Manteca Trailer & Motorhome: Keeping One Step Ahead Of The Informed Consumer
With Customer Service Being The Name Of The Game, David Tenney Of Manteca Continues To Adjust To RV Industry Trends & Demands
The recreational vehicle industry is an everchanging world. Dealerships must keep a finger on the pulse of the industry or be left in the dust. Manteca Trailer & Motorhome LLC. has a long history of catering to customers in northern California, but things have definitely changed over the years.
“I have been the owner of Manteca Trailer & Motorhome LLC. since January 1, 2014. Prior to that, the company was Manteca Trailer and Camper Inc. and I worked for them for 23 years. We had developed into three RV dealerships, a Harley Davidson Store, and an RV storage. In 2013, they decided to downscale, so I bought the main store. We are very modern with new construction completed in 2005; we have a 60,000-square foot building with a 14-acre lot”, stated David Tenney owner of Manteca Trailer & Motorhome LLC.
While most RV dealers focus on the hot new trailer, Manteca has a different philosophy. Mr. Tenney focuses on service, “The hot item right now is service. Some of the larger dealers in California don’t allow their customers to come back to the dealership, so they’re leaving some of the buyers without service. We’ll do about 6 million dollars in labor this year and we have people waiting in line and begging to get in.
Unfortunately, we have a few manufacturers in the business that are supporting the dealers that just sell units and don’t provide any service. It’s the largest issue in our industry right now. It’s probably the number one focus of the Recreational Vehicle Dealers Association right now. It’s a nationwide issue, but it’s probably the worst in California”.
While Tenney’s focuses strongly on service, he also keeps on top of the trends in the RV market. “Like the rest of the country, the hot items are travel trailers in the low to mid-price range, travel trailers that can be towed behind a SUV or even the small trailers. Since the downturn in 2006-2010, the rebuild in our industry has been on a lower average footage than prior to the downturn. We are seeing lots of 15-22-foot travel trailers”.
Manteca sees a wide range of customers including full timers and new RVers. “We’re south of Sacramento about one hour and we are one hour inland from San Francisco so our customer is 55 and under for the most part. On weekends, our dealership is full of strollers and young families. It’s the second generation RVer that wants to raise their kids in the RV lifestyle, or it’s the tent camper who wants to get off the ground with something more sanitary and convenient”.
In addition to changing RV trends, the way that sales are made has changed significantly over the years. Tenney is seeing a trend toward consumers that research their purchase prior to the sale. “Today, the majority of the people that walk through the front door don’t ask questions. The younger people today don’t reach out to sales people, they reach out to their friends and neighbors on the internet. They are walking into the door saying I want to look at these three units and a number of them are walking in with print outs from our website. Millennials don’t trust sales people and they don’t want to deal with sales people, so they do all of their research ahead of time and walk in and say, I want to see these three units. What’s happened is the sales process - that in the 90’s and 2000’s was a couple walking in and saying, show us what you have in travel trailers and lets talk about the RV lifestyle - that used to be a four to five hour sale is now becoming a one to one and a half hour sale”, Tenney explained.
With the changing customer trends, sales techniques must be adjusted to cater to the new customer mindset. “We’ve had to teach our sales people to be more direct and listen more and not to give the customer information they don’t want. If you get a sales person that begins to tell them what they should be buying, the millennial will say thank you very much and go to another dealership. We’re training our sales people to very respectfully show them what they want to be shown and answer questions they ask and do the write up asking them when they want to take the vehicle home. What’s happening is the young sales people who don’t have the long RV history are succeeding hugely and doing large volumes of sales and the sales guy that has been in the industry for 25 years and wants to tell the customer what’s best for them is not doing as well as they did 10 years ago”, stated Tenney.
Changing attitudes not only affect the way sales are conducted, but have also had a significant impact on the features that are included with RVs. “Our industry keeps adding electric power to pretty much everything. There are new turbo Sani flush waste disposal systems. You can get a macerator style dump system that pumps the waste and is cleaner than gravity fed systems. Most of the awnings have gone electric, we are seeing lots of LED lights. We have seen some remote controls that operate stabilizer jacks, awnings, etc. all off one control. The person that loves their I-pad or smart phone, they like those gimmicks”, claimed Tenney.
The changes in sales techniques and RV design appear to be working. As Tenney explained, “The market in California is really strong. It’s up about 15% over last year which was up from the year before. The consumers are shopping for price more than anything else”.
Jared Langenegger
A graduate of New Mexico State University with B.S. in wildlife and fisheries science, Jared spent 15 years working in fisheries and parks management. He enjoys camping, fishing, hunting, painting, and wood working.
Make Sure To Stay At:
French Camp RV Resort, which is a great spot to stop with your RV. Rest, and enjoy for a day or two the local Golf Course. Set up a tent, picnic, RV, or just do nothing but relax. They also offer scheduled camping ans have a swimming pool.