Are customer expectations rising faster than the industry can keep up?
One thing was apparent at the National RV Show: the quality of products from RV manufacturers have increased tremendously across the board since I started in the industry in January 2000. The fit and finish of the units on display was exceptional, so why then does the industry continue to receive a near-failing grade for product quality when customer satisfaction index scores are evaluated? It doesn’t seem fair.
One possible answer was provided by a wholesale distributor who also attended the show. He agreed that RV manufacturers have made tremendous strides to improve quality in recent years. But he thinks other industries are priming our customers to expect even more.
Consequently, if today’s RV models had been introduced in 2000, customers would be knocked off their feet. But, because their own expectations have also risen drastically, the quality of today’s RVs still fail to meet their standards Why is that? Who are we being compared to?
What other industry produces a product that can rumble down our nation’s highways loaded to the gills with top notch consumer electronic products, a fully functional bathroom, a fully functional kitchen and hundreds of items in storage.
It appears to me the RV industry is being held to a much higher standard than any other industry when it comes to product quality. So, if our average customer satisfaction score is a D, what are we being compared to? Where have consumers raised the bar?
The RVs on display in Louisville were of similar quality to the best manufactured homes. Are we being compared to factory-built homes? Or stick-built homes? Whether built in the factory or not, most homes would fall apart in six minutes if they had to be strapped to a chassis and driven at highway speeds down any Interstate.
I know we are often compared to the auto industry. But Detroit doesn’t provide many bathrooms and kitchens in their vehicles. Yes 10- to 12-foot automobile or minivan can generally be fixed in a day. But, each community of any size has an auto parts store to augment the inventory of the dealership, so the technician can get parts quickly. If the auto parts stores had to stock the same SKUs as a Home Depot, would auto dealers have the ability to get parts the same afternoon?
I recently had the opportunity to drive a fully-loaded U-Haul down a Wisconsin highway. I was exhausted when the trip was done and, as expected, the rough and tumble of the highway damaged some belongings. But, any motorhome being built in 2006 has better drivability than that U-Haul.
What are the apples-to-apples comparisons that are being made that give us such consistently low satisfaction scores for product quality? Perhaps a D is the best score we can expect as an industry because consumers can’t make appropriate comparisons. Perhaps we need to better educate our consumers that our units are properly built and work as best they can considering how they designed to be used.
I’d really be interested in learning what consumers are comparing us to.
December 26th, 2006 at 11:52 pm
As a consumer, when I take something in for repair, I do not expect it to have other issues when I get it out of service. It seems there is not qc checks on the service work being done by dealers.
Bill
December 24th, 2006 at 2:00 am
As a consumer, what is frustrating is when you take a unit in for repair (warranty or non warranty) and are told the unit will be done on a certian date, it should be done or a call should be made to inform of delayed parts, complex trouble shooting. Also new problems should not be induced while fixing the original issue. It seems the flate rate system that is killing car dealer techs will do the same to the rv techs. I had a new celing fan put in my 5th wheel and the blades came off the first time it was used. Where is the dealer qc on service.
December 18th, 2006 at 7:17 pm
Having been around this industry since the mid 70’s, One age old problem I keep seeing is the fact NO ONE can build a unit that won’t leak sooner or later. People are of the opinion that their automobile doesn’t leak after 20 years and 200,000 miles but they can’t get through a couple years if that long with out a leak in their RV! The problem is that when they get a leak they never discover it until something rots out and falls in. Because we are building fine motorized product with wood to soak up the water as soon as it comes in, the consumer doesn’t see it until it’s too late. Then customers take it to a dealer and go into a heart attack when they get the estimate on replacing delaminated walls, ceilings and floors. Then they find Insurance won’t usually cover leaks. It seems to me we could make sidewalls and roofs out of something that won’t rot out or delaminate before the unit is half paid for. If we bought a car for $100,000 we would want to think it would at least hold together through the term of the loan! Just one of many reasons the consumer satisfaction ratings are low.
December 14th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
I have read all the responses to this and agree with many. As the industry grows, the people in it do not. The parts departments at both the manufacturers level and dealer levels are under trained, under motivated and not empowered. The service departments are the same. Our technicians are under trained. The manufacturer want to but don’t have the information themselves. Have you ever tried to get a wiring diagram that shows the location of certain components? You can’t. The simply don’t know where they mounted these things. They don’t know what cupboard doors or mini blinds they installed.
If we want the industry to survive, we, as a whole need to rethink “customer service”. The days of the sales departments are gone. We need to offer our customers more service, more knowledge and more understanding. We need to be willing to shop the internet and the world for items that the RV manufacturers call obsolete or NLA. I’ve found many. It’s up to us to educate the customer and set expectations realistically. If we don’t, we will all suffer greatly. I love this business, I love the customers (most of them). If we make the necessary changes and implement the systems, the dollars will follow. Be Committed to Success!
