A man visits a Midwest dealership looking for a cruiser class motorcycle. The salesperson asks about his favorite local places to ride and learns he is new to the area, having moved for his new job. The man has done his research, decided on a bike, and the bike is in stock.

A customer purchases a new major unit – a snowmobile – from his favorite dealer. As part of the purchase he also spent $1,500 in performance parts, $900 in service work to install them and $500 on a new jacket to match his sled. His total expenditure is more than $15,000.

Scenario: A customer purchases a new ATV from his local dealer. The next year he goes back to purchase two additional units from the same dealer as both his wife and his son have enjoyed riding as well. In preparing for a family ATV vacation, he finds the battery for the original unit will no longer hold a charge.

A customer’s perception of a dealership is based on his entire experience, not just the initial major unit purchase. Every department in the dealership plays an important role in forming the customer’s opinion of the dealership.

Even today, with increased industry focus on sales process and the technology tools to support it, this basic but critical step is not preformed with eight out of 10 visitors to a powersports dealership.

Scenario - The call center discovers a service customer that is totally unhappy with his experience at a certain dealership.