Garagecast - All Things Power Sports and Marine Ep. #295 - Proactive Service: How to Keep Your Department Busy in the Slow Season
Aug 19, 2025
Discover how to transform the slow season into a profitable venture with proactive service strategies. Explore methods for effective customer engagement and follow-up, drawing lessons from other industries. Learn about navigating seasonal challenges faced by dealerships, including the impact of local wildfires. Uncover training programs to improve staffing efficiencies and maximize productivity during off-peak times. Delve into creative winter engagement strategies for the boating sector, emphasizing communication and service options to maintain customer relationships.
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You Create The Slow Season
- Dealers create seasonality by assuming service must slow and reacting to it.
- Treat known slow months as opportunities to proactively schedule work and preserve revenue.
Buying Versus Selling Season
- Selling and buying seasons differ; winter is selling season for boats due to boat shows.
- Power sports dealers adopt the buying-season mindset and then cause winter slowdowns by reacting.
Staff To Create Work, Not Survive
- Focus on making service predictably generate revenue during slow months rather than furloughing staff.
- Staff to create work in winter, not to survive it; consider one extra hire or redeploy slow-season staff.