The Future of the RV/Marine/Auto Industry – Service

Yes, you can get a good deal on the Internet when you’re buying an RV or boat, financing your purchase, buying an extended warranty, and even buying an accidental death life insurance policy. But you can’t get service over the Internet. Service is something every single RV and boat owner needs. The previous generations of RV and boat owners were individuals who enjoyed repairing their own units, but this is not the case for the new generation. They are accustomed to professional and prompt service. They don’t want to get their hands dirty and when it’s time to enjoy the road in their RV (or boat in the water), they want it to be ready as promised. What a difference a generation makes! When I served for three years as Vice President for an RV manufacturer, I cannot tell you how many phone calls I received from customers inquiring about where to take their units for prompt repairs. They were dissatisfied by many dealers’ long waiting lists (two to four weeks’ wait) or the failure of dealers to even perform repairs for customers who had purchased     their     RVs     from     another     dealer.      I     believe RV/Marine/Auto dealers could once afford to say ‘no thanks’ to service demands by the public, but now things have changed. Because we believe in the future of providing service to the RV/Marine public, we will discuss matters that pertain to the service department from time to time. This issue is devoted to the discussion of monitoring technicians’ productivity.

Do you pay your technicians hourly wages or flag time?

In providing consulting services to various dealers in the country, I find a large number of dealers who pay their technicians hourly wages. These dealers typically do not monitor the productivity of their service technicians and usually feel that something more should be done to improve their service department. Basically, when you pay a technician for 40 hours of work a week without monitoring their productivity, you are giving your technicians a vast amount of permission to be unproductive and you thereby reduce the profitability of your dealership.

We need to consider an illustration to assist us in our discussion at this point. In the spirit of keeping things simple, we shall assume you have only one technician assigned to your dealership who is paid $12 per hour, and he works at least 40 hours a week. Let’s do the math now: Wanna learn more purchase my book.