Powersports Switchback
I have an annual guys’ trip, where we load up all our coolers, camping gear, and anything made for off-roading, and head out to the hills for a long weekend. Our goal – reconnect with each other, sling some mud, have some laughs, talk some smack, and hopefully no one gets hurt.
We’ve all heard the phrase, “take the holistic approach.” But, what does that mean from a dealer perspective? From the first point of contact, through the sales process, and throughout the life of the unit, your goal is to build a relationship that supports the whole customer journey. It’s as much a mindset as it is a functional way of running your business.
But what happens if you don’t take a holistic approach? Say for example, your parts and service departments are viewed as cost centers rather than profit centers. While you provide needed functions that are critical to the life of the powersports product, the departments are not viewed as a component of supporting the whole customer journey. Instead, those departments may be managed as an expense that is monitored and managed based on their impact to the dealership – not as a benefit to the customer. Or maybe inventories are kept as low as possible, employee training is written off as too expensive, and service employees are not encouraged to evaluate the entire customer experience with the unit.
What might happen if you changed your approach to one portion of your dealership? Let’s consider a scenario where you adopt a holistic approach to the service department.