In 2013, Campers Inn RV was in six locations on the East Coast. Today, it stands at 27 locations, gradually moving West to become one of the largest dealerships around. But the behemoth never planned to grow so rapidly. In fact, it was an organic occurrence in how it builds customer and employee loyalty.
“We didn’t realize that as we got more stores and had more great management come on board – it was like a snowball starting to roll. That’s really what happened,” Ben Hirsch, chief operating officer of Campers Inn, said, laughing. “More good people joined that believed that Campers Inn can really be an RVer’s trusted resource in each of our markets. And we started looking at each of our stores. How we could grow it, how we could grow more stores in the various markets?”
Here’s a brief rundown on the company’s acquisitions and expansions in the past two years:
- Aug. 22, 2018 – Campers Inn acquires Louisville, Ky., location
- Sept. 19, 2018 – The company adds Capital RV Centers in North Dakota, giving it two locations in the state
- Nov. 27, 2018 – Two Alabama locations are added
- Dec. 13, 2018 – Campers Inn acquires service center Camping Connection in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
- May 17, 2019 – The Campers Inn location in Raleigh, N.C., expands to a supercenter
- May 20, 2019 – The Dick Gore’s RV World acquisition adds three locations across Florida and Georgia
- July 1, 2019 – Campers Inn of Fredericksburg, Va., moves to a larger site
- Nov. 4, 2019 – Palmetto RV & Marine in South Carolina is added, totaling 27 locations
Although the company has been around for 53 years, the comparatively recent growth came from values founded by Hirsch’s grandfather. After having a bad customer service experience with an RV dealer, he founded Campers Inn RV in 1966.
“How we treat the customers is a competitive advantage,” Hirsch told RV PRO.
That’s meant to be taken quite literally.
Unlike many dealerships, Campers Inn has in-house customer satisfaction scores that is directly tied to the management team.
“Most of our managers have some portion of their compensation tied to customer satisfaction,” elaborated Hirsch. “That’s unique in the industry as far as I’ve heard.”
Part of that is the trickle effect of what CEO Jeff Hirsch says a lot: “Employees first. Customers second.”
While it may sound contrary, that strategy harkens back to what Ben Hirsch calls the company’s core values: integrity, teamwork, continuous improvement, and sustainability.
In an effort to improve this, at the end of 2018, Campers Inn hired a couple consultants to visit several stores. The company did cross-sections of its stores followed by value-sensing sessions. The result was getting honest opinions from every employee: sales managers, technicians, detailers, finance people, and support staff.
“The consultant got their input into our values – and where we were upholding the values that we propose – and making sure that the four core values fit our company,” said Hirsch.
Based on the feedback, Jeff and Ben Hirsch made little adjustments. The plan is to continue these assessments as Campers Inn looks West to continue expanding at its own pace, finding the right dealers that match those values.