Gary RV_Wizard
Site Team
Today I attended a briefing on happenings & plans at Lazydays RV, both Tampa and the new Tucson location. We even had Bob Grady, the GM of Lazydays Tucson, live via video conference. Among the several things of note were:
1. Retail traffic is picking up, and earlier than is usual for the winter season. Since the RV industry typically leads the economy as a whole by several months, there is cautious optimism that maybe economic improvement is on its way. We certainly hope so!
2. Lazydays is offering more activities in the campground this year. Examples include a band of DJ on Friday nights, "drive in" movies outside the rally center, monthly car shows and, starting this month, a motorcycle show too, campfires at a pseudo-beach, bluegrass music night, etc.
3. The Tampa location has added Pleasureway Class B's and Lance Campers to the product line. And the Crossroads line of 5W too.
4.The term "Florizona" has been coined for the two sites, Florida and Arizona. CFO Randy Lay explained why LD expanded to the West. Basically they wanted to be able to tap the RV market West of the Mississippi, they felt they could be more cost effective by sharing corporate overhead costs over an additional location, and they got one heck of a good price from the bankruptcy sale.
5. The Tucson location is getting major renovations to make it reflect "The Lazydays Style". The exterior of the store area has been re-layed out to provide RV parking (seems like an obvious need for an RV dealership, right?), the lobby area is being remodeled to provide a pleasant, inviting, experience to visitors with no hard sell tactics, customers will be able to browse the entire inventory without a sales rep, and wifi is provided in all customer accessible areas. Part of the new lobby area will be a 1976 Jeep CJ towing a 1976 teardrop style trailer that doubles as a free coffee and water dispensary for visitors. There is also the "Florizona Grill", an inexpensive restaurant with a southwestern style menu.
6. Tucson will not carry the same brands of RVs as Tampa, primarily because other Tucson area dealers already have the franchise for some of them. Tucson has American Coach (but no other Fleetwoods), Entegra coach, much of the Holiday Rambler line, the Winnebago Era model, Forest River motorhomes, and quite a few towables from Thor and Forest River.
7. Tucson now has about 175 new & used RVs in inventory at any one time and they expect that number to grow as business expands.
8. New GM of Service Bill Tickel explained how service in Tampa is being tuned up to focus on delivering a more positive customer experience. Changes have been and are being made to make sure the customer is always in close communication with the team of advisors and techs working on their rig, and that processes such as getting insurance or warranty approvals are handled as efficiently as possible. One of the big negatives in the service experience is the delays in getting approvals, ordering parts, etc., and often the fact that the customer did not know about them in advance, so a seemingly simple repair takes days. Bill hopes to be able to give people a better advance estimate of the time needed for repairs, and also to reduce that delays through closer working relationships with suppliers, major insurers, extended warranty companies, and RV manufacturers. One step is to provide Fleetwood RV factory traing on site in Tampa, so that more techs will get factory training and also build working relationships with the factory service people.
1. Retail traffic is picking up, and earlier than is usual for the winter season. Since the RV industry typically leads the economy as a whole by several months, there is cautious optimism that maybe economic improvement is on its way. We certainly hope so!
2. Lazydays is offering more activities in the campground this year. Examples include a band of DJ on Friday nights, "drive in" movies outside the rally center, monthly car shows and, starting this month, a motorcycle show too, campfires at a pseudo-beach, bluegrass music night, etc.
3. The Tampa location has added Pleasureway Class B's and Lance Campers to the product line. And the Crossroads line of 5W too.
4.The term "Florizona" has been coined for the two sites, Florida and Arizona. CFO Randy Lay explained why LD expanded to the West. Basically they wanted to be able to tap the RV market West of the Mississippi, they felt they could be more cost effective by sharing corporate overhead costs over an additional location, and they got one heck of a good price from the bankruptcy sale.
5. The Tucson location is getting major renovations to make it reflect "The Lazydays Style". The exterior of the store area has been re-layed out to provide RV parking (seems like an obvious need for an RV dealership, right?), the lobby area is being remodeled to provide a pleasant, inviting, experience to visitors with no hard sell tactics, customers will be able to browse the entire inventory without a sales rep, and wifi is provided in all customer accessible areas. Part of the new lobby area will be a 1976 Jeep CJ towing a 1976 teardrop style trailer that doubles as a free coffee and water dispensary for visitors. There is also the "Florizona Grill", an inexpensive restaurant with a southwestern style menu.
6. Tucson will not carry the same brands of RVs as Tampa, primarily because other Tucson area dealers already have the franchise for some of them. Tucson has American Coach (but no other Fleetwoods), Entegra coach, much of the Holiday Rambler line, the Winnebago Era model, Forest River motorhomes, and quite a few towables from Thor and Forest River.
7. Tucson now has about 175 new & used RVs in inventory at any one time and they expect that number to grow as business expands.
8. New GM of Service Bill Tickel explained how service in Tampa is being tuned up to focus on delivering a more positive customer experience. Changes have been and are being made to make sure the customer is always in close communication with the team of advisors and techs working on their rig, and that processes such as getting insurance or warranty approvals are handled as efficiently as possible. One of the big negatives in the service experience is the delays in getting approvals, ordering parts, etc., and often the fact that the customer did not know about them in advance, so a seemingly simple repair takes days. Bill hopes to be able to give people a better advance estimate of the time needed for repairs, and also to reduce that delays through closer working relationships with suppliers, major insurers, extended warranty companies, and RV manufacturers. One step is to provide Fleetwood RV factory traing on site in Tampa, so that more techs will get factory training and also build working relationships with the factory service people.
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