others have already wrapped theirs and are in follow-up mode. In-house events will continue from now until late spring, and boaters are getting excited for the upcoming season. While the traffic may be smaller than normal due to lingering COVID-19 variant fears, economic uncertainties and industry challenges, boat show attendees are determined buyers. With that in mind, be sure you team is prepped with the correct tools to make capturing leads much simpler, because now is the time to start collecting — and qualifying — your leads!
In early 2020, the Marine Industry Certified Dealership program teamed up with expert Don Cooper, The Sales Heretic, to develop a course about boat shows. In “Maximize Your Boat Show Sales,” Don focuses two of his chapters on lead generation and follow up.
Your lead form, he says, should include six types of information:
1. Motivation
2. Experience
3. Usage
4. Criteria
5. Budget
6. Timetable
These items will help your sales team understand how to interact with their prospects, which boat to pair them with and when they’re looking to buy.
Don also recommends you have a follow-up process after any event, whether it’s a boat show or an in-house event.
That process should include:
• Entering all leads into your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system
• Assigning all leads to salespeople
• Ensuring follow-up is completed and tracked
• Sharing follow-up success stories
• Rewarding team members who stay on track with their follow-up
Don dives deeper into this topic and others in his course, which the Certification program has made available to all MRAA Silver and Gold members. You can access the course here after you’re logged into MRAATraining.com. Don also has a variety of resources available on his site, DonCooper.com.
• Branching out to include lending for boats and other recreational products
ARLINGTON, VA, February 9, 2022. Boat Finance LLC, an indirect recreational lender for boats and RVs, announced today that it has changed its name to RecFi LLC. The company initially started off financing boats and outboard motors, but in the last few years, extended its operations to include RVs, and now plans on introducing powersports in 2022. The new name reflects the company’s expansion to servicing not only recreational boat loans, but to financing the greater recreational lending market.
“Now that we’re established in the general recreational space, we’re hoping our new name will better demonstrate the types of services we provide, and continue to attract a wider audience,” explains Donald Schrama, CEO of RecFi. “We are very excited about this transformation!”
One of RecFi’s capital partners, Blue Elephant Capital Management (BECM), is also a big proponent of the name change – CEO of BECM, JP Marra, expresses his support: “[we have] had the pleasure of working closely with the RecFi team since 2016; the new name and branding not only better fits with the scope of the company’s expanding verticals, but as importantly, better reflects the now robust and dynamic fintech platform that they have painstakingly developed over many years.”
The name change comes with a rebranding of the logo and launch of a new website, as well as new staff hires and promotions, and new office locations.
About RecFi LLC RecFi LLC works directly with dealers to provide recreational lending for boats and RVs. Brothers, Don and Bill Schrama, founded the company, and soon after launching, added Blue Elephant Capital Management as a partner. RecFi aims to provide fast, flexible, and easy-to-access financing to the under-served segment of the recreational lending industry.
•New Bill Would Help Rural Communities Prepare for and Grow Outdoor Recreation Economies, Infrastructure
WASHINGTON, D.C. February 8, 2022 – The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas and others in the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable (ORR) are fully supporting U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Michael Bennet’s (D-CO) newly introduced Rural Outdoor Investment (ROI) Act. This bill provides much-needed capital for rural communities seeking to build and plan for recreation economies.
“It is no secret the power of the outdoor recreation economy, which comprised 1.8 percent of the United States GDP in 2020, benefitting communities across America, as people engaged in pastimes like recreational boating and fishing, hiking and mountain biking,” said Chad Tokowicz, MRAA Government Relations Manager. “The ROI Act provides tools to rural communities, so they can get a piece of this growing market sector. The outdoor recreation economy can be a crucial addition to a community by creating additional jobs and increasing revenue at local businesses through ancillary purchases.”
If passed, the ROI Act’s funding could not come at a better time. Outdoor recreation participation sky-rocketed during the pandemic and shows no signs of receding. Additionally, economic studies confirm that rural communities that plan for and invest in recreation businesses, access and infrastructure are more resilient and grow faster with more sustainable economic development.
The ROI Act will provide: •$30 million for public works through the Economic Development Administration (EDA). This would fund necessary infrastructure improvements from signage to boat ramps to new trails. •$5 million for grants through EDA for communities to create recreation economy plans that optimize their natural spaces including marketing, branding, business development, fundraising and tourism management. •$2.5 million in university partnerships to promote place-based research, education and technical assistance to local stakeholders and businesses for this high-growth sector. •$12.5 million for the Recreation Economy for Rural Communities (RERC) grants for main street revitalization through outdoor recreation.
“The Rural Outdoor Investment Act will create common-sense changes to pre-existing programs and direct money to communities to help bolster and grow their outdoor recreation economies,” says Jeff Strong, Vice Chairman, MRAA Board and President, Strong’s Marine, Mattituck, N.Y. “From additional funding to improve boat ramps to money aimed at helping communities market their recreational offerings, this bill will benefit the recreational boating industry, boaters and anglers and rural communities.”
“Rural communities across the country are dealing with economic and infrastructure challenges stemming from COVID-19, climate change and transitioning economies, all while trying to seize opportunities from massive shifts in workforce and the influx of Americans seeking the outdoors,” says Jessica Turner, ORR President. “The Rural Outdoor Investment Act will provide much-needed planning, infrastructure and business support to communities as they attract a remote workforce, grow jobs, welcome visitors and strengthen their economies through outdoor recreation. ORR has long known the return from investing in outdoor recreation in rural economies, and we applaud Senators Schumer and Bennet for introducing this forward-thinking and essential legislation that will support every corner of the country.”
As the legislation makes its way through Congress, MRAA will work with the ORR and other industry partners to highlight the positive impact on the recreational boating industry. If you have questions or want to contribute to advocacy, email Chad Tokowicz.
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.
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