This diversification is even more pronounced among younger generations, with the “post millennial” generation predicted to be "the most diverse, best educated generation yet. “ The future of boating will not look like the past. So, it’s imperative for the boating industry to appeal to a younger, more diverse group of potential future boaters to show them how boating can include them.

But, to include them, you must first understand them.
• Understand Next Generation consumers in real-time
• Identify new opportunities brought about by new needs and wants
• Scale with technology to extend business reach
• Enhance capabilities to find and act upon new opportunities in a pre-emptive way – look into the future
• Invest in human capital to get it done
Customers & Consumers create brands
• Today more than ever!
• Yesterday: interruption, one-way, follow the leader
• Today brands must involve consumers, connect with them, own, share, advocate (remember … the consumer decides)

Rebooting the business to realign it with the new consumer environment is critical to its long-term health & growth
NMMA commissioned a research study to find the groups to target who will be open to boating throughout the broader society. We developed a segmentation study of the potential target universe using two factors: participation in sports and outdoor activities and income.

This study defined potential target groups based on their participation in the same outdoor activities that boat owners often pursue. This allowed us to target a much larger base of future boaters with interests that overlap with today’s boat owners.

Three key segments emerged from the research: Traditional Boaters, Growth Segment and Emerging Segment. The Traditional Boaters are who their name suggests — they most closely resemble the current boat owner, while the Growth and Emerging Segments are opportunities to expand the market for recreational boating, representing 91 million people and more than 1.5x the Traditional Boater segment size.

     Traditional Boaters: This group looks most like today’s boat owners and has the highest penetration of boat ownership and participation in boating activities. They are older and more suburban/ex-urban than other groups.

     Growth Segment: This group pursues boating-adjacent activities at high rates, including powersports, biking and hiking and is younger. In fact, they are younger than current first-time boat buyers. They are more ethnically and racially diverse and more likely to live in denser areas.

     Emerging Segment: This group is a large, dynamic and affluent segment of the potential future boat owner population. In their daily lives, while they are not pursuing the outdoor activities predictive of future boating, they are doing those activities on vacation with a potential “pull” via rental activity. They are the most diverse, most affluent segment.

Shared characteristics of the Growth and Emerging Segments include:
• Likely to attend events like auto shows, food/beverage festivals and music festivals.
• Consider themselves more environmentally conscious.
• Are heavy users of social media including Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok.
• Enjoy foreign and domestic travel.
• Participate in outdoor recreation activities, including golfing, cycling, running, tennis and yoga.
• Watch sporting events online.
• Own autos from brands including BMW, Jeep, Tesla and Subaru.

Lastly, the Next Generation of boaters are not a large monolithic group. Each generation is valuable in the marketplace, and one is not better than the other. Generation Z and Millennials for example are disrupting the way products and services are advertised by rejecting conventional marketing methods. They are more likely to be swayed by what their peers have to say about a product or service, which means that digital and social media sources such as Yelp reviews and online testimonials can make or break marketing campaigns.

Engaging diverse consumers as buyers and employees for instance is simply a good business strategy. Targeting potential boating lifestyle enthusiasts from the three largest ethnic groups in the US (African American, Asian and Hispanic), as well as women and LGBTQI audiences is essential to the growth of the boating industry. What’s more, these segments will only grow in importance in the years to come as their buying power increases. There is enormous potential to market to these consumer groups in almost any sector and industry, and with a focus on reaching and engaging them where they live, work and play digitally and experientially.

About the Author
Kevin Williams is the Vice President, North American Marketing for the National Marine Manufacturers Association. He has more than 25 years of marketing experience, and most recently co-founded Fortitude Interactive Inc., a marketing technology consulting firm focused on brand strategy, content development and syndication, as well as intellectual property in the digital, social and mobile age. He has also served as head of multicultural marketing and diversity and inclusion initiatives for BMW of North America, LLC., where he facilitated multicultural marketing strategies and initiatives designed to reach, engage and motivate diverse consumers for BMW, MINI Cooper and BMW Motorrad brands.

We have all heard the saying, "Do more with less." It certainly feels easier said than done. As an industry freshman at the time, I learned the saying's true meaning during the "Great Recession" of 2008. I watched it happen across the marine industry. Amid the massive layoffs, our industry's employment footprint shrank drastically.

At the time, my office was located at a bustling boatyard that was on a growth trajectory. I watched how the once robust yard crew resized to a bare minimum as the recession took hold. The owner, a successful entrepreneur in his mid-thirties, said to me, "When a recession hits, smart businesses cut deeper than appears necessary to ensure there are enough resources to keep the remaining team retained and strong through the downturn."

Only one month before the stock market crashed that year, the organization I worked with was awarded a $450,000 grant from the state to recruit, train and place 150 new workers into the boating industry. It was obvious that the industry did not need an influx of new workers. Employers needed resources to retain the workers they still had and keep the doors of their businesses open.

So, through a series of conversations with industry businesses, a plan was devised to redirect the grant funding to cross training and upskilling the workforce that remained employed, also known as incumbent workers, rather than engaging and training new workers. That allowed employers to increase the capacity of their existing workforce … to do more with less.

That investment in the existing workforce proved to have more benefits than anticipated and more lessons – ones that we can apply in today’s market. Here are some of the outcomes:

     • Offset payroll expenses – Because many of the businesses used members of their own staff to provide cross-training, the grant funding inadvertently offset the costs associated with the trainer’s weekly paycheck. With our current industry’s Baby Boomer population, your most experienced workers can also be your best trainers.

     • Strengthen team dynamic – Teams that work hard together to achieve a goal will naturally form a bond. The staff that “made the cut,” or remained employed, gained respect for one another and learned how to function together. Each individual became a trainer in their area of expertise and a student in other areas.

     • Build employee allegiance – With the employer's choice to invest in the team, the employees felt valued and safe in their jobs. This translated into a commitment to the job and the business. It created a brand-loyalty and pride-in-product among employees. It also increased employee productivity and retention for many years to come.

     • Poise for growth – As the industry came out of that recession, the companies who utilized the grant’s training funds were higher functioning, highly skilled and ready for the industry's regrowth.

It’s challenging to have to cut your resources. However, if embraced, it can lead to innovation. It was Winston Churchill who said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” Whether we are headed for a recession or are chronically understaffed or some combination of both, there is opportunity, a silver lining to be found.

The benefits of training existing staff were unequivocally proven during the Great Recession. The success stories created during that time have been used to secure ongoing incumbent worker training funds, and they showcase the boating industry's ability to successfully train on the job, to invest in its workforce, and to promote from within.

If you are interested in learning more about funds to train your employees in your area, reach out to your local Workforce Investment Board (WIB) to inquire. You can find your local WIB here. Questions about workforce development can also be directed to Wendy@mraa.com

Customer satisfaction in our industry is defined as a measure of how a boat builder’s product and a dealer’s service perform compared to customer's expectations. It has long been the method to measure the effectiveness of the Marine Industry Certified Dealership Program (MICD). I propose that employee satisfaction is the most important factor leading to customer satisfaction and how MICD helps dealers start with improving the employee experience.

Employees are the driving factor behind customer satisfaction. Employee interactions at the dealership set the tone for a positive or negative customer experience. When the team isn’t happy, their interactions with customers can, and almost always will, reflect that, and, in turn, suffer. Over the course of time, this can have serious repercussions for a dealership.

The place where this becomes the most critical at most dealerships is when employees are directly interacting with customers, such as the front-end service folks. Historically overworked and under resourced, employees in these jobs are tasked with spending their entire day interacting with customers. They’re the ones getting yelled at when they have to inform a customer that their boat won’t be ready for the weekend. It can be a thankless job, and it’s only made worse when the employees are treated [and feel] like pawns in a chess game.

This is where Dealership Certification can help. Dealers must put the same effort into taking care of their employees as they do in taking care of their customers. If even a fraction of your customer experience effort or budget was spent on employee satisfaction, there would be a huge return on investment.

One of the easiest ways to enhance employee satisfaction is to ask for and welcome their feedback. Your staff has great awareness into your customers’ needs. After all, they’re the ones who are directly interacting with customers and hearing their criticisms and compliments firsthand. Employees can be your biggest asset when it comes to customer satisfaction, so it’s vital to let them share their insights. We’ve learned that the Employee Satisfaction Survey (ESS) process is by far the dealer’s favorite part of MICD. This part of the program not only aids you in gaining feedback from your employees, but also helps you implement the necessary changes to make your dealership a better place to work.

A large part of employee satisfaction revolves around understanding what employees need and want, and gaining awareness into what will work well and what won’t. By learning about employee’s desires, owners and managers can make necessary changes to the dealership. Not everything needs to revolve around your employees’ demands, but there are many places where change can be enacted at a minimal cost and effort.

It is also a good time to shift your mindset, moving from thinking employees just work for you, to acknowledging that they’re valuable contributors to a dealership’s success. Employees need to understand how important their role is and how their work fits into the bigger picture. They need to feel like their voices are being heard and that they have respect from the owners and managers. Most importantly, they should arrive at the dealership each day knowing that their work is appreciated by both the customers and the dealer.

There’s a direct link between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. Happy employees equal happy customers, and unhappy employees lead to unhappy customers. That’s the simple way of looking at it, but the Marine Industry Certification program, with its tools and processes, helps dealers improve their employee experience in order to elevate the customer experience.

An MRAA guest blog by Dealership Advantage, MRAA Education Champions

Today, working remotely is more common than ever, which means supporting remote employees is more important than ever. But that isn’t always an easy thing to accomplish. Your boat dealership has salespeople out on the water with customers, service technicians working on customer boats, and service reps making their rounds at boat shows. How can you make sure all of these employees working from all different locations are able to do their jobs efficiently and effectively? Here are our top tips for supporting your remote employees and driving success for your boat dealership.

Employ a video conferencing software
When it comes to remote work, video conferencing software is an absolute must. Whether it be a sales meeting with a prospective client or an internal meeting to discuss weekly work, meeting “face-to-face” just has more of an impact than a standard phone call. According to GetVoIP, 87% of remote employees say they feel more connected and involved with team projects when using video conferencing, and 55% of businesses say video conferencing effectively increases employee engagement. Additionally, Digital in the Round reports that 90% of people find it easier to get their point across on video.

The data is clear: video conferencing helps customers and employees alike feel more engaged and connected, so it can help your dealership improve efficiency, productivity, and sales.

Get a DMS that works anywhere
Can your salespeople log a sale while out on a boat with a customer? Can your technicians and service writers write and edit work orders while working on a customer boat stuck at the boat launch? Can your employees access your dealership management system on the go with their smartphone or tablet? If your answer is no, you can’t expect the same level of productivity out of your remote employees as you would from your in-house staff.

A cloud based DMS lets your employees do everything from creating a contact to logging an order. They have full access to all DMS features anywhere they have access to a web browser and internet or cellular service. Truly supporting your remote employees starts with giving them the ability to actually perform their jobs well from any location.

Maintain social support
It can be hard to develop strong relationships with coworkers while you are working remotely. The only time you typically see each other is during work-related meetings where you are focused on achieving a specific goal. If you want your employees to feel like they are really a part of your team, you need to encourage social interaction. There are a variety of ways you can do this, but a few of our favorites are:
     • Plan for small talk at the top of internal meetings. In a physical office, employees have the opportunity to pop over to each other’s desks, chat while making their morning coffee, or enjoy lunch together. No matter how small these interactions might be, they help employees grow closer together. To simulate these interactions virtually, we recommend giving your employees a few minutes at the top of meetings to make small talk and discuss the things that are happening in their lives.
     • Hold informal, social meetings. To develop as a team and build strong bonds, we all need time together that doesn’t have the pressure of “work” hanging over it. That is why, we recommend holding informal meetings such as virtual happy hours or coffee breaks. These small meetings will give everyone a chance to kick back and have some fun while off-the-clock.
     • Check in with employees one-on-one. No matter how many meetings you have with someone, it can be hard to get a read on how they are doing in a work-related meeting with plenty of other people around. That is why we recommend meeting with your employees one-on-one every so often. This will give you the opportunity to check in on their home life, see how they are feeling about their work, and offer encouragement and support.

Avoid forming a central office clique
If some of your employees are working from your main dealership location while others mostly work remotely, a clique of sorts can naturally form. The employees in the office naturally develop strong relationships which can lead to remote employees feeling like they are not a part of the team. Implementing video conferencing and a cloud based DMS can go a long way towards helping remote employees feel included, but these tools won’t do all the work for you. On group calls, specifically ask remote employees for their opinions and input. Do your best to pull them into conversations and limit topics that would isolate them. Make sure everyone knows they are a valued part of the team.

Contact: 
Dealership Advantage
https://dealershipadvantage.com/
616-210-1060

Sales Ratios and Marketing
The vast majority of survey respondents revealed that they typically operate on a 1:1 ratio of pre-owned boats to new units sold. The second highest response was for the 5:1 ratio! (see chart at left) However, one dealers admitted to selling “15 new boats to every used boat.” While that may seem like the complete opposite ends of the spectrum for responses, many of MRAA’s sales experts say your ratio should favor pre-owned.

AND, to be clear, every one of these industry pros, and us at the MRAA, is a big proponent of new boats. In fact, Sam Dantzler and Tony Gonzalez of Garage Composites have shared numerous times that your pre-owned sales ratio should be growing. In fact, Sam even addressed that 5:1 ratio in his pre-owned article here, when you adjust for market conditions. And Tony shared in his MRAAtraining.com video “How to Seek and Sell More Pre-Owned Units Profitably” (MRAA Silver and Gold Members) that only 25 percent of total boat sales are pre-owned despite that number continuing to grow due to global supply chain disruptions. Additionally, Bob Armington of Buckeye Sports Center in Ohio — who is featured in the May TNT course “Buying and Selling More Pre-Owned Boats,” which originally debuted at Dealer Week 2021 in Austin, Texas — revealed that his store plans to operate at a 3:1 ratio. He also confessed that he didn’t give much thought pre-owned boats, especially trade-ins. But after becoming pro-active in his approach and changing his mind set about used boats, reached a high-water mark of 4:1 ratio (used to new) at one point in 2021.

Nearly 70 percent of our Pulse Report respondents said they’ve allocated more budget and/or resources to enhance their pre-owned inventory, so it’s clear they also see a strong need to add more pre-owned vessels to improve their inventory levels. Some have created boat-buying messaging socially, online and in ads. Others have contacted their current list of customers to see if they’re ready to trade-in, trade-up or sell, even though they may seem perfectly happy with their current boat. Again, pro-active efforts can pay off!

Outside Drivers Influence Decision Making
Not only has the high demand for boats in general and higher pre-owned pricing made it more challenging to find used vessels, but the current economy with inflation rates soaring, fuel prices climbing, turmoil in the stock market, and war overseas have also all contributed to consumers approaching or viewing boat buying differently. This shows in smaller boat show attendance and a more cautious approach to boat buying, especially when customers factor in pre-ordering for new boats, supply chain issues and production delays. On top of the economic and political hitches, another recent obstacle specifically named by survey participants was the cold, windy and wet (read: extended) spring weather.

While many of these things listed within this blog could read as like a top 10 list of boat ownership deterrents, it is not meant to. That’s why we made the pre-owned boat market our focused topic for May. It’s also why the MRAA has been building and sharing resources like our Pre-Owned Boat Market Article Series, showcasing proven processes and formulas for more success and, on Wednesday, May 25, is hosting a webinar with an actual dealer who has shifted his approach to pre-owned. And the MRAA Certified Pre-Owned Boat Program is designed to not only improve your bottom line, but also give both you and your customer peace of mind and confidence in boat buying and selling. With determined effort and the proper processes in place, your team can enhance your pre-owned inventory as a way to diversify your business and provide some short- and long-term stability.

Article 2

Article 4

Bonus article about ‘Full Disclosure Selling,' a special interview with Dale Finch, President & CEO, Titan Certified Inc.
We just added a special Q&A session with Titan Certified Inc. President and CEO Dale Finch discussing “Full Disclosure Selling” and the testing portion of MRAA’s Certified Pre-Owned Boat Program, which includes the independent third-party testing process in order to obtain Certification.

You can access these articles here: www.mraa.com/page/preownedarticles

The key takeaways from this course revolve around her five red flags that can derail these efforts. Those five flags include:
1. You don’t have a recruiting plan
2. Job descriptions are outdated
3. Benefits aren’t “Real Talk”
4. Your bench isn’t built
5. You don’t do “Stay” interviews

When we were collaborating on this content, we recognized early on that as wonderful as it is to identify problems that can plague your workforce efforts, this course would not be complete until you were given solutions. As a result, Kelly developed her HIRED model to address each red flag. The HIRED model is this:
• H – Have a plan
• I – Identify the gaps in your current team
• R – “Real Talk,” translate your benefits
• E – Expand your efforts to build your bench
• D – Develop individual professional plans

Through this model, Kelly goes deep into each solution, providing actionable steps to achieve success in improving your recruiting and retention efforts.

If you’re a Certified dealer and haven’t taken your Q2 course yet, do it! Your team can’t afford to wait until after the busy season for these solutions. If you aren’t Certified, please get in touch with Liz Keener at lizk@mraa.com to hear how becoming a Certified Dealer is going to increase your bottom line, bring your team closer together and help your dealership become more efficient.

Workforce challenges are nothing new to the marine dealer community. If you’re like most dealers, you probably can’t remember a time that “technician shortage” wasn’t part of our regular conversations.  

The specific challenges that have come to light as part of what the media has coined “The Great Resignation,” however, are new. For dealership managers and owners who are simply trying to run a business and serve their community, this phenomenon – which was coined to identify an economic trend in which millions of employees have voluntarily resigned from their jobs — can prove perplexing and frustrating.

The reality of this trend, also known as the Great Reshuffle, can have immediate impacts on your dealership, and they could continue to influence the way you run your business for years, perhaps even decades, to come.  

In MRAA’s quest to help you navigate this reality, here are five things you need to know:

1. The competition for quality hires is and will likely remain fierce.
   
   
2. You are being pressured to raise employee pay.
   
   
3. Your benefits are under greater scrutiny.
   
   
4. Culture is your biggest differentiator.
   
   
5. To thrive, you need to prioritize all things workforce. 

Let’s dive into each of them. 


The competition for quality hires is and will likely remain fierce. When you hear from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that over 47 million Americans quit their jobs last year, it sounds pretty dramatic. 

But that was last year, right? Not if you believe the data from sources like Joblist’s 2022 Job Market Trends Report. The results of its study of 20,000 workers suggests that, in the current hyper-competitive job market, 75 percent of full-time employees and 51 percent of part-time employees are planning to quit their job in the next 12 months. 

That may not surprise you, given the current battle for employees. However, the experts suggest that when you step back and look at the past dozen years, the “Great Resignation” of 2021 was actually the “continuation of a long-term trend,” one that “American employers are likely to be contending with for years to come.” 

So wrote Joseph Fuller and William Kerr, professors at Harvard Business School who cochair its Project on Managing the Future of Work, as part of a March 23, 2022 article in the Harvard Business Review. 

They argue that the COVID pandemic sped up changes already taking place in our labor market, as it made people reconsider what was important to them. 

As a result, the rate at which older workers left their jobs went up – and the age at which they left went down. In fact, a Forbes.com article in late February cited data from multiple sources suggesting that Baby Boomers have contributed to more than half of the workforce exits. 

Others left their jobs to meet caregiving obligations (think kids, parents or spouses). And still others left because of burnout in industries, like ours, that experienced a spike in consumer demand.

Now, many of those workers are reconsidering what they want from their jobs, and as a result, in many cases, are moving to different jobs in their industry or to different industries. 

This “job hopping,” which has been described by some as a Gen Z (age 18-26) or Millennial (age 27-41) phenomenon, isn’t isolated to those generations, however. A CNBC article this week quoted from a recent survey by Microsoft of more than 31,000 workers. The results suggest that while 52 percent of “young people” are likely to consider changing employers this year, 35 percent of Gen Xers (age 42-55) and Baby Boomers (age 56-75) reported they were considering changing jobs, as well. 

As you’re witnessing in your local market, we’re currently competing with just about every other industry for employees, and there is no end in sight. 

You are being pressured to raise employee pay. The competition for employees plus the impact of inflation on workers’ wallets means you’re under incredible pressure to raise your rates of compensation. 

If you follow the news, you’ve probably heard about increases ranging from 3 to 30 percent with an average this year of more than 10 percent. The percentages are particularly high for entry-level jobs. McDonalds is trying to lure job candidates with an average of 10-percent increases in hourly rates, reported CNBC.

So what does that mean for you? 

For one, you need to know what you can afford to pay. That was the idea behind a recent MRAA Dealer Week session on marine dealership compensation this past December. The course, by Bob Clements of Bob Clements International – Develop Compensation Plans that Produce Results – helps dealership owners and managers evaluate what compensation levels they can afford and how to use pay plans to improve employee performance. It is available free to MRAA Silver and Gold Members at MRAATraining.com. 

Secondly, you need to understand whether your compensation rates for a given position are competitive in your area. Back in 2017, MRAA conducted a deep dive Compensation Study including positions across all dealership departments. With all the change taking place in the job market, we embarked on a project to update it earlier this year, the results of which should be available in May 2022. 

Your benefits are under greater scrutiny. The jump in compensation rates remains a hot topic, but it is far from the sole factor to consider as you work to make your business attractive to prospective job candidates. 

The COVID pandemic, for example, has put physical and mental health in the spotlight, making health care benefits a key way you can set your dealership apart. If you don’t currently offer a health care benefit, you’re looking for a more affordable health care option or want to improve your health care benefit, check out the special rates available through MRAA Health. 

But don’t restrict your thinking about the benefits of working for your dealership to the traditional human resources benefits. Other perks to promote in your recruiting and hiring might include:

• Working in a fun industry with a fun team;
• On-water experiences and events;
• Flexible hours or time off;
• Options for remote work;
• And unique features of your company culture

Culture is your biggest differentiator. Compensation and benefits often get blamed or get credit for influencing employees’ decisions about where they want to work.

However, company culture is often one of the most significant and hardest to quantify contributing factors.

In fact, a late 2021 study that analyzed 34 million online employee profiles found that “a toxic corporate culture is by far the strongest predictor of industry-adjusted attrition and is 10 times more important than compensation in predicting turnover.”

This same study found the compensation ranked 16^th in overall factors that predicted employee turnover with company culture serving as a 10.6 times greater predictor of attrition.

Articles about the study published in the MIT Sloan Management Review – such as “Toxic Culture is Driving the Great Resignation” by Donald Sull, Charles Sull & Ben Zweig – reported that found that among the most common factors contributing to a toxic culture were: 

• Disrespect of workers;
• A noninclusive workplace;
• Unethical actions;
• A cutthroat environment;
• And abusive behavior

As a dealership owner or manager, what can or should you do with this information? Well, for one, it’s important to understand the culture at your dealership through the eyes of your employees – the good and the bad – and put in place strategies for ensuring it gets and stays healthy.

A dealership culture where employees feel understood and respected can be a powerful tool to boost the results of your recruiting and hiring efforts, explains MRAA Certification Manager Liz Keener in her recent blog, Develop a Culture Prime for Recruiting & Hiring. 

“The best candidates want to work for a business with a strong culture that supports their employees’ work/life balance, wellbeing and professional growth,” she explained. “They seek a place where they know their voice will be heard, and they’ll have a chance to make a difference.”

A proven tool to help you understand and improve your culture is an employee satisfaction survey, Keener added. 

There are many ways to go about surveying. Certified Dealers rely on MRAA to conduct their surveys and guide them through the process of applying the data to drive positive change. 

To learn more about the tools and benefits of the Marine Industry Certified Dealership program and its annual Employee Satisfaction Survey (ESS) process, reach out to Liz at lizk@mraa.com or visit MRAA.com/Certification.

To thrive, you need to prioritize all things workforce. With all the workforce headwinds facing the dealership community, you can no longer afford to be reactive when it comes to recruiting and hiring.

Whether you have a dedicated person in charge of recruiting, hiring, onboarding and developing your employees – or you and your fellow managers split up the responsibilities – today’s job market requires dealerships to be consistently working on this aspect of your business.  

Historically, you may have defaulted to waiting to search for a job candidate until a position opened up on your team. And you may have focused your search on someone with previous experience in the boating business, thinking it would allow them to get up to speed faster, which would improve your efficiency. After all, you wouldn’t need to train them as much. This strategy is not a healthy one, according to the experts.

“Competitors’ leftovers are rarely superstars,” suggests Bob Phibbs, The Retail Doctor. “You’ll be bringing their worst habits into the heart of your operations. Even worse, your belief that you won’t have to train them will allow them to continue those habits and spread them throughout your store.”

Instead, you’ll be better served by getting creative, looking for the people, skills and strengths you seek in new places. For ideas on where to look … 

• MRAA Silver and Gold Members can tap into the following courses for free
  • HR Strategies to Fill the Gaps in Your Dealership’s Workforce
  • Attract and Keep Techs
  • Build a Service Dream Team
  • How to Recruit, Work with and Lead People Not Like You
    
    
• All dealers are welcome to register to attend our free Ask the Expert webinar, Hiring Season – Control What You Can Control – on April 7^th, 2022. 
  

Finally, you’ll want to place greater emphasis on in-dealership training and professional development, both as a way to better recruit and hire today’s job prospects – and as a way to improve your employee retention. 

For tactics on how to create a culture of continuous improvement under your roof, MRAA Members can access these two guides for free:

• MRAA Guide to Dealership Improvement: Learn best practices and tools for training at the individual employee level, the department level and throughout the dealership.
  
  
• MRAA Guide to Apprenticeship: Tap into a step-by-step manual on how to design, recruit for and evaluate an apprenticeship program for marine dealership’s service department.

In fact, nearly every resource, tool, course, event or program MRAA offers to the dealer community is designed to strengthen you and your workforce.

And so is our team. We’re here to serve as your partner in attracting, retaining and developing the best workforce you’ve ever had – so you can be the best dealership you’ve ever been and offer the best customer experience out there. 

Whether you’re a member or not, we encourage you to use our team as your resource. Not only can MRAA now offer you the expertise of our first-ever Director of Workforce, Wendy Mackie, but you’re welcome to reach out to any of our 20 staff members at MRAA to leverage our experience and guidance. 

Okay, that might be wishful thinking. Especially in 2022. But it shouldn’t be too far off from your vision. We work in a fun industry. Our customers are enthusiasts, and we sell recreational vehicles that bring joy to people’s lives. 

