NIRVC -- The news is out---Here is their plan

[purring along]

Neal your right. Lower management should be able to handle most if not all problems. In our case it has escalated to the top with no good outcome for us.

 

[wildebill308]

Intersting read.
Neal, I n your post You said “Should customers be going straight to the top and bypassing the GM's and expecting priority service for whatever reason?”. Yet what did you do? Did you talk to the service manager, the GM?
I think we are lucky that Brett is that involved. Perhaps if the CEOs of some of the other RV manufacturers and dealers were as involved things would be much better.
Something I haven’t seen talked about especially by those who claim to have a hard time finding out information on their coach when it is at NIRVC. Did you know if you go to the website and create an account you can view on line the statis of any work orders? You can also see the location of your coach. Is it outside or in the shop.
Who is going to the Customer appreciation rally?
Bill

 

[purring along]

Intersting read.
Neal, I n your post You said “Should customers be going straight to the top and bypassing the GM's and expecting priority service for whatever reason?”. Yet what did you do? Did you talk to the service manager, the GM?
I think we are lucky that Brett is that involved. Perhaps if the CEOs of some of the other RV manufacturers and dealers were as involved things would be much better.
Something I haven’t seen talked about especially by those who claim to have a hard time finding out information on their coach when it is at NIRVC. Did you know if you go to the website and create an account you can view on line the statis of any workweek orders? You can also see the location of your coach. Is it outside or in the shop.
Who is going to the Customer appreciation rally?
Bill

We sure aren't going to the rally.I was told we were not allowed back to any nirv locations. You don't create the problem, but this is how your treated.

 

[Tnedator]

Neil,

Good points. In my case, and I didn't have a problem, but instead had some questions about retrobands and stuff, and posted about such and he reached out to me. When it came to installing, but we never pulled this off, he got me on a call with the guys that heads up those two product line initiatives (the other was the fire protection) at NIRV, and we talked about coordinating a time, in Lewisville, when their mobile van that they use for retroband installs at shows, was in Lewisville, and that way I could get the installs done without scheduling through service.

In the end, our schedules didn't line up, and then neck issues got worse (had cervical fusion early January of this year) and I pretty much stopped driving my RV. Hence the reason I've finally got an appointment in Nashville, which I organized with a normal service writer at NIRV.

It would not be good if Brett is bumping people to get someone else in for routine service. The flip side is that we've read many examples over the years of RV shops, or Cummins, fitting someone in who was on a trip and had something happen. In many of the cases we hear, it's Brett helping out people like that, whether fitting them in or providing remote support.

My experience with them is still verbal at this point, and like many, my first introduction to NIRVC was Angie Videos, but if my experience in a couple weeks is anything like others have described, I think it's likely I will continue using them for service, and seriously consider them for my next purchase, whenever that might be (actually, seriously considering a class B, little brother to my Ventana, for times I'm traveling to a hotel).

 

[Ken C]

Since we're sitting around the virtual campfire I'll share my opinion, you may not like it, but it's food for thought. I've had several conversations with Brett Davis, super friendly and he will go to great lengths to ensure his customers (and prospective customers) are taken care of. But is this right? Should customers be going straight to the top and bypassing the GM's and expecting priority service for whatever reason? Brett is the CEO of two huge businesses; Global Financial and NIRVC. NIRVC is expanding rapidly both in dealerships and indoor storage facilities. As you can imagine he's extremely busy growing and running his businesses and has people that should be taking care of the customers. Many of us know his cell phone number, email address, etc. and have used it. And he will take those calls, but in my opinion if anyone has to do that something is broken somewhere along the line.

If customer X has a problem and has to go to Brett and Brett gets them in somewhere then someone else is being bumped, someone that likely went through proper channels, scheduling, service, and is now delayed because someone got put in front of them. I sure wouldn't be happy and I actually went to NIRVC Lewisville for an interior/exterior detail and my appointment was not honored, I had to wait for whatever reason and at some point a day later I had to escalate which was unfortunate. That detail manager was terminated not long after that situation but the point is people make appointments and schedule services. RV service is painful, there aren't enough techs, we all know this.

