MRAA Releases Service Department Survey Results

The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas (MRAA), in collaboration with VRZ Consulting, released the results of a marine-industry service department study. The survey results, which include insights from more than 260 marine service departments, outlines some of the challenges dealerships face in repairing boats more quickly.

The study came out of a summer 2021 meeting of the MRAA Executive Committee, held with the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) Executive committee, and specifically upon review of data supplied by MRAA’s partners at Lightspeed DMS. That data showed that industry repair cycle times, or the amount of time it’s taking to get customer boats serviced and back on the water, was exceeding industry expectations and only becoming worse.

“Today’s most significant metric when it comes to monitoring the boat ownership experience comes down to the repair event cycle times,” said Matt Gruhn, MRAA president (shown on the blog landing page). “With a pandemic-inflamed perfect storm of issues on dealership service departments—impacted by technician shortages, supply chain issues and unprecedented demand—it has become critical for us to not only benchmark where we’re at as an industry but also to begin showcasing opportunities on how the industry can collaborate to begin implementing new approaches to getting customers back on the water more quickly.”

The study was sparked by the collection and publishing of Repair Event Cycle Times, or RECT, which when presented to the two associations’ executive committees showed that it was taking more than 50 days, on average, to service and return boats to customers. In the event of warranty work, data showed that it’s taking more than 70 days to repair boats.

Last fall, MRAA convened a work group of dealers, manufacturers and suppliers to begin addressing the issues and identifying solutions for reducing RECT. The results of that and subsequent conversations has led MRAA to focus on helping the industry improve its repair cycle times.

“I just love looking at what it takes to flip the switch from more of a reactive service department to more of a proactive service department operation,” says Valerie Ziebron of VRZ Consulting, who moderated the RECT strategy meeting. “When we’re talking about Repair EventCycle Times, we’re talking about customers waiting for their boats. Ideally, we should be asking how we can make sure that we are fast tracking or expediting our service work when we can. We can be training our service writers and technicians to be looking for opportunities to get more work done more quickly and boats back in the hands of their customers. This study, the workshop and other subsequent conversations are already bringing ideas to the forefront.”

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To find the full survey results, go to the Free Resources Tab here.