However, the workplace culture at some dealerships keeps them from turning this vision into reality. If an applicant comes into your dealership and feels unwelcome, will they want to return?

Ponder a minute about your culture and what it says to a potential employee. A few things to think about:

• What is the vibe a candidate will get when they walk through your door? Are they greeted and welcomed? Or ignored? Will they see smiles or frowns among your staff?
• What will they learn from your dealership while they wait for their interview? Will they overhear positive or negative conversations? 
• What will they notice about your facility? Is it bright, well-organized? Does it celebrate the boating lifestyle (even if you don’t have boats in stock)? Or is it run down, dirty and messy? 
• What will your staff say when the candidate asks the question, “What is the culture like here?”

These attributes go beyond pay and benefits to give talent a unique look into your business that can make a big impact on their acceptance of your job offer.  

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of March 9, 2022, there were 11.3 million job openings in the country. We’ve all seen and heard the stories. Everyone – and we mean everyone – is hiring right now. As a result, job seekers have their pick of opportunities. 

The best candidates want to work for a business with a strong culture that supports their employees’ work/life balance, wellbeing and professional growth. They seek a place where they know their voice will be heard, and they’ll have a chance to make a difference. 

If you’re unsure about the culture within your dealership, survey your staff and ask. You’ll learn a lot about your team’s experience working for your dealership, which you can use in your recruiting efforts. In addition, you’ll probably improve that experience for your employees by showing them that you care and you want to listen.

There are many ways to go about surveying. Certified Dealers rely on MRAA to conduct their surveys and guide them through the process of applying the data to drive positive change. The program’s annual Employee Satisfaction Survey (ESS) process allows dealers to better understand how their employees feel about the customer relations, employee satisfaction, leadership, management and reputation of the business. This survey is completely anonymous, allowing employees to be honest about what’s it’s like to work at the dealership. It asks employees 32 ranking questions about their experience at work and offers them 3 open-ended questions to share their thoughts. 

To learn more about Certification the program’s ESS process, reach out to Liz Keener at lizk@mraa.com. 

It’s important for every business owner to truly understand the culture of their workplace and to improve upon it in order to attract the best new hires. Once you get a grasp on your culture and began to make meaningful change, you’ll be able to better recruit and retain the strongest performers. 

How many people do I need to hire and in which roles?
With the changes in consumer shopping behavior and expectations, the limited availability of new boat inventory, the potential for a surge in service business related to the boats you sold last year, the rise in gas prices and inflation, and the conflict in the Ukraine, you may be wondering what demands will be placed on your team in 2022 and how to staff accordingly. 

Do you have job descriptions for each of those roles?
If not, we have samples that can help. MRAA Members, check out the nearly 50 sample job descriptions in our database.

Do you have a compensation range in mind for each of those roles that is competitive in today’s market?
If you’re not sure, look at job ads for similar positions in your local area. You also can review the results of MRAA’s 2017 Compensation Study, available here. Stay tuned for the results of MRAA's 2022 Compensation Study, to be released in May 2022.

Have the job descriptions been updated for changes in your dealership?
That might include changes in your organizational chart, changes in your processes or changes in the results you expect this person to deliver. Learn about including key result areas (KRAs) in your job descriptions and other ways to improve them in our free guide, Job Descriptions that Amp Up Productivity. Download it here.

Have you created an advertisement to promote the job opening?
Experts in recruitment often encourage companies to stay away from copying the job description and using it as their job advertisement. Rather, they recommend telling a story about the opportunity to work for your dealership. Pick up more job advertisement tips in this recent blog. 

Is the ad written to appeal to the candidate you aim to hire?
When you advertise a job, you’re trying to sell your ideal candidate on coming to work for your dealership. Imagine who that candidate is and what they may be seeking. In your ad, be honest and sincere about the key benefits of the job and your culture – and about the qualities and experience you’re looking for in an employee.

Where do you plan to post the ad?
Be sure to share it internally and externally. Your employees will often know people with similar interests and values. In fact, some dealerships even encourage those referrals with a cash reward if they’re hired and stay for a certain amount of time.  

What interview questions will you ask candidates?
At MRAA, we develop a hiring team for each position, each of whom uses a different group of questions during the interview process. Many of those questions were influenced by books like: “Topgrading,” “Up Your Business,” and “The Ideal Team Player” and then customized for the position.

How will you make a final decision about who to hire?
In the MRAA course, “Attract and Retain Techs,” by Valerie Ziebron, she recommends you know the answers you want to hear from the interview questions you ask. That way, you’ll be more likely to make decisions based on the candidate’s fit with dealership goals and expectations for the position rather than the candidate’s interview skills. The best candidates aren’t always the best at being interviewed. MRAA Silver and Gold Members can access this course — part of the recently launched Training ‘N’ Tactics (TNT) Series— and its resource-packed workbook for free when they log into MRAATraining.com.

What will you do if you don’t find a qualified candidate for the role?
One alternative to filling an open position through a traditional job posting is apprenticeship. It is a strategy with proven results for many dealers and their apprentices. To learn more about success with this strategy, check out our free Guide to Apprenticeship here.

In addition, you can learn about alternative strategies to Fill the Gaps in Your Dealership's Workforce in this MRAATraining.com course from Gloria Sinclair Miller of the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM) or this course, Rethink How You Find Great Techs and Advisors, by Max Materne of Garage Composites. 

If you do find a qualified candidate who accepts your offer, how will you prepare them for success?
Some dealerships have onboarding schedules that last several months, others only the first day or week. Regardless of where your business falls on that spectrum, a few fundamentals you may want to put into place include:

• An Employee Handbook: If you don’t have one or want to improve yours, MRAA Members can check out our sample handbook for ideas, which includes more than 100 dealership policy templates. Learn more here.  
• An Onboarding Plan: During a Dealer Case Study at Dealer Week 2020, Alpin Haus shared several workforce best practices, including a handout with a Sample Boat Product Specialist Hiring Process, Training Process and Schedule. MRAA Silver and Gold Members can access the course by logging into MRAATraining.com.
• A Training Plan and Template: For ideas on how to develop your team, including onboarding tips and a training template, download our free Guide to Dealership Improvement.

So, how do you set yourself apart and increase your chances of being selected as the employer of choice? 

Well, for one, you can avoid these common recruiting and hiring mistakes. 

1. A reactive approach to hiring: If you don’t begin thinking about how to attract potential job candidates until you have an open position in your dealership, you’re taking a reactive approach to hiring. By doing so, your ability to quickly and successfully fill that open position – and any jobs that become available in the future – is greatly reduced. 

No matter how big or small your dealership is, as an employer, it is critical these days to take a pro-active approach to your workforce. In other words, you must always be recruiting.

Experts are forecasting that the factors causing this labor shortage aren’t going away any time soon. In addition, employees are changing jobs more frequently. Chances are, as a dealership owner or manager, you’ll need to dedicate more time and effort than you have in the past to successfully recruit and hire.

Those that develop strong recruiting and hiring processes will find themselves with a serious competitive advantage.

Here are a few ways you can be proactive:

• Devote a section of your dealership website to information about you as an employer. Be sure to highlight the unique reasons your business is a great place to work, not just compared to other boat dealerships, but also to similar jobs in other industries, like car dealerships, restaurants, factories, hotels and resorts. 
  
• Create an employee referral program where your team is rewarded when their friends or family are successfully hired by the dealership.
• Be on the look-out for people with the behaviors, values and skills you’re looking for when you’re out and about in your local community, and don’t hesitate to share your business card with them. Best Practice: Some dealership owners have developed special business cards specifically for the purposes of recruiting. 
• Form mutually beneficial relationships with local organizations, schools and programs that may be able to help you attract prospective employees.
  

2. Failing to identify who you’re trying to attract: Before you begin promoting an open position in your dealership, consider the qualities and abilities you’re looking for in a candidate for that specific position. Then, envision the person or people who might be a good fit. By doing so, you’ll be able to write and post your job advertisements to appeal to the specific candidates you’re looking for. 

Want some examples? Register to attend MRAA’s free recruiting & hiring webinar on April 7^th at noon eastern (or if you’re reading this after April 7^th, log into MRAATraining.com to find and watch the recording). In it, we’ll identify how to identify who you’re trying to attract for three common dealership hiring scenarios and how to use this information to increase your chances of hiring success. 

3. Excluding a valuable group or groups of candidates: If someone asked you whether you’d rather have one or two people apply for a position vs. 10 or 20, you’d probably say 10 or 20, right? After all, part of the reason we advertise for a job is to receive a pool of candidates from which we can select the best fit. 

But despite this desire to attract as many candidates as possible, we often make the mistake of excluding or discouraging people we want to attract when we put together a job advertisement. 

Some of this comes from a sense of idealism. If we could pick the perfect candidate, we’d like them to have exactly these skills or this many years of experience or that degree.

In reality, there are plenty of candidates who don’t fit in that box, but who do have what it takes to be successful in our open position. 

For example, perhaps they didn’t graduate from a marine technician training program, but they do have proficiency working on snowblowers, farm equipment or military vehicles. Perhaps they don’t have experience in the marine industry as a service writer, but they do have excellent customer service skills and great attention to detail. Perhaps they don’t have a business degree, but they do have leadership experience and an understanding of small business finance from running their family’s furniture store.

Take the time to review a draft of your job advertisement with this in mind. How can you remove language or requirements that may limit the size of the pool of candidates you attract?

4. Focusing on the short-term instead of the long-term: We’ve all done it. There’s an opening in our company. Not having someone in that role is causing our team to feel stress, put in long hours and even take shortcuts in an attempt to get it all done. 

So we rush through the interview process, roll the dice and hire someone to fill the job who doesn’t quite check all of our boxes or who we haven’t spent the time to be confident in. We tell ourselves: Someone is better than no-one. But are they?

Fast-forward a few days, weeks or months. Maybe they’re not arriving at work on time or communicating with their co-workers. Maybe they’re causing drama and frustration within your team. Or maybe they stop showing up to work altogether. 

Suddenly, the “warm body” strategy doesn’t seem like such a good one. You’ve wasted time, effort and money on someone that could have been prevented if you had taken the time to find the right person at the start. 

5. Confusing your job description with your job ad: When a position opens up at your dealership that you want to fill, the first thing on your “to do” list may be to write a job description for it. Or maybe you already have one in hand, in which case, you can review and update it.

Too many times, that job description is then copy and pasted into a job advertisement template, and checked off someone’s list. 

While both the job description and the job advertisement are important, they serve different purposes, and to be successful, require a different approach. 

When preparing your job advertisement, your goal should be “to attract great candidates, rather than merely list pertinent requirements and qualifications,” according to BetterTeam.com. 

Here are a few tips they suggest you consider when writing a job advertisement:

• Use the job title to share the name of the position plus the top one to three things that you expect will make the job attractive to your target applicants;
  
  
• The first paragraph to introduce the advertisement should hook the job seeker with three to five details that will make them want to read the rest of the posting. 
  
  
• Tell your company’s story in a way that emphasizes why people love to work there and the perks of the position. Tip: Ask your team to help you with this. They may have suggestions you wouldn’t think of.
  
  
• Sell the job rather than focusing exclusively on requirements. Be sure to explain all the reasons why someone should apply. That may include your location, culture, lifestyle, hours, salary, benefits, flexibility ... whatever makes your business and the position attractive. 
  
  
• Share your first draft with others to get their feedback on how to make it more effective, like you would with any marketing piece. 
  
  

6. Overlooking your own team: Don’t forget to advertise the open position within your dealership. Not only might your employees have family or friends who are looking for work, but you may be surprised to find someone in a completely different role or department express interest. By training them for this new role, you may be able to boost their loyalty and value to your dealership, while gaining a proven performer in the role who fits your culture.

• How this simple task closes the gap between dealership expectations and dealership results

As a dealership manager, you know how you expect your employees to operate. You know the steps they should take when a boat arrives for service, as each boat goes through maintenance or repairs, and as each boat gets returned to its owner after the repair order is closed.

In most dealerships however, there remains a significant gap between the process that you believe exists, the individual and unique processes that actually exist with each different employee, and the processes that should exist to help you achieve your business goals.

The frustration that bubbles up in dealerships as problems occur and reoccur aren’t the fault of your individual employees. Those team members simply execute tasks the way they have been trained or told or the way they have seen others do it. What they need in those cases — to prevent problems from occurring in the first place, to identify and correct problems as they take place, to create consistencies across your business and to move your dealership from reactive mode to proactive mode — are documented processes, or process maps.

Let start with the basics: What is a process map?

A process map offers a visual aid for picturing the inputs, activities, outputs, people, and resources involved in specific functions within your dealership. Process maps are created to document every step your business takes in delivering a product or service, and they are used to train employees and set the expectation for the steps to be followed by all employees, 100 percent of the time to ensure consistency across your business. Ultimately, they act as tangible blueprints to set the expectation for exactly how your customer is being served.

Documented processes are essential for well-run dealerships because, as you will find if you look closely enough, there are variants in the way specific tasks are being conducted by your employees. In today’s fast-paced environment where consumers’ expectations become higher and higher by the day, process maps are also critical to delivering higher quality services faster than ever before.

Another huge benefit of employing process maps in your dealership is that it frees up management to manage the big-picture part of the business while providing clarity and structure so the employees know what’s expected of them. Without such tools, managers field too many questions and stay bogged down in the day-to-day operations, unable to focus on strategic direction and oversight. And if you don’t believe me, just watch how many of your dealership principal colleagues are fielding phone calls and stepping out of the room during important dealer meeting presentations.

Creating a process map
With the heightened pressure on your service department and the related focus the industry has placed on reducing repair event cycle times, or the amount of time it’s taking for us to get customers back on the water, I’m going to focus on service department operations. If you want to learn more about sales department process maps, Certified Dealers can access a Guide to Improving Your Sales Process Maps in the Continuous Certification Course Fill the Gaps in Your Dealership’s Sales Process.

A service process map should start with an action or a trigger that puts the service process in motion. That trigger should, in some way, originate with the customer, usually through some form of a service inquiry. Many dealers think the service process begins at the write-up or check-in phase, but everything leading up to the check-in is a huge part of the experience and key to generating work for the department.

At famed customer service company Ritz Carlton, Founder Horst Schultze suggests that the first three touch points for a stay at one of their hotels sets the stage for the entire visit. If all goes well with reservations, the front door, and reception, the rest of the stay goes perfectly. However, if the ball is dropped in any of those first touch points, it will likely result in the guest looking and finding trouble later in their stay.

Note: I’m featuring several steps for building a great process map below. If you would like to access best practices for these steps, please visit here.

STEPS 1 and 2: Initial Inquiry and Scheduling
The same could be said for your service department. If you would like a customer’s experience in your service department to be more like a stay at the Ritz, shoring up those first touch points is crucial. Therefore, your process map should document how you want that initial inquiry and the scheduling of service to transpire, whether those communications take place over the phone, via email or texting or in person. No matter what method the customer uses, you should consider using an automated method of confirming and following-up with the customer.

STEP 3: Drop Off
The next step you should illustrate in your service process map, still before the check-in or write-up, is the drop-off. This step should focus on being welcoming and should not be challenging for the customer — with obstacles or tight spaces that make it difficult to maneuver a trailer. The beauty of maintaining a process map is that it allows you to examine all these transition points and either change, update or fill any gaps in your standard operating procedures that might leave the customer unfulfilled with the service experience.

STEP 4: Write-Up
The Check-In or Write-Up is the final touchpoint in the first impression a customer will have with your shop. The Service Writer or Advisor typically greets customers, listens to the problems they’re having, communicates to the technicians what that problem is, and then acts as the liaison between the dealership and the customer every step of the way. I like to tell dealers to ensure your process map covers the three Cs: Complaint, Cause and Correction.

Start by identifying or confirming the Complaint. That’s the mission of the Check-In or Write-Up, and the details of this phase should be outlined in the process map’s accompanying Standard Operating Procedures, including at a minimum the condition of the boat, promised ready date, upselling opportunities and offers, pre-approvals and payment.

STEP 5: Dispatch
Once the boat gets checked-in and the customer is certain their complain is heard with as much detail as possible documented, it’s time to Dispatch the service to the best technician, which could mean next available, or the technician with the skills or certifications that best match the need for resolving the complaint.

STEP 6: Repair
Completing Job or the Repair step in the process is typically represented by the same size square as others on the process map, but in reality, it’s the biggest part of the process and risks becoming bottlenecked when techs are pulled for emergencies or other non-tech work. The most important advice I can offer in this step is that your process map should document that your techs need to focus on work that only they can perform. Your technicians represent your only opportunity to generate revenue in service, and therefore, they should not be working on non-revenue generating tasks. Your process map should outline who — not the technician — should be portering boats, finding parts, searching for tools, or other administrative tasks.

Dealers should consider adding a critical team member to their service ranks to help improve the tech’s efficiency level — an Expeditor. The Expeditor role and terminology is borrowed from the restaurant business, where kitchens are challenged with getting food from various stations to tables while they are still hot and fresh. An Expeditor serves as the dispatcher, who announces to the stations to “work” a menu item and then signals them to plate the food with a “push” order. This keeps the kitchen talent working on the right orders at the right time ensuring hot and fresh food being delivered to hungry customers.

You, too, can enjoy this level of efficiency and effectiveness by adding an Expeditor, who, with a little time on the job coupled with some boat, engine and shop knowledge, will become your champion of efficiency. He or she can ensure the right boat is in the right place, with the right technician at the right time, every time. An Expeditor alone keeps the shop efficient and Service Writer focused on communicating and selling service to the boat owners.

When the job is complete and the tech has proudly signed off on the job that it was done right, the repair order should be completely documented with the other two Cs — Cause and Correction — so that anyone looking at the RO can thoroughly understand what the issue was and how it was fixed.

Step 7: Detail & Delivery
By now, as the Service Manager, you’re feeling that your service process is tight, and all goes smoothly for your customers. However, just as the Write-Up step served as a first impression, the cleanliness of the boat at customer pick-up or delivery will be the lasting impression. So, don’t let all these mapped out efforts go down the drain by delivering a dirty boat with greasy fingerprints.

Most dealers refer to this as Detail and Delivery, but I recommend you use the term “courtesy wash” to create an expectation of what’s promised. Be sure to include a well-timed courtesy wash that will leave a lasting glory for a job well done and the dealership. Service Writers can use the courtesy wash to motivate the owner to pick-up their boat on time by asking, “When are you picking up the boat? I want to have it courtesy washed for you so it’s clean when you pick it up.” Whatever process you document, don’t shortcut the delivery or pick up, lasting impressions are very profitable in the form of repeat and referral business.

The job isn’t complete until the customer is followed-up with. Customer feedback is so very valuable, whether positive or negative, and I recommend you include this follow-up into your process maps. The positives are valuable when they are shared with the crew; the negatives are your time to shine because emergencies don’t cripple your shop, everyone will learn from the mistake, and you can now update your process maps to prevent the problem from happening again and to ensure you delight your customers.

Updating your process maps
Once you have published your first version of a Service Process Map — first version, because an effective process map is a living document that should always be updated as new and better practices or methods are adopted — it is critical that you continue to learn how to improve them every single day. Your first pass at this won’t look the same after months of improvements are added in. You will make mistakes, but documented process maps give you the means to adjust and improve.

Updating you process maps is the cure for complacency, which is the first step toward mediocrity. Grow big ears and listen to your crew, listen to your customers, and get insight into new ideas, tactics, strategies and best practices from other sources, such as our team and our products and services here at the MRAA, as well as our fantastic partners, to help you continue to update your processes in pursuit of a better result and a stronger business.

Process maps benefit business like yours in so many ways. They help you focus your team on the customer’s perspective. They improve the start-to-finish process while improving cross-department communication. They serve as excellent training tools for new team members, and they will improve consistency across your team. Meanwhile, process maps boost efficiency by uncovering flaws, obstacles and bottlenecks that hold you back, like extra steps, activities, forms, reports, or approvals. Finally, process maps build transparency into your processes by providing you, the manager, with the big picture of gaps that exist between what you expect and what your business actually delivers to its customers.

This blog was published as part of MRAA’s focus on helping dealers get their customers back on the water more quickly. Check out more resources here.

The path to getting to that point is quite simple. It’s through the creation and refinement of a service department process map.

Your service department requires great coordination, several contributors, the right parts inventory and a little bit of luck … all just to get a single boat repaired, let alone navigating a whole day’s, week’s or month’s worth of ROs.

There are several key elements of every service department’s success, and if any one step doesn’t go well, it can create a domino effect, hampering the entire system, delaying repairs, agitating customers, hurting your smooth system and reducing your potential.

Mapping those activities allows you to get more clarity on your processes, identify places for improvement and become more efficient. Your service manager and your service team should take the time to write down each step, from initial customer inquiry to post-service follow-up, as well as the details of what goes into each step.

If you haven’t yet process mapped your service department, here’s an initial set of steps you can start with:

1. Initial Customer Inquiry
2. Scheduling
3. Write-Up
4. Dispatch
5. Parts
6. Repair
7. Quality Control
8. Detail & Delivery

Note: To help MRAA Members further, view this page of best practices for downloadable recommendations and best practices that other dealers have offered and MRAA has compiled for your benefit. Check them out and implement them into your processes.

After you’ve mapped out your shop’s unique approach to conducting business, including those details mentioned above, you should go back and ensure each step is accounted for, and that you are taking the customer’s experience into account along the way.

While it takes time to create a process map that works for your dealership, the time spent working on your business will be worth the effort. If we can help you shorten up the time commitment or provide any guidance, you should enroll in the Marine Industry Certified Dealership program, which offers you a sample service process map as well as guidance from a Certification Consultant to make the process work perfectly for your dealership’s unique circumstances.

With a service process map in place, your dealership will become more efficient, you’ll be able to service more boats, and you’ll drive greater revenues at the same time.

Note: MRAA has an entire library of resources available to help you reduce the amount of time it takes to get customers back on the water. Check it out here.

The MRAA is looking for more dedicated dealers to join our Dealer Ambassador program, because when dealers talk, decision makers listen! The Dealer Ambassador program is a team of dealers throughout the country who are willing to engage at a state and federal level on policy priorities of the recreational boating industry. These range from testifying Infront of Congress and your state legislature, to simply forging relationships with legislators in your state.

Currently, there are Dealer Ambassadors in every state but FOUR! We are currently seeking industry leaders in these states: South Carolina, New Mexico, West Virginia and South Dakota! The entire MRAA team is determined to add committed dealers in these states (and potentially others, too), so we have representation in every state of the union.

If you are interested in joining the Ambassador program or want more information, email Chad Tokowicz, Government Relations Manager.

The MRAA has been a long-standing partner in the fight against AIS, to learn more about our engagements click on the links below:
• Wildlife Forever and the MRAA Recognize May 15th as National Clean Drain Dry Day
• MRAA Joins Group Fighting Invasive Species
• Bill Take Aim at Great Lakes Invasive Species

For questions or additional information on AIS Awareness Week, please contact Chad Tokowicz, Government Relations Manager, at Chad@mraa.com

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 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 above 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. 

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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.

To ensure that recreational boating and fishing can continue to take place on waterbodies throughout the the country and keep customers frequenting your fuel dock, accessory store or service department, it’s important to advocate for access. That’s why the MRAA’s engagement efforts happen on both the state and federal levels. They take shape in many forms, from advocating for specific pieces of legislation that will create more opportunities, to providing comment on proposed policies and management plans to assure that access for recreational boating is not overlooked.

One recent example of advocacy contribution is the sharing of input with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration regarding a newly proposed and existing National Marine Sanctuary (NMS). I understand you may be asking what is an NMS? And does it really require the need to advocate for recreational boating access? I’ll answer both of these questions.

National Marine Sanctuaries (NMS) are areas designated by the Secretary of the Department of Commerce to promote comprehensive management of the areas special resources ranging from its ecological and historical features to things such as its educational or recreational opportunities. These spaces merit an extra layer of recognition and conservation to assure that they can be enjoyed for generations to come. The process to nominate a zone as a sanctuary is a public, community-based process and allows interested individuals or groups to identify and recommend places worthy of designation.

Marine Sanctuaries are not just specific to the ocean but area also located in fresh water, like the Thunder Bay NMS, and in brackish waters like the Mallows Bay-Potomac River NMS. NOAA undergoes a lengthy and transparent process that is inclusive of the public and various stakeholders to ensure they are managed properly to conserve their important qualities. The process goes as such:
• Scoping: NOAA announces its interest in designating a new NMS and requests the public provide input on potential boundaries, resources that should be protected, issues NOAA should consider and any additional information.
• Sanctuary Proposal: NOAA prepares draft designation documents, which include a draft management plan, draft environmental impact statement, proposed regulations and proposed boundaries. NOAA may also form a “Sanctuary Advisory Council” to help inform the proposal and focus stakeholder input.
• Public Review: Members of the public, agency partners, tribes and other stakeholders provide input on the draft documents. NOAA then considers the input and determines appropriate changes.
• Sanctuary Designation: NOAA’s conclusionary process involves a final decision and the preparation of the final documents. Before the designation is effective, however, the Governor of the state the NMS is in, and Congress, review the documents.

The above is a truncated version of the NMS designation process, if you are seeking further detail, view this resource on the NOAA NMS website.

MRAA recently provided comment on two separate NMS, both in different stages of the designation process. One, the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, located off the coast of Massachusetts, was established on October 7, 1992, and was undergoing public comment on a Draft Management Plan, which occurs every 4 to 5 years. The other, the proposed Chumash Heritage NMS is located off the coast of Central California and is currently being considered for designation.

In both comments, we reinforced the importance of maintaining access for recreational boats because these areas provide numerous public opportunities, ranging from recreational fishing, to diving to whale watching. You can view our Chumash Letter here, and the Stellwagen Bank letter here. To discuss our advocacy efforts for access, email me at Chad@mraa.com.

Learn more about the MRAA's Dealership Certification Program Employee Satisfaction Surveys

MRAA Great Dealerships to Work For (prior year recipients)

2020: MRAA Celebrates the 2020 Great Dealerships to Work For

2019: MRAA Celebrates 2019 Great Dealerships to Work For

2018: MRAA Announces 2018 Great Dealerships To Work For

2017: Munson Ski & Marine, All Seasons Marine Work, FB Marine Group

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Danny Decker is an author, speaker, serial entrepreneur, and marketing consultant who often serves the marine dealer community as an education provider at Dealer Week, MRAA’s annual conference & expo. Danny is a frequent speaker, a contributor to Forbes.com, and hosts the Marketing Simplified Podcast. His book, Marketing Simplified, is currently available on Amazon.com and other retailers. Learn more and connect with Danny at www.DannyDeckerMarketing.com.

