And with the help of Ideal’s industry-specific software features, Wright-Way has taken its success a step further with the ability to streamline its operations and provide the best in customer service. Continue reading to see how Bob and Parts Manager, Jeff McLaud, help Wright-Way achieve success…

Ideal: What do you consider to be the strengths of your business compared to most other retailers and what sets you apart from the competition?

Bob:“We are fortunate in that the trailer business isn’t nearly as complex as automotive or even RVs, so we have the capacity to provide more attention to detail and handle all of our trailer operations in a more professional manner. For many dealers, trailers are more of a sideline and for us it’s our core business. We can also back up our trailer business with a full-time parts and service staff, which most of our competitors do not. This allows us to work on a lot of competitors’ products because we have the capacity to do so. There’s a lot of competition in the area, but a lot of them don’t have the ability to handle the full-time needs of the trailer market.”

Jeff:“I’d say our employees are also a big factor that sets us apart from the competition. We always look for quality and dedicated people who are all about taking care of the customer. We have 10 great people on our staff broken down into administrative, sales and service.”

Ideal: What methods do you use to advertise your business? Which method is most effective and why?

Bob:“Over the last few years a lot of our advertising has gone to more internet-based. We have our own website that we work on maintaining and improving all of the time. We advertise on specific websites that are geared for racing trailers and horse and stock trailers. We also do some TV advertising for our local people. Even though we get a lot of traffic, we feel it’s necessary to keep our name out. Lastly we advertise a lot of used products on Craigslist, which hits up the local people.”

Ideal: What are some best practices you’ve incorporated to manage your service department more effectively and how has Ideal helped?

Jeff:“We try to keep everything, in particular the scheduling, in the Ideal system. We track all of our customer information in the system and maintain their equipment history. Equipment history is a big factor for us because we can look up everything to see what’s been done on the unit before and what previous issues there were. Being able to pull…

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During a recent on-site training engagement, I discovered that the dealership did not have their point of sale scanners or bar code printers hooked up to their IDS Astra dealer management system.

We discussed why and they told me they just never had the time to mess with them.  So we immediately made it a priority and got them up and running.

After setting up the scanners and bar code printers, they are now saving a ton of time in a variety of different ways.  They can sell over-the-counter parts as part of work orders.  They can easily receive parts because they can now print bar codes.  They can also scan bar codes to sell parts to customers and place them on service work orders.

A simple “fix” to set them up that will now pay big dividends with happy parts and service personnel.  It will also make customers happy because they won’t have to wait for their part numbers to be manually entered into the parts sales screen.  Everything can now be scanned quickly and easily with the technology that the IDS system provides!

Ideal: What do you consider to be your strengths compared to other businesses and big box stores?

Richard:“It’s really about being focused on the customer, and staying focused on what we do best. We don’t have a broad assortment of products and we don’t try to do a broad range of services. We stick to a few brands of power equipment and within that we make sure we’re very deep in parts so that we make sure we can manage. We maintain those product lines for our customers the best way that we can. We have built a reputation for always having key parts in stock. After being in business since 1960, our customers know we always deliver on this promise.”

Ideal: How do you maintain return customers and at the same time attract new customers to the business?

Richard:“With new customers, we’ve started doing a lot of things different because the traditional media hasn’t been that productive. We’re being a lot more targeted in who we’re advertising to and who we’re marketing to. We’re basically going after our new customers through radio advertisement, internet advertising, and through social media advertising. Our customer retention programs are through direct mail, email and other direct marketing tactics. Whether you are going after new customers or existing customers, the key is relevancy. Making sure whatever products or service you are offering is relevant and important to the customer.”

Ideal: You mentioned a focus on the customer, what do you do to stand out?

Richard:“On the customer service side, I believe there are several stages to a customer. There’s the acquisition side where you’re trying to attract them and get them to react to some type of promotion to get them into the store, but the important part once you gain a customer is the retention side. With Ideal, I have the ability to query up people who’ve purchased Stihl equipment in the past 12 months. There’s a good likelihood they’ll buy more Stihl products. So, by allowing me to dissect and quickly get to the point of finding out who bought Stihl equipment, or who had Stihl equipment in for repairs, allows me to create a very branded, targeted message to the customers that’s really relevant to them. This gives a much higher likelihood they’ll do something with whatever offer or promotion that I give them. I think being a lot more relevant to a customer makes us that much more meaningful than what you can get at a big box store where there’s no personal contact after the repair or purchase. If they get something from us, they’re excited to see it because it’s relevant versus another card that has nothing to do with what they’re interested in buying.”

Ideal: You mentioned maintaining certain product lines for your customers, how do you go about managing your inventory?

