As an RV park owner, your guests’ experiences are at the forefront of your mind, whether they are there for a night or over the long term. You know that travelers have spent time getting to your park or have come back after a busy day of touring and want dependable internet and cable TV, among other amenities.
But, as a park owner, how many times have you wrestled with your cable provider’s spotty service leaving you with upset customers and the feeling the company is more interested in collecting payments than providing good service?
A small Texas company, Digitalway Services has the solution to that issue. Digitalway Services, a state-of-the-art cable TV and Internet installation company for the RV, resort and senior center industry can upgrade or install the very best in television and Internet service for your park.
I spoke with CEO Tim Murry and Brent Coplen, Operations and Maintenance manager, to learn about the professional essence of the company.
Installing cable and Internet service is nothing unusual, and there are multiple companies providing it. But, both Murry and Coplen emphasized DigitalWay Service’s goal of being the best in the industry and what Murry refers to as “an in-home entertainment experience while on the road.”
Mr. Coplen described why this is so important, “Today’s RV travelers often have HD digital TVs and multiple devices,“ adding, “they’re not just checking email. There are heavy data requirements for things like high-definition TV, streaming movies, gaming or Skyping.” Mr. Murry emphasized the role that HDTV plays in their business, explaining, “Most RV parks can’t get HD service; or, they have to utilize converter boxes. Our service allows HDTV without the trouble of converter boxes and provides that in-home experience.”
Television mounted in RV for entertainment during park stays and camping. [Photo: Marada, Flickr Creative Commons]
Coplen spoke of their approach to Internet service, saying, “We’ve gotten away from Wi-Fi because it’s often hard to get a clean signal throughout a park or through the metal shell of a rig.” Their use of fiber directly to the RV overcomes those problems.
Murry said that RV parks and resorts are their specialty and they are confident about their combination of pricing, installation and most of all, service. They work with all sizes of parks starting with those with a minimum of about 30 spaces. The company has been a boon for parks in rural areas where cable is not available.
Technology withstanding, customer service is their calling card. “We’re all about service,” Murry emphasized. “We partner with the RV park; they become part of the family,” he said, adding, “We don’t just do an install and customers never hear from us again. We take care of the park and treat them like family.”
Digitalway has been around since 2009; the family-owned and operated company with eight full-time employees is based out of Springtown, Texas, part of the Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) area. It’s a bit of a quintessential American entrepreneurial story.
Murry who has three decades of industry experience has been self-employed since his mid-twenties. He started out installing satellite dishes for DirectTV and Dish Network, at points working as an independent contractor for Antenna Vision (which he helped launch), and Radio Shack. Yet, he was always the motivated type who felt he could do better financially on his own. So, while installing for Radio Shack, he launched Digitalway Services, literally going door-to-door and cold calling after hours to get the business off the ground. Eventually, the business started taking off, and word-of-mouth spread. “The business went crazy and I had to go full-time,” he said.
To date, they’ve done about 200 parks, with installations in 48 states “from Maine to Florida and from the middle of the country to Washington and California,” Coplen said. The market, of course, is huge with thousands of RV parks across the country. Mr. Coplen acknowledged, “There are 400-500 KOA campgrounds alone.”
I asked which of their installations was the most memorable and Murry quickly chimed that they are duly proud of every one of their projects. He likened their intentions to that of Simon Crowl’s (producer of such shows as the X-Factor and America’s Got Talent), saying, “We want customers to have that wow factor when we’re done.”
Their emphasis on service has led to a stellar reputation and great word-of-mouth as the many testimonials on their website illustrate...like Bob and Karen Brown, owners of the Badlands/White River KOA who commend to the installation crew’s strong work ethic and attention to detail, saying, “It isn’t often we are impressed, but you managed to impress us and we will recommend your services to anyone in our industry.” Or, Ronny Bowyer, owner of two Texas-based 250+ site parks who said, “Tim and his company came and installed both of my parks, which are full most of the time. They did all of this in a professional and timely manner. When they were finished, we could not even tell where they had buried the cable.” And, Joe Landis of Dayton KOA, another 250 site park owner who affirms, “I would highly recommend Digitalway Services if you want a professional installation done by great quality people.”