Walk into any dealership right now, whether it’s yours or anyone else’s, and you’ll see the showroom floor covered with more clothing, tubes, paddles and camp stoves than boats. We all know the industry is having a severe boat inventory issue caused by a slew of unfortunate events.

But during a recent round of dealership visits, one of the things I admired most about the dealers we talked to was their adaptability. They’re finding ways to make their situation work.

Every dealer we visited experienced strong rental demand this summer. How did they adapt to that? One put a bigger focus on rentals in lieu of having enough boats to sell and saw a huge increase in their rental revenue. They also bought boats at auction with cosmetic defects that would prevent them from being good pre-owned showroom boats, but became perfect for short-term rentals.

More than one dealer found visitors wanted to spend time on the water, but didn’t want to worry about the hassle of driving. So they added more captain services.

One of the dealers added more diverse retail merchandise that complements boats and the boating lifestyle.

And every single one of them reworked their showroom, creating more merchandise areas with boat clothing, flip flops, towels, fishing equipment and the like in the wide-open spaces where boats used to reside.

At many dealerships, service boats sit in front of the dealership, more prominent than before, in the hopes to demonstrate that the business is still open. And some store already-sold customer boats, inside or out.

There’s no doubt, all of us adapted to change over the past 18 months, both personally and professionally. But the dealers who find new ways to be innovative and pivot remain strong and will continue to be throughout the next 18 months and beyond.

If you’re struggling with how to adapt, need some pointers on what changes you can make now, or want to spend this unique time working on your business rather than in it (maybe get Certified even), let us know. We’d love to connect you with any resources you need and provide you with any best practices we can.

Quite simply: When MRAA members talk, decision makers listen.

Recently, MRAA member Rick Chapman, General Manager at Sunnyside Marina, Inc., testified before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Small Business Committee, advocating for the passage of the PREPARE Act, a program that would give small businesses the opportunity to reinforce their own infrastructure in preparation of weather-related issues, such as hurricanes and floods and the like. Mr. Chapman highlighted the challenges his and other businesses in the marine industry face and how the PREPARE Act would provide them much needed resources. To learn more about the PREPARE Act and Mr. Chapman’s testimony click here.

MRAA members have also been instrumental at a state level, as well. Notably, in 2020, MRAA member Joe Adams of Windward Boats in Hawaii testified before the Hawaii State Legislature to highlight the marine industry’s opposition to SB 2496, which proposed so-called right-to-repair legislation. His testimony highlighted the negative impact this legislation would have on marine retailers and boaters alike, and it was a critical voice this legislation did not pass.

Aside from participating in hearings at the state and federal level, MRAA members can also make their voice heard by signing on to comment letters and meeting directly with legislators and their staff — both of which the MRAA team can facilitate for you.

In fact, there are numerous ways MRAA members can get involved with this important advocacy work. Here are five easy steps to help you involved today:

1. Sign up to receive Boating United alerts to stay informed.
2. Sign a prior-approval form and contribute to BoatPAC, the No. 1 way our industry gets its voice at the table (and attend a BoatPAC event next time you have the opportunity … like at Dealer Week 2021). (U.S. based members only)
3. Learn more about the issues that matter most to your business here.
4. Meet and share your advocacy concerns with MRAA Government Relations Manager Chad Tokowicz and other industry stakeholders by attending Dealer Week.
5. Join the MRAA Dealer Ambassador’s team – a formal group that is ready to mobilize if an issue comes home to your state.
6. Get involved with MRAA’s government relations manager by emailing Chad at chad@mraa.com.

• Do they generate a work order to attach parts and sublet work to?
• Does the service advisor have a way to track and schedule units waiting on parts?
• How does the parts department know if an order has been delayed, canceled, or denied warranty or service contract coverage?
• How can they tell when/if the customer has been communicated with?

• If the customer didn’t follow up, would they lose the parts sent to the sub forever?
• Could they be giving away their parts and losing customers in the process?

But if I could ask dealerships just one question, it would be this:

How are you proactively using the information from your failures to improve your processes and to better educate your people? If we don’t learn from these failures, chances are very good the same situation will happen repeatedly.

Looking around the dealership as I wait for my part to (finally!) get installed, I think about all the areas where a customer might feel that luck was (or wasn’t) on their side …

The sales experience. The ‘luck’ of getting a sales professional who listens, who really knows their product and the competition’s product, who seems genuinely interested in giving you the best options for your specific wants and needs. Someone who helps you think through not just the buying process, but also the ownership of the products you’re considering. Someone who wants your lifelong business, not just your next sale.

The F&I experience. The ‘luck’ of getting someone who makes you comfortable discussing a topic that makes many people extremely uncomfortable. Someone who doesn’t appear to judge you based on your credit score. Someone who doesn’t use pressure to sell service contracts or financing. Someone who instead educates you, helps you compare apples to apples, and gives you the space to come to your own conclusion on what is best for your situation.

The service experience. The ‘luck’ of getting someone who loves and understands your product so well they take the guesswork out of ownership. Someone who explains in language you can understand how to best enjoy and care for your boat. Someone who lets you know ahead of time what work you’ve got coming up next, who reminds you and has your back every step of the way – even when it’s time to start thinking about trading in.

The parts experience. The ‘luck’ of getting someone who knows exactly what your parts options are, how much they’ll cost, how available they are, how long it will take to get, and the pros and cons of one option over the other. Someone who understands how you use your boat and gives you suggestions on how to enjoy it even more.

Every one of our departments rely on proactive, honest communication for building trust. It’s called ‘building’ trust because it takes work, and it takes time.

Most customers begin their relationship with a dealership with a deficit of trust.
They think “dealer” – they think “Vegas” – they think “I’m gonna lose!”

It’s up to our team to build trust with each customer in each interaction.

It’s up to leadership to notice when things are happening with our people or with our process that is making trust-building difficult or even impossible – and to remove those barriers.

What does luck have to do with it? Thankfully, not much. It really comes down to that famous Samuel Goldwyn quote: “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”

The more we work at engaging the team in creating, improving and relying on processes, the more we encourage and facilitate strong communication, the luckier we will be … and the more trusting our customers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Valerie Ziebron, president of VRZ Consulting, has spent more than two decades helping businesses “fire on all 8” through education and motivation. She makes it a point to uncover best practice "golden nuggets" that help people flip the switch from reactive to proactive for greater profitability and customer loyalty.

Through studying and comparing hundreds of dealerships across North America, VRZ Consulting specializes in what stores can do to maximize their resources, specifically their people, processes, space and location. Learn more at: www.vrzconsulting.com.

The TechForce Foundation has launched a Women Techs Rock campaign to highlight women technicians within the automotive, aviation, diesel and marine industries. The 52-week initiative is meant to celebrate women technicians, tell their stories and encourage the next generation of female techs to explore the career and bring to light the potential for change in a field typically dominated by males.

TechForce Foundation will highlight 52 women techs — one technician per week for the next year — because current statistics show that women comprise 52 percent of the population but less than 3 percent are employed as techs. TechForce Foundation says women fill less than a quarter of the jobs (23.6 percent in 2019) in the motor vehicle equipment and repair industries. But as we know, there’s also a huge shortage of technicians out there, especially in the marine industry.

TechForce Foundation understands there’s a huge potential for growth and says women techs need to share their stories and knowledge. Women techs often view the career as more than just a job, but an actual service that does good for others. They also face different challenges in the profession and certain societal misconceptions in general, so this program gives them a chance to let their voices, various struggles and victories be heard.

The weekly initiative is not meant to create animosity between genders, but rather to honor the profession by inspiring and motivating women techs to showcase their talents, skills and expertise, while also sharing truths and the trials they have overcome to get where they are. That’s why TechForce Foundation needs the marine industry’s help in nominating female techs. That’s also why women techs should fill out an application form even if not nominated, so others can see they are not in it alone. The campaign will recognize the women trail blazers already making a difference in the field and bring awareness to the technician career in general.

The MRAA, who partners with TechForce Foundation to deliver workforce resources to marine dealers in North America, encourages dealership staff, service department managers and female techs to help nominate and celebrate women techs because they truly rock. Here’s the first Women Techs Rock technician profile that just launched. Let’s work together to feature some female marine techs. And remember, like TechForce says, #whentechsrocksamericarolls.

6 other reasons you should nominate women techs or share/tell your story:

1. A legit opportunity to highlight devoted and skilled women professionals
2. Sharing info about technical schools and networks
3. Exposing others to local and regional opportunities and the tech community
4. Human interest stories are inspiring and authentic
5. More awareness and recognition for dealerships and businesses leading the way
6. Becoming a marine technician is rewarding for many reasons 

P.S.: Here are some other tags to remember should you start your own campaign to highlight your technicians or to join the TechForce Foundation’s Women Techs Rock push.
#WomenTechsRock
#ShareYourStory
#TechForce
#STEM
#WomeninSTEM

And as the technicians the industry employs today continue to age, the boating industry is looking for the service department leaders of the future. If you are an energetic, self-motivated individual who is looking for a long-term, rewarding career, here are 10 reasons to consider the boating industry.

1. JOB SECURITY: Good, hard-working technicians find themselves in high demand, so much so that they often find that dealerships across North America will fight over them. Try to find that with a computer, communications, or almost any other degree.

2. NO CUBICLE: There are going to be days at work when the sky is as blue as the water, birds are singing, waves are clapping and a fresh breeze is blowing. It’s just another day at the office for you. Good thing you didn’t become an accountant.

3. VARIETY: No two days are ever the same. Even if you are working on a task you’ve completed before, you’ll find that no two boats or customers are ever the same.

4. SENSE OF ACCOMPLISHMENT: It’s an incredible feeling to take something that is broken, diagnose the problem, and fix it so that it works. It’s even better when you understand that the guy who owns it couldn’t have pulled the repair off himself!

5. GIFTS!: Gifts of gratitude are often provided by grateful patrons, who understand that no matter how much they spent on the boat, YOU are the one who can ensure they get to enjoy it!

6. WORK WITH YOUR HANDS: If spreadsheets, boardroom meetings, corporate red-tape, and backstabbing coworkers do not sound like your bag, you may prefer day-to-day dealings with a motor. You won’t hurt its feelings, no matter what you say.

7. A MORE RELAXED ENVIRONMENT: There may be more money available to techs in other fields but there is something to be said for sanity. Most boat shops expect efficiency but don’t have constant flat-rate pressure or a waiting room full of impatient customers who wanted their boat done hours ago.

8. COMFORTABLE CLOTHES: While it’s important to maintain a professional image, this can be accomplished without knotting a tie around your neck or shoving on tiny, shiny wing tip shoes. Some dealerships even allow shorts in the summer.

9. A SHARP BRAIN: You will never stop learning as your career progresses. Most dealerships are willing to invest in your continued education, from computer learning to cutting-edge diagnostics and factory training. You’ll learn from experience, co-workers, and manufacturer-sponsored workshops, all making you a more
valuable problem solver.

10. CAREER ADVANCEMENT: Consider how many boat and motor company executives, dealers, consultants, suppliers, and marina owners started with a wrench in their hand. As a tech, you can learn a lot about selling time efficiently and running a profitable business. Next thing you know: Someone wants you to be a service manager, buy out the dealership, or work in another capacity you had not even considered.

Not many people realize all the potential benefits that are connected with being a marine technician. While it is not all fun and games, the unique advantages that come with this career path make it worth exploring. America’s toys are counting on you.

____________________________________________________________________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Valerie Ziebron, president of VRZ Consulting, has spent more than two decades helping businesses “fire on all 8” through education and motivation. She makes it a point to uncover best practice "golden nuggets" that help people flip the switch from reactive to proactive for greater profitability and customer loyalty.

Through studying and comparing hundreds of dealerships across North America, VRZ Consulting specializes in what stores can do to maximize their resources, specifically their people, processes, space and location. Learn more at: http://www.vrzconsulting.com.

• Not enough good communication at write-up?
• Wrong information on the work order?
• Dispatched to a non-qualified tech?
• Part failure or correct parts not available?
• Unable to properly duplicate or diagnose the issue?
• No quality control of the boat or of the ticket?
• Special tools or diagnostics not available or not working properly?
• Or is it something else?

Comebacks can creep into unlikely places beyond those listed, so it’s important o look at each rework visit and identify what happened and why. Changes in
seasons, staffing and countless other things can make identifying the cause of the rework a moving target. 

This is why it’s so important to rely on facts, not
gut feelings.

You want to determine what team members were involved with the write-up, dispatch, diagnosis, parts procurement, repair and quality control, and where
it went wrong.

If your service team can put their heads together to agree on how it could have been prevented, it’s a lot less likely it will be an issue moving forward. For
this to happen, we have to bring it to their attention.

Share the Information with Your Team
They need to know what has been creating comebacks and why it’s hurting customer satisfaction and shop efficiency. If they don’t know about it, they
can’t fix it.

It starts with surveying your service customers. Then, most importantly, is that information being shared in a constructive way with the people who can use it
to improve the customers experience?

Often, in service, bad habits are formed and enforced over time because no attention is paid to how they are impacting our results. Why change if everything
seems okay? After a while, it becomes “how we’ve always done it.”

If your team currently acts defensive when negative feedback is being shared, you might need to change your tactic on how you share the info or who is doing
the sharing.

One dealership found that it was more effective to put their service advisors in charge of reviewing and sharing the service feedback with the team. The
dealer explained: 

“We used to have a manager share the survey results, but the advisors were the ones who knew the back stories on what happened. The
whole shop seemed to take more ownership of it when it came from one of their own. They didn’t want it to need management intervention.”

The more we share tangible results on shop numbers and customer feedback with the team in an empowering way (rather than an accusatory way), the
better that information will be received and acted upon.

Fix the Process
The big question is: “What can we do to prevent this in the future?” No one is better suited to answer that question and to make the needed adjustments
stick than the people who do the actual work, day in and out.

Service and parts workers can fix a lot more than boats. They can improve and fix processes, if they see the need to change and are given the opportunity to
make the adjustments.

The more the frontline service and parts workers are involved in creating the process adjustments needed to fix the issues, the more ownership of it they
will take and the easier it will be to make the changes.

Time for a reality check. Many dealerships avoid looking too closely at comebacks. Instead, they fix them one at a time. If this is your approach, it is
costing you in both customer loyalty and shop profitability.

When we lose a boat sale, most good dealerships and sales pros want to find out why. Did someone beat us on price? Did we not have what they were
looking for?

Finding out the “why” in sales is important; but unlike service, sales didn’t lose their inventory! Every time a boat has to come back for something the
customer perceived to not be fixed properly, we are losing shop hours and resources – our “inventory” – forever. Clearly, identifying, sharing and fixing
the issues at the root of these comebacks is critical to our dealerships’ success.

It has been said that every complaint is a gift that we should receive with gratitude. And truly, every comeback is an opportunity to not only make it right
for the customer who brought it to our attention, but also to strengthen our ability to make it right for many of our customers.

When the customer says: “Hey, you guys didn’t fix it right,” what we really could be hearing is:

“Hey, I know how you could make more money and raise your customer loyalty.” 



The more we value and use that feedback, the better it is for everyone.

———————————–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––—————————————-

About the Author
Valerie Ziebron, president of VRZ Consulting, has spent more than two decades helping businesses “fire on all 8” through education and motivation.
She makes it a point to uncover best practice "golden nuggets" that help people flip the switch from reactive to proactive for greater profitability and
customer loyalty.



Through studying and comparing hundreds of dealerships across North America, VRZ Consulting specializes in what stores can do to maximize their
resources, specifically their people, processes, space and location. Learn more at: www.vrzconsulting.com.

Now, here we are, sprinting through the second quarter of 2021, and more change seems to be afoot. This year is not like last year or any other year in recent history.

From what you tell us, one of the biggest changes for your dealership is the lack of inventory available mixed with continued peaks in consumer demand.

During times of change, focus on what you can control, say all the experts. So how do you make the best of what you can control when it comes to serving your current and prospective customers?

Educate your customer
One way is to educate the customer on what to expect from you, your dealership and the industry – both what you can do for them right now and what you can’t.

Earlier this week, I received an email newsletter from Danny Decker of Marketing Simplified, who spoke at Dealer Week this past December. (MRAA Members can access a recording of his session, Grow Your Customer Base with Facebook Ads in 2021, at MRAATraining.com.) 

In the newsletter, he wrote: “Creating happy clients and customers is the key to growing your business,” and then he shared a simple formula:

Happiness = Reality - Expectations


The point he seemed to be making is that your marketing should help the customer understand what to expect from your business. When you do that well, you’re more likely to have happy customers who contribute to your success. 

He actually wrote an article with some specific ways for how you can do that. It was written for Forbes.com back in 2018, but it’s good advice especially now, and I definitely recommend you read it.

Examples of dealers putting this to work
Our team at MRAA has witnessed dealers embracing this idea.

For example, back in October of last year, Blue Springs Marine in Missouri put a red banner across the home page of its dealership web site that reads: “If you are considering a new boat in 2021, please read this important update.”

When you click it, you’re taken to a dedicated web page with a letter from the President and Owner Jeff Siems, where he explains the shortages of new boat inventory, gives the consumer guidance on what they can do to make the best of it, and reinforces his dealership’s commitment to the customer and their boating lifestyle.

More recently, dealers like Woodard Marine on Lake Bomoseen in Vermont, have turned to Facebook to update customers on their inventory levels.

For example, they posted the following message (below, left) with “some good news and bad news” a few weeks ago. In it, they explained that boats will sell out this year, but they do still have some boats in stock and that they are ordering 2022 models.

A few days later, they posted an update (below, right), where they shared a picture and description of a 2022 model boat scheduled to arrive at their location in October.

By educating potential boat buyers on what to expect from the dealership, they are increasing the likelihood they will be able to make those who are able to buy a boat from them this year happy. 

In addition, they are opening the door to opportunities for communicating about what options ARE available to potential boat buyers. 

For example, could they take advantage of the boats the dealership has available for rent? Or could they work with the service department to replace the upholstery, carpet or engine on their current boat? They could be offered a coupon to the local boat club, if the dealer doesn’t have a club of their own. 

There are likely several options you can offer to help prospective boat buyers enjoy the boating lifestyle while they wait for the new boat of their dreams to become available.

By bringing your customers into the know about what’s happening at your dealership and in the boating business, you are more likely to inspire their trust, manage their expectations, introduce them to the options available that they may not have considered, and ultimately improve their chance of happiness, which – as Danny Decker explains – is the key to the growth of your business.

For additional resources on improving customer experience, training and educational materials, visit MRAA.com.

6) Fishing and boating trips morphed into adventure outings, trips that included other recreational equipment like walking sticks, bikes and even RVs and tents.

7) What appeared to be a path to nowhere has grown into a major tributary for both endeavors. Where newcomers used to see deterrents, they now saw opportunity to learn and experience life differently whether on shore or on the water.

8) So, 90 percent of anglers and 94 percent of boaters envision their future to include time on the water. You don’t want to miss out on opportunities to connect with this sizable group of enthusiasts.

9) Devoted and determined. Just because they’re fresh and have to learn new skills long-time fishing and boating vets already know doesn’t mean they are committed. They want more time on the water and seek to improve their knowledge.

10) They need your help with No. 9. Maybe it’s building freshwater fishing tips or boating safety classes for your new customers. Heck, even creating opportunities for them to join social outings on the water (fishing derbies or boat parades) is a way to build trust, camaraderie and expertise.

It’s a wise decision (investment) to interact with, study and understand the largest segment in boating and fishing. And resources exist to help you comprehend, recognize and connect with them, so you are able to retain customers by safeguarding their experiences to preserve boating and fishing for years to come. Check out the Get On Board Toolkit for more customizable retention tools to engage with your customers.

1. You have to identify when you are being presented with a choice that will take you in a direction you don’t need to go. It can seem easier or more polite to say yes or to just handle it; but recognize this is keeping you from your most important goals and objectives.
2. You have to have guts and determination to defend your no and stand behind it.

It can be hard to say no to someone. Especially a customer or a beloved team member; and it can be hardest of all when you have to say no to yourself. What you like to do isn’t always aligned with the most important things you should be prioritizing.

Let’s start with some of the most common personal areas. Do you need to exercise better control on how much of your time you are investing in following news, market reports or social media? You can’t control what’s going on in the world at large and consuming too much of this will only put you in a funk. Of course, you need to know what’s going on, but chances are good you can stay reasonably well informed in considerably less time. Determine what that time amount is for you and stick with it. Chances are you’ll be a lot happier.

Having spent countless hours observing dealerships, there are certain pitfalls that can and should be avoided. Let’s look at some of them by job description.

Dealer Principals: Stop getting sucked into every customer and departmental issue. You are limiting your team’s ability to exercise empowerment. Dealers who give in to Type-A tendencies limit their dealerships’ growth potential. Practice letting go. Give your team the tools, the training and the opportunity, then step back. On occasion, you may need to coach them based on how things were handled, but encouraging them to get outside of their comfort zones allows them to grow. Don’t swoop in to save the day! Let them learn to be the hero.

On a recent dealer visit, I was impressed with a young dealer who was able to keep an eye on his team’s progress based on the tools and processes he’d put in place. He checked the CRM and texting platform hubs to ensure that leads and inquiries were being responded to quickly. He looked at the Open Sales and Open RO lists – and he did all of this from his phone or computer without hovering over anyone. In his morning meetings, he made it a point to praise the team members who were excelling. The growth that his dealership is experiencing is awe-inspiring. The best part is he’s raising young leaders and teaching them to use those same tools properly. He is able to go home to his family at a reasonable hour and not be a slave to his multiple dealerships.

Sales Professionals: Stop judging your customers. Treat everyone like they can buy the most expensive boat available. Practically every seasoned sales pro has a story of the customer they thought didn’t have a nickel to their name who wound up making a six-figure purchase. Be aware of the mind chatter going on in your head that is limiting your prospecting and ultimately your sales.

One more for sales is to stop setting the customer up for disappointment. Be sure to check with parts and sales before we set pricing, availability or delivery times. Remember, the best way to build customer loyalty is to work together as a team so the customer has a great experience in each department. The more they see that we get along, like each other and respect each other, the more they trust the entire dealership.

Service and Parts Managers: Stop keeping data from the team and stop running so much decision-making through you. The more the information on scheduling, dispatch, pricing, availability, etc. is held with one person, the more that person gets bombarded with questions all day, the less efficient we all are, and the more frustrated our team and our customers. Make as much information as possible (especially pertaining to workflow) easily, visibly available to everyone on the team. This helps porters, techs, advisors and sales deliver a better customer experience while increasing shop profitability.

Technicians, Detail and Lot Crew: Stop bottling up until you’re ready to boil over. If you see something that is hurting your job or the quality of the dealership’s product or work, get that information to the people who can do something about it. If you are not comfortable talking to them about it, send them an anonymous note “from a caring eye in the shop”! If you don’t say anything, it just grates on you, making you more and more frustrated. It might feel better to vent to your peers about it, but they can’t fix it, and it just leads to more shop drama.

That leads to two last ones for everyone at the dealership …

1. Stop avoiding the tough decisions that need to be made. You know what they are. The things you’ve been putting off, things that make you want to change the subject when they come up. There’s a great saying: “Knock out the hard stuff first.” If you get that tough one handled once and for all, it will be so freeing for you. You will feel so much better and have so much more energy for the worthy goals that need all of your energy.
2. Stop adding fuel or oxygen to the dealership drama. Chose the high road. Act towards others the way you’d like them to act towards you. If something needs to be said, say it to the person directly and with empathy.

What are the things you need to stop? What’s keeping you from bringing your best self to your highest priority goals?

There are going to be plenty of challenges outside of your control as you navigate the summer months. Don’t let yourself spend more minutes than are absolutely necessary on things that you can’t change or things that are not a priority. Hone your focus and pour all of your available resources on the things you can control that will move the needle in the direction you want it to go. Practice and develop your discipline in this, and you will put yourself and your dealership in the best possible position to make the most of this year.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Valerie Ziebron, president of VRZ Consulting, has spent more than two decades helping businesses “fire on all 8” through education and motivation. She makes it a point to uncover best practice "golden nuggets" that help people flip the switch from reactive to proactive for greater profitability and customer loyalty.

Through studying and comparing hundreds of dealerships across North America, VRZ Consulting specializes in what stores can do to maximize their resources, specifically their people, processes, space and location. Learn more at: http://www.vrzconsulting.com.

In a previous blog entitled “7 Key Steps for Dealers to Master Content Marketing,” I discussed ways your dealership and marketing team (person) could attack content marketing head on. Now, your next steps involve exploring dealer resources that can take your content creation and roadmap to the next level. Many of these resources are free to use, customizable and can help you attract and interact with your customers. Some of them may require further commitment from you. But, if you’re serious about winning, finding success and enhancing your content marketing efforts, all of these are worth, at the very least, exploring.

And should you find resources from this list — whether it’s for inspiration for an original post or pulled resource for sharing — be sure to see if the organization or company requests credit or attribution when using their resources. Often, a friendly phone conversation or cordial email will point you and your team in the correct direction and also keep your dealership connected your fellow industry advocates. We’re all on the same team when it comes to keeping customers boating and preserving our industry for future generations.

Boating Resources for Dealers:


• Get on Board Toolkit
The Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation, the National Marine Manufacturers Association and the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas recently announced their second-year collaboration on the industry-wide Discover Boating Get On Board consumer marketing campaign to recruit and retain new boating and fishing participants in 2021. It’s clear that both recreational activities have grown in popularity for their health and safety benefits this past calendar year. And the entry of first-time boat owners and new anglers has produced an industry-wide emphasis on retention not only to create lifetime customers, but also for the preservation of both activities.

The initiative supplies the industry with an assortment of free, customizable tools to aid in customer growth and retention efforts. The resources, including social media assets, promotional videos and press materials, are all part of an integrated effort and campaign that includes support from the RBFF, NMMA and MRAA. Dealers are encouraged to use the resources as consumer outreach efforts in the form of content shares.

Visit www.GOBToolkit.com to download a variety of customizable assets to help promote fishing and boating to consumers. The toolkit and resource library will be updated throughout 2021. Dealers and retailers with questions can contact Bruna Carincotte, RBFF’s Senior Manager of Public Relations and Communications, and Maggie Maskery, NMMA’s Director of Consumer Public Relations.