December 14th, 2006 at 11:26 am
Greg,
I own a small mobile RV repair service. My client base is 85% liveins and 15% vacationers. It consists of mostly middle to upper end fifth wheels and class A’s. My customers are not unhappy with the quality, for the most part, of their units. Their anger is with service. This anger is from the sale forward. There are two main problwm areas. (1) Reality doesn’t meet expections. They are walked through/showout, etc. this beautiful unit with all the features pointed out; only to find, after the fact, that they can’t use but one or two of them at a time. I do four lectures each year at my parks with virtually the entire time spent explaining why they can only use part of the features at one time, and how to fix the fall-out of not knowing enough about their units. You’ve addressed this, but, from my experience, the dealers are doing a terrible job of educating the customers. They’re shocked to learn, usually at the business end of a service call, that they can’t use the hair dryer and coffee maker together. EVERY dealer needs to have a printout of EACH unit listing features, how to use them, power limitations and how to fix simple problems like GFI’s and how to reset a circuit breaker (and where ALL circuit breakers are located). This does not have to be a scary point. It is easy to explain that this is an industry problem, and not specific to “your” unit. The same problem would be present is you bought a $1,800,000 Prevost. A reason explained before the fact is nearly always accepted, and excuse after the fact is almost never accepted.
(2) Warranty is a problem you’ve discussed numerous times, and we all know the problem with the manufacturers.
Summary: The D could be brought up to a C+ with good customer education(primarily a quality showout). We can only hope the manufacturers wake up and smell the coffee.
What I’m hearing from my customers about warranty repairs is “they can’t get me in for 12 weeks, and THEN they have to wait on parts”
December 14th, 2006 at 10:52 am
Lets not drink the kool-aid. We have some serious issues with the quality experience, or lack of, we provide as an industry to our customers in the chain. Sweeping those problems under the rug will only insure our fate.We only have to look at the other segments of the transportation industry and their loss of market share and profits to those building quality vehicles and experiences for their consumers.Is that the road we want to travel or do we want to police ourselves before its regulated for us?
The number one problem consumers have with their RV is leaks. Too many manufacturers still don’t have part numbers or adequate parts departments to supply their dealers. Do you really think Toyota asks you to send them a picture of a part they can’t identify as having been installed in a Lexus?
I know this will suprise some of my friends, but we as dealers are also to blame. We continue to complain about the manufacturers that don’t support us through proper back end systems,but what did we but at Louisville? Did we support those manufacturers who are investing to do the right thing or just buy price? One dealer I know has a complete interview process for any manufacturer he does business with. If they can’t provide proper support systems for he and his customers, his dealership does not consumate the relationship. Its pretty obvious why he has one of the most reputable service and parts departments in the industry.
Lets not make any more excuses. I encourage you all to join “the Coalition of The Willing.” The Committee on Excellence is very engaged in working to identify the weaknesses and jointly develop solutions for these industry wide problems. Manufacturers, suppliers, dealers,RVDA, RVIA and RVAA are spending incredible energy on moving the needle forward. i encourage everyone in the industry to enegage themselves and their peers. Why, you ask, because it’s the right thing to do!
December 14th, 2006 at 9:48 am
Quality! I have yet to see our industry progress in such a manner as to offer our customers a better quality product for the same or less money as many other industries achieve. I do not see the RV industry moving forward but losing ground.
The first instance that comes to mind is the total lack of quality regarding the garbage tires most trailer manufacturers are using. The long haul drivers in many instances cannot even arrive at our dealership without having to replace a tire and wheel because of a total blowout. The drivers can actually cut the tire off the rim with a ‘Scripto Knife’.
Good Year tires rarely ever gave a problem but the almighty buck has caused our industry to deteriorate to a level where lives are at risk and it will only be a matter of time before lives are lost.
Once upon a time when you purchased a new trailer you could expect the furniture to withstand many years of faithful wear and tear. Today you are lucky if you are able to use it for a couple of days. The junk foam and fabric that is used is a total disgrace and who has to take the hit financially. THE DEALER. To maintain good customer relations and retain those customers my checkbook is continually being opened to rectify problems we have never had to incur until now.
Note the trouble with recent BT Cruiser and Montana models that our company has received. We had to remove brand new furniture to have a local upholstery shop install more foam and better quality foam. These are BRAND NEW UNITS! It’s unacceptable.
I thought I would be able to work in this industry for many a year but with the customer becoming more accustomed to better quality goods and our industry manufacturing poorer quality products I have come to the realization that another 10 years for me and I’m gone.
The lack of quality is and will be the #1 problem our industry faces in the foreseeable future.
Thank You
Darren Young
GM Bluenose RV Centre
December 13th, 2006 at 10:22 pm
Speaking as a customer, customer service, after the sale, is for the most part totally absent. I am in the minority, we are fortunate to be able to use the manufacturers’ service center. Our last two units have never seen the service department of the selling dealership. I cannot stand to have my unit sit for 2 weeks at the dealerships’ service department to accomplish work that should have been completed in a few days.
