Rentals Prove a Winner for OLATHE FORD RV The Kansas-based dealership launches a successful program in 2014 thanks in part to receiving some special training. By Mike Harbour Most dealerships have improved their parts and service departments during the past few years, yet there s one area where some still let money walk off the lot RV rentals. Until last spring, Olathe Ford RV Center in northeastern Kansas was in that group, but thanks to a formal education, a little trial and error, plus a serious commitment, the Kansas dealership has added another profit center to its books. According to Office Manager Ashley Butler, it s a tale that began when a customer asked about renting an RV at the store, located in the southwestern Kansas City, Kan., suburb of Gardner. We ve been talking about it for awhile, she says. I would always get calls and we were turning people away. Eventually, when request after request continued to pour in each year, Butler told her boss, Olathe Ford RV General Manager Daryn Anderson, they should do something about it. After all, sending people elsewhere was a goodwill gesture that usually did nothing for the dealership s bottom line. So, after us talking in-depth, we decided to go to the MBA Rental School, Anderson says. We ordered some motorhomes and a few trailers, and that s how it all got started. The three-day school, conducted by RV rental insurance leader MBA Insurance for more than a decade, is held each year in Las Vegas and offers a crash course on the ins Olathe Ford RV is located on 34 acres along a busy freeway in the southwestern Kansas City, Kan., suburb of Gardner. The dealership is seeing strong growth, with 460 units sold in 2013, up from 190 in 2009. 72 RV PRO NOVEMBER 2014 rv-pro.com
PHOTOS BY KEVIN MILLER/ KB PHOTOGRAPHY and outs of the business. Initially, Butler and Anderson didn t imagine it would be a challenging task. We thought, Aww, this is going to be a breeze, she says until they hit the first snag. We had to find the software to use because we didn t have anything like that. We literally went from the ground up. There was marketing to consider, too, as well as fleet makeup. Plus, Butler, who also became the rental manager during the process, had never worked in the finance and insurance department. Not surprisingly, she had to learn about customer paperwork, too. Fortunately, when Butler had questions, the school created by MBA Insurance President Bert Alanko had answers. After all, its instructors rental veteran and founding instructor Scott Krenek of Krenek RV Center in Michigan and Martin Onken of Expedition Motorhomes in California have almost 50 years of experience between them. It helps that Butler isn t the only face in the rental department; there s another employee, Lia Geenhalgh, to assist her in the office and a third, Ron White, who does most of the customer walkthroughs. From spring to fall, when rentals are in demand, it s just enough staff to handle the fleet of 10 new Coachmen Leprechauns and a pair of trailers. Off to a Strong Start As for success, Butler says that from April to mid-september, 130 rentals have been booked, surpassing the goal of 100 for the season. She s also planning to double the fleet for 2015, and the dealership may drop towables completely from the lineup and offer just Class A s and C s. That s the opposite direction of Olathe Ford RV s sales mix, according to Anderson, who says towables make up 70 percent of the dealership s sales. Renting motorhomes when a store s Olathe Ford RV Center launched its rentals program this summer after completing the MBA Rental School earlier this year. Pictured are Office Manager Ashley Butler, who heads the rentals program, and General Manager Daryn Anderson. The dealership s fleet is comprised of 10 new Coachmen Leprechauns and a pair of trailers. bread and butter consists of trailer and fifth wheel sales goes against what s taught at the MBA Rental School. The experts there advocate a rent what you sell philosophy. That doesn t bother Anderson, though, because the rental department actually serves a two-fold purpose for him in that it dovetails nicely into his efforts to sell more motorhomes. The dollar percentage is probably 3 to 4 percent to the bottom line, he says. It won t be huge, but what it will do is give me used Class C s to sell. So, in the big picture, it ll be quite a bit more than that. Butler says her units will be put up for sale at the end of the season, and whatever doesn t sell, we ll put back in the fleet next year. So in 2015, we re going to try to have a 2016 fleet. rv-pro.com NOVEMBER 2014 RV PRO 73
Parts representatives Ginger Olsen and Mike Vielhour man the four-person parts department at Olathe Ford RV Center. The dealership s 2,500-square-foot parts store will grow by another 1,000 square feet once an expansion project is completed. It s a strategy that only allows rental customers to see and enjoy all the latest options available on new models and it stands in stark contrast to other operations. That s one of my selling points, Butler says. I think we re the only ones in the area that have the current model year units. Everybody else has older units. There s even an approach for gently steering renters toward units for sale, she says. We also offer a deal where, if they purchase within six months of renting, we take a certain amount of the rental toward the purchase, she says. When my customers come back from a rental, I ll usually introduce them to a salesperson so they can get acquainted. Without a doubt, one of the biggest concerns for dealers is the probability not the possibility of units needing repair, but Butler says Olathe Ford RV has been lucky: Only twice out of 130 rentals have RVs come back with serious damage. The incidents certainly haven t affected her enthusiasm for the business. By the time the inaugural season ends, she estimates there will be close to 160 rentals in the books. 74 RV PRO NOVEMBER 2014 rv-pro.com
