Webster City RV | Webster City, IA | webstercityrv.com
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The Ruppel family was sick of the restaurant business.

“We started looking for a different retail business to buy and found someone trying to sell an RV dealership,” said Adam Ruppel, Business Manager and owner’s son for Webster City RV. “We bought it thinking the hours would be shorter. I can’t say we work less hours, but everything else is better in the RV business.”

Sixteen years later the Ruppels still don’t miss the restaurant business. For the Ruppel family, the RV industry was a reviving change. They found better employees and customers.

“The RV industry has a much better clientele,” said Ruppel. “They are happy when they come in. They are excited when they leave. Turnover among the employees is a lot lower because they are enthusiasts and like what they do.”

Pulling Customers Away from Bigger Competitors

Webster City RV is located in Webster City, IA which has a population of 8,000. There isn’t enough business in the city to support the dealership and larger cities are at least an hour from their store. With this in mind the Ruppel family knew they had an uphill battle. They had to compete against RV dealers far closer to the main customer base. They needed to give them a reason to make the trip.

“One of the first things my dad did was install ‘The Customer is the Boss’ policy,” said Ruppel.

A customer service focus is not a new strategy for a RV dealership, but Webster City executed it and customers noticed. They made sure customers noticed by putting the money up to support the approach.

“In our 20 groups we are always on the top with policy work,” said Ruppel. “If a customer comes in with a broken refrigerator in a new or used trailer they bought from us 3 months ago we’ll replace it and eat the costs. We do it so our customers are willing to come back and refer us.”

Following Up

With Webster City RV relying on referral and repeat business to bring in customers hours away, they needed a way to effectively stay in contact with customers. They wanted a way to keep detailed information about customers such as birthdays and purchase dates, then have reminders prompt them to take action.

“We wanted to use the Lightspeed CRM system to increase our ability to follow up with customers consistently,” said Ruppel. “We found that if we follow up, referral opportunities just arise without us having to ask.”

With Lightspeed CRM in place the Webster City team is able to contact more customers and remember the small details that really make them stand out. This kind of attention really brings the “customer is the boss” mantra home for the customers as they feel they get one-on-one attention.

“Our top sales person in particular has caught the vision,” said Ruppel. “He is invested in customer follow ups and the CRM helps him contact more people with the template emails and daily reminders. Every single one of his customers gets a birthday card even if they bought from someone else.”

“One sales meeting he told us how on the way in he was concerned that he had nothing to do for the day,” continues Ruppel. “Once he got in he opened up Lightspeed CRM and saw he had fifteen leads that came in during the fall and requested a follow up in the spring. Suddenly he had business to go after.”

The Numbers Game

The Lightspeed CRM helps Webster City contact a larger group of customers than they could before. With automatic reminders, it gives the sales team the ability to make every customer feel like they are the boss with individual attention. More contacts means more deals.

“I’d rather have a sales person that is willing to dedicate eight hours a day to follow up than one who has the gift of gab or any of those other things people think a sales person needs,” said Ruppel. “Our top guy has done 240 leads in the system, 700 follow ups in three months and has 148 new leads this month. Guess why he’s our top guy.”

The management tracking in Lightspeed CRM has given Ruppel the ability to keep all the sales team on the right track. With the success of their top sales person, they have started to build the formula to understand what others need to do to reach the same level of performance.

“The biggest thing about the CRM is that before I could not know how many leads each sales person had,” said Ruppel. “Now in the morning I know exactly what is going on. When they come in I can just say ‘looks like you’ve got a big day’ that’s enough to let them know that I know.”

Making CRM a Priority

With the success of CRM, Ruppel has turned the sales team's focus to logging activity in the CRM. This helps the sales people keep information up to date and involved in the system.

“I won’t work F&I on a deal that has not been entered into the CRM,” said Ruppel. “Everyone knows that if they don’t enter a customer in the system and then that customer comes back he’s free game. That’s how we show them that for us to succeed the follow up is a big deal.”

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