December 13th, 2006 at 4:16 pm
Greg;
I would have to disagree with your assessment on the quality of RV’s being built today. Personally, I feel that the build quality, materials and construction is not that good at all. Having been in the industry as a salesmen my opportunity to see things from the “other side” (including factory tours) is perhaps greater then most have had access to, so I don’t make that statement without some first-hand experience.
But for me the question is how much of the poor quality is the fault of the manufacturers and how much of that falls squarely on the consumers shoulders? Having been in sales I know for sure that people will walk out the door to save a couple of hundred dollars on a travel trailer, disregarding all the advantages — from a materials, construction and options perspective — the more expensive unit may have. The reality is that the typical TT shopper is almost entirely focused on price, and for some reason doesn’t see much else. Now that’s not to say they’re all like that, but a disproportionate percentage of them seem to be. So the manufacturers respond by making low cost (read: cheap) units in order to gain the market share. Unfortunately, people buy those TT’s thinking they’re getting a solid unit for dirt cheap, but they end up having a ton of problems with them, become disillusioned and decide that RVing is just not worth it. The industry looses another camping enthusiast each time that occurs, and that’s sad.
In my opinion, the perfect example is Sunline; when a company known for building perhaps the highest quality TT’s in existence goes bankrupt it’s a sad indictment of the industry in general (true, they probably had other problems, but I’ll bet a lot of them stem from the fact that not enough people wanted to spend the $$ to get a really good trailer).
With few exceptions the construction labor force utilized is not paid all that well, and they have to adhere to what can arguably be called unrealistic build volumes. And I don’t know of a single TT manufacturer that rewards there production crews with bonuses for high-quality units, so the incentive is to “move ‘em out” more then build them right. It almost reminds me of the American auto industry of the 70’s and the production mentality that seemed to be pervasive back then; “don’t worry about installing that properly, leave it for the dealer to fix”.
I realize my comments sound terribly negative, but I’ve crawled through/around/under far too many TT’s to not know this to be true. I wish everyone made Sunline-level units, but that’s not realistic; let’s face it, there will always be consumers who place price at the very top of there priorities list, and that’s fine. But value, TRUE value, is not getting the lowest priced unit, it’s a combination of things with price being only one of the components. Until the consumer demands better, and is willing to pay for it, I can’t imagine the industry will change all that much.
December 13th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
Yes, the RV industry is being compared to the auto industry because they go down the road.The biggest concern that customers have are the issues with appliances and audio video epuipment. Any customer that has been rving for any length of time has come to reconize brands,such as, Dometic,Norcold,Atwood and others, but the problem is with these standard names for the industry is that if you need a part, chances are you can’t get it today and maybe not tomorrow. As Sean said the customer wants to use their unit,and if you are in a northern state with a short season even one lost weekend is to long.The second side of this is the audio video equipment that most manufactures use.I have lost more then one sale because a customer seen the same radio in the dealerships new unit that was broke in there old one,and walking around Louisville you see the same audio and video equipment in 75% of the units,I know it becomes a cost issue but if there is a new cheap stereo system out there you will find it in a RV first,I have lost track over the years how many I have replaced. Some manufacturer needs to step up to the plate and install a name brand sound system,and yes they will probably take a hit for it,but it will catch on and they will be the winner in the long run.
December 13th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
I think you touched on the most critical and frustrating of the quality issues when you mentioned ” parts “. As a dealer, if we could eliminate parts problems, I believe we would cast out one half of the total of problems we encoumter. From robbing new units to wrong parts being shipped to delays and damage in shipping , the potential for creating issues in our service departments is huge. It is unarguable that a dealer is incapable of stocking all necessary parts for even a single manufacturers product , much less at a multi line dealership. We dealers must rely on the manufacturer for most of our requirements. That is where most of the issues arise. The horror stories abound. When you send a photo of the part you need and get a shipment of something that does not even resemble the part, you know that something is not right.
The solution is obvious. It must start with the manufacturers. They need to employ quality people, give them a decent wage and insist on quality results. This industry has always looked at the parts department as a “Necessary Evil” and this problem will not get better until upper managment at the manufacturing and dealer level starts to treat parts personell as the needed “Good Guys” that they really are.
December 13th, 2006 at 2:55 pm
I dont’ want to get too political here, but my opinion would be that our society and culture in general contribute to the poor evulation ratings.
Just look at the issues regarding Katrina … how long did it take for critics to start hammering the RV industry on poor quality, etc.. What in the world, the term RV says it well … it’s a recreation vehicle. Not a LV (living vehicle).
What other industry in the world could come to the aide of thousands and thousands of folks who needed a place to live? None that I can think of.
So, what are consumers comparing the RV industry to? Sean said it well in the previous post. It’s about expectations.
December 13th, 2006 at 9:21 am
I see a couple of different issues here…
1. Time frames are being compressed. Customers are busier than ever (they don’t care that you are busier than ever). They don’t have the time for their coach to be tied up for weeks for a simple repair. They want to use it when they want to use it.
2. WE are responsible for setting the expectations of the customer. Customers expect exactly what they are told. If we can’t meet what we are telling them, we have to stop making those promises. It boils down to an adult to adult conversation.