Do Boat Owners Still Love Their Brand and Dealer After the Purchase?

Rollick shares results of study comprised of over 2,000 boat owners across 16 marine manufacturers

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Feb 26, 2020, 12:10 ET

AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Rollick has released the results from their recent survey of over 2,000 boat owners across 16 boat and engine manufacturers, which uncovers the roots of owner satisfaction and the probability of repurchase over time. The complete results will be revealed in Rollick's webinar on February 27, 2020: "OEM - Dealer - Consumer: How to Make the Love Last in the Marine Industry."

Rollick's study put a microscope on long-term satisfaction by looking at customer data from boat or engine owners who have had the same brand for at least 3-7 years. Rollick analyzed the initial customer satisfaction data of over 2,000 boat and engine customers during the first year of ownership, then re-surveyed the customers asking, "Based on your original purchase and the level of satisfaction you have, how would you rate the level of satisfaction now, with the brand and dealer?"

Key Findings:

The results found that, depending on the type of marine brand, 20-30% of customers who have a declining satisfaction score (below 80% satisfied) after dealer service, also drop their overall satisfaction rating of the boat brand by 20 points or more, thus opening the door to possible brand and dealer defections.
When measuring customer satisfaction and the impact of the "would you recommend the brand or dealer" question for long-term owners (3-7 years), customers who are happy with both the brand and dealer provide a Net Promoter Score (NPS) as high as 85. Yet those who prefer to buy a different brand and/or dealer provide NPS scores between 67 and negative 55.
The items that have the highest correlation to receiving a low or negative NPS score is overall satisfaction with the boat (0.76 correlation), OEM communication with customer (0.55), dealer service (0.51), and dealer communications (0.43) with the customer.

"With the work we do for the NMMA Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) program, we measure and analyze customer satisfaction feedback from over 100,000 boat owners annually, so we wanted to take our findings to the next level," said Jeff Coffman, SVP of Enterprise Solutions and Marketing for Rollick. "By understanding how boat owners feel about their brand and dealer 3-7 years after purchase, we are able to help OEMs and dealers better engage consumers after the sale, with the intent of creating loyal and happy customers who are more likely to recommend and repurchase."

A Few Takeaways

OEM and dealer success are intertwined, so pre- and post-sales management of the customer must be managed equally by both the OEM and dealer.
OEMs may be able to rebound from a product problem, but it is much more difficult for a brand to overcome a dealer service problem.
Protected dealer territories may give a sense of security, but in fact, it is detrimental to the OEM, especially if the consumer does not like that brand's dealer.
Customer satisfaction must be measured more quickly, frequently and over a longer period of ownership. Every service or product problem begins to erode consumer confidence in the brand and/or dealer and once confidence erodes, defection from the brand, dealer, and lifestyle begins.

To learn more about the research and see actionable ways you can improve the long-term ownership experience, register here for a special webinar presentation by Steve Pizzolato on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2020 at 1:30 P.M. CST.

About Rollick, Inc.
Rollick connects manufacturers, dealers and in-market consumers in the powersports, RV, marine and industrial equipment industries to deliver a seamless customer journey. Rollick's solutions include new customer acquisition, enterprise lead management, customer experience/loyalty and marketing automation. In addition, the company has rapidly built a national outdoor recreational vehicle buying network to include hundreds of dealers, over 80 manufacturers and an affinity partner network with access to over 250 million high-quality customers including policy holders of major insurance providers, employees at more than 2,000 top U.S. companies, members of the military, veterans and first responders. For more information, visit Rollick.

SOURCE Rollick