So let's take this to Newmar as an example, how many have gone direct to the CEO of Newmar to get something handled? I'd bet very few if any. Newmar's service system works well. You deal mainly with your tech and 99% of the time it's a great experience. If the tech doesn't handle things you move up to the group leader, and most likely will never have to go above that because the services are handled well at the lower levels. Each NIRVC facility has a part owner (I believe) and GM that should be handling the matters. Going to the CEO should NEVER have to happen.

I know of several fellow Newmar owners that had some major warranty work done that would have never happened if it wasn't for Brett's involvement. That is unfortunate that it has to work that way, but it did. @Jim is battling getting his Newmar fixed properly at a NIRVC location, is the only answer for him to go to Brett to get the matter handled properly? I can think of a few others that have decided not to go direct Brett and bite the bullet and go through the proper channels and schedule service and hope for the best because going to Brett is the wrong answer.

So yes, it's great to have that life line to call, text, email when things don't work how you think they should or in dire need but I don't believe it's the right process. The people you hired should be doing the job and chain of command, as we know it so well in the military, should be the way to handle matters.

Neal,
You make some great and reasonable points that I agree with. However circumstances sometimes get in the way and having the ability to contact Brett as a last option also is something not available from most dealers. Unfortunately some don't make the effort and go directly to this option. I give Brett credit for his effort to keep customers happy regardless.

 

[Tnedator]

Intersting read.
Neal, I n your post You said “Should customers be going straight to the top and bypassing the GM's and expecting priority service for whatever reason?”. Yet what did you do? Did you talk to the service manager, the GM?
I think we are lucky that Brett is that involved. Perhaps if the CEOs of some of the other RV manufacturers and dealers were as involved things would be much better.
Something I haven’t seen talked about especially by those who claim to have a hard time finding out information on their coach when it is at NIRVC. Did you know if you go to the website and create an account you can view on line the statis of any work orders? You can also see the location of your coach. Is it outside or in the shop.
Who is going to the Customer appreciation rally?
Bill

Cool, glad you mentioned that. Just went and created an account, and since I used the email I've been communicating with service advisor about, I can see the work order for the work I'm having done in a couple weeks.

 

[Just George]

@Tnedator Ok I'll bite. Where is the link / place on the NIRVC web page to create an account?

 

[Bigblockyeti]

As an outsider looking in, is the problem what the techs are being paid? Based on the knowledge and diverse skill requirements, I would think it would need to be in the ballpark of $40/hr in 2023 money, in Indiana (more for higher COL locations) and not a flat rate $40/hr but a real $40/hr. Is that not the case? These obviously aren't being built in the same volume as any sedan, pickup or SUV seen on the road but with more do-dads and features that can (and will) fail, the more needs to be done up front to ensure that doesn't happen. This looks to me like the quality issues suffered by many that W. Edwards Deming helped to solve.

 

[Neemer]

@Tnedator Ok I'll bite. Where is the link / place on the NIRVC web page to create an account?

I looked for it as well and found it in the upper left corner of the page. It doesn’t stand out.

 

[Neal]

Using my PC it was clearly in the upper right "Customer login" and I clicked it and created my account just so I have one if ever needed (clicked the google button for auto account creation).

Login | National Indoor RV Centers

www.nirvc.com

 

[Tnedator]

@Tnedator Ok I'll bite. Where is the link / place on the NIRVC web page to create an account?

Other's have already replied, but it was the custom login in the upper right. Once clicking, you have the choice to login or create an account.

I thought it was cool that once I did that, which included confirming my email by clicking a link that was emailed to me, that my pre-existing work order was visible. I've found that with many companies/sites, that isn't the case, and things done "offline" don't automatically become visible when you create an account.

 

[Old Bubblehead]

As an outsider looking in, is the problem what the techs are being paid? Based on the knowledge and diverse skill requirements, I would think it would need to be in the ballpark of $40/hr in 2023 money, in Indiana (more for higher COL locations) and not a flat rate $40/hr but a real $40/hr. Is that not the case? These obviously aren't being built in the same volume as any sedan, pickup or SUV seen on the road but with more do-dads and features that can (and will) fail, the more needs to be done up front to ensure that doesn't happen. This looks to me like the quality issues suffered by many that W. Edwards Deming helped to solve.

