The RV Industry Association plans to launch a multimillion-dollar RV Technical Institute in Elkhart to address a shortage of trained technicians and better track the RV customer experience.
The RVIA board announced a comprehensive strategic plan that includes creation of a supporting foundation, the RV Technical Institute, which will be headquartered in the Elkhart area.
This story originally appeared in The Elkhart Truth.
Many industries monitor customer service experiences through the reducing repair event cycle times (RECT) metric. RECT is impacted by various factors including causes such as lack of parts information, inconsistent part stocking programs, delivery options and technician training.
The goal of this project is to position RECT as a key performance indicator for customer service to every segment of the RV industry, the association said.
The newly formed foundation will establish a headquarters and training facility in the Elkhart area, where it will implement a comprehensive RECT reduction initiative as well as launch an aggressive recruitment campaign to attract technicians to the RV industry.
In addition to its headquarters in Indiana, RVTI will also establish a network of regional training partners that will be accredited to deliver training to existing technicians on a local or regional basis. Current and existing training venues, as well as new training providers, will be asked to partner with RVTI to provide standardized, centrally managed training. Several of the industry’s leading providers of current service training have already agreed to join this new standardized training initiative.