Richard:“That’s one of the areas that I looked at Ideal for. One of the things that I really like about the Ideal product is the product recommendation engine. It literally will pull up recommended items to be fulfilled based off of sales history. That is really helpful for us in setting up our model stocks, making sure that we’re in stock in the key items we should be stocked in. Ideal has a lot of different forecasting, real-time data capabilities that our old POS system didn’t have. The ability to query, pull data out, and…

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Defining Trigger-Based Messaging

So what exactly is trigger-based messaging?  A triggered message is one that is automatically generated based on a meaningful change, or event in a customer behavior or profile based on the customer’s interaction with any department within your RV dealership.

Types of Trigger-Based Email Campaigns

There are two primary types of trigger-based email campaigns, Action-Based and Recurring.

1. Action-Based Triggers: These triggers are sent when a direct action is taken by a customer or lead. They can include a sales inquiry, opt-in for newsletter, a visit to the dealership, or a purchase.
2. Recurring Triggers: Recurring triggers are profile-based. These triggers can include birthdays, service reminders, and other recurring business rules that initiate an automated campaign.

You can incorporate both of these trigger campaigns into your email program, or you can begin with one initially and expand as you gain confidence in your efforts.

The major advantage to a trigger-based email marketing program is that it provides you with a great amount of revenue possibilities that a “one newsletter covers all,” or a physical letter approach does not provide.  Due to its immediacy, reactionary nature, and relevance to your customer, action-based triggers reap the most return.

Set Your Email Marketing Success in Motion

Your trigger-based email strategies can easily be generated from the information stored in your dealer management system (DMS) and streamlined through an integrated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution.  Integrated Dealer Systems (IDS), for example, has a robust CRM module integrated into its Astra G2 system that provides you with a full 360-degree visibility of your RV customer base.  This allows you to easily generate targeted trigger-based messaging directly from your DMS.  With this type of system in place, you can quickly and easily begin implementing trigger-based messaging with the following programs:

Welcome Programs:

Welcome messages yield some of the highest open rates and are an excellent way to introduce your brand to a prospect and increase your chances of a sale. The period after inquiry is a prime time to reach your prospects when they are most interested and likely to respond. Triggered by a newsletter, opt-in, or sales inquiry, this series of messages can include a bi-weekly drip of RV educational content, exclusive deals, and social links.

Lead Nurture Programs:

Lead Nurture Programs allow you to build a relationship with prospects through their interests and behavior. Triggered by a sales inquiry, this program can be used in conjunction with the salesperson follow-up to provide education focused messages to help the prospect in decision making.

This program can also be used to re-connect with prospects that fall off the grid and become inactive. By making them an offer they can’t refuse through a limited-time special promotion or strong call-to-action, you can give them a reason to re-activate.

Post Purchase Programs:

A Post Purchase message series allows you to retain the relationship with a customer after a purchase. Automatically triggered by an RV purchase or service, this message series can include a Thank You coupon, product care information, customer satisfaction survey, warranty/accessories up-sell, and related services information.

Date-Triggered Programs:

Date-triggered messages, such as birthday and purchase anniversary emails, are excellent opportunities to send your well wishes and also offer your customers a special deal on their special day. These types of messages can be automated with minimal effort. When gathering information on your customers, make an effort to request dates for commonly celebrated events. This simple gesture could mean a big payoff for your top-line revenue.

Trigger-based email campaigns are an effective way to communicate with your customers and prospects. Through automated workflows, you can present a tailor-made message to your customers that aligns your offerings with their needs. In addition, once up and running, they are success in motion. When integrated through your dealer management software’s CRM module, you can save even more time and make this process even simpler.

Take these concepts and create your automated, trigger-based campaigns today!

Integrated Dealer Systems is one of the world’s leading providers of Dealer Management Software and Customer Relationship Management solutions for the RV and Marine industries. Incorporated in 1984, IDS has developed complete dealer management software solutions for over 9,500 users across North America. Our systems’ capabilities include CRM, sales, service, parts, accounting, administration, inventory management and integrated websites.  We can also apply custom applications to help RV and Marine dealers with their specialized needs.

Why?

PCI applies to ALL organizations or merchants, regardless of their size or the number of transactions they run, that accept, transmit or store any cardholder data. Said another way, if any customer of that organization ever pays the merchant directly using a credit card or debit card, then the PCI-DSS requirements apply. If your small business is found at fault for a breach, the fines and penalties range from $5,000 to $500,000 per incident on top of the actual damages to the cardholder. Here’s a video with some more details on PCI-DSS and a small business owner who experienced a breach: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5-_JvciA5o

Just because you are using a PCI compliant application does not mean that your business is PCI compliant. This is why we developed a PCI compliant integrated merchant services system for our customers that includes your annual survey and quarterly scans of your system. Recommendations will be made after each scan on how to bring your system into compliance or further into compliance. This is another way that Ideal’s dealer management software provides our customers with a service to help them stay current with the latest technology and compliance regulations.