BBY, Lots at play here.
Firstly, the factories were trying to churn them out as fast as possible because demand lagged supply. Keeping stable workforce on the line through CV19 was a challenge. Additionally, the high population of manufactures pulling from a relatively low population dense area keeps steady migration in the work force. The 2020-2022 model years seem to be more quality challenged than those manufactured outside the CV19 era.

Secondly, the nation's infrastructure continues to degrade negatively impacting the vehicles we drive and drag over these poor roads. The old axiom about experiencing an earthquake every travel day is amplified by the poor road conditions.

Thirdly, the availability of quality service technicians has always been an issue. Now, tied to the aggregation of dealerships into large conglomerate sales focused groups that don't always see service as a legitimate profit center causes additional reduced access to quality service. The large volume of RV's sold with soup to nuts extended warranties drive customers into specific service providers. High demand on the service systems with low availability of technicians leads to long wait times.

Given the complicated nature of these beast's, single providers for all needs are few and far between. No matter the marque on front, you will need to source some support from component specific manufactures. Think Spartan or Frieghtliner or Firefly or Magnum. The folks that work the chassis side are rarely the same folks that work the house side. The folks that work the house side may be split between those that do general maint. and those that specialize in specific systems, like firefly.

NIRVC has a different model than most dealerships with revenue coming from the sales, service and storage streams. They are trying to optimize each stream so the cyclic nature of the market can be navigated to business success. They are trying to provide visibility into areas of the process that was historically difficult to see. This also provides insight to the customer on the manufacture support being provided, which likely will blend into future purchase decisions. They are recruiting nationally to build capacity, while also training in house to home grow capacity. They are also experimenting with modified work schedules and 7-day availability of service.

Money is certainly a motivator for many folks, but seldom the only one. Sorry for this long answer, just a verbose way of saying there is no silver bullet or single fix to a complicated system.

 

[Bigblockyeti]

I realized there's no silver bullet, heck, that would have been easy enough it would have already happened. The one thing that does resonate with me is getting the job done. You need two things, the part to fix the fault and the installer, yes, there's other inherent fluff but that's what it boils down to. One of my favorite Deming quotes is "Quality is everyone's responsibility." The biggest problem with defining quality is that it's subjective when doing a small repair job, manufacturing a million pistons for a Ford 5.0L Coyote engine allows the implementation of SPC but kinda tough when your maximum sampling size is locked at 1. A big part of quality is give a darn and some people can have it, for a given task, for $5/hr while others won't touch the same task for $50/hr. To make things even more fun, people get burned out, techs specifically might do the same thing long enough to get really good at it but start to really loathe doing it, allowing their give a darn to slip away. I honestly don't know why this facinates me as much as it does, I'm casually shopping for a ~25' TT but haven't the time nor desire to buy a new 45' class A and hit the road full time, but I'm fully aware I could have no shortage of quality issues even in a TT. I'm guessing it's just my unfailing desire to fix things. I see many problems mentioned around here that I would have zero hesitation diving into just to fix myself, especially given the wait time to get a unit into a dealer to have them do the same. I used to turn wrenches for money but that time has come and gone, only my personal stuff gets my attention any more, beyond that, I wouldn't even know who to recommend. I hate to say it but money was the motivating factor to keep on becoming more valuable to the work force, I wish it were something more existential or enlightening, but it was not. I wonder if the retention and recruitment of techs isn't suffering from the same problem.

 

[Old Bubblehead]

BBY, it is a way different work force these days. I am at the end of my run, a dinosaur for sure. 20 years chasing commies for Uncle Sam's canoe club, and 25 working oil fields.
Big money is certainly expected and demanded, but that is not enough. Work life balance needs to be perfect, social contributions need to make the world a better place, flexible work schedules to ensure bio clock is optimized, and unfettered access to constant communication is required. 24 days into a 28-day hitch, I'm long on tired and short on patience. Weary of fighting the top and bottom of the house at the same time. I don't know how Brett does what he does. I do know he struggles like the rest of the industries to recruit and retain quality employees; he just keeps driving to find better ways to fix the problems.

 

[Tnedator]

Work life balance? What's that? It sounds like I joined the work force four decades too soon. Maybe these youngins are on to something.