YOU set the tone for customer service
January 5, 2010
Last week, I stayed at the Rosen Plaza in Orlando. It’s a potential home for the 2010 Marine Dealer Conference & Expo, and we were scouting the site to determine its capability of housing this growing event. We were on a tour with two of the facility’s sales managers when I happened to notice... Read more »
How trust determines who we do business with
December 18, 2009
About 10 years ago, I learned a great lesson about finding a service shop you can trust. The anti-lock brake light was illuminated in my old Dodge Dakota, so I did what any naïve car owner would do: I took it to the closest shop, a national chain that promised impeccable brake service. Hours later,... Read more »
What’s it all for?
December 15, 2009
The debate over the value and the use of customer satisfaction index surveys rages on, and in the heat of the economic downturn, perhaps even more fuel has been poured on this fire. Some of the best dealers in North America have, for the most part, abandoned the practice; some boat builders have stopped... Read more »
Fostering loyalty
December 8, 2009
Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of customer-service-related blogs I’ll write to wrap up 2009. Through a series of recent consumer experiences, I feel I’ve learned a number of things worth sharing about satisfying customers. Last week, I shared the incredible experience I had with... Read more »
A ‘magical’ experience
December 4, 2009
It’s the holiday season, and it’s all about the consumer. And as a consumer, I’ve been fortunate (or unfortunate, as it may be) to have had a series of experiences — both incredibly good and horribly wrong — that I believe contain worthwhile lessons on customer service and are therefore worth... Read more »
Boating Industry’s 2009 Top 100 Photo Gallery
December 4, 2009
Welcome to the photo showcase for the 2009 Boating Industry Top 100 Dealers Club 100 Gala, brought to you by the Leadership Alliance and Boating Industry magazine. This gallery showcases the entire event, held on Nov. 18, 2009, from the cocktail reception through the awards and the after Top 100 networking... Read more »
Vision accomplished
November 13, 2009
Three years ago, our team here at Boating Industry had an identity crisis. We had assembled a collection of editors, sales people, a publisher and a production team that sought to revitalize a brand that had, for the most part, lost its way. The easy decision at the time would have been for our team... Read more »
Your assignment: Help foster change
September 18, 2009
If you’re not paying close attention, there is some news in our line-up today that could sneak by you without giving it much of a second thought. But I want to call your attention to it because of the potential that it represents: The Marine Retailers Association of America has created the Young... Read more »
Dealers doing better than last month, but that’s not saying much
September 4, 2009
While dealer net profits through July are off 60 percent, the rate of decline appears to be slowing. Through June, net profits, year over year, were off almost 86 percent. That’s according to Spader Business Management, whose latest numbers show the average dealer they track earned a net profit... Read more »
Boomers go bust
August 11, 2009
It’s no secret that consumers are spending less these days and that savings rates are rising. Hidden behind this obvious fact is the lesser-known reality that our industry’s top customers, the 79 million baby boomers who have been buying, trading in and upgrading their boats for years and... Read more »