I think next year is going to be even bigger because we had our RV shows this year and people were asking questions about rentals and we couldn t answer them because we didn t know the answers, according to Butler. Now the store, which sold 460 units in 2013 (up from 190 in 2009), can handle rental requests. With upcoming Kansas City Chiefs football games and the fall NASCAR races at Kansas Speedway on the schedule, Butler is hoping for more rentals before the season, which peaked in July, comes to a close. Service Shop Stays Busy Regardless of what season it is, Anderson s shop stays busy. That s due, in part, to its capabilities, which handles typical RV issues as well as paint and finish. We have a full body shop. The only The dealership s management team (left to right): Dan Hill, business manager; Anderson; and Bob Knoernschild, service and parts manager, set the direction for the business. The dealership is adding a new sales office and customer lounges, and is looking to add a large outdoor display area set up like an RV park. rv-pro.com NOVEMBER 2014 RV PRO 75
Olathe Ford RV Center s service team includes a trio of service advisors and 17 technicians. Of its technicians, five are certified techs and three are master certified techs. thing we don t get involved with at this point is heavy chassis work, which we farm out, he says. Other than that, everything else we take care of pretty well. Small chassis stuff we ll take care of, too, but we don t rebuild transmissions and engines here. The shop boasts 20 service bays, a trio of service advisors and 17 technicians, Anderson says, so his store stands out among the smaller dealers nearby. One of the biggest things is the amount of service bays we have, he says. Also, having a good mix of certified and master certified techs makes it a very unique situation, at least in our area. Yet bay count is useless without qualified techs to staff them, and Anderson is proud of his people. We have five certified techs and three master certified techs. We re fortunate because a lot of dealerships don t have that. We ve got some real talent, he says. We ve had employees stay here for many years. Help is always tough to find, but we have a very good team right now. When new techs are brought aboard, the dealership pairs them with vets for a six-month to year-long shadow period to better learn their way around RVs. Olathe Ford RV operates a flat-rate shop, but there are some exceptions on staff. We have three people who are hourly, and what we did that for is some of the jobs that we know are going to take eight or nine hours, but we know we re only going to get a couple of hours for, he says. As for education, Anderson finds real value in the RV Dealers Association s certification process and the dealership s goal is have every tech at least certified, if not master certified. Simply put, it s because today s RVs aren t as simple to service as they were a few years ago. That s 100 percent true, Anderson says. Everything changes every day. It s almost like the automobile industry with all the advancements. Speaking of cars and trucks, the dealership s full name is a clue to both its past and present, according to Anderson, as it s owned by a Ford-Lincoln franchise 11 miles away, off Interstate 35 in Olathe, Kan. We actually bought the auto dealership in 1973 and in about 75 or 76, we had a gentleman who wanted to know if we could find a motorhome for him, he says, We found one, and by the time we told him, somebody else showed up wanting to buy one as well, so we thought, We ll try a couple of them and see what happens. Forty years later, here we are. Room to Grow Located on 34 acres along a busy freeway, Anderson has plenty of room to expand, something he s doing now to his 2,500-square-foot parts store. Once a new building is complete, that department will grow by another 1,000 square feet. We do a lot of business with Arrow Distributing and we do quite a bit with Stag-Parkway as well, he says. Those are 76 RV PRO NOVEMBER 2014 rv-pro.com
Troy Periman, master certified technician, works on a travel trailer. Towables make up 70 percent of Olathe Ford RV s sales. probably our two biggest suppliers. We re trying to carry a few more trinket items in addition to the meat-and-potatoestype items. Given that Olathe Ford RV mostly sells towables, it should be no surprise Anderson sells lots of hitches. The parts department, which employs a staff of four, is stocking plenty of awnings, too. Also, customers who buy new units are given tours through the parts aisles so they have the opportunity to purchase items before that first trip. They re going to buy that stuff somewhere, Anderson says, so they may as well purchase it here. Although the nearest Camping World is 40 miles away, Anderson keeps an eye on it. We price match when we need to and we look at their ads frequently. They re very good at sending mailers out, and we do look at those when they come in to see what they re doing, he says. I think you have to keep an eye on the competition because they ll swallow you up if you re not careful. The parts store expansion isn t the only thing Olathe Ford RV has in the works. In addition, Anderson is adding a new sales office and customer lounges, and is looking to add a large outdoor display area set up like an RV park. Our goal, he says, is to give people that camping feel when they come into the dealership. rv-pro.com November 2014 RV Pro 77