Excellent post Jerry! I did some research during my DBA at DePaul on this topic. My findings are spot on with yours. The major factors that caused people to leave where the cost and availability of storage and maintenance. The research, and also found the lack of assimilation in a community of boaters and the hidden cost of boating for new boaters negatively impacts boater retention. I suggested that boat dealers could play a major role in addressing these issues. Dealers like Gordy’s in Lake Geneva, do a great job of creating community and assimilating new borders into their community. They also do a great job of providing storage and launching services. I think one of the biggest areas dealers could have a major impact just by being more transparent about all the costs in boating. You list of them all above. If you make them all transparent to the new boater at the time of the sale there will be fewer surprises and higher retention. You might lose a sale today through full disclosure, but you might make many more satisfied customers and more sales long-term. Membership in boat club also removes these obstacles to retention. Thanks for bringing this topic to the fore. It needs to get addressed.
Do You Know How to Improve Boater Retention? This has been a major topic in the boating industry for many years but the solution is not easy. The first step is to understand the causes of boater defection which is something I just wrote about in my brief blog post below. Check it out and let me know your thoughts. #Boating #BoatingIndustry