The National RV Training Academy today announced it promoted Garrett Syfrett to the newly created position of digital media manager.
The move was in response to increased video production projects at the school in addition to more content being produced for social media channels, said Tony Flammia, NRVTA’s director of sales and marketing.
Syfrett was hired in January to help produce NRVTA’s Tech Tip Tuesday video clips as well as to reshoot videos for an updated version of RVTechCourse.com’s home-study course. With those projects completed, an increased workload necessitated hiring another videographer this summer to assist in producing brand-specific training materials for several RV manufacturers, said Flammia.
“For many years, the RV industry was reluctant to use a lot of video content to train RV technicians and consumers,” Syfrett said. “However, video is quickly becoming the industry’s preferred communication method for demonstrating diagnostic and repair procedures as well as showing owners how to use equipment and perform routine maintenance.
“Demand for professionally-produced video content is rising consistently and NRVTA is working to meet the needs of manufacturers, suppliers, dealers and RV owners.”
With two video editors on staff, the academy can double output produced from NRVTA’s on-site studio and even go on location to film training materials, said Syfrett. NRVTA is currently working with several RV manufacturers to set up interviews and record training videos in Elkhart for customers to better understand how to use their RVs. The projects are similar to a video series NRVTA produced earlier this summer for Alliance RV.
“Manufacturers realize their customers will get more enjoyment out of their RVs if they better know how to use them and to fix problems that may occur,” he explained.
“Suppliers and manufacturers understand there is a big knowledge gap between buying a new RV and using it,” Syfrett explained. “Consumers do get a brief walk-through orientation when they take delivery of a new RV. However, buyers are often very excited about the purchase and don’t always remember all the nuances discussed in the presentation.”
While buyers do receive digital PDFs and other written materials to use as references, video is a much better training resource because it actually shows how an on-board system is designed to work and demonstrates what users must do to get equipment to work properly, said Syfrett.
“We are building training programs to which users can refer when they’re trying to figure out how something works or, more importantly, what they need to do to get a non-functioning system working again,” he explained. “If we can increase the education level for average RV owners, they will be more confident in checking fuses, propane levels, switches and other connections.
“That will save dealers and manufacturers time and money in diagnosing non-existent problems RV owners think are warranty issues,” he added.
A graduate of NRVTA’s technician training program, Syfrett said he will continue to support the Tech Tip Tuesday video series as well as produce brief commercials for the school to use on social media platforms.