• BoatUS Syndicated Content Media Hub
With nearly 40 how-to-type stories from “BoatUS Magazine,” the BoatUS Syndicated Content Media Hub helps dealers and marine owners improve customer communications with informative content for their newsletters. BoatUs says the resource library, available for download at no cost, can also ultimately advance your customers’ boating skills and ownership confidence. And incorporating the content can develop better customer relations, trust and, perhaps most importantly, retention.

Sample stories include: make a small gelcoat repair, how to tie a bowline knot and safely tow a tube with the kids. An award-winning team of boating journalists authored the articles within the BoatUS Syndicated Content Media Hub. Along with an easy-to-use Word document, downloads include professional photos to accompany your layout. The only catch, an acknowledgement for “BoatUS Magazine” as your story source.
More info and registration steps:
https://boat.us/e/mediahub
1. Select “Create Account”
2. To register, use activation code “syndication1”
3. Check out the story hub.

• Boating Safety Videos
The National Safe Boating Council (NSBC) offers educational boating safety videos within its Boat On Course library. The videos are designed to teach basic navigation rules of boating. These videos can be a great resource for dealers for onboarding new employees, team refreshers, background information gathering for customer education and communications. Boat On Course is produced under a grant from the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund, administered by the U.S. Coast Guard. Check out the videos and gather more info here: www.BoatOnCourse.com.

• Safe Boating Campaign
The NSBC’s Safe Boating Campaign and 2021 Resource kit provides a variety of outreach assets — available to boating enthusiasts, campaign partners and the media — with joyful and aspiring messages. The objective is to encourages boaters, and everyone who enjoys recreational water activities, to promote responsible on-the-water enjoyment through shared experiences. The campaign includes fun initiatives like Wear Your Life Jacket to Work Day May 21, 2021 and National Safe Boating Week, May 22-28.

Your dealership could use these resources, celebratory and message-filled days to connect with customers or create your own customer-based content to deliver messages on safety, service and ownership. The kit is available free of charge to boating enthusiasts, campaign partners and the media at safeboatingcampaign.com. To speak to the program coordinator, contact outreach@safeboatingcouncil.org.

• RBFF Resource Center
Through its national campaign Take Me Fishing, the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation (RBFF) helps recruit, retain and reactivate participants to the sport. The national campaign builds awareness of boating, fishing and conservation and educates people about participation benefits. The campaign website features 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 a retention toolkit that includes free customized content, marketing materials, social media assets, and other tools to retain and recruit new audiences. Some of these tools include a Fishing License & Boat Registration Plugin to connect their customers with the information they need in just one click and an embeddable Places to Fish & Boat Map to help their customers discover places to fish and boat near them.

Contact the RBFF if you have questions about its resources or how to incorporate them in your consumer messaging.

• Yamaha Boating Academy Video Series
Yamaha just announced its Yamaha Boating Academy video gallery within its Owner Resources portal on www.yamahaoutboards.com to help educate and promote safety and proper operation for all the new boaters who have entered the market over the last year. The videos feature Yamaha Pro Tyler Anderson offering sound advice and best practices as a way to help novice owners and first-time boat buyers onboard to their new recreational exploration with confidence. Topics include boating etiquette, terminology, docking, trailering, maritime knots and more.

These videos are a fabulous resource for Yamaha dealers and a great way for them to help educate their customers and address their questions, especially those they may be too shy to ask openly. Send them the specific video link in an email or text. Post the link or video to your social feeds. Even though some dealers may not carry Yamaha outboards, the messages delivered are still very strong, easy to understand and valuable for new boaters to hear. They could also inspire you to create your own line of boating educational videos, blog articles and social shares using all your own in-house experts.

• National Boating Safety Media Center Photo Library
The Water Sports Foundation (WSF) announced Thurs. April 1 — as part of a U.S. Coast Guard Boating Safety Outreach Grant — it has just completed the first phase and launch of its new “National Boating Safety Media Center,” which is designed to facilitate and support the work of journalists assigned to cover boating safety topics. The site, using resources supplied by multiple boating safety stakeholders and WSF topic experts, features nearly 300 pieces of content over 54 different categories; a robust image library featuring 48 photo galleries containing 565 high-resolution, royalty-free photos and 77 videos/b-roll; press materials, blogs and social media content; graphics; statistical data and reports; information regarding national boating safety and educational programs; plus a roster of boating safety experts available for media interview.

While not authorized for commercial use, marine organizations, media outlets and professionals can access the photos for use to promote educational awareness and safety. For more information and approval, contact Water Sports Foundation Director of Communications Wanda Kenton Smith.

• Sea Tow Tips & Tricks
Sea Tow Captains are the local experts in their community that boaters trust and rely on for great boating experiences. You can find and use tips, tricks and thoughts from Sea Tow Captains to share with your customers. Share them in your newsletter, email blasts, at an event and more! They are free for MRAA members to use. Sea Tow offers promotional content for boating safety and educational purposes.

• MRAA
We understand that some dealerships don’t necessarily know where to start when it comes to training their team or establishing a content marketing plan. Don’t fret, MRAA has gathered and developed resources from around the industry to help you find success. These educational, training and marketing assets are the result of conversation, interviews and studies with manufacturers, solution providers and other dealers. They exist as shareable tools and resources — some free and others membership-based — and are designed to help you grow, enrich operations and also build rapport and trust with your customers.

We understand that marketing plays a key role in your success. We've complied marketing resources that are available to you, in addition to generating some of our own. Together, they can help you run a more efficient, cost-effective marketing plan. Through Discover Boating and the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation, numerous marketing materials are also made available to you.

Looking for additional assets to help with content, operation and more? You can find additional information and solutions within multiple dealership categories, including careers, data, guides, safety, service and also HR and workforce. All dealers are encouraged to explore the free resources to generate ideas, concepts and best practices to publicize messages that appeal to their customers.

Finally, Silver and Gold membership with MRAA also provides dealers access MRAAtraining.com and all of its 160+ video archives (as well as webinars and documents). The educational videos, many of which were cultivated and created for Dealer Week, offer critical insights, trends and strategies to help you thrive in 2021 and beyond. Some recent topics include: virtual boat shows, video, digital marketing, customer experience, the pre-owned boat market, building a 2021 marketing plan and more.

You can now see, even if you’re not a member with any foundation or association listed here or within the marine industry, that 2021 is THE year to invest in marketing, content marketing, customer outreach (follow-up), specifically as a way to communicate with and also attract and retain customers. If you didn’t know where to start your respective content marketing and customer retention efforts, these resources can at least get you thinking correctly and taking the next necessary steps toward growth and finding more success.

Marty Marketingguy and Mary O’Marketing are both striving to get better at their position for their respective dealerships. Marty is the marketing manager of a multi-location dealer and marina operator called Big Bigger Biggest Boats. Mary manages the marketing team at Pawn & Pontoon, a single-location family-owned shop, with boat rentals and fishing guide services, started by her mother and father years ago.

While these two marketing managers are unique, have different teams and abilities, they both can take advantage of free or paid marketing resources to aid them in reaching their customers where they want to be reached — mostly online these days. These available marketing assets come with strategic messages and appropriate call-to-action steps and are customizable to help dealers support their current customers and promote retention this year.

Both businesses are willing to embrace content marketing and answering their customers’ question with honest and expert advice on ownership, operation, safety, maintenance tips and more. Both Marty and Mary and their respective teams, no matter how big or small, have chosen to commit to changing their culture and views on content marketing. But, even with this newfound devotion to their customers, how can they achieve new heights and take the necessary steps if they’re essentially starting at the ground floor?

One important thing you need to do immediately is listen intently to your customers and keep a record of their pain points, struggles and questions. Next, you need to address them. You can do this by offering sound and transparent (not salesy) advice, acting as their guide or teacher. Here are a few ways you can do this:

1.     Blogs. Your dealership may strive to produce one blog a month to start off or bi-weekly informative blogs. Or, better yet, you could strive to produce two blogs a week from various teammates if you have a larger and more creative and productive team. And remember, blogging is a nice way to get acquainted with your voice if you prefer to start slow.

2.     Videos. You could start off with walk-around videos of boats. You could do a video explaining a boat rental program. If motivated, you could do weekly Facebook Live videos that address boat ownership or provide how-to answers to your customers’ questions. Video is king!

3.     Resources. Whether borrowed and customized, hired out to freelance experts or industry consultants or created in-house, resources in the form of guides or white papers on essential topics introduced by customers is another strong content option.

4.     Social media. This can include a mix of shares in the form of memes, quotes, top-10 lists, actual customer testimonials shared to your company’s social feeds. One example may be images of your customer’s first-ever boat purchase. Another could be sharing details on current used boats or even news about expansion or virtual events that promote customer appreciation. Find ways to boost social media engagement in 5 easy steps..   

5.     Virtual. With COVID-19 still lingering, you may decide to go beyond appointment-only showroom visits by creating an inviting and welcoming virtual boat shows online or do live walkarounds for customers. With much of their buying decision already done prior to shopping at your dealership, your event and any special attention you’ve given to them just may help them make a final call on the boat they want for their family.  

6.     Newsletter. A monthly newsletter lets your customers opt-in for more information and provide your sales and marketing teams with more leads. They also give you the ability to share your created content, or links to it, in another manner that customers may appreciate. You can crank up the frequency if your team has enough content to share and the ability to produce a weekly or bi-monthly effort.

7.     Text. Texting isn’t just for teens and sharing quirky emojis with friends. And we must avoid seeing the age of customers as a deterrent. A customer is a customer and even parents and grandparents know how to text. It’s a bona fide method of communication. Provided you have the abilities (and the permission from your customers), the correct messages and shareables, texting can be another avenue for you to share non-sales content.    

Again, every dealership is different and some excel at content marketing because, like you, they have the staff and internal resources to start it and keep it going. And for those of you seeking to enhance your content marketing game, but lack the necessary resources (skills, staff, etc.), creativity or marketing budget to make an all-out effort, outside resources and supportive businesses exist to help you take the next steps. In another blog called Dealer Resources, I’ve highlighted a few that can inspire you, at the very least, and help you attain your first-month, six-month and longer goals.

I’ll leave you with this from Dealer Week speaker, author and content marketing genius, Marcus Sheridan.

“There’s never been a greater year to invest in your company and its long-term improvement than 2021. This is the year to finally put resources into marketing. Know that the marketing side has 80 percent influence on the actually sell. You will not regret doing this, as all of this is a long-term decision with long-term benefits.”

How many people do you need to hire and in which roles?

Do you have job descriptions for each of those roles?

Do you have a compensation range in mind for each of those roles that is competitive in today’s market?

If you’re not sure, look at job ads for similar positions in your local area. You also can review the results of MRAA’s 2017 Compensation Study, available here.

Have the job descriptions been updated for changes in your dealership?
That might include changes in your organizational chart, changes in your processes or changes in the results you expect this person to deliver. Learn about including key result areas (KRAs) in your job descriptions and other ways to improve them in our free guide, Job Descriptions that Amp Up Productivity. Download it here.

Have you created an advertisement to promote the job opening?
Experts in recruitment often encourage companies to stay away from copying the job description and using it as their job advertisement. Rather, they recommend telling a story about the opportunity to work for your dealership.

Is the ad written to appeal to the candidate you aim to hire?
When you advertise a job, you’re trying to sell your ideal candidate on coming to work for your dealership. Imagine who that candidate is and what they may be seeking. In your ad, be honest and sincere about the key benefits of the job and your culture – and about the qualities and experience you’re looking for in an employee.

Where do you plan to post the ad?
Be sure to share it internally and externally. Your employees will often know people with similar interests and values. In fact, some dealerships even encourage those referrals with a cash reward if they’re hired and stay for a certain amount of time.

What interview questions will you ask candidates?
At MRAA, we develop a hiring team for each position, each of whom uses a different group of questions during the interview process. Many of those questions were influenced by books like: “Topgrading,” “Up Your Business,” and “The Ideal Team Player” and then customized for the position.

How will you make a final decision about who to hire?
In the MRAA course, “Attract and Retain Techs,” by Valerie Ziebron, she recommends you know the answers you want to hear from the interview questions you ask. That way, you’ll be more likely to make decisions based on the candidate’s fit with dealership goals and expectations for the position rather than the candidate’s interview skills. The best candidates aren’t always the best at being interviewed. MRAA Silver and Gold Members can access this course — part of the recently launched Training ‘N’ Tactics (TNT) Series — and its resource-packed workbook for free when they log into MRAATraining.com.

What will you do if you don’t find a qualified candidate for the role?
One alternative to filling an open position through a traditional job posting is apprenticeship. It is a strategy with proven results for many dealers and their apprentices. To learn more about success with this strategy, check out our free Guide to Apprenticeship here.

If you do find a qualified candidate who accepts your offer, how will you prepare them for success?
Some dealerships have onboarding schedules that last several months, others only the first day or week. Regardless of where your business falls on that spectrum, a few fundamentals you may want to put into place include:

• An Employee Handbook: If you don’t have one or want to improve yours, MRAA Members can check out our sample handbook for ideas, which includes more than 100 dealership policy templates. Learn more here. 
• An Onboarding Plan: During a Dealer Case Study at Dealer Week 2020, Alpin Haus shared several workforce best practices, including a handout with a Sample Boat Product Specialist Hiring Process, Training Process and Schedule. MRAA Silver and Gold Members can access the course by logging into MRAATraining.com.

o A Training Plan and Template: For ideas on how to develop your team, including onboarding tips and a training template, download our free Guide to Dealership Improvement.

Ultimately, one of the most important elements in a dealership’s hiring process – or any of its human resources policies and practices – is consistency.

“In most cases, when a good employee quits or an HR issue turns into a legal issue, it happens because of inconsistency,” wrote Valerie Ziebron in her workbook. “Having solid HR practices in place, that you run by your local legal counsel, keep files on and document, will help to keep smiling, customer-focused employees on staff and pulling for our dealership’s goals.”

In today’s boating marketplace, there are very few repercussions for bad habits like mismanaging leads, skipping steps in the sales process, short-changing the pre-delivery inspection, failing to follow up with customers or botching the service cycle. 

These shortcuts often feel necessitated and are even sometimes rewarded in a high-demand environment, especially when the outcome means capturing business now vs. prolonging an inevitable sale. The reality, though, is today’s bad habits cause tomorrow’s problems— leads are lost, mistakes are made, unnecessary expenses creep into our P&Ls, the customer experience suffers, CSI scores drop, and repeat and referral business dry up quickly. What’s worse: Those bad habits become an accepted part of our culture.

While it’s safe to assume the incredible demand of 2020 will continue through this boating season, and possibly longer, it WILL come to an end. Unchecked, these lazy habits will lead to a rude awakening once the pandemic is over. Dealership leaders should be thinking about what that reality would mean for their business, and start preparing for it now.

Here are five ways MRAA can help dealers combat those bad habits and strengthen their business for the post-pandemic market.

1. Tried-and-true methods of running a dealership have been crafted over many decades and work well in most any market place. Dealers can tap into many of those opportunities, by way of how-to guides and useable tools such as job descriptions, marketing assets, and budgeting templates in the MRAA Resource Center. This free compilation offers the lowest hanging fruit for someone who wants to go grab a resource and shore up something that’s not working in their business.
   
   
2. Strong, adaptable dealers need a deeper understanding of the most critical challenges and opportunities, along with the solutions that can help attack them head-on. That’s where Dealer Week, MRAA’s annual conference and expo, comes into play. By way of 30-plus educational sessions on the day’s most important topics, this in-person and online event offers dealerships the insights and inspiration and tactics to stay on top of their game and adjust their business for current realities. It also keeps them on their toes for whatever tomorrow may throw at them.
   
   
3. Dealers face challenges and opportunities in all market conditions and at all times of the year, so MRAA created MRAATraining.com to offer dealerships on-demand access to the leading solutions on the topics that most impact their success. Featuring the top courses from the last seven years of MRAA’s annual conference, the platform also offers a turnkey, monthly solution for training and strengthening dealership teams: MRAA’s Training and Tactics, featuring expert-recommended courses.
   
   
4. The root of most bad habits in business stem from the lack of sound processes. MRAA compiles the best resources and training opportunities together into one efficient program to help dealers establish systems and processes that lead to consistency, team unity and customer loyalty — Dealership Certification. Through this program, dealers gain access to templates, best practices, consultants, exclusive continuing education, employee satisfaction surveys and more, all of which work together via a proven template and roadmap for running a world-class operation.
   
   
5. Having entered the pandemic understaffed, the truth is some dealers just didn’t have the choice but to cut corners. The opportunities above are all designed to help with the realities of running a small business. MRAA also recognized that dealers were dropping the ball with the No. 1 most critical need in the customer experience cycle — post-sale follow-up. So, we created the MRAA Virtual Business Development Center, a resource where MRAA and its partner Customer Service Intelligence will take the follow-up load off of dealers’ plates and do it for them, complete with great reporting and immediate transfer for hot issues.

• Thank them for telling you.
• Listen.
• Tell them you want to support them, but don’t overpromise.
• Don’t make it about you.
• Maintain confidentiality.
• Ask for help from experts, when possible.
• Refer them to resources.
• Make yourself “tell-able.”

We all know 2020 will go down as one of the hardest years in our lives, and one of the most challenging, up and down years for our dealerships. Despite all of these positive and negative obstacles, 10 dealers not only persevered through the year, but they also pushed themselves to improve.

These 10 dealers showed they have what it takes to become a Marine Industry Certified Dealership in an uncertain year. By going through the Certification program, they discovered opportunities to improve their customer experience, employee engagement and dealership operations. 

There’s also an opportunity for those of you who might have read those two phrases and said … “Monday’s don’t phase me anymore and I definitely don’t love what I’m doing right now.” If this is you, take a deep breath and find some answers in the section titled “Burned out?”

Back to good or bad attitudes … In the MRAA training course “A is for Attitude” with Sam Dantzler of Wheelhouse College, he says that most people just go through life reacting to everything that happens. They don’t realize it’s not happening to them, but rather because of them.

His tip to you? Have a team conversation about attitude.

“If you get your attitude right, all of the rest of it will figure out. I can’t have anyone come to work with anything other than a I can’t believe I get to do this mood.”

Sam uses science, psychology and astrology to explain attitude in a way that is extremely interesting and entertaining. If this course sounds like the refreshing reminder you need for yourself and/or your team, follow the simple steps below. If you rolled your eyes and grumbled about not being able to handle this right now, skip ahead to “Burned out? Yep, that’s me.”

MRAA Silver and Gold Members can access this month’s “Training ‘N’ Tactics” simply by logging into MRAATraining.com and clicking on "2021 TNT" in the dashboard. Or use the search function to find it. The cost will zero out.

If you’re not a Silver or Gold Member, you can become one! Learn more here.

Burned out? Yep that’s me.

For those of you who are completely overwhelmed mentally, physically, emotionally, or all the above, we hear you and want you to know that this is a sign of burnout. Maybe you skip this month’s TNT session (but obviously don’t forget about it next month) and take the future recommended TNT course called “Moving Beyond Burnout.” David Spader, of Spader Business Management, spoke to MRAA Dealer Week 2020 attendees about the importance of recognizing and working through burnout.

So, if this scenario is more you or your team, you have three options:

1. Use your MRAA Dealer Week registration to log in and watch the recording of the course available to you until March 31. If you’re not registered, you can still register to gain access to this course, the expo hall and 30+ other educational opportunities. FYI, we’re also doing an MRAA Ask The Expert Webinar: “Follow-up to Moving Beyond Burnout” with Spader on Thursday, March 18, for Dealer Week attendees. This webinar is sponsored by MRAA Partner Member National Powersport Auctions.
2. Become an MRAA Silver or a Gold Member to access the course after it’s unavailable on Dealer Week (March 31). Our TNT Series will be revisiting this course in August.
3. We get it, if you didn’t register for MRAA’s Dealer Week, it feels like you don’t have a choice in accessing this course. Reach out to us! We’d love to help you find a way to gain access.

While it's easy to simply state “check your attitude at the door” or “adjust your attitude,” we also have to realize, when we’re in a state of burnout it typically means we’re in a more negative environment and mental state. It may feel like things aren’t going as well for us — when things are crazy busy or constantly changing, it’s difficult to respond intelligently and many respond instinctively.

You can see how negative environments and negative energy created by stress, change, poor culture and more can easily and negatively alter our once positive attitude. Even just changing attitude might not be enough. But, recognizing where your employees are at, could save you in the long run and in turn, keep the people who you value the most.

Think about that for a second. The top 1 percent in the entire world! And I’m not talking romance novels, comic books or Harry Potter (though incorporating a fiction book is healthy, too, and also a fun activity to do with your kids). Spence is talking about skills-based books. Can you count on one hand how many of these improvement-based books you’ve read in the last month or calendar year? How about two hands? Now include your toes! BTW, let me know the number you land on when you’re done counting (jerrod@mraa.com).

MRAA President Matt Gruhn is participating in this friendly reading foray as well. He told me he’s already completed six books in 2021. Honestly, I’m still only on one hand and I find that somewhat dispiriting. You see, when I first started at the MRAA in August, I was given the go-ahead to order some skills-based books that were meant to help educate and encourage me, not add more to my plate. So far, I’ve tackled Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller and They Ask You Answer by Marcus Sheridan. However, I’ve also added daily reads of Soul Fuel by Bear Grylls and two podcasts over the last month, which Spence says counts as long as they are skills-based and for growth.

In fact, one podcast I’m enjoying is Rob Dial’s “Mindset Mentor” series. The episode titled “9 Habits of Successful People” listed the No. 5 habit as “read often.” Coincidentally, this is an excerpt from a BOOK titled Hack Your Goals: The Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving Success that Dial co-authored with Dean DeVries. The podcast shared that the average CEO reads 60 books a year. Not six or even 12, but 60! That’s FIVE books a month. Some of the most successful people on earth read five times the amount of books Spence informed us would place you in the top one percent. That’s extraordinary!

Spence added in his Dealer Week session — BTW, you can register and watch it today along with the other training courses from the MRAA conference! — that the average college graduate reads half a book a year (on skills). And now we’ve found practically the opposite end of the spectrum compared to the CEOs Dial spoke about. Wow! I don’t know about you, but I’m diligently trying to improve at this personal dedication to increase my reading frequency and book totals.

Will you take Spence’s challenge with me? It is this: Invest in 15 minutes a day (5 hours a month) to study and learn by reading or listening to a book. YES, audiobooks count as well, and are ideal for those of you who spend a lot of time alone driving or traveling. Spence says, “if you did this consistently, you’d be in the top 1 percent in the world, and in three or four years, you would see a huge positive impact in your life and your career.” Making the commitment to create a huge win in your life and career seems like a no brainer to me.

I’ve created my own list of reasons for going all in when it comes to book reading that could entice you even more. There are literally dozens of reasons why you should read more and do less of other mindless things. I’ve only listed a few.

10 Reasons Why You Need to Read
1. Read for personal growth.
2. Read for professional knowledge and career goals.
3. Read for team building / bonding.
4. Read to replace hours spent surfing on social channels.
5. Read for your family, extended family and neighbors.
6. Read instead of binge-watching shows and gaming.
7. Read for cultural awareness.
8. Read for your health: (mental, nutritional and physical)
9. Read to avoid the notion that you’re too busy.
10. Read to show your children that reading is a valuable tool and a path-builder to success.

And finally, I’ll leave you with a place to start your own personal and professional library. You could begin with one of the books I’ve listed already above or select a few from a peer-to-peer book recommendations list I constructed from the conversations during Spence’s session at MRAA’s Dealer Week 2020 virtual conference and expo. Dealers, you can generate ideas for starting in-house book clubs or competitions to improve teamwork and staff IQ/EQ/AQ. It can be a way to enhance onboarding of new employees or be incorporated into your existing continuous training plans. It’s really up to you to take this information and challenge and run with it. Also, let me know (send me an email: jerrod@mraa.com) if you’ve read any of these books already or have a recommended book that has changed your life, attitude or approach.

18 Peer-to-Peer Book Recommendations from MRAA’s Dealer Week session “How to Thrive on the Other Side of 2020” with John Spence
1. You are a Badass by Jen Sincero
2. The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything by Stephen M.R. Covey
3. The Anatomy of Peace: Resolving the Heart of Conflict by The Arbinger Institute
4. Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting out of the Box by The Arbinger Institute
5. The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle
6. Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink
7. Leadership Strategy and Tactics: Field Manual by Jocko Willink
8. Who Moved My Cheese?: An A-Mazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson
9. The New One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard
10. Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time by Susan Scott
11. Start with Why series by Simon Sinek
12. The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Empowering Organizations by Encouraging People 1st by Gary Chapman
13. Leadership Lessons from a UPS Driver: Delivering a Culture of We, Not Me by Ron Wallace
14. Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War by Robert Coram
15. The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
16. If Aristotle Ran General Motors by Tom Morris
17. The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary by Joseph Michelli
18. Straight Up: Honest, Unfiltered, As-Real-As-I-Can-Put-It Advice for Life’s Biggest Challenges by Trent Shelton

Change is inevitable as we navigate a new presidential administration.  The chaos that has recently ensued is most likely to be a foreshadowing of the future. The outgoing president created an environment where the incoming cabinet will undoubtably enact change in potential historic proportions. Are you prepared?  Not to be confused as a political writing, rather a call for dealership owners to focus on being proactive and prepared to be ahead of what new lawmakers may propose for changes that will have an impact on your business and personal finances.  

Like a potential candidate running for president who is then elected, there is a lot of thought and planning around what the first four years will look like. In addition, there are no guarantees a second term are withstanding, so you have to plan for the time known to be in office. The change in presidential office directly correlates to the paradigm of succession planning in that you must stay engaged in developing a plan, and importantly, be very flexible. With the right strategic planning focused on succession; you are inherently creating a better ability to flex in the face of change.

Succession planning is a proactive effort that focuses on through the next generation of dealership owners and leaders.  It’s really easy to think of it as something as simple as a transaction or sale. But succession planning takes into effect all factors of our Succession Matrix®.  And developing a strategy starts with developing your goals. Once you have developed your goals you can start with a strategy.  And there has been no better time than the present of 2021 with the election results to turn your strategy into a plan.
A factor of the succession planning matrix is strategic planning, and now is so important to use strategy to develop a plan. In strategic planning we think of the current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to an organization that could impact the desired goal or future legacy. No president, party, or policy can derail someone committed to planning. While it can change rules, structures, and laws, proactive succession planning can work around any change that may come your way.

