IDS 2022 RV Industry Trends Report

Many dealers are experiencing high service employee burnout and employee turnover. If dealers can’t find good technicians in their area, they may need to look outside of the industry and train them. Not only that but with RV technology becoming more complex, many dealers need technicians who can fulfill a more generalist role (including electrical, plumbing, etc.). To fill the talent gap, many dealers will need to invest in tools that help fill efficiency gaps and free up their team’s time to focus on serving the customer better—data entry, communication, ordering, and other work that previously required a team member to get done.

COMMUNICATION AUTOMATION Dealers receive an incredibly high volume of communications every day. From lead flow to Work Order management, communications can slow down your team’s output significantly. The service labor shortage has only compounded that challenge. That’s why more dealers are implementing tools to automate communications, like CRMs and service department-specific tools like IDS ServiceCRM. Channeling an automation tool can save employees hours of work a day. communications through

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER (BDC) MANAGEMENT The sheer number of leads incoming to most dealerships is overwhelming, thanks to the increase in new RV buyers. Without enough people to man the phones, leads inevitably fall through the cracks. That’s why interest in BDC is on the rise. Big enough dealerships are even leveraging a specific BDC manager for sales and service, respectively. In essence, BDC Managers capture leads and convert them into sales. They do this by creating a more personalized, targeted online customer experience that uses cookies to track user behavior. Dealers can then pull from an intelligent database of customer information to create more relevant, effective marketing campaigns.

VIRTUAL TRAINING Spurredbypandemicsocialdistancingrestrictions, more dealers and RV dealer associations are offering online learning opportunities for employees. But this trend is set to carry on into the coming year, as virtual training provides teams with more interactive, hands-on learning resources. For example, dealers can expect to see DMS providers offering more interactive video training in the coming year.

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