Monarch Harley-Davidson – Orem, UT – Sept. 5, 2005
MONARCH HARLEY-DAVIDSON
CONTACT
Monarch Harley-Davidson
350 West 800 North
Orem, UT, USA 84057
801-224-4070
801-224-8179 (fax)
http://www.monarchharleydavidson.com/harley/index.htm
OWNERS
Family owned corporation
BUSINESS PROFILE
Monarch Harley Davidson stretched its legs in 2004 when the Honda dealership accompanying the same 18,000 square feet of building moved into its new building. Having been in the same location for 27 years, it was a welcome change to spread out the dealership. The Morgan family owns Monarch H-D and the store is currently run by son Rob Morgan. Since splitting the two stores, it’s clear the dealership has experienced a bit of rebirth. “I can show Harley jackets in every model and size,” says Rob Morgan. “Versus what I had room for before.”
GREATEST CONCERN
Morgan says his greates concern on the H-D side is the competition. “Obviously, any other 650cc and up machine made competes against any machine that Harley Davidson sells in terms of marketshare,” he says.
WHAT’S HOT?
“Dressers,” says Morgan. “Any dresser we can get. Softtails and dressers. Now with the 06 models we’ll have to see. Some of the changes they’ve made are going to increase sales of what was not the hottest mover, such as the Dyna family.” In P,G &A Monarch has a full time chrome consultant position which solely works with customers to customize and build their bikes. “Handlebars are probably the fastest mover, with cables, in order to position the bars for comfort,” says Morgan. “We do a lot with aftermarket seating and also quite a bit with exhaust.”
PARTS AND SERVICE
Monarch employs five service technicians, along with a service manager and two service writers. There is also a lot technician who handles bike washes, pick up and delivery of bikes for service, and general shop and facility maintenance. In the parts department, there are five employees, two of which are part time. Of those five, one handles shipping and receiving, since there are so many special-order parts coming in. “Of course, at Harley you’ve got general merchandise,” says Morgan. “Which is your Motorclothes, your Zippo lighters, your boots, you know, all the Harley related apparel and collectibles. I have three and a half people over there doing that.” Monarch has undergone a change in its service department as of late, as well. “What we used to have was a counter with two cashiers at both doors,” says Morgan. “What we’ve done is restructure the inside of the store. We tore a fixture that we had inside the store down and put both those counters into the middle of the store like an island kiosk. That is the only cashiering station for ROs and for parts at the parts counters. It also gives us a little more of a personal touch. If a traveler cashing out an RO specifically, he walks up through the hall with the service manager or service writer, and is introduced to one of the cashiers, who cashes them out and suggests he look at some additional options. ‘Oh, by the way, have you noticed we have a sale on our T-shirts, our boots, our Zippo lighters?’ That could produce an additional upsell.”
PROMOTIONAL HOME RUNS
As for advertising, Monarch places ads in Thunder Press and Quick Throttle, a regional book similar to Thunder Press. Morgan says the shop also does a lot of direct mail. “Every customer purchasing gets a ‘Thank You’ plaque. We have done some TV, we do a lot of radio. The shop also has launched Harley’s rider training. We have Rider’s Edge,” says Morgan. “So we do have some Buell Blasts. We’re just getting that rolling. We’re training people to ride using those models. We do a lot of charity work. We gave away a Fat Boy recently for a Ronald McDonald House fundraiser. We had our first Orem to Evanston ride, we didn’t have a huge count, but we had a pretty good number for our first year, and of course, every year we should be able to build on that. One Saturday a month we do a customer appreciation party. I’ll buy a van that has Cokes and Sprites, I have a BBQ [caterer] come in and cook the food. We don’t have just hot dogs, we put nice pork chops or steaks or hamburgers, good stuff. And I also have a live band that comes on the barbecue day.”
WORDS OF ADVICE
“Let things happen in the day-to-day operations so you can stand back and see how you need to work on [and in] the business,” says Morgan. But if you stop working in the business, I know a lot of big dealers do, I think you are slapping yourself in the face and getting a very impersonal response back from your customers.”
-Blake Stranz