In the recent inauguration speech of the incoming president one key theme emerged. Unity. At the core of anything successful and fruitful is unity. With succession planning this is also a core foundation. Once a plan is developed, it is so important to have unity toward a common goal. Any party who has their own priorities in contrast to the overall goal will either slow down the process, stop it dead in its tracks, or hold everyone hostage to their whims. I have seen it happen, where everyone verbally agrees to the goal, but the self-serving priorities of one or two can derail even the best laid out plan. I have no problem with someone looking out for themselves, but when they are not honest about their individual priorities in contrast to the plan, it can really cause pain. A proactive engagement in consistently communicating with all parties who have a vested interest in the ongoing success of the organization will ensure you will be able to hear all those around you and decipher if they are working toward the stated plan or toward their own agenda.

One example I always like to share with my clients is that of John Boyd.  Almost every time his name is mentioned I get a blank stare in response. John Boyd was a military strategist who develop the OODA cycle. He deployed a strategy that involved observing, orienting, deciding and acting and is a theory today that the US Military continues to use.  
As we navigate into a new presidential term with understanding that change is inevitable, we also know that by setting proper goals and establishing flexible strategies, we can overcome almost anything that 2021 and beyond have to offer.  

Being a part of his own family's business, Champ Rawls has a unique insight into the difficulties, challenges, and triumphs families face when combining family and business. Champ has been officially associated with The Rawls Group since 2012, although it could be said he become a part of the team in 1984, when he was born into the family business. For more information visit www.seekingsuccession.com

• $350 billion for State and Local Governments
• $35 billion for state, local, tribal, and nonprofit programs to finance as much as $175 billion in low-interest loans and venture capital funds for small businesses
• $15 billion for small business grants
• Increase the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, up from $7.25. It is not clear that this provision could be passed through reconciliation.
• Authorizes OSHA to issue standardized worker protections from COVID-19
• Hazard pay for frontline essential workers, including back payments for 2020
• Increase unemployment benefits to $400, up from $300 weekly payments, through September 2021 which are set to expire on March 14.
• Restore and extend through September 30 emergency paid leave requirements that expired December 31, 2020. Exemptions for employers with more than 500 and fewer than 50 employees would be eliminated. More info on the program here.
• More than 14 weeks of paid sick and family and medical leave for COVID-19 related reasons, with businesses with fewer than 500 employees receiving a payroll tax credit.  Exemptions for employers with more than 500 and fewer than 50 employees would be eliminated.
• Additional $1,400 for direct payments to individuals, including adult dependents.
• $100 billion for health initiatives including expanding testing, supplies purchasing, and a national vaccination program.

It’s not that much different for marine dealers like you. While your team may not be donning helmets and pads, you are, together, developing game plans, strategies and “play calls” to provide the best sales, service and marketing to your customers. Your team also seeks to win, not just to participate, and even strive to be the best in the industry. We understand that it’s also challenging to find the time to practice, to study your craft and do so as a team, especially with COVID-19 still lingering. That’s why the MRAA will introduce a new monthly training program for Silver and Gold Members called Training ‘N’ Tactics — or TNT, for short. The series, which as the name suggests focuses heavily on training and tactics, will share educational growth tools and guide dealers in team development.

Silver and Gold Members have access to a wealth of MRAA resources, but in this series we do the legwork for you to create a training plan for your team as we revisit sessions from MRAA’s archives. These sessions are broadly applicable within the dealership, whether it’s a single department or employee or together as workforce. I say that because even though football teams train together in practice, they also must work individually in their specialty areas (e.g.: kickers, quarterbacks, linebackers) to hone skills that will prove beneficial for the entire team and its success come game time. For marine dealers like you, we know that every day is game day! That’s why, we as guides are offering a program to help you find relevant training topics that you can more easily commit to continuous improvement. We know many of our Silver and Gold dealers are already in great shape, but good teams can become even greater when they bear down.

How you use the series is up to you. Do you provide lunch for your employees while they learn? Do you watch individually and then discuss during a team meeting? Ideally, you’d “huddle up” and discuss each topic before and after watching the video. You can then focus on areas of improvement for both individuals, departments and the entire dealership team.

As you go, we’ll provide guidance on the types of questions you should be asking. What did we learn? What are our objectives? How do we hold each other accountable moving forward? And even though we will have a specific video for you each month, don’t forget that as a Silver or Gold Member you have more than 120 sessions from which to select on mraatraining.com.

The monthly training starts Tuesday, February 2, with “A is for Attitude” by Sam Dantzler, speaker and co-owner of Wheelhouse College. Dantzler dives into attitudes, environments, science, positivity and massive thinking. It’s an ideal topic and course for the start of 2021. The following month features educator and VRZ Consulting’s Valerie Ziebron with “Attract and Keep Techs.” The next topic is as timely as ever — with the entry of so many new first-time boat owners — as service teams and strong tech support will prove to be a game-changing focal point in 2021. The remaining monthly content will include timely subjects like content marketing, video and digital efforts, navigating difficult customers, the pre-owned boat market and more.

Above all, we want you to take the tactical expertise from the TNT sessions and use them to “explode” out of the gate in 2021 and improve your dealership’s game plan and team management. To implement the tips, tools and best practices to find even more success and beat the competition. While your team may not be able to hoist a championship trophy, like ‘Bama, it can definitely walk more proudly and work more confidently and do so with a championship attitude. That’s a win for your team and the industry as a whole.

Please take 5 minutes and give us your input below for retention survey! 

Last year brought an influx of newcomers to boating and fishing. And they were welcomed with open arms and excitement, especially while dealing with an ongoing pandemic. However, to ensure their happiness and growth within each form of recreation, it’s imperative that dealers stay connected with these participants. This conveys a sincere approach to customer care and also helps protect the marine industry for 2021 and beyond. 

You’re probably still catching your breath, along with your team, and also wondering what’s in store for the new year? How will you handle follow-up and keeping in close communication with all these new customers? How will your team handle changing COVID restrictions? What resources do you need to help you put digital at the center of your marketing efforts to meet customer where they are? How will you take aim on the used boat market and all the potential that lies there?

This a huge opportunity for you to keep your long-standing customers and all these newcomers  fishing and boating for decades to come. To become loyal customers because of the service, care and commitment you provide them. How can you use your expertise and retention tools to guide them along, making every possible effort to keep them wanting more? Are there resources you feel you need but haven’t found yet? It’s time to share, as your input is both justified and instrumental in terms of building stronger resources.

The NMMA, Discover Boating, RBFF and MRAA understand your desire for enhanced customer engagement. Collectively, these organizations offer toolkits, guides, educational training videos and much more to help support you in this pursuit. They need your help and feedback to refine their collective retention resources to help you properly achieve this objective.

The MRAA kindly requests that you fill out a 5-minute survey is to understand how RBFF and Discover Boating can support your customer engagement/retention efforts with free resources. Thank you in advance for your time and perspective.

TAKE SURVEY HERE

A lot has been happening in Washington, D.C. this last week that affects our industry, so please see our update below.
 
On Monday, Congress passed its long-awaited omnibus spending deal.  A summary of the relevant sections of the omnibus deal – which includes the $900 billion stimulus deal – can be found on MRAA’s website. This will be updates as we continue to pour through this 5,600 page document.   
 
As you all must know by now, President Trump has not committed to signing the omnibus package or the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which includes Coast Guard safety provisions our industry supports. Today is the deadline for NDAA to be signed or vetoed, which will be a big tell.
 
Due to the margin that the omnibus passed by, it is unlikely that President Trump will outright veto it, but he may pocket-veto it instead. Normally, a President needs to act on a bill within 10 days of receiving it. A pocket veto is a maneuver that can happen at the end of a session where the President vetoes a bill by not acting on it and lets it expire at the end of Congress.
 
Here are some important dates to know as we navigate this:
 
December 23: Date that Congress would need to get a bill to the President to avoid a pocket-veto. The package passed on Tuesday evening looks like it will arrive on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day due to the sheer size of it.
 
December 26: Unemployment insurance runs out for millions of Americans.
 
December 28: Current Government spending ends. Failure to pass a budget deal (or continuing resolution, which funds federal agencies at current levels until a set date) by this date will cause a government shutdown.
 
December 30: Potential day when Congress could override a standard veto by President Trump. This day was already set aside by Congress through a memo to members to override a potential veto for the NDAA.
 
January 3: Any bill not signed by this date is dead. If no deal is made by here, there will be no opportunity for a deal until after the inauguration.
 
January 20: Presidential inauguration, when the a package could be passed and signed by the Biden administration if no agreement is made before Jan 3.
 
Things are still fluid with this situation right now. We could see a month-long budget deal, amendments to the omnibus, changes passed as stand-alone bills, or a breakdown in negotiations. I will share information with you all as I hear it.
 
As always, please reach out to Adam Fortier-Brown, MRAA Government Relations Manager, with any questions or concerns.

With this event now behind us, we can very clearly outline how companies can produce high-quality virtual event, like the boat show you are probably preparing for right now. MRAA recently produced, in partnership with Discover Boating, a powerful guide to boat show success, but here are a few tips I can offer that could help you prepare and produce your first or next virtual boat show.

This is how I would approach my boat show.

1.    Boat shows are the great equalizer, a place where every dealership looks the same with the same color carpets and the same shiny boats. If you want your dealership to stand out in a virtual event, you need to be prepared and polished like you normally would be. Most dealers spend months planning the inventory they’ll showcase, how they’ll arrange their physical booth and how they’ll both attract customers and stand out for the competition. Nothing should change with that.

2.    Make your business and your brands stand out by showcasing a video tour of your business. Nothing demonstrates professionalism and customer service better than demonstrating the character and personality of your team, your facilities and your service. Don’t just concentrate on new boats, either. Make sure you capture your team, the service department, your certified techs, your parts or pro shop, and more. Give the video the same personality that an in-store experience would offer.

3.    Pre-record walk-throughs of every boat in your inventory to showcase what you have to offer. Shoot the videos in a clean, quiet environment to prevent the distractions of background noise or clutter. Make sure the lighting is good so the product comes off as polished as it would be at an in-person event. Use this how-to guide. What? No inventory to video? Surely your manufacturer partners have video of the products they offer. Substitute factory videos where necessary.

4.    Mix in live Q&As with your sales professionals. Depending on the platform’s capabilities, it would be ideal to do a “live broadcast” (of pre-recorded content) of those walk-throughs, immediately followed by a live question-and-answer session to provide deeper insight and context. Check with the show producer to see if you can schedule live events on the show’s public calendar; otherwise, find a way to promote the live conversations outside of the platform, in a Zoom or other environment. Consider using a host to moderate the sessions and ask the sales team the question, and prepare a few questions as starters for each product.

5.    Find a way to reward customers for stopping by your booth. Give away pro shop gift cards for everyone who comments in the chat. Provide a special contest and enter people into a significant drawing if they schedule a meeting with a member of your sales team. Include a pro fisherman or team rider in one of your live events. Pre-record or offer live how-to programs to establish yourself as the expert and help customers get the most out of boat ownership.

6.    Create your exhibit schedule with the consumer in mind. Your virtual event attendees will likely be visiting your exhibits from their homes, oftentimes “after hours.” If they log into the chat, will someone be there to respond? Make sure you’ve got someone ready to respond immediately during show hours, and consider and strategize what response times should look like after show hours. Virtual exhibits are challenging in that you never really know if someone is “in” your exhibit until they physically reach out. When that finally happens, you need to be ready.

7.    Create your follow-up plan before the event starts. There have been many best practices shared over the years of dealers who are following up and thanking customers before they’ve even left the convention center or texting or emailing them before they arrive home. What will your follow-up plan be for virtual attendees? A well-thought-out strategy with customized follow-up materials — links to those videos you created, brochures, meeting schedulers, and other enticements, for example — could make the difference for capturing the business.

8.    Particularly this year, when many dealers are going to be trying to figure things out, the better prepared you are and the more you can stand out, the better. Spend extra money on marketing your virtual booth. Find creative ways to attract people to your products. Make sure you fully understand the technology and platform well in advance of the event so you can maximize its value and stand out from the crowd.

My final piece of advice here is: Please don’t apologize to your customers for being at a virtual event. We get it. We’re social beings, and we love the person-to-person interaction. We also know, however, that you don’t have a choice, and they don’t have a choice to do business with you in any other way. Prepare yourself to be successful, and be confident in the way you present and deliver your business. And by all means, do NOT apologize for successfully adapting to today’s market place.

More than 80 percent of a purchase decision is made online, anyway. Your presence in a virtual boat show is actually just meeting the customer where they are. If you plan, prepare for and execute your virtual event strategy as though it’s the best way a customer can make a purchase with you, you will win the day at your boat show. Have a great show!

So you want to join the video club, huh? Welcome to the video revolution! For you first timers in the crowd, don’t fret, it eventually gets easier with every video you produce. And for some of you out there, you will unleash a talent and “voice” you didn’t even know existed. You’re an influencer, too, you just don’t realize it yet. With all your years in the boating industry, you have gobs of stories, insights and best practices you can share with others, from peers to customers. You and your team know a lot of best practices for new boaters (maintenance, marina management, new buyer advice, regional vacation hot spots, et al).

It helps to know others have had success enhancing their video efforts. I wrote a best practices article with Len’s Cove owner Sean Horsfall called “The Video Game: 13 Tips for Moving to Video Marketing” found within the Operation Keep Your Customers Boating guidebook.  His story is a good reminder that you, too, can find success if you stick with it and learn the tricks of the trade. It’s also worth noting that Horsfall based this effort off of Dealer Week presenter Marcus Sheridan's previous MRAA educational sessions.

Horsfall explained to me it took him a couple of years to finally realize Sheridan’s advice was spot on. He also told me it will continue to get more challenging as others create videos and get better at it. But there’s still time to learn, grow and find your specialty. Check out the article and also visit the Len’s Cove “Lessons In Boating” YouTube page to see some living examples of Horsfall’s work for inspiration and tips of how you can create your own content that not only showcases your knowledge, but also answers your customers’ questions.

If you were an active participant at Dealer Week 2020, you noticed that video is THE way to go moving forward. Your marketing plan must include more digital efforts, including video productions. Four of those educational sessions cover the importance of video. I’ve listed them below, but let me remind you that all Dealer Week registrants have access to these videos until March 31, 2021. And MRAA Silver Members and above can watch them throughout the year. Register here!

1. Dealer Case Study: Pre-Owned Boat Photography and Videography: Within the Customer Pathway, this session, made possible by the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation, discusses the growth in and demand for pre-owned boats as well as way to grow revenue. This includes relevant examples from host Jim Million and case study subject N3 Boatworks that your team can incorporate such skills as photography and videography.

2. How to Become a Video-First Dealership: Within the Dealership Pathway, this training session is straight forward on its mission: Video is a must! Host Sam Dantzler and speaker, author and video advocate Marcus Sheridan discuss ways to stay competitive in this space by producing their own videos. Learn the ins, outs and science behind marine videos, including dozens of ideas to implement immediately.

3. How to Build Your 2021 Marketing Plan with or without a Boat Show: Another gem from Sheridan, this session will teach you how to leverage better video practices and techniques to “show” your boats better than ever. It’s just a portion of his plan of attack for 2021 and a must watch whether you’ve committed to doing video or not.

4. Grow Your Customer Base With Facebook Ads in 2021: Educator and author Danny Decker says Facebook Ads represents an attractive, alternative source of qualified leads that you can turn into customers. Within his Dealer Week 2020 session presentation, he clearly states that video content performs best and needs to be entertaining, educational and inspirational. This session also lets you get credit for the 2021 Marketing Course for Continuous Certification.

The recently launched MRAA’s Guide to Boat Show Success publication also discusses digital marketing, online boat shows, 3-D camera technologies and other strategies that can help you reach more customers. You’ll also learn where to find educational sessions to help guide you on your next business adventure. All Dealer Week attendees have access to this guide.

This blog is to remind you that you need to be doing videos. Consider this a wake-up call and a roadmap for finding more success within this industry. My message to you: Don’t quit before you even start!

While this reality has befuddled many organizations, innovative thinkers and leading businesses will drop the complaints, protests and excuses and adapt their business models to deliver value for their customers and grow their market share.

Examples of that innovation can be found all around the marine industry already, from the immediate adjustments made by Woodard Marine with its online boat show last spring, to MarineMax’s full-featured approach to growing its business online; to one of the most recent, most innovative virtual boat shows we’ve seen at Big Thunder Marine. You can read case studies on these and other organizations in MRAA’s recently released Guide to Boat Show Success, a nearly 60-page publication on how you can adapt your business for the unusual boat show season ahead.

At MRAA, we’ve lived this scenario — being forced to adjust a large event in the covid era — and having come out on the backside, I can assure you, there’s a path to success. For show producers, exhibit sales will take a hit. There’s really no way around that. While you can get creative with sponsorship, you just can’t sell “bulk space” when the entire Internet is one giant, free convention center. But for those of you who measure success in sales and exposure to potential customers, the move to a virtual environment provides exponential growth opportunity at a much lower cost.

Take our Dealer Week event as an example. The in-person event offers an electric experience, where history shows it’s a great place to shake hands, meet new people, find new products and services, and catch up with old friends. The energy at our 2019 launch of the new Dealer Week brand was palpable, we were thrilled that we attracted nearly 600 dealership personnel to the event, and in our outlook for the 2020 event, we expected significant growth.

When covid hit in March, we knew that the likelihood we would host an in-person event had been compromised, but rather than complain or apologize or protest, we looked at it as an opportunity to expand our reach, to attract more dealers and impact a larger percentage of our industry than ever before. We embraced it, and not only did that shine through in the execution of the event, but we realized 77-percent year-over-year growth, and we eclipsed our three-year goal of attracting 1,000 dealers in the first year.

The 2020 boat show season will be different for you. There’s no way around it. Going forward, producers will transform the way boat shows will help you go to market. There’s no going back to “normal,” whatever that may have been. This requires you to innovate now.

I urge you to transform your thinking, embrace the change, and evolve the way you go to market. Yes, the pandemic has forced your hand, but you get to choose your response. Will you be a victim or a beneficiary of these market conditions? Your choice will set the stage for success or failure, not just in 2021, but long after the pandemic’s impact stops driving people to boating in record numbers.

1. Get caught up on the 2020 Continuous Certification curriculum
2. Get ahead on the 2021 Continuous curriculum
   

Intent: Assure that you’re properly taking care of the customer before the sale via walk-in, phone-in or internet. Make sure you’re gathering leads, nurturing those leads and turning them into sales. No customer or prospect should be dropped if the process is used properly. There also needs to be follow up.

The MRAA team has written multiple blog post about sales process and customer experiences across a variety of businesses (like this one, and this one and this one). It is easy to reflect on an experience you have as a customer when the experience was less than ideal. But what if you could “flip the script” and get your customers raving about your dealership?

Sales processes are not unique to boat businesses, but is your process recorded? Does each and every one of your sales people follow the process AND execute of the follow-up?

The intention of Sales Process requirement of the Marine Industry Certified Dealership program is to assure that your entire team is properly taking care of all customers before the sale.

The best part? You can use your dealership’s unique process. Your Certification Consultant will help you track that process and fill any holes that are causing inefficiencies or less-than-ideal customer experiences. And if you need a place to start, the Certification program offers a sales process template to get you started.

Contact Director of Business Development, Allison Gruhn, for more information on the Marine Industry Certified Dealer program.

Intent: Assure that you’re properly taking care of the customer before the sale via walk-in, phone-in or internet. Make sure you’re gathering leads, nurturing those leads and turning them into sales. No customer or prospect should be dropped if the process is used properly. There also needs to be follow up.

The MRAA team has written multiple blog post about sales process and customer experiences across a variety of businesses (like this one, and this one and this one). It is easy to reflect on an experience you have as a customer when the experience was less than ideal. But what if you could “flip the script” and get your customers raving about your dealership?

Sales processes are not unique to boat businesses, but is your process recorded? Does each and every one of your sales people follow the process AND execute of the follow-up?

The intention of Sales Process requirement of the Marine Industry Certified Dealership program is to assure that your entire team is properly taking care of all customers before the sale.

The best part? You can use your dealership’s unique process. Your Certification Consultant will help you track that process and fill any holes that are causing inefficiencies or less-than-ideal customer experiences. And if you need a place to start, the Certification program offers a sales process template to get you started.

While overall Sales CSI scores dipped by just a half of a percentage point, the impact of an overwhelming sales season can now be felt in the service department, where CSI scores on the question, “Was the work done to your satisfaction?” dropped more than 2 full percentage points during the third quarter. Typically, service CSI numbers begin to rebound in September, according to Customer Service Intelligence, Inc., who fields the surveys, but that did not happen this year, as overall service department CSI dropped by nearly 3 full percentage points compared to the previous quarter.

Dealers took the biggest hit, however, in their Net Promoter Scores, a measurement of customer loyalty, in both sales and service. Net Promoter Scores represent the percentage of customers rating their likelihood to recommend a company, product or a service, to a friend or colleague on a scale of 0-10. The formal score is calculated by subtracting the number of Detractors, or customers rating the company at a 6 or below, from the Promoters, who rate a dealer as 9 or 10. Any positive NPS scores means a company has more Promoters than Detractors, and typically anything at 70 or above is considered “world class.”

While Net Promoter Scores for dealership service departments have scored a 77.2 on a
12-month average, the monthly scores have remained, for the most part, on downward
trajectory since April of 2020. 

Dealer service Net Promoter Scores fell below that 70-percent threshold for the first time in 2020 this past quarter, suggesting that the number of Detractors is on the rise. A third-quarter dip appears to be the norm for our industry, but we should not sit back and accept this.

The stats show, year after year, that during busy season, Net Promoter Scores drop in both sales and service. These scores don’t necessarily reflect our current situation, however, and although they are scores from previous customers, they also don’t reflect our past. This is a measurement of loyalty — of whether or not the customer will recommend that dealer to someone else — and so the decline in Promoters means future business is at risk.

“It means that dealers are not earning the respect of the customer to the point where the customer is willing to put their reputation on the line and recommend that dealer,” explains Becky Thompson, president of CSI, Inc. “Dealers need to realize that their customer base has choices out there on where to get their service work done. It's easy to defect if the customer is not enjoying their experience with you – there are dealers all over.”

For manufacturers, the news is equally as bad, if not worse, because when that customer defects from a dealer, that’s oftentimes the brand’s one shot at capturing a customer in that market.

The reality is that service NPS fell from 84.6 in the second quarter to 69.6 in the third quarter, and on the sales side, NPS fell from 81.3 to 70.3 over the same period. The Detractors are already defecting.

“Many times, dealers get so caught up in price, product, and people issues, that they forget it really all comes down to one thing – the customer experience,” Thompson notes. “Ultimately, as summer wears on, and particularly during the crazy busy season of covid, dealers’ ability to execute the fundamentals of taking care of their customers — following up after service or a sale, answering emails and so forth — has been compromised.”

Keep in mind, these results are from dealers that are tracking, measuring and managing their business with customer service at the top of their agenda. What would these numbers look like if we sampled 50 dealers who were not?

In addition to being delivered right onto the device of your choice, the online Dealer Week comes to you at half the normal rate and without all of the flights, hotel rooms, meals and bar tabs … not to mention preventing the biggest potential cost commitment of all — leaving your dealership for three or four days.

The reality is, however, that people don’t attend educational events if the courses won’t help them solve problems or pursue opportunities in their immediate future. Dealer Week was designed exactly for that purpose, and THAT is why we’re seeing an influx of new (virtual) faces attending this event.

Dealer Week's educational courses are designed with your 

pain points and opportunities in mind.

As you look to consider attending the event, let me take a moment to explain our educational approach. At MRAA, we separate our courses into what we believe are the three pillars of any dealership’s success: 1. Dealership Operations, 2. Employees and 3. Customers. At Dealer Week, we call these Educational Pathways, and we offer you content that will help you strengthen each pillar in your business.

You, however, may look at the education through a different lens, perhaps through your roll, through your department, or through the biggest pains or opportunities you’re faced with at the moment. Topics like sales or service, marketing or leadership, or otherwise. And if that’s the case, let me show you how these topics and more are waiting for you at Dealer Week 2020.

What’s on your mind for the year ahead?

Another Record Sales Year? Try these sessions:

·      Grow Your Customer Base with Facebook Ads, with Danny Decker

·      Fill the Gaps in Your Sales Process, with Jim Million & Bob McCann

·      Get Ahead of the Pre-Owned Opportunity, with Tony Gonzalez

Your Service Department? Try these sessions:

·      How to Catch Up In Service, with Max Materne

·      Turn Your Shop Inside Out, with Valerie Ziebron

·      3 Ways to Earn Your Service Customer’s Trust, with Chris Collins

Digital Marketing Lead Generation? Try these sessions:

·      Use Digital to Personalize the Customer Experience, with Rich DeLancey

·      How to Build Your 2021 Marketing Plan, With or Without an In-Person Boat Show, with Marcus Sheridan

·      Grow Your Customer Base with Facebook Ads, with Danny Decker

·      How to Become a Video-First Dealership, with Marcus Sheridan

Customer Experience? Try these sessions:

·      Shine a Light on Your Dealership’s Dark Spaces, with Sam Dantzler

·      How to Navigate Difficult Customer Conversations, with John Spence

·      Use Digital to Personalize the Customer Experience, with Rich Delancey

Your own Leadership Growth? Try these sessions:

·      Move Beyond Burnout: The Search for Sustained Motivation for Yourself and Your Team, with David Spader

·      How to Recruit, Work With, and Lead People Not Like You, with Kelly McDonald

·      How to Thrive on the Other Side of 2020, with John Spence

·      Develop Your Dealership’s Bench Strength, with The Rawls Group

Strengthening Your Team? Try these sessions:

·      Develop Your Dealership’s Bench Strength, with The Rawls Group

·      How To Recruit, Work With and Lead People Not Like You, with Kelly McDonald

·      Frankly, any Dealer Week course, in a training environment, can make your team stronger…

What else? If you don’t see the topic that’s most on your mind among these options, shoot me a note or give me a call, and I’d be happy to walk you through the opportunities MRAA and Dealer Week have available to you.

If you can’t tell by reading this, our team built this educational agenda to deliver extremely timely and relevant information you can implement immediately. That’s a hallmark of MRAA and Dealer Week, and delivering that in an online environment makes it easier than ever for you to benefit from.

Intent: One of the pillars of Certification is customer service. Certified Dealers need to understand how their CSI numbers are trending alongside their peers carrying the same brands and other dealers in the industry. If the numbers aren’t up to national standards, they need a plan to address and remedy this.

