How To Humanize Your RV Dealership & Build Customer Loyalty

Have you ever walked into a store and seen a pet brag board? It’s usually filled up with fun photos of employee’s pets. A few of the ones I’ve seen include my local hardware store; the East End Hospice Thrift Shop in Westhampton Beach on Long Island, New York; the local PetSmart; and at my chiropractor’s office. If I’m not in rush mode, I always stop to check out the people and their beloved pets. It personalizes the shopping experience for me, and a trip to Ace Hardware doesn’t feel like a visit to a corporate entity — it’s to ask George, pet parent to Sam the German Shepard, where to find the right filter for my gas heater.

We’re all in a rush today. Time is precious, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, time around strangers felt fraught with potential danger. During winter, the flu fear propels us a little more quickly through retail spaces.

As you well know, the longer someone spends in your parts and accessories areas, the more inclined they are to impulse buy or remember something they need that wasn’t on their list. When you see a face you recognize from either the brag board or an email or mailer, customers may slow down for a moment. They feel like they “know” that person.

What are you doing in your dealership to introduce your staff as people, not just bodies that ring up sales? When you humanize your location, you become memorable. Hopefully, in a positive way.

Showcase Employee RV Stories

One suggestion inspired by the pet brag boards is to talk with your staff about who has personal RV experiences. Introduce the idea of weekly or twice-a-month stories about that person, their personal experiences, photos of their trip (if there are any) and post a photo of that employee. The funnier or more educational the story, the better. (Ideally, both!) These stories can be posted on your website, Facebook and/or Instagram — wherever you have the most interactions. If you have a customer email list, send these fun stories twice a month. These aren’t sales opportunities; they are human interest stories. Of course, you can include a coupon or a new product alert below the story if you want to monetize the mailing.

Once you’ve put the energy into the interviews/stories/photos, create a space on a wall or easel that’s visible on your selling floor. If there is an area where people have to wait for service, they may be entertained by the employees’ stories. Please don’t put it in a hallway or an entry/exit area. The hallway will be too narrow if people are passing by and, hopefully, your front door is even busier.

Print the photos and the interview. Make sure the font for the interview is at least 14 point or larger so older people don’t have to pull out their readers. Print in black on white paper for the best contrast. That way, if the wall or easel isn’t in a well-lit area, people will still be able to see the photos and read the copy. The photos should include a flattering photo of your employee. The layout of the photos and copy can go on a piece of posterboard, Coroplast (corrugated plastic sign board) or an actual cork bulletin board.

If you choose posterboard, use double-sided tape to attach everything so it looks neat. As posterboard is lightweight, make sure it doesn’t curl when placed on an easel. If you attach it to a piece of Coroplast sign board, it will stay rigid. If you want to save some money, you can just use the Coroplast sign board as the backdrop. Check out Scotch Wall-Safe tape or 3M Removable Repositionable Double Coated Tape. The Coroplast board can be reused until it starts to look worn. Then, turn it over to the fresh side and get a few more months out of it until you need to replace it.

You want this to look genuine, homemade in-house and not manufactured. This is personal!

Turn Customers Into Contributors

If this becomes something your customers notice and talk about, your next step may be to ask customers if they would like to contribute to the mailings/postings/poster with their own experiences. Give them the choice of whether to use their full names or just initials. Their privacy level must be their choice. For example, they may not want photos of their children posted online. Honor their wishes as you would want yours honored.

Taking this a few steps further, you may consider a contest for Funniest RV Story, Most Helpful Advice, Best RV Tool, Scariest Moment (and how it all worked out). Reader’s Digest has stayed in business for 103 years with short funny and/or inspirational stories. This contest can be advertised (once again) on your website, social media platforms, email blasts and old-school mailers. Offer prizes for the winners. You may even make it a vote among your customers and publish all the entries. Voting makes this more interactive. Make sure you send a thank-you note to each voter and to every person who sends in a story. It can be in the form of an email, but just do it! Acknowledgment is important and makes people feel heard and appreciated. This contest could also be publicized in your local newspaper if it has decent circulation.

Don’t underestimate the power of a postcard. If it’s something interesting, different or seems like fun, and there’s a prize, it could sit on someone’s table or be stuck to the refrigerator for a while with your logo visible many times a day. That same postcard can be given to everyone who enters your location. Someone may have a friend who had an amazing RV experience and pass the card on.

Does all of this take work? Of course, but it will also create buzz, and buzz gets bodies into your dealership! You may have someone who works for you currently who is the perfect person to take on this project. Parkrose Hardware in Portland, Oregon, has the best end-cap graphics I’ve ever seen. They were chalk painted on blackboards by one of their employees who was a stock man — and an artist. This project requires someone who has good literacy skills and another person who can proofread whatever is going to be printed. It’s fairly impossible to proof your own work. (I know all too well how important a good editor can be.) Always have someone check out the copy before it’s printed online and on paper. Mistakes devalue your message and make your image seem sloppy.

If all this just seems like way too much, start with just an employee pet or RV trip brag board in a visible location. Make sure your employee photos have their names attached. It’s the beginning of creating new relationships and humanizing the RV shopping experience.