Critical mass is absolutely essential in improving Volvo Penta's customer service in the marine leisure market.
Since we began our dealership towards the end of 2006, we have done a total of 30 PDC. However, only about 10 of these boats are still actively being used. 10 boats are just not enough to sustain the business. A good market size should be 25 - 30 boats, based on our current manpower set-up. A bigger overall pool of boats carrying Volvo Penta engines is therefore needed.
How do we increase the pool of Volvo Penta engines when we do not sell boats? In-directly, we could help the dealers through sales, technical and operational support. Starting this year, we will embark on a campaign to engage boat dealers to highlight to them the technology, operating features and benefits of boats fitted with Volvo Penta engines. These dealers may not be aware of Volvo Penta's green commitment; they may not be very familiar with new features available such as Dynamic Positioning, Low-speed & Sportfish mode; they may not know that Volvo Penta engines are more fuel efficient, have lower CO2 emissions, and are quieter.
Our current modus operandi is very reactive i.e. we react only to customer complaint. We are often one step behind, responding to a no-win situation because boat dealers have wrongly committed through ignorance, or over committed in the eagerness to close the sale. By engaging boat dealers out front, we could reduce if not eliminate this problem. After all, keeping good relationship with boat dealers should be helpful when we have to solve teething problem subsequently.
Apart from boat dealers, we will engage boat owners and set ourselves as KPI, owners' willingness to use Volvo Penta engines in his next boat. We have come up with customer loyalty programme to reward customers that stay with us. This could be extended to customers who owned boats with Volvo Penta engine before.
With sufficient market size, we could invest in more manpower (quantity and more importantly quality); increase our inventory for shorter turn-around time; and be more proficient in our work. All these will lead to improved service and greater customer satisfaction.