If you are a current Certified Dealer you received an email from Liz K. this week assigning your last 2020 Continuous Certification requirement for the year (wahoo!), the CSI Tracking & Trending requirement.

As many of you already know, CSI scores overall took a hit this year due to the rapid growth that our industry experienced. While some things (i.e. inventory shortages) were out of your control, others (i.e. buyer follow-up) were not. How did you do? Do you know how your CSI scores were affected over the course of 2020? Do you expect your new customers to continue to come back to your dealership after the initial sale?

The intention of the CSI Tracking & Trending requirement of the Marine Industry Certified Dealership program, and also, the Continuous Certification program, is to make sure that you understand and have a pulse on how your CSI numbers trend year over year. This exercise allows you to compare your numbers to yourself and your competition and create an action plan for improving your customer experience, which, in turn, will improve your CSI scores.

P.S. Shout out to the team at Russell Marine – Real Island for getting in their 2020 Tracking & Trending requirement in first this year! Yes, a few dealerships have already turned in all of their assignments for 2020 Continuous Certification, more than two months before the deadline!

At most boat builders, the incoming orders are far exceeding the ability to produce.

At a 100-boat-per-week builder, for example, they are currently receiving 300 new boat orders per week. “It’s a hole you can’t dig out of,” an executive there explains. “Everyone’s calling. They’re frustrated because they’re sold out of all of their boats. It’s insane.”

Another builder shipped 3 boats per day for most of the 2020 model year and is moving to 5 boats a day by next month. “This time last year, we had about a month of orders,” their head of sales explained. “We are into April 2021 with orders right now.”

And yet another has released a list of the eight models that it has already sold out of for the 2021 model year: “Please make note, we are no longer in a position to take orders for these models,” their letter explains.

Meanwhile, dealers, many of whom have pre-sold most of the product they have on order — one dealer has already pre-sold 19 of the next 23 units en route to his store —  fear not having enough boats in stock to maintain sales levels for the year ahead, let alone entertain the idea of having enough inventory to conduct a boat show, where they generate the lion’s share of their leads.

81 percent of dealers suggested they were either "very low"
or completely out of new unit inventory.

The inventory shortage threatens the marine industry’s ability to continue its momentum into 2021 on many levels, and dealers are racing to figure out a solution. In the meantime, the stats at the dealer level show that, according to a recent survey conducted by the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, 81 percent of boat dealers are either “very low” or are completely out of inventory. Fifteen percent of them reported being out of new units to sell.

Of those same dealers, 88 percent suggested they planned to order the same (40%) or more (48%) inventory as they had in 2020; and nearly two-thirds — 64 percent — noted that their current lead time to receive newly ordered boats was more than three months.

The consensus from boat manufacturers seems to be that it will take 12-18 months before the inventory pipeline is restocked to normal levels.

The pressing question now appears to be: What does 2021 have in store?

There’s so much to consider with that question. Will I get the inventory I need? Will record sales resume? Will Covid concerns persist? Are there economic challenges ahead? What impact will the election have on my business? And how will my customers respond to it all?

Of course, these are questions you ask when you are at the mercy of whatever the market throws at you, but smart dealers know that the actions they take are what dictate their level of success.

The real question you should be asking yourself is: How will I steer my company to prosperity in 2021? Because the results are in your control.

As you seek to manage inventory levels, sales strategies, the customer experience, service department profitability and more, you can turn to Dealer Week, MRAA’s annual conference and expo, for direction. With the industry’s top experts and leading solution providers gathered in one event, Dealer Week is our industry’s only event geared to helping you maximize your success.

What’s more is that this year, as we move Dealer Week to an online-only event, this educational content becomes more accessible to you and your team than ever before. With no travel, hotel, or meal expenses, or required days out of the office, Dealer Week will be delivered to your dealership, making it the perfect way to train and prepare your team for the year ahead.

If you have not attended Dealer Week previously, you should know that dealers just like you have noted numerous strategies and tactics they have implemented based on what they learned at the event. And for 2020, MRAA has not only increased our investment in the educational content, but we are working with our experts to ensure that it’s as timely and relevant as possible in this rapidly changing business environment. That means you can trust that Dealer Week will provide you with the absolute latest trends, insights, strategies and best practices from the absolute best speakers and trainers.

As you seek to answer the questions that 2021 presents you — as you seek to remain in control of your business’ future — Dealer Week will take the guesswork out of your operations and help you run your business with clarity and confidence. I hope you’ll register today.

The Marine Retailers Association has announced a new benefit for members designed to assess their personal and business wealth to bring them closer to their most meaningful financial goals. The “Second Opinion Service” benefit is provided by with The Stanek Group at Morgan Stanley.

Many of you have built up successful dealerships and concentrated on their business wealth. The Second Opinion Service evaluates how you can become financially independent of your business by taking a detailed view at your key financial documents and addressing areas such as:

•    Navigating your business succession, exit, and transfer of dealership to the next generation or third party.
•    Finding ways for your wealth to be tax efficient and to eliminate debt.  
•    Preserving your wealth through thoughtful insurance, long term care and disability insurance policies.

Here’s how the benefit works.

The Stanek Group will meet with you for a Discovery Meeting. Assuming both parties agree there is a basis to work together, you provide key financial documents for an in-depth financial review. A second meeting – the Wealth Planning Meeting – is then scheduled to review key findings, opportunities, and specific recommendations to help your wealth work better for you.

If you enjoy working with the Stanek Group, you can engage their services but are not obligated to do so.
Either way, you will receive:

•    A personalized written analysis of your current situation
•    Clarity on your wealth plan
•    Recommendations, suggestions and planning insights to help reach your most important goals.
•    Most importantly, a written plan that you can review, implement, and share with your other advisors.

If you would like to learn more, you can reach out directly to Tony Perrelli, Financial Advisor, with the Stanek Group at Morgan Stanley. Tony can be reached at Tony.Perrelli@ms.com or 312-648-3365.

Tony Perrelli
Financial Advisor
Morgan Stanley – Chicago Merc #628
227 West Monroe Street
Suite 3400
Chicago IL 60606

Since life insurance and long term care insurance are medically underwritten, you should not cancel your current policy until your new policy is in force.  A change to your current policy may incur charges, fees and costs.  A new policy will require a medical exam. Surrender charges may be imposed and the period of time for which the surrender charges apply may increase with a new policy.  You should consult with your own tax advisors regarding your potential tax liability on surrenders.

Guarantees and contractual obligations are backed by the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company.

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (“Morgan Stanley”), its affiliates and Morgan Stanley Financial Advisors or Private Wealth Advisors do not provide tax or legal advice.  Clients should consult their tax advisor for matters involving taxation and tax planning and their attorney for matters involving trust and estate planning and other legal matters.

Investments and services offered through Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC.  Member SIPC.
CRC 3176965  7/2020

Data from July for Boat Trader, YachtWorld and boats.com show traffic (+49% YoY) and leads (+193% YoY) continue to soar past the expected July Fourth peak, suggesting the boat buying surge won’t end anytime soon in the United States. The recent rise in traffic, leads and boat sales has largely been driven by people new to boating and those quick to realize that escaping to the water on a boat is the best way to ‘staycation’ and stick to COVID’s restrictions on travel and gatherings. In fact, new visitors on Boats Group’s marketplaces were up 56% last month.
 
New boaters appear to be drawn to boats with multipurpose use, and right now cruisers, center consoles and pontoons are the top in-demand segments based on magnitude of leads. In comparison to last year in July, sailboats and fishing boats were among the leading categories – an indication that buyers in 2020 are looking for functional, family-friendly boats. The heightened popularity of pontoons (leads up +271% YoY) in particular, an easy-to-handle, versatile boat for the masses, is further evidence of a new boat-buying audience.
 
Following the progression of the virus, certain areas in the U.S. have experienced drastic upticks in the number of recorded infections, which could help explain changes in demand geographically in places like the West Coast where lead volume outpaced the Great Lakes for the first time. Lead volume across all regions remained strong beyond the usual Fourth of July peak, signaling that the typical sales season may be extended this year.
 
The latest information reported to Boats Group’s soldboats.com and YachtCloser data sources also confirms the current buying boom underway and reveals that the number of boats sold in July in the U.S. grew +30% over 2019. The surge in sales, coupled with the slowed to halted production, has resulted in tightened inventory, pushing the average price per boat sold up 18% YoY, as well as total value sold, which grew 54% YoY in July.

The boating industry has not seen this level of entrants in recent years and may need to adjust its sales and post-sales approach to ensure that this new audience remains engaged long term.

But one of the ways to really amplify your efforts is to go through the Marine Industry Certified Dealership program.

The customer experience is one of three key pillars that the Certification program is based off of, so going through Certification will allow you and your Certification Consultant to analyze your current processes and how they impact your customer experience, and then use proven best practices to improve your efforts.

The following are just a few parts of the Certification process that can impact the customer experience you offer:

• Marine Industry Consumer Commitment
• Employee Satisfaction Survey
• CRM process
• CSI tracking & trending
• Sales process, including 100 percent follow-up
• Delivery
• Customer product orientation
• Website standards
• Facility standards
• Service process, including 100 percent follow-up
• Repair orders
• Quality assurance process
• Service comeback tracking
• Parts process
• Mystery shopping

Through Certification, you’ll go over each of these areas and more, to cover your customer experience, employee engagement and dealership operations. It’s a surefire way to shore up your customer experience efforts, learn from your Certification Consultant, implement best practices of other Certified Dealers and improve upon the experience offered to your customers, which, in turn, should improve your dealership as a whole.

On top of that, after you’re Certified, you’ll enter into the Continuous Certification program in each subsequent year, offering you exclusive customer experience education annually. Thus far, the Continuous Certification has covered the following customer experience topics: Take Your Dealership From Good to Great with CRM, Improve Loyalty with a Customer Experience Mindset, Align Your Dealership with Today’s Customer, Supercharge Your Customer Experience and Update Your Sales Process for Today’s Marine Market. Other courses in Continuous Certification have also touched on customer experience as well.

If you’re interested in Certification but still have questions, reach out to Zane Stevenson at zane@mraa.com or 763-402-7234, or Liz Keener at lizk@mraa.com or 763-333-2417. Or enroll at MRAA.com.

Now is the time to think about how you can offer additional training opportunities to your customers to make them safer boaters and offer them a better experience going forward.

Here are few ways you can continue to train your customers:

Women on the Water classes: Popular among many dealers, Women on the Water classes take the recent female boat buyers and offer them a class with their peers to learn how to drive, dock and trailer a boat. These sessions are no pressure, allowing the participants to ask questions and try each skill themselves. While having large class sizes is not advisable during the COVID-19 outbreak, you may consider hosting one-on-one or small group classes (with local safety regulations in mind).

Boat captains: If you don’t yet offer a captain’s service, this may be something your dealership could offer. Pair your new boat buyer with a captain either on staff or a captain service nearby, so the new boat buyer can get a hang of boating and a better understanding of the rules of the water, while on their own boat with a trained captain.

Wake boarding, wake surfing, or skiing classes: Have your on-staff or nearby watersports expert take customers out on their own boat, or a similar dealership-owned boat, to demonstrate the best way to use the boat for watersports. Allow the customer and their family to have a chance to try wake boarding, surfing, or skiing themselves, so they can get a hang of the sport.

Safety courses: Host safety courses either on site at your dealership, or virtually. This offers boaters a better idea of what they should be thinking about when it comes to safety. Some dealerships even host courses after which attendees can earn a license or certification.

Video training: Many dealers are getting into video creation, and one of the great things to do with video is to offer product demonstrations. In each video segment, released periodically, teach your customer about a different part of the boat, offering them tips and tricks for a successful day out on the water.

Second orientation: We all know it's hard to soak in all the information during the initial delivery orientation, so if you have the time, you can offer your customers a second demo, after they've gotten the hang of the general of the boat. During a second orientation, the buyer would be armed with questions that relate directly to what they've been experiencing, and it gives your team an additional touchpoint with that new customer.

Customer experience is one of the three pillars of the Marine Industry Certified Dealership program, and Certified Dealers work on improving their customer experience, not just in the initial Certification process, but in Continuous Certification as well. And what they’ve learned throughout their time in Certification are best practices that can be shared for all dealers.

In 2018 and 2019 dealers in Continuous Certification participated in courses with Theresa Syer, focused on the customer experience. In 2018, the course was “Improve Loyalty with a Customer Experience Mindset,” and in 2019, it was “Supercharge Your Customer Experience,” a course which was also delivered as a live, in-person workshop at Dealer Week in December. As part of the e-learning course, dealers discuss what they’ve learned about customer experience, or what they’re working on.

The following are some tips on the customer experience that those dealers shared with us. Certified Dealers, you’ll be getting a more comprehensive report from these discussions later this month.

• “We host several customer events throughout the year. Some of our customers attend the events more so than actually walking into our dealership. At these events, we can have one-on-one time with each customer outside of the dealership generating great conversations about what they are doing in their personal lives — be it weddings, showers, graduations, anniversaries, etc.”
• “The Florida Keys are a very dog-friendly place and our staff is extremely pet friendly as well. We have, on average, five furry ones running around at any time.With that said, we encourage paw-friendly customers to bring their loved ones in with them.We always have bowls of water around and treats. It always helps break the ice and bring smiles to all when you see those tails wagging. It gives many customers someone to play with when they are waiting to be helped.”
• “Our dealership uses a couple different strategies to help personalize our customer's experience. We always try to get to know our customers on more than just a business level. We take the time to talk to them on a personal level and ask them questions about their family and hobbies.”
• “If you can incorporate empathy and understand a customer’s emotional motive for wanting a product or service and feed that back to them, you build trust and connect with your customer in a way that makes it personal. When you really hear what a customer says, and attempt to understand them, you take the selling process and the customer service process to another level.”
• “In the past, we used to give the customers gifts when they purchased a boat. The usual gift included a basket with champagne and a few hats. It was a nice gift basket, but recently we made a big change and stopped giving those type of gifts. They were just customer-service type gifts. We changed our philosophy to give the customers customized gifts with the purchase instead of something generic. We really try to find a unique, cool gift that will show the customer that we really thought about the gift and wanted to go above and beyond with the experience. Now we do everything from signed sports memorabilia from their favorite teams to humidors with their boat’s name engraved on them.”

1. Grow your family: To target new boaters, you can use current resources provided by the MRAA, Discover Boating, NMAA and related outlets to enhance your site and social content. But the idea is to share your own industry knowledge with these new customers. One way to build a larger family is to sell them boats, but another way is to offer them informative and related education, ownership tips and buying advice according to your market, areas of expertise and brands. This also can make you their trusted source both on and off the water.
2. Develop a content team: MarineMax has its own in-house team comprised of content suppliers, proofreaders, graphic designers and also a new CMS (content management system) engineer. While most dealerships can’t afford to build a team that large, adding a content producer to your marketing team could be beneficial. That person could be in charge of creating content for your website, social media, videos, e-blasts, ads and more. At MarineMax, the CMS engineer’s role is key in the development of the site-specific page because they build platform from the ground up, using current site stats and things like heat maps to determine consumer flow and viewing patterns. This role, whether in house or provided by an agency, creates the behind-the-scenes work and steps necessary to keep many visitors headed down the purchasing funnel. The other team members serve as content writers, editors and experts to enhance the brand’s voice. Finally, the design team blends the behind-the-scenes with the content to ensure the message is on point, attractive and on brand. In addition, this original content comes from you and is in your voice, which further connects you with the customer.
3. Budget for time and resources: You’ll save some cost if you have the ability to do everything with your internal team, from management to sales to parts and PR. If not, you must be prepared to reserve money for site development, freelance copy, proofreaders and site designers. MarineMax says a lot of responsibility falls upon the team’s shoulders because people can use the content and it’s out in front of the entire industry. Your team’s leaders and most experienced boaters make fabulous information resources. The goal is to improve your customer’s experience and to act like a one-stop shop to them. One location with all the answers.
4. Educational by design: Educating the customers with content is essential, but it also comes in handy for your sales consultants during interactions with consumers. They can find the right answers and the correct boat for customers the first time; a must do to create repeat buyers.
5. CRM: Investing in data collection technology (like HubSpot) and lead generation is vital, too, says Heimensen. Using the insights from the data helps a better roadmap and other ways to interact with customers. This includes CRM efforts like, newsletters, live boat demos, giveaways and virtual events for those new to boating. Try meet-and-greets on Zoom, Facebook Live forums and weekly podcasts to connect with certain consumers. The “Boating Tips Live” effort from MarineMax involves a designated captain to discuss different topics with consumers.
6. Have some class: This is more about offering your customers or potential customers classes to learn more about boat ownership prior to buying or boat ownership after the purchase. It’s really about re-investing in your customers. MarineMax says it offers specialty trips, like its Getaways!® boating events — complete with integrated safety and social-distancing protocols — for its customers as a way to entice more interaction and to offer them a better boating experience.
7. Lifelong boater, first-time buyer: Always remember that just because someone has been in boating all their life, doesn’t mean they have ever purchased their own boat or know everything about boat ownership. You can help educate them and further gain their trust.

• Answering the service department phone
• Being the go-to person for most customers
• Calling customers the day before their appointment to confirm they’re coming in (saving a headache for the rest of the department, if the customer isn’t coming in)
• Calling customers to schedule boat pickup
• Getting pre-authorization or authorization of work to be completed
• Assisting in sales of service products
• Entering customer information into the CRM (customer relationship management system)

While the sales team has been cranking out boats all spring and summer, we all know your service team is just as important to your business.

As the old saying goes, “Sales sells the first boat; service sells the rest.” (And dealers in 2020 Continuous Certification have a great course coming out in October with Valerie Ziebron that will highlight that.)

But hiring in service, let alone your other departments, has been difficult for quite a while. It’s no easy task to find skilled technicians or talented service advisors.

However, if you can fill those positions, you can also help those gifted folks by including more support staff that will keep both your technicians and your service advisors on track.

In today’s blog, we’re going to tackle getting help for your service techs. Tomorrow, we’ll cover how assisting your service advisors will improve your customer experience as well.

When you look at your service department, technicians are hard-to-find, well-paid employees, so they should be doing what they were hired to do — working on boats — as much as possible. As Jordan Schoolmeester of Garage Composites says in his MRAATraining.com course, you should “Keep Your Surgeons in Surgery.”

Technicians should have assistance from support positions, such as porters, riggers, a service and parts associate, a service assistant, or some sort of similar position or positions, so they can keep working in the shop. Job descriptions for these positions are available for MRAA members here.

While Jordan compares technicians to surgeons, MRAA Lead Certification Consultant Bob McCann likes to use the visual of a bar to demonstrate how these positions can help speed up efficiency in your service department.

Let’s say you go to Bar A. It’s busy, four people deep up at the bar rail (likely not now due to COVID-19, but you get our drift). There are three bartenders working, but they’re still struggling to pump out drinks. Supplies are running low, so one has to run and get ice, another has to head into the kitchen to get clean glasses, the third is cutting up some limes, and no one is serving a drink. The customers are getting frustrated, and not many sales are being made.

Bar B is just as busy, four people deep at the bar, but those customers are actually moving, getting drinks and getting back to their friends. Bar B has only two bartenders, BUT they also have a barback. The barback is taking care of refilling the ice, bringing in clean glasses and cutting up the limes. The barback makes sure that the skilled bartenders have everything they need to keep pumping out drinks, which means cranking out sales.

So which bar does your service department look like? Are your technicians turning wrenches for a large majority of their shifts? Or are they running to get their own parts, moving boats in and out of their bays, looking for keys, and reassembling every part of the boat after mechanical repair?

Those types of jobs can be trained to be completed by more entry-level employees, rather than a skilled technician. In turn, that keeps your technician in the shop, the dealership turning boats in and out of service more efficiently, and your customers happy because of the faster turnaround.

This step of prioritizing your technician’s work by hiring support help, is likely to make a significant impact on your service efficiency, your bottom line and your customer experience.

And when winter comes, as a a consumer, it becomes frustrating to make those boat payments, knowing your boat is sitting, unused in your garage, alongside the house, or in storage. This is especially true for first-time boat buyers, and those who used their vacation money in 2020 to buy a boat rather than travel.

Reaching out to your customers in these moments of doubt are key touchpoints to assure that we don’t lose our customers.

So, as the season winds down (whenever that might come in 2020), it’s time to start thinking about your marketing, sales and outreach plans for the fall, winter and early spring. What can you be doing in the off-season, if you have one, to reach out to your customers and get them excited about the next boating season?

Here are nine ideas of how to contact your customers in the coming months:

1.     Personal outreach to your customers: Call, text, email, or video chat with your customers. Aim for a personal outreach at least once in the off-season to check-in with each of your customers, understand how you can set them up for success for next year’s boating season, and get them more excited about the boating lifestyle.

2.     Run a customer photo contest: Ask your customers to dig out their summer photos for a contest. Give away some sort of prize or prizes. This helps customers go back to their boating photos, reminisce over their awesome summer and remember how great it is to own a boat. Plus, other customers and prospective customers will see the excitement those families experienced over the summer. Certified Dealer Norfolk Marine hosted a photo contest for their customers this past spring that’s worth checking out.

3.     Share boating lifestyle videos: When the chill has set in, people love thinking about the warmth. So share boating lifestyle videos with your customers via social media, email and/or text. Videos can be found for free through Discover Boating. Your manufacturers also likely have some available, as do any pro athletes associated with your brands. And your customers may have some to share as well. As Lead Certification Consultant Bob McCann reminded us recently, Video is King, so use it!

4.     Host off-season events: While COVID-19 may prevent your dealership from hosting in-person, indoor events this off-season, consider hosting a few virtual events. Maybe it’s a class on winterizing, or oil changes. Or maybe it’s information about safety or a boat show preview. Get creative, host the event live, and record the event, giving you optimal use of one event.

5.     Show your customers what off-season looks like at your dealership: Customers might think you just close up shop the second they put their boat in storage, so show them what kind of activity goes on within your store after the boats are out of the water. Showcase what service is up to. Remind them that the parts and accessories department is open. Take a spin through storage, asking your customers if they can spot their boat.

6.     Tell your customers how you’re improving: Many dealers spend the off-season getting their operations prepped for the next season. Show your customers the work your team is putting in to improve their experience with your dealership. If you’re going to Dealer Week to learn about the customer experience, tell them. If you get Certified or are working on your Continuous Certification education, let them know you’re making those improvements for their benefit. If you’re attending a 20 Group or participating in any other type of education, share that. Make sure you take photos and video to capture your customer’s attention.

7.     Host an ice-out contest: Many of you on icy bodies of water may be already doing this, but if you’re not yet, consider adding an ice-out contest. Have your customers vote for when they think the ice will break for boating season and offer a prize for the winner. This will build up the excitement right before the season begins.

8.     Create a countdown: Pick a boating date to get excited about, whether it’s your area’s fishing opener, the first holiday of the season (Memorial Day or Victoria Day), or a date that customers are typically pulling their boat out of storage and create a countdown. Remind your customers how many days are left on a weekly basis.

9.     Host a sale: Just because people are no longer boating doesn’t mean they aren’t still thinking about boating parts and accessories, especially around the holidays and shortly before the season starts. Put a product or a group of products on sale, and tell your customers to stop by, so you can continue to build your relationship with them, and they can get more used to coming into the showroom.

You probably have a hundred or more other ideas of how to reach out to customers when they can’t be out on their boat, and you’re probably already doing a lot of outreach. (Please share these ideas in the comments, if you have some.) The important thing to remember is to keep those dreams of the boating lifestyle alive, even when the boat is locked up for the year.

We don’t want customers to fall into new hobbies or habits in the off-season that will take them away from boating, instead we want customers to get to a point where they can’t imagine not owning a boat. And we can help get them in that mindset.

We’ve all heard the Golden Rule and probably had it engrained into us at a young age. The Golden Rule is to treat others like you would want to be treated.

While the Golden Rule is a great start, we should be living by the Platinum Rule, which is to treat others as they would like to be treated.

Dealers who were enrolled in the 2019 Continuous Certification Curriculum should remember the Platinum Rule from Jim Million’s course “Develop Your Dealership’s Workforce Outside In.” In that course, Jim discussed how we can use the Platinum Rule in coaching and mentoring our team.

But we can also talk about the Platinum Rule when it comes to your customers, treating each individual as they would like to be treated.

How would this look within your dealership? Here are just a few examples:

•  When collecting customer information, ask the customer how they want to be contacted. Ask them if they prefer to communicate via phone, email, text and/or video. If you have them choose the option or options that work best, they’ll better appreciate the outreach and will be more likely to respond.
• Going back to the blog on fixing customer’s issues, you want to work with each customer to come up with a solution, if they have a complaint. For example, if a customer’s boat gets stuck in the shop for an extra week, you may think you have to go over the top to make them happy, but maybe you just need to connect them with a rental boat for the weekend to keep their loyalty. You won’t know unless you ask.
• When a customer has a family, especially when that family is involved in the purchase and delivery, during follow-up and subsequent visits, the customer will likely want you to ask about their whole family and how the family is enjoying the boating lifestyle, not just themselves.

There are numerous ways to treat people like they would like to be treated, but you have to ask and take notes. Of course, if you don’t know how people want to be treated, you can start with the Golden Rule and treat them as you’d like to be treated. But as you get to know the customer and build a relationship with them, take notes of their needs and wants. Record those in your customer relationship management (CRM) system and reference those notes every time you call or text your customer or see them in person.

Again, the goal is to serve them at the level at which they’ll want to return to your dealership and shop nowhere else for their boats and boating accessories.

First, that’s no reason to not follow-up with your customers. The fear of the unknown is a poor excuse for not offering the levels of customer experience that your customers expect.

Second, follow-up helps you discover those issues that arise and address them as they come.

Sometimes the feedback may be something small, such as, “I thought I purchased four lifejackets, but when I got home, there were only three in the boat.” Other times, it will be something much bigger, as in, “After the second time out with the boat, the dang thing won’t even start.”

But without asking, you’ll never know where these issues are surfacing.

And, even better, by asking, you get the opportunity to fix the issue. Data from the Technical Assistance Research Programs (TARP) and others shows that by fixing a customer’s issue, you can actually build more loyalty than you can from just the sale.