For more information on PCI compliance standards, you may go to: https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/merchants/

For more information about Ideal’s integrated merchant services program, go to:
http://www.constellationdealer.com/services/merchant-services/

Or call System Upgrade Specialist Brian Mohr at 800-737-1620, ext. 209

Sean Raynor, Kimberly Schultz, Greg Dewalt, Grant Farrer, Greg Carradus, Marc Hertert, and Rick Merritt will all be on hand to meet with you and answer any questions you may have about the IDS dealer management software and what product options can help boost profits and efficiency in your RV dealership including Astra CRM and new features that have been added to the latest Astra G2 release.

While you’re there, show them a print or mobile copy of this post and you’ll be entered into our FREE Apple iPad drawing!

We look forward to seeing you!

Renee brings more than 29 years of expertise in customer service management to the Ideal customer base.She will be managing the support team where their primary goals are to provide superior service, build relationships and go above and beyond to exceed customer expectations. Renee will also be coordinating initiatives and strategies with other areas of the company.

Previously, Renee served as Vice President of Client Services with the AdTrack Corporation for 7 years, Vice President of Client Services and Business Development at Infinity Contact for 4 years and Contact Center Director at MattelInteractive for 7 years.She has also spoken at the DMA telemarketing conference, marketing conferences, events hosted by AdTrack clients and was a regular presenter at the AdTrack client conference.

Renee holds a Bachelors Degree in Education from the University of Northern Iowa.In her spare time she enjoys spending time with her husband , Mike, two sons, Blake (17) and Cole (15), daughter Ashley (28) and her grandson Kingston, who will be 3 in December.Renee spends a significant amount of time following her sons around the state watching them both play basketball and her youngest play golf.She is also an active volunteer at the school assisting in fund raising activities as well as luncheons and dinners for the students whenever time permits.

If you’re a Marine dealer heading to the MDCE show next week in Orlando, we invite you to come see us at Booth # 628 where you can register to win an iPad.

Sean Raynor, Kimberly Schultz, Ajay Thakur, Greg Dewalt, Greg Carradus, Marc Hertert, and Andy Neverman will all be on hand to meet with you and answer any questions you may have about the IDS software and product options available.

While you’re there, show them a print or mobile copy of this post and you’ll be entered into our FREE iPad drawing!

We look forward to seeing you!

“The Toro/Exmark EZ-Link integration through Ideal is a true testament in our combined commitment to provide Outdoor Power Equipment dealers with products and solutions that will improve their business,” said Greg Carradus, Ideal’s Director of Sales. “We’ve valued our combined initiatives with Toro and Exmark over the years, and EZ-Link is a groundbreaking step in automating product registrations between our dealers and their manufacturer.”

For nearly 20 years, Ideal and Toro have teamed to provide new and innovative solutions to save Outdoor Power Equipment dealers time and money. The recent collaboration of Toro/Exmark EZ-Link 2.0’s integration through Ideal has set the new standard for B2B communication. EZ-Link is a seamless automated integration that quickly and easily completes the product registration process for the Outdoor Power Equipment dealer. In addition, EZ-Link automates the promotion reimbursement by promotion code which guarantees correct, complete, and faster rebate redemption. EZ-Link active dealers are automatically issued reimbursement for promo related sales, all with no promo code entry required!

Ideal’s Business Management Software manages the EZ-Link tool within the application, ensuring safe and secure transmission of Toro and Exmark data to Toro. The EZ-Link tool then feeds real-time manufacturing data back to Toro to dramatically improve manufacturing priorities. Outdoor Power Equipment dealers will be able to have the right products at the right time and the opportunity to sell more and turn more profit.

“Having market data, in real time, is a huge asset to any business in order to make informed, timely decisions. The EZ-Link tool and its seamless integration into the Ideal software remove all the effort and expense involved in gathering this data. In turn, the EZ-Link tool saves dealers valuable time and effort in registering products and makes the warranty process down steam more efficient. In addition, we have found that many dealers, through mistake or oversight, are not taking advantage of promotional rebates due to them; the EZ-Link tool and Ideal eliminates this,” said Dave Francis of Toro.

For more information on Toro/Exmark EZ-Link and how it integrates with Ideal’s Business Management Software, call 800-737-1620, or visit www.idealcomputersystems.com

Dave Baumgarten, Troy Simon, Brian Mohr, Greg Carradus, Julia Abu-Nameh, Rick Merritt, Andy Neverman, Erin Zein and Sean Raynor will all be on hand to meet with you and answer any questions you may have about the Ideal software or product options available.

We also invite you to join us in the Dealer Resource Pavilion on Wednesday, October 24th from 5-7 p.m. Ideal has teamed with ARI and Husqvarna to sponsor a 25-cent beer and hotdog reception for our dealers.

We look forward to seeing you there!