Here’s some of that data from TARP:

• Ninety-five percent of customers with minor complaints ($1-$5 losses) will buy from you again, if you solve their complaint quickly. Of those with major complaints (over $100 losses), 82 percent will buy from you again if you solve their complaint quickly.
• On the flip side, if their complaints aren’t resolved, only 46 percent of customers with minor issues will return, while only 19 percent with major complaints will come back.
• And, again, don’t think that not asking for feedback helps. Of those who are unhappy with minor issues, who don’t actually share their complaint, only 37 percent will return to your business. Those with major issues who don’t complain will only return 9 percent of the time.
• And those non-complainers will tell 9-10 other people about their bad experience.

So, what can you do to serve your customers? In her course, “Turn Upset Customers into Loyal Ones” on MRAATraining.com, Valerie Ziebron shares the Five Keys to Turn Upset Customers into Dealership Advocates.

They are:

1.     Recognize basic expectations: Your customers have expectations of trust, quality, convenience, personalized service and value when they work with a dealership, so offer them those things.

2.     Fix the customer and the issue: You have to fix the customer, meaning restore the trust with them, first. You have to listen. You cannot assume that by fixing the issue, fixing the boat, that they will be happy.

3.     Create a partnership: As Valerie explains, “Customers who feel they participated in solving the issue are more satisfied with the solution.” As dealers, you need your customers to help you diagnose a problem (when, how often, under what conditions), so informing them that they’re part of the solution will empower them to help you, so you can ultimately fix their issue.

4.     Be open and fair: Most customers will accept honest mistakes if you own up to them, apologize and correct the mistake. Show the customers with a visual, if you can.

5.     Have a plan for recovery: In this session, Valerie talks about service recovery, but the same could be said for sales. Everyone on the team should be trained in conflict resolution and the dealership’s process for handling upset customers.

Of course, all situations can’t be fixed quickly. Right now, getting certain parts is hard, and you’re already extremely busy trying to get work done this summer. Just be honest and transparent with your customer and offer them the best solution you can at the time, while setting expectations for when the final resolution will come.

Remember, the goal of improving the customer experience at your dealership is to show your customers that you’re their friend and guide in their boating lifestyle. When a customer does come to you with a complaint, take a step back and think how you’d want to be treated in that same situation, or how you would treat your friend or neighbor if you sold a boat to them, and they had the same issue.

The data shows that by helping that customer, fixing their issue and restoring their trust, you can flip the unhappy customer to a raving, loyal fan.

The thought is that as people are still living socially-distanced lifestyles without vacations, a boat is that getaway we all need, a place to get out on the water, away from others, remove the mask and watch something other than the TV, as highlighted by this recent Associated Press article.

While first-time boat buyers are coming in at a higher clip than they have been since about 2014, the concern still lies that we may lose those boaters going forward, as their regular activities, lifestyles and vacations return. Looking at the Info-Link First-Time Boat Buyer purchasing chart, you’ll see that the industry averages about one-third of sales to first-time boat buyers.

But the issue is in the second chart here. When we look at the five-year attrition rate — how many buyers remain in the sport within five years of buying at boat —we’re losing 42 percent of first-time boat buyers before they hit that milestone. Forty-two percent! So what good is it bringing in new buyers, if we’re not going to keep them? All we’re doing is using our funnel to refill a bucket that has a big hole in the bottom of it.

That’s why we all need to be focused on the customer experience, as we have been with Operation: Keep Your Customers Boating. This isn’t a new problem — it’s something NMMA, Discover Boating, MRAA, Info-Link and others — have been discussing for at least the past few years, but it’s an issue that has really been brought to the forefront by the number of sales that have occurred in 2020.

If we want to build on the momentum we’ve built this year, we have to help our customers by showing them the boating lifestyle is THE lifestyle they want to be a part of, and a boat is something their family just can’t part with. If you look back at the Operation: Keep Your Customers webpage, you’ll see there are a variety of ideas to drive a positive customer experience, and the list of things to do may seem long, but the data shows that effort pays off. Once you get the customer to buy a second boat from you, the five-year attrition rate shortens to 24 percent, then down to 18 percent and 12 percent as they continue to buy, for an average of 19 percent for boats two through four.

As Jack Ellis, managing director at Info-Link shared, “One certainly can’t expect a 19 percent attrition rate for FTBBs (first-time boat buyers), but the information on this graphic suggests that it’s perfectly reasonable to think we could improve the attrition rate a bit. There are currently about 400,000 FTBBs each year, so if we could improve retention by just 5 percent, this translates to another 20,000 people we could keep in boating each year, rather than have them run off to a different activity.”

Converting those first-time boat buyers into second-time boat buyers is the key to plugging that hole in our sales bucket. Let’s, as individual businesses and as an industry, do what we can to fill that hole by improving our customer experience.

Every minute that a customer must sit in chair instead of driving off with their new boat decreases their overall satisfaction with your dealership. Your customer is now used to buying things off Amazon and having it delivered the next day. They get their movies and shows on Netflix instantly. Customers now expect an efficient and timely delivery of their goods and will seek out those companies that can deliver that to them, while avoiding those who cannot.

Sale

Nowhere in the sales process is inefficiency more apparent than in the F&I office. In fact, some dealers have no dedicated F&I process in place at all. Without a process, financing often must be secured externally, and consumer products that would otherwise be presented go overlooked. This creates more work for your customer and deprives them of additional services and products that may be of benefit to them. It also removes additional revenue opportunities from your dealership and opens you up to a whole slew of compliance issues.

By having a dedicated F&I office or partnering with a third party to provide the service remotely, you mitigate these issues while also greatly increasing customer satisfaction. Now instead of your customer having to pass information between the dealership and the bank, your dealership can quickly secure a lender while your customer is still working with sales, picking out the color of their seats. By the time the customer has made their purchasing decision, the paperwork is ready to go, and the F&I manager can introduce themselves and present the customer with their terms. This also allows a quick break for your salesperson so that they may print or procure any additional items for the customer, while the customer is engaged with F&I. This handoff also ensures that when the customer returns for delivery, they already know your F&I manager and are more comfortable during the delivery process.

Delivery

Upon returning for delivery, your dedicated F&I manager has overseen the titling and financing paperwork, allowing your salesperson more time to look over the unit and ensure it meets the customer’s expectations. This separation of tasks also decreases the chances that a mistake is made on the paperwork or with the unit. Having an extra set of eyes on closing documents adds a level of redundancy that can save you — and your customer — major headaches. Since your customer is already familiar with your finance manager, sales can now do a complete hand-off and return to focusing on their duties.

Finance now has the responsibility to quickly and accurately present the customer with his or her closing documents and ancillary services. These documents need to be printed ahead of time and presented in a clear and concise way, along with a menu to clearly and quickly show additional services that are of value to the customer. Bringing additional value to your customer is extremely important during the delivery process, as it increases long-term satisfaction with your dealership and leads to more repeat customers.

Products

Some of the products that build additional value are service contracts, appearance protection, pre-paid maintenance, GAP or trailer tire and wheel coverage. It is important to know these products intimately and only present ones that will have an added value to your customer. For instance, if a customer is buying a boat, but will keep it in a slip and not on a trailer, then you should exclude tire and wheel protection from your presentation. The inverse of that would be someone who drives 30 minutes to the lake every day. They may have a spare tire for their trailer, but since a normal car jack should not be used on a trailer, they have no way to install it. Most customers — especially first-time boat owners — do not know this. By bringing it to their attention and offering them a solution, you increase their initial satisfaction while also ensuring continued satisfaction down the road.

Another example of this is with service contracts and appearance protection. The customer expects that the new boat that you just sold them will continue to look new and operate without issue. However, things happen and that is not always the case. When they do, the customer will always reach out to the dealership to make things right. Having to explain to your customer why they now need to spend sometimes thousands more on a boat that they already spent so much on usually leaves your customer less than thrilled. Instead, if you had offered them a way to cover these items when they purchased the boat, and allowed them to wrap those payments into their financing, you could quickly fix the issues at no additional cost to your customer. Getting your customer quickly back on the water for no perceived cost greatly increases their satisfaction and goodwill towards your dealership. It also ensures they return to you for their services. This keeps those service dollars in-house and allows the customer to look at that shiny new boat that you have on the showroom floor.

Why F&I

Having dedicated F&I can greatly affect your customer’s buying process and ultimately how they perceive your dealership. With that said, it is not enough to just have an office – it is also essential that your processes and products are at a level of quality that your customers deserve.

This is a guest blog written by Maxwell Haning of Innovative Dealer Services, Inc., a partner member of the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas.

So how do you continue to build revenue for your business and continue to deliver an excellent customer experience? Accessory sales!

By now, your winter, spring and early summer buyers are fully settled into their boating lifestyle. They’ve become accustomed to what they like about boating and have started to learn to overcome anything they don’t like (backing up a trailer, anyone?).

If they weren’t thinking about accessories when they first purchased their boat, maybe they are now. They might be thinking that they’ve brought their boating experience to a 10 out of 10, but now they want to pump up the volume and bring it to an 11.

But many of them don’t know where to start. So this presents another opportunity for you to be the expert, the guide, the friend, who helps the customer improve upon their already fantastic boating experience.

So how can you promote the accessories that you sell to improve their boating lifestyle?

• Well, you can’t deliver what they need without talking to them, so let’s note another great reason to have a follow-up plan.
• As you’re making follow-up calls and sending follow-up text messages, ask the boater what activities they’ve been participating in and what they’re interested in doing that they haven’t tried.
• Push out an email blast to your full database to showcase new, popular, sale, clearance and other products.  
  
• Use your social media to highlight your customers using accessories. Describe which products(s) the customer is using, how they’re using the product and remind your customers that you sell it.
• Create a video walkthrough of your Pro Shop, focusing on the most popular, visual products on the floor.

What types of accessories might a customer be interested in as they enter the back half of the season?

1.   Towables: Maybe they’ve been cruising all summer, but their kids are begging for a towable. Showcase the variety that you carry.

2.     Wakeboards, wakesurf boards, skis and accessories: Just like with towables, your new boat buyers may be out on the water, seeing more and more people participating in these sports. Encourage them to buy their first board, or upgrade what they already have.

3.     Fishing equipment: If you’re in a fishing-heavy location, show off your fishing rods, reels and accessories and encourage your customers to upgrade from the equipment they’ve been hanging onto for the past decade. Make sure you’re offering fishing advice, too. Fishing strategies evolve as the seasons progress, and fishing in late summer and into the fall is definitely different than fishing in the spring. Make sure they’re staying on the fish by giving them some much needed-tips or advice or even the recommendation of a guide.

4.     Electronics: Now that they’ve gotten out on the boat and have experienced driving it, your boat buyers may want to enhance their lifestyle by adding a GPS, a fish finder, a stereo system or some other electronics.

5.     Sun-safe products: We’ve all seen a photo or two of a bad sunburn this summer (or have had one ourselves). Remind customers that you sell sunscreen, tanning lotion, SPF shirts and hats.

6.     Coolers: If it has been particularly hot in your area, tell customers which coolers you carry and the benefit to using those coolers on their boat versus a cheap cooler they can buy elsewhere.

7.     Swimming accessories: If your boaters are anchoring out and going for a dip, they may want to bring along a swim mat, floats, goggles, or snorkels for themselves and their passengers. Also, they might need a new swimsuit after too many Instagram photos in the same one.

8.     Life vests: If you didn’t convince your customers to get new life vests when they purchased their boat, remind them again of the different, lightweight and comfortable options you have in stock (if you do still have them in stock), and remind them to have life vests for everyone on board!

9.     Boat covers: Again, maybe your buyer didn’t want to pony up the money to buy a boat cover with their initial purchase, but now they may be considering the longevity of their boat. Encourage them to protect their investment with a boat cover.

There are many other accessories, or parts, that your customers could be interested in, as they become more comfortable with their boat and their boating activities. Take a walk around your Pro Shop and your parts department and make sure you’re marketing what you have.

Again, if done right, sharing information with customers about how to improve their boating lifestyle will position your dealership as an expert, guide and friend. And it will drive traffic and revenue back into your dealership, even if you’re out of boats.

There are, however, a few key fundamentals that customers expect from your business, and all of them can be found in MRAA’s Marine Industry Consumer Commitment, a one-page pledge created as part of the Grow Boating program at its inception. Drafted by both dealers and manufacturers, the Consumer Commitment is a staple of the Dealership Certification program and is a requirement to be publicly posted both in-store and online at Certified Dealerships.

If you’re looking for what customers expect of you, the Consumer Commitment is a great place to start.

It outlines 18 key deliverables your dealership and your team should ensure are present at all times. Broken down into sales, service and operations, this document could be a great guide for your business to start with. In fact, I would suggest it’s really the foundation of any great dealership.

A few of the key elements of this include items like:

• A written disclosure of all details associated with a purchase.
• An explanation of the proper usage and operation of products.
• Products properly prepared, inspected and tested before delivery.
• An itemized list of all service charges with thorough explanation.
• Timely notice of changes in service delivery time if delays are experienced during repair.
• Inspection of any replaced/damaged components upon presentation of invoice or work order.
• Fair, open and honest treatment without discrimination.
• Privacy and confidentiality of customer records.

There’s nothing about this Consumer Commitment that’s outside of what you would expect, and it’s designed that way. These are the basic fundamentals of running a dealership, but the power in this commitment is your pledge to make it happen.

If you want to demonstrate to your customers that they can expect a higher standard of professionalism when working with your business, Dealership Certification’s Consumer Commitment is the place to start.

This is exactly where MRAATraining.com comes into play. MRAATraining.com is an online educational portal where you and your team can access well over 100 courses on just about every topic in marine dealership management, including, of course, the customer experience. It’s a good time to note here that some of the courses I outline below are FREE for anyone to access, while others can be accessed at no charge if you are an MRAA Silver Member or Gold Member. If you are not a Silver or Gold member, you can purchase courses a la carte.

To build your strategy on the customer experience, here are a few key courses I’d recommend you take a look at:

The cornerstones of our customer experience content include two courses by renowned expert Theresa Syer: Make Customer Service Your Competitive Advantage and a workshop called Supercharge Your Customer Experience. These courses will help you really think about how to focus you energies on delivering a powerful, rewarding customer experience. They are great for your team to watch together and to inspire the team to build customer-focused steps into all of your processes.

Make Customer Service Your Competitive Advantage promises to deliver a clear understanding the difference between good service and experiential service, fresh insights and techniques to provide a more emotional approach to customer engagement, and tips on how to make your customers feel valued and appreciated. In Supercharge Your Customer Experience, which was recorded at the 2019 Dealer Week, you will learn how to improve further upon the customer experience, with insights on defining the customers’ emotional motivators (what drives them to buy), identifying key emotional drivers that can shift conversations in your direction, and understanding the consistent actions required to elicit a positive emotional response from your customers. Any strategy on customer experience should start with these courses as the foundation.

Any great customer experience must begin in the sales process. MRAA’s course Buyer Motivation: The Key to Building Value offers incredible sales insights, but most importantly it has been designed to help dealers respond to changes in customer behavior and ultimately close more deals. It teaches sales team members how to customize sales presentations to buying motivation and will help any dealership drive more business at a higher profit while increasing customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. This course is free for anyone to take at MRAATraining.com and is made available by MRAA’s Dealership Certification Program.

Another set of free courses that will help you set the tone for a world-class customer experience is MRAA’s Grow Your Business With First-Time Boat Buyers three-part series. There’s no need to even login or visit a different website with these courses, and these courses will help you understand and guide first-time boat shoppers and sell to first-time buyer motivations, while providing you with a bunch of tools that will help you convert first-time shoppers into buyers.

While those courses offer great foundational concepts to build a customer experience strategy around, others found at MRAATraining.com can help you create solid tactics for enhancing that strategy:

• Service CSI & Upselling: Not an Either/Or Proposition, by Valerie Ziebron, can help you build long-term customer loyalty and dealership profitability one interaction at a time.

• CSI: Outside the Box, by Steve Pizzolato (formerly of Avala Marketing, which was acquired by Rollick), will provide insights into consumer satisfaction during the consideration phase, the initial purchase phase and the post-purchase phase.

• MRAA also published a Guide to Defining The Customer Experience with Pizzolato and his team, which provides a deeper understanding of the basics of delivering a more rewarding customer experience.

• You can learn more about first-time boat buyers through research conducted and shared by Discover Boating.

• Valerie Ziebron offers a great course on how to Turn Upset Customers Into Loyal Ones, which shares positive conflict resolution techniques that you can use to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

At the MRAA, we seek to provide resources that you and your dealership need to help you make decisions and run your business with confidence. We know the challenges you face in adjusting your business to meet changing customer demands. That’s why we create powerful resources like those above, but please know that’s not all we have to offer you.

The MRAA runs the marine industry’s only program focused on helping dealers deliver a world-class customer experience: Dealership Certification. Not only can our expert consultants help you put the processes in place to ensure a great customer experience, but the continuing education that is built exclusively for Certified Dealers helps you and your team stay up to speed on the latest methods for developing a competitive advantage through the customer experience. These include two in-depth courses by Theresa Syer on building a customer experience strategy; a course titled Take Your Dealership From Good to Great with CRM, by Sam Dantzler; Align Your Dealership with Today’s Customer, with MRAA’s Liz Walz; and more. These courses are packed with great insights, downloadable resources and dealer discussions.

If you’re not ready to get Certified just yet, each year, MRAA’s Dealer Week conference and expo provides the latest insights, trends and strategies your business needs to thrive in any market conditions. This year, with all of the chaos in the marketplace and the uncertainty that plagued the economy, you can’t afford to miss Dealer Week. As the industry’s only dealer-focused event, it’s your one opportunity to access the leading experts, the top industry partners and like-minded dealers who are all vested in your success.

Finally, if there’s a resource you need or are looking for, please reach out and let us know. If we don’t have it for you already, we’ll help you find it.

In fact, boating can be downright scary and intimidating to the amateur or novice. There are a lot of complexities: how to trailer the boat, how to launch from a ramp, how to drive the boat, how to use all the features of the boat, how to navigate the waterways, how to pull into a dock. I could go on and on with a list of things that new buyers are scared of and need to be trained on.

Last week, we talked about the importance of the demo at delivery. But, we should also be arming our customers with additional resources and information.

The great thing is that many of these resources already exist. You just have to curate the ones that work for your area and your customers. Or, you can make a few of your own to really personalize the message.

Here are several places you can find resources to share with your first-time boat buyers:

Discover Boating: Discover Boating is a huge resource for boat shoppers, but did you know Discover Boating also has materials you can send your dealership’s new boat buyers to help them become more comfortable in their boating lifestyle? Under the Owning & Operating section of DiscoverBoating.com, you’ll find customer-facing information on insuring a boat, towing and trailering, storage, boat maintenance, safety, boat etiquette and more. There are also articles about fishing, information on recommended accessories, tips on wake surfing and more.

BoatUS: Drawing from the BoatUS Magazine, the BoatUS website has a slew of articles that could be helpful to your customers. The content includes information on: boats and tow vehicles, how to do it yourself, safety and prevention, technology, lifestyle and seamanship.

Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation: RBFF provides resources on where to fish and boat, how to obtain a fishing license, resources for young anglers and much, much more.

Sea Tow: While many of Sea Tow’s blogs focus on the organization and membership, there are also plenty that non-Sea Tow members may find useful, including those on safety, maintenance and other boating tips.

Water Sports Industry Association: If your customers will be participating in water sports aboard their boat, WSIA has resources you can share with them, including materials from the Wake Responsibly campaign.

U.S. Coast Guard: The Coast Guard offers recreational boaters a number of resources with a focus on safety.

Boating Magazines: Keep an eye out for helpful articles that your customers may appreciate. Or search a boating magazine’s website for any specific topic you’d like to touch on. Magazines, like Boating magazine and Salt Water Sportsman, for example, are constantly producing new content for consumers, much of which is informational. Rely on these resources to keep your customers in the know.

Local Resources: While much of what’s listed above pertains to a wide variety of boaters, a few local resources would also be helpful for your customers. Again, you should be able to seek out some resources that are already available. Check with your area marine trades association, Department of Natural Resources, lake associations, boat clubs, marinas and more for materials. You may want to provide your customers with information about fishing and boating regulations, maps of area waterways, details on area boat ramps and/or marinas and more.

Build Your Own Resources: Personalizing the resources will take time, but it will also position your dealership as an expert. As you have time, create videos, blogs, emails, social media posts, brochures, handouts, and/or letters to help your customers navigate their boating lifestyle. You can create general boating operation resources, information on common boating lifestyle themes, or be extra helpful by filling in the holes of the resources you don’t have. For example, if there isn’t a resource already available about the waterway you’re on, you can create that. Make the resources engaging, insightful and helpful. One of the best ways to do this, as taught by long-time MRAA subject matter expert Marcus Sheridan, is to log all the questions you get from customers and then create resources — he recommends videos and short articles — that answer those questions. This simple task will solidify your position as the expert. (He also has a book on the topic titled, “They Ask, You Answer,” and we highly recommend it.)

The key with all of these resources is to comb through them, find the ones that will most apply to your customers and share them.

Curate a package of information (physical or digital) that you give to all customers after their boat purchase, maybe even while they’re waiting for delivery. And follow up with all of your customers with some of these resources year-round. Sharing this information with your customers will make for happier, safer, more knowledgeable boaters. And it will position your dealership as an expert, an organization that cares enough to share non-sales information, creating loyalty and a level of trust for the next time they’re ready to buy a boat or refer a friend to boating.

As a boat dealer your goal should always be to discover new and effective ways of making people aware of the boats you are offering to sell, but without spending too much money. Advertising and promoting the boats through videos is probably the most cost-effective way of reaching a huge customer base.

Video isn’t exactly the next big thing, and although it’s a huge part of any good marketing strategy, we’re not going to try to pretend that digital retailing is just a new buzzword for video marketing. So, I figured we’d gather some of the best tactics we’ve seen and heard about and share them. Dealers know that the boat business is all about standing out. These video marketing tactics will help you do that.

1.     Use video because that content is getting Google’s attention.
When we think of SEO-boosting-content, we normally think of blog posts first, but ignoring the SEO potential in video marketing is a good way to miss out on attracting the attention of boat shoppers. Providing boat buyers with information is a great way to attract them to your dealership. Providing boat shoppers with information in the quick, helpful, and digestible form of a brief video is the perfect way to combine the research they want with a medium they enjoy. Google is well aware of the benefits of video and has begun to rank videos highly for many queries. And creating helpful and informative videos that are local specific will help boost your rankings with your local SEO efforts.

2.     Feature your boats.
Customers want information, and good dealers give shoppers the information they’re looking for. One of the best ways to do that is to feature walkthrough videos of the boats on your site and in your showroom. A good walkthrough video should be a quick overview of the boat with a focus on the features that make the boat interesting with a good voiceover. If you have a phone that can shoot video, a steady hand, and a pleasant voice, you can create videos easily for each of your boats. Once you have produced these videos, you can add them to your YouTube channel and embed these videos to your site’s listings. Now take full advantage of your efforts and tweet them, post them on Facebook, share them on Instagram and link to them from your prospecting emails.

3.     Bring video marketing to your Service Department.
Service departments tend to get neglected in marketing, but video marketing is a great opportunity to get your service department some attention. Videos about DIY boat maintenance, advice on common maintenance warning signs, seasonal service needs, etc., are great ways to drive boaters into the service department. Your service team knows the questions they hear on a daily basis and probably already have the answers. By making videos answering those questions, and more, you can capitalize on the opportunity to build credibility, trustworthiness and become the authority on local boat service.

4.     Create staff profiles.
Staff profile videos can help prospective customers feel more connected to your dealership as well as providing them with an advanced opportunity to get to know the person who is going to help them with their experience within your dealership. These videos further humanize your team and make them more approachable and likeable in the eyes of boat shoppers.

5.     Think mobile.
You’ve heard by now that mobile connectivity is outpacing the connections from our desktops, so we won’t go on about that too much more here. But really, mobile is important, especially as a platform for video marketing. Video can be particularly well suited to mobile if the content is suited for video-friendly mobile platforms, like Facebook and Instagram. Rule of thumb, some say 45 seconds for Facebook and just 15 seconds for Instagram. These videos are a great way to reach an audience that is interested in a boat but haven’t yet embarked on the deep research part of their journey. Start by sharing a short video about the boating lifestyle. From there, they can be directed to your website or YouTube page if they want to see more of your boats, service videos or check out what else your dealership has to offer.

6.     Share live video walkthroughs.
Some innovative dealers are using their smartphones to perform live video presentations and close deals while they have the prospect on the line! When a prospect calls to ask if a dealership has a boat in stock, salespeople will often respond in the affirmative and ask the prospect to come in for an appointment to take a closer look. Since the health-concerned marketplace set in, dealers have found that that they can keep that prospect on the phone and conduct a live video walkthrough using their cell phone. If you’re close to the boat, offer to do it on the spot. If not, offer to call the prospect back in a few minutes. And use our handy guide and action plan to effectively shoot boat walkthroughs.

7. Use video for quicker service authorizations.

For service writers, the dreaded voicemail can really hold up the service schedule when trying to get an OK from a customer to do the work. Instead of leaving a voicemail, record a video showing the problem while explaining the repair and the price and then text it to the customer. Remember, 98% of all text messages are opened and 95% are read within 3 minutes of receiving them!

8.     Invest in a video chat app.
To perform a live walkthrough or service video calls, you’ll need a video chat app on your smartphone. The iPhone’s integrated video chat app is FaceTime. If you have an Android or Windows smartphone, the best apps to use are Google Hangouts or Facebook Messenger. It’s a good idea to have several apps on your phone and to know how to use them all. That way, odds are good you will have a video chat app that is compatible with your customer. Ideally, at some point you will want to use texting applications such as Kenect or Co-Video that allows for numerous customer and dealer benefits. Check out this webinar MRAA hosted with Kenect.

9.     Boost your dealership’s Wi-Fi.
While it’s possible to do video chat calls using a cellular data plan, it’s not very reliable. Cell service can spotty and can lead to a less than ideal sales experience. To offer this type of service to your customers, your dealership will need an external Wi-Fi network that reaches to the inventory and shop. This is also a big help for salespeople out on the lot with customers to look up product information, message their manager or find the answer to any question using a mobile phone or tablet.

Video is a great way to engage customers and just maybe, get them excited enough about the boat to want to come in for a sea trial or help the seasonal boater to get back on the water quickly. It’s helpful to have a mixture of content, but video can tell a story in greater depth than text alone. Using these suggestions, your dealership can stand out in the sea of fiberglass and aluminum using video marketing.

As an industry, we’ve been touting digital marketing for years — since at least the time I came on the scene in 1999 calling it e-business. Those who have been sharpening their digital tools over the years were prepared when the market place changed dramatically in March. In reality, though, it shouldn’t have taken a pandemic to get dealers to look more closely at digital retailing.

The systems, processes and tactics included in defining that engagement and full-fledged digital retailing remain fuzzy, at best, for most dealers. So, let me start by telling you what it’s NOT. Digital retailing is not digital marketing. It’s not your Facebook page, or your online inventory, email campaigning, chat bot or online payment calculator. It’s also not a button, “Get a Quote!”

Digital retailing is the customer’s ability to go deeper into the boat buying process online. Even if some car marketplaces, like Carvana and Vroom, allow 100 percent online sales, 95 percent of customers still buy their vehicles in a dealership. It’s becoming clear that buyer expectations are changing rapidly, and consumers are increasingly becoming impatient with a disjointed buying experience, both with the technology and the lack of dealership engagement. Digital retailing is the future of selling boats, and it’s ready for you to engage with today.

For boat dealers, digital retail requires a hybrid of online and offline boat-buying experiences. It gives boat buyers the ability to start the buying process online and then complete the purchase in-dealership — or vice versa. It’s giving consumers a complete set of shopping tools across both a dealer’s digital and physical showrooms and delivering a convenient, faster shopping experience.

A digital retailing experience should allow boat shoppers to build a deal online that reflects a realistic buying scenario. That includes mapping out standard and optional equipment with applicable destination and rigging fees, taxes, trade-in values and add-on protection plans.

Digital retailing platforms also transfer most ― if not all — physical paperwork online. Customers can complete paperwork on a tablet in the store, or log-in and finish the process from the their home. Whether at the dealership or at home, digital retailing streamlines the boat-buying journey while giving customers the flexibility and control they desire.

Outflanked by tech-savvy retailers with deep wallets, boat dealerships everywhere are faced with a choice: Adapt to this new reality or become irrelevant.

Here’s some real-world context:

1.     In 2000, car buyers visited an average of five dealerships before pulling the trigger. Today, you’re lucky if a customer visits two dealerships during their search.

2.     Customers know what they want to buy and where they want to buy it long before they show up to the showroom. Boat buyers are in search of a familiar way to buy boats, and the dealership is going to play a different role.

3.     If it feels like the Internet is pulling control away from your dealership and limiting your influence in the boat buying process, you’re not wrong. Your sales team’s chances to interact with their customers are arriving later in the process, and when they do finally get face time, key decisions have already been made under the influence of online content. Dealers are losing some of the control, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

It’s time for boat dealers to embrace digital retailing as the new standard for the dealership experience. Fortunately, a handful of new tools are helping boat dealers get into the fight. Digital retail platforms make it easy for them to upgrade the customer experience to keep pace with automotive, the larger marine dealer groups and the evolving expectations of the online marketplace.

As some boat dealers remain wary of moving more of the boat-buying process online, it’s important to note that digital retailing doesn’t replace the showroom; it extends the experience to a powerful new channel for reaching more customers. Digital retail is a major opportunity for boat dealers that will have long-term benefits for early adopters.

Personalizing the buying experience

Executed thoroughly, dealers in the digital landscape capture more customer intelligence up front, giving them a greater chance of closing the deal later. So digital-focused dealers are more informed and empowered when relating with a customer through the insights learned from digital retailing technology. Sales conversations can now include unique buyer information gathered well before a customer walks onto the dealership showroom floor.

Providing the right digital retailing experience means leveraging detailed shopper information to transform the customer relationship. The online workflow should remember boats browsed by a consumer and serve up other relevant options. Their searches and budget parameters should be saved and reapplied when returning to the site and used to market to them. For instance, I’m a 24-foot center console kind of guy. When manufacturers and dealers know this information, sending me ads by email or in my social media feed featuring their new 65’ yacht is a complete waste of effort that leads to me opting out of future campaigns.

It’s difficult for me to write this today — because I remember having to twist boat dealers’ arms to display their inventory online — but a static website today with boat listings doesn’t offer the detailed, personalized experience that today’s consumers want. Personalized buying experiences are, quite simply, the expectation, and today’s digital-first marketplace gives dealers more powerful tools to deliver on that.

The marine industry is going digital. Are you?

A strong digital retailing experience seamlessly integrates your dealership and online presence, and that gives you a new way to leverage customer data, build trust, generate leads, and increase your closing ratio. The best part is that when you do it right, you can close more deals and service more boats with less effort.

Boat dealers stand at a crossroads. As retail changes around them, every owner and GM must make a choice: Do we change with the times, or stick to “business as usual?” Regardless of the road you choose, the digital retail evolution is not stopping for anyone. No one can imagine a future where boat dealers aren’t required to adopt digital marketing tools.

Here’s the good news: it’s not too late to evolve. Every dealer in business today can still adapt to the modern boat-buying experience. Not only will digital retail help you keep up with fast-moving competitors, but it will give you an early-mover advantage over other boat dealerships.

Thanks to modern digital retail platforms, any dealership can offer a top-notch customer experience. We can’t control where the marine industry is going, but we can control how we respond to it.

Skipping a demo could save you hours, between prep and the actual demo. But, it could also lead to a customer who doesn’t understand the operation of the boat, is frustrated — or even worse, causes an accident — because they don’t grasp what they’re doing.

The customers who have been coming in this summer come from a wide range of boating experience.

Some have been using a friend’s boat for years, and they’re now looking for their own. Others are simply looking to upgrade their longtime boat.

But then there are those new to modern-day boats and first-time boat buyers. Some are upgrading from their used, aluminum fish boat with an old Johnson outboard. Others are buying for the first time after being a passenger for decades. And yet others may have never even been on a boat, let alone driven one.

Regardless of which boating background your customers come from, it’s likely the boat they’re buying from you is new to them in operation. Boat technology has changed a lot over the past few decades, and when they’re moving up from a ‘90s pontoon to a 2020 wake boat, or making any other kind of change, there is going to be a learning curve.

Here are a few things to think about when performing a demo focused on an improved customer experience:

Assess the situation: By delivery, you should understand your customer’s experience with boating and should have noted that in your customer relationship management (CRM) system. But make sure you ask again, to assure you’re providing them the right guidance. Also, probe and ask them to be honest with you. We all know egos can get in the way, and someone may say that they know how to drive a boat, only because they don’t want to admit that they can’t.

On-land demos: If you absolutely can’t do an in-water demo because of your location, or time, or any other factors, make sure you at least offer a demo on land. Walk the customer through the controls and safety features just like you would on water, making sure not to skip any details. If the boat is being trailered, show them the features of the trailer and how to get the boat on and off the trailer.

In-water demos: An in-water demo is ideal. Spend an hour or more on the water with the customer. Show them the features and then let them take the helm, giving them pointers as you go along. Remember to compliment them twice as often as you critique them, so they’ll be more receptive to your feedback.

Trailer usage: If the boat is being trailered, and you can do a demo at a ramp, show the customer how to back the boat into the water, release it from the trailer and load it back up. If they’ve gone through this entire process in their own vehicle with you as a guide, they’ll feel a lot more confident the next time they go out on their own.

Demos in the time of COVID: Remember to maintain social distance, keep everything clean and respect your customer’s wishes when it comes to safety. The MRAA has developed a Sample Boat Demo and Delivery Policy (available to download on this page) and Boat Demo/Sea Trial Do’s and Do Not’s to help you develop a safety plan to perform demos that make both your staff and your customers feel comfortable.

Don’t forget the safety tips: New boat buyers may not know the rules of boating in your area. So make sure you tell them. This is key for them to have a safe experience and lower the risk of accidents. Explain to them the local life jacket law and explain the importance of wearing a life jacket. Talk about things they should be aware of on the waterway they’ll be exploring, whether it’s information on no wake zones, locks and dams, sandbars, current COVID restrictions or more.

Personalize the demo: Show them the features they’ll be using frequently. If the customer told you they’d be fishing, show them how to use the live well and the fish finder. If they’ll be wake boarding, show them how to control the ballast. If the boat has a speaker system, demonstrate how it works and explain how noise levels affect others nearby. This will get them excited about the lifestyle they’re about to embark on.

Don’t leave them stranded: Offer them a way to reach out, if they have any questions. Sometimes the initial demo is overwhelming, and the customer may forget some key things you showed them. Offer them your mobile number, or a number within the dealership that will allow them to get quick, clear advice on their boat.

While a demo can seem overwhelming to complete when you’re busy, the presentation of the features of the exact boat your customer purchased will make them a better informed, safer boater, who is more satisfied with their purchase.

No one wants to be the person out on the water with their family, confused about their operation of the boat.

So make them the hero by teaching them, and they’ll thank you with their loyalty.

There are leads to nurture, customer questions to answer, trade-ins to evaluate, and deals to finalize. There are boats to prep, parts to order, deliveries to make, and customer-mandated deadlines to launch boats. You don’t even know how it will all get done.

Leads accumulate, showroom traffic grows, and your sales team tries to hand the baton to service to take care of your customers. You feel the tug of competing priorities: Taking care of your boat buyers vs. moving on to selling the next boat. Meanwhile, boaters everywhere are hitting the water, service requests are piling up, parts and accessory orders are on the rise, and staff frantically tries to meet every demand. How do you keep up?

The pressure of a summer selling season at a boat dealership resembles a juggling act amidst a frantic race to the end, as priorities shift between sales momentum, service efficiency, customer demands and inventory management, not to even mention staff workloads, overtime, summer vacations and the need for more help.

And that’s just a normal year. In 2020, all of this has certainly been magnified by an overwhelming number of leads, record sales, factory shutdowns, depleted inventory, work-from-home mandates, appointment-only boat sales, social distancing requirements and more. You focus on keeping one ball in the air, another ball drops. Running a boat dealership demands a balance that is tricky to navigate.

I have two words for you: Slow down.

It may seem contrary to how we’ve needed to react to this crisis, but there’s great value in simply slowing down and refocusing your attention on what matters most.

At this moment, it’s the customer experience that matters most. With such an incredible influx of new boat buyers, it’s our job to help ensure their ownership experience keeps them in their boat and encourages them to upgrade that boat in the weeks, months and years ahead.

How important is it? Well, if you put any value on customer service, you’ll see that as boat sales have risen dramatically, customer satisfaction scores have been heading the opposite direction — a decline driven mostly by a lack of follow-up by the dealer or its sales person. And that shortcoming is a result of not slowing down and taking care of the customer.

It’s time to slow down and refocus our attention on those customers. Offering them just a little bit more effort on their experience and satisfaction can pay big dividends on your business. And there’s never been a better time than now to try it, when inventory levels are low and you won’t be able to spend as much time on sales.

Here are a few quick ideas on what you could to enhance the customer experience:

1. Share unique insights that you have about the boat or the brand that they’ve purchased or are considering.
2. Connect them with other boaters or an owners club from your dealership or the brand they purchased.
3. Make sure you use your customer relationship management tool and the FORMAT process that Sam Dantzler teaches in MRAA’s online courses, to help you personalize their experience.
4. Follow-up with boat buyers and ask how they are enjoying their boat, or check in with them after a service appointment. The simple gesture can make a huge difference.
5. Send customers ideas on how they might be able to get more enjoyment out of their boating experience through a new part or accessory, the reassurance of a maintenance package, or a new waterway to explore.
6. Schedule a reminder to text the customer or schedule the text to send automatically, to stay in touch and provide another reminder that you’re available to them.
7. One of the most valuable touch points you could offer is a thank you note. Stand out from the crowd with a hand-written, sincere thank you for their business. I promise you this will have an impact.

There are plenty of options for you to explore with this. The important thing is you take care of the customer. The key to taking care of the customer the best way possible is to slow down and give them the attention they deserve.

This will give you and your team the opportunity to take a breath and provide significant value to the ownership experience. And it just may create a customer for life. Give yourself and your team permission to slow it down and focus on what matters most: The customer.

As sales leads have increased in some cases by 300 and 400 percent, and sales continue to hit record levels, the normal metrics we chart our success by continue to climb. But the bar charts related to the customer experience are on the decline, almost at an inverse rate.

According to MRAA partner Customer Service Intelligence, Inc., which charts customer satisfaction indices on sales delivery and service for 30 to 50 marine dealers, CSI scores for this group has declined by more than 6 full percentage points since April. In the first month of the quarter, those dealers scored a 96.65 CSI score related to sales delivery; in the second month, it dropped to 94.39; and in June, the third month, it hit a low of 90.45.

Q2 CSI Ratings

Follow-up, worded on the surveys as "Has your salesperson contacted
you since delivery?" hurt CSI scores with a 77.2 percent rating in the quarter.

In a normal year, the peak season always sees a slight dip, according to Customer Service Intelligence, but that dip typically represents only a 0.5- or 1-point drop, not a 6-point drop. It’s worth noting here, as well, that any dealer who engages a company like Customer Service Intelligence and pays for additional CSI monitoring (above and beyond the manufacturer CSI program) is a dealership that you can expect to be focused intently on driving quality customer experiences. And if those dealers are close to dipping below the 90-percent CSI threshold, it’s scary to think what’s happening to those dealers that don’t put as much emphasis on CSI.

Those dealers’ net promoter scores, a measurement of loyalty with the dealership, dropped from scores in the mid 90s back in March to less than 75 in June. These are still solid NPS scores, but a 15-point decline is notable. Comparably, the 12-month Net Promoter Score in the second quarter of 2019 was 83.1 vs. 2020’s second quarter, which was 76.88, “a substantial decline,” according to Becky Thompson, president of Customer Service Intelligence, Inc. “Dealers need to focus on correcting customer issues to bring this NPS number up.

A quick look at individual questions on the CSI surveys shows the culprit leading to poor customer satisfaction: Follow up, or a lack thereof.

Questions like “were you satisfied with the explanation of features, etc.?” and “were you pleased with the overall condition of the boat?” and “did your sales person treat you with courtesy and concern?” all garnered great scores: 95.5, 91.5, and 99.3 respectively. But the question of “Has your sales person contacted you since delivery?” received a rating of 77.17, dragging the customer experience index down significantly.

“It's scary to think what dealers' ratings are when they don't have a follow-up program in place,” explains Thompson. “How many first-time buyers are never returning because of a mistake that was made just because the dealer is too busy to follow up and ask how things are going?”

There’s no doubt that with how busy dealers have been over the last quarter that mistakes are being made. CSI programs like this give you the ability to correct issues and save the customer. But they also require that you adjust your tactics in order to positively influence the results, and in this case, the numbers, as well as Thompson’s expertise, suggest a need to improve follow-up to create loyal customers.

That’s why process maps are so important. They keep our business tasks on track, assuring that, if followed, no step will be missed. Post-Sale Follow-Up is one of those key areas where a process map can help immensely. With a Post-Sale Follow-Up process map, you can put in place schedules, checks and balances to make sure each customer gets the same follow-up, from handwritten cards to the 5-day thank you call and more.

Luckily, you don’t have to start from scratch. MRAA’s Certification Team has developed two resources that will help you create your Post-Sale Follow-Up process map and execute on that map.

The first is an Example Post-Sale Follow-Up process map, which you can adopt completely or adapt to your dealership’s specific needs.

The second is a Post-Sale Follow-Up Worksheet. Pulled from Certification’s new Guide to Improving Your Sales Process Map, developed alongside the 2020 Continuous Certification course “Fill the Gaps in Your Dealership’s Sales Process,” this worksheet gives you tips for your Post-Sale Follow-Up, along with a Standard Operating Procedure Checklist.

Click on the links above, or visit mraa.com/keepcustomersboating for these and other resources.

So, how do sales call scripts fit into that perception?

We believe that there are three core elements in effective face-to-face communication, and tone is a big one: Experts suggest it accounts for 38 percent of how your message is perceived — 38!

Believe it or not, scripts can help you with tone. Here’s why: As a sales rep, you should know what you are going to say during a call before you pick up the phone. Maybe not word-for-word but at least know the talking points, so that you can make good use of both your time and the customer’s time. Maybe you can wing it and do that, but most of us need a little help. 

If you have a powerful script, you’ll know what to say and how to say it every time and increase your chances of a totally successful phone conversation. A well-tuned script will help you avoid mental hiccups that can result in time wasted and missed opportunities. 

Personalize your script (to avoid the robot effect)

Over the years, you’ve developed certain key responses or phrases that are always ready to go when you’re talking to people — that’s a script.

A common misconception about sales scripts is that they’re robotic and rigid. Word to the wise: They will only be that way if you make ’em that way. You will want to tailor and personalize a script for different settings and conversations without steering away from your core message.

Martial arts legend Bruce Lee has a great quote about training that applies here: “Absorb what is useful, discard what is not and add what is uniquely yours.” So, when it comes to a script, it’s about adding your own flavor without eliminating the things that have to be said.

The first step to personalizing is actually knowing the script well. That way, you can put your own spin on it and not completely go off-message. When you follow and personalize a script, you:

• Make your points consistently,
• Don’t miss opportunities,
• Build better rapport,
• Seize your calls to action.

People who don’t like scripts say things like, “I’m a natural. Scripts just hold me back from connecting with people.”

We developed this phone script for you to use to make it easier for you to connect with people. The power of using a script is that it helps remind you of talking points that will help make a better connection with the customer by focusing on the fun of boating vs. the pain of the problems. 

Personalize the script, so you can provide value within a short period of time. That’s what people want. That’s what I think scripts are powerful for — you know what to say, without thinking about it.

Final thoughts: You have to guide (not control) a conversation. You know where you’re going already — lean on your script to help you guide your customers to where you want to go. Stick to the script and start using it to your advantage.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the need to follow-up with your new boat buyers, and you’re unable to hire someone to lead the effort for you internally, outsourcing these services is a way to get a follow-up program started quickly, as well as to get access to detailed reports on how your dealership is performing.

In a perfect world, we could do everything for our business ourselves, but that’s not always how things work. We all contract with vendors for a variety of things, from shipping to lawn care and from cleaning to human resources. Follow-up could also be contracted out.

Hiring a company to complete phone campaigns for you takes the work off your plate and offers the outreach that your customers need.

To learn more about outsourcing follow-up calls, we reached out to MRAA partner member CSI Inc., which offers dealers calls after delivery, alerts on issues, WOW reports on praise for your staff and monthly reports that track your team’s performance.

Becky Thompson, president of CSI, Inc., said that by following up and addressing issues, dealers can create lifelong customers.

“Everyone knows that happy customers make lifelong customers, and lifelong customers will put a nice profit on anyone’s bottom line,” Thompson said. “We all know it’s more costly to gain new customers, so why not invest to make sure every customer is so impressed with the care and concern they are receiving, that they wouldn’t go anywhere else for service and future sales?”

Follow-up is recommended with returning customers, service customers, and of course, first-time boat buyers.

“First time boat buyers will always have questions, and they need to feel confident they can come to their dealer for answers,” Thompson explained. “Build that trust, share their excitement, quality control check, and you will build lifelong customers.”

Following up with customers and gaining meaningful feedback has a variety of benefits, Thompson said. Those include:

• Fixing problems quickly, thereby saving customers with the customer intelligence obtained during the follow-up call. End result: Added profit to your bottom line!
• Building a stronger relationship with customers because the call clearly sends the customer a signal that the dealer really cares about their experience.
• Praising and recognizing staff for a job well done.
• Identifying broken processes, so they can be corrected, saving issues with the next customer.
• Praising and recognizing staff for a job well done.
• Identifying broken processes, so they can be corrected, saving issues with the next customer.
• Identifying broken staff processes, so retraining can occur.
• Tracking employees’ performance, enabling recognition for the employees who are providing exceptional service.
• Learning what your Net Promoter Score is.
• Learning what your Customer Satisfaction Index rating is.
• Identifying which marketing avenues are driving customers to the dealership.
• Revealing needed improvements that might otherwise be invisible. These are golden nuggets!

Follow-up is so crucial to building up your customer base with loyal, raving fans, and their referrals. So, finding a system that works for you is important. Outsourcing just might be that route, if you’re looking for an efficient program that takes the hard work off your hands.

You’re swamped! The phones are ringing; the online leads are pouring in; the bell at the door keeps dinging; and you haven’t eaten in six hours!

Now is the time to invest in your dealership’s customer experience. You can do this either by hiring a short-term, contract employee, or thinking long-term about a customer experience representative or manager to have on staff. You need someone who can run through your customer relationship management (CRM) log and call your spring and summer customers one by one. Someone who has the time to chit-chat with your customers and offer them the customer experience that you wish you had time for personally.

And the time to do that is now.

There are plenty of people currently looking for jobs, as they were recently laid off or furloughed due to COVID’s effects on businesses, and many of those people have worked in customer service, from call center reps to waiters and waitresses. These people with customer service experience can be taking the time to call your customers, to check in with them, assure they’re having a high-quality experience, fix any issues and ask for referrals.

So, what do you need to get started?

• Consider if you will be hiring this person for short-term, contract work, or long-term work. If you’re hiring a contractor for the first time, check the federal and state laws on contract work. If you work with any type of human resources company, or if you have an HR person on staff, they should be able to help. Assure you’re hiring this position legally and following all of the rules for their type of employment.
• Create a job description for that person. The MRAA Certification Team has developed a sample job description for a customer experience representative that is available for MRAA members here, along with more than 50 other job descriptions. Create your job posting, and make it clear what type of position this is (contract, part-time or full-time) and where the person will be working (inside the dealership or from their home).
• Prepare the representative’s working environment. Depending on how you want this employee or contractor to access your CRM, dealer management system (DMS), or other technology, this job could be done from your dealership, or they could work from their own home. Consider what technology you would need to provide for them to work at either site, including a computer, phone system, a customer experience email address, etc.
• Create a plan and set metrics. Develop a system for passing information to the customer experience rep and having them pass the information back. Ideally, this would be some system within your CRM. Also, set realistic metrics for how many customer touches the person is expected to make each day or week and a method of measuring those touches.
• Interview and hire. Look for an enthusiastic attitude. Find someone who doesn’t mind being on the phone for hours on end; not everyone is up to the task.
• Onboard and train. Hopefully, you’ll be able to get this person up to speed quickly, because we know you want to reach out to these customers ASAP. But make sure you still provide training on the systems the person will use, information about the dealership and its culture, and scripts and templates that the person will need.
• Check-in. Once the customer experience rep gets going, check in and assure the work is being done to your level of expectation and that the person still has the tools, information and training they need to get the job done right.
•  If you have time and have paid for the 2019 Continuous Certification Curriculum (Certified Dealers only), watch the Align Your People Pathway of the Q3 course: Align Your Dealership with Today’s Customer. And if you don’t have time today, bookmark that course for the future, as you consider opportunities to offer a better customer experience within your dealership. This course offers you information on a range of options from hiring a customer experience representative to creating your own Business Development Center (BDC). 

This may seem like a long list, but by hiring this new person, you’ll take a huge load off of yourself and your sales team, so you can continue to focus on bringing in new revenue. On top of that, you’ll have the opportunity to reach your new customers in ways other businesses aren’t, securing that customer’s loyalty, business and recommendations going forward.

As long-time boating enthusiasts and professionals, it’s easy for us to forget how much first-time boat buyers don’t know about boating.

Last week, for example, I watched as a new boat owner tried more than a dozen times to back his trailer down the ramp to retrieve his boat. He gave up and asked a fisherman who had been standing in the parking lot drinking a beer, to back the trailer into the water for him. After he obliged, and the wheel wells were submerged down the ramp, the novice had one more question: “How do I get the boat onto the trailer?”

No matter what your personal boating history, and no matter if your customer is a first-time buyer or just a new-to-them boat buyer, there are a number of unknowns they face. And let’s be honest, there are numerous issues — What’s wrong with my trolling motor? Why doesn’t my speedometer work? Why aren’t the lights working on my trailer? How do I get these things fixed? — that either we’re not aware that the customer is experiencing or we gloss over them because of our years of dealing with and fixing those issues ourselves.

But these are the exact reasons why post-sale follow up is the No. 1 tactic for not only ensuring a quality ownership experience, but also for gaining repeat business. As that customer’s dealer, you are also their closest ally in an enjoyable boating lifestyle. You are the authority on boating. You are the guide to help them get the most out of their new purchase. And you are their resource when something goes wrong.

Unfortunately, when something goes wrong, consumers today are more likely to voice their discontent on social media than they are to pick up the phone and call you. Another reason why follow-up is so critically important.

First-time boat buyers need extra care in the buying and ownership process. Dealers need

to make sure they bolster their follow-up procedures to help retain them as customers.

I know you don’t have time to follow up with every customer, especially in today’s overwhelming sales environment. But you need to make the time in order to keep these customers in boating and to bring them back to your business when it’s time to upgrade.

We often think of the sales process as a relationship building effort. But, really, the customer needs the relationship on the back side of the sale — after they trailer off your lot or idle away from the dock. That’s when they’re really going to need you. Will you be there for them?

We want to make a follow-up procedure as easy as possible for you, so we’ve created a series of resources and ideas to help you get started. Here’s a six-step approach for prioritizing follow-up and creating an outstanding customer ownership experience:

1. We’re all running short on inventory, and now that we’re past the early July peak of summer, and the sales season is beginning to slow, you should create a plan to ramp up your follow-up procedures. Start by making the shift from a sales mentality to a customer experience mentality.
2. Decide your approach for which team member(s) will make the calls: Typically, it would be the sales contact or a sales manager or a customer service representative or some combination of them all. You could make a case for that call to come from a service writer who could help assist with minor issues the customer is having. The “who” is not as important as actually making the call because it’s the care and concern that matters. Just make sure they have a customer experience mindset.
3. Start with your sales log. Pull a list, to include name, contact info and the make and model of the boat that was purchased, for every boat buyer since the beginning of the year. Start with the first boat and call every customer in order of purchase. Yes, you should include used- as well as new-boat buyers.
4. Log every conversation in your customer relationship management (CRM) tool.
5. Create a task calendar for issues that need to be followed-up on further, and make sure those tasks not only get assigned to someone but also that they are followed through on.
6. Don’t forget about service. Demonstrating that you care that the service work you completed has been done satisfactorily is a great way to build rapport and strengthen your relationship with the customer. (Follow the same process as above, beginning with a list of every service customer and the work that was completed.)

Your follow-up strategy doesn’t need to be super elaborate. It can start as easy as that outlined above. The important thing is that you ensure that post-sale (and service) follow-up is conducted so that the customers know they have an ally in your dealership … and someone that they know will take care of them when it comes time to upgrade their boat.