YOU set the tone for customer service
Last week, I stayed at the Rosen Plaza in Orlando. It’s a potential home for the 2010 Marine Dealer Conference & Expo, and we were scouting the site to determine its capability of housing this growing event. We were on a tour with two of the facility’s sales managers when I happened to notice a vacationing middle schooler wearing a t-shirt with the letters “BMOC” proudly touting his claim that he was, indeed, the Big Man On Campus. The happenstance that I noticed this only provided a backdrop for what I had just experienced. Read more >>
Jeff Scherer, Associate Partner, Callbutton LLC – My 11-year-old son has grown up in a much different environment than I did. Ever since he could talk, he’s had access to a computer screen and mouse of some sort. He’s a gadget freak (OK, so is his dad), and is constantly indulged in PS3, PSP, MP3, DVD, LCD, HD, and all other acronyms electronic. Something surprising has happened to him in the past couple months, however. He has become very interested and (re)attached to his Legos. Aside from Lincoln Logs and maybe those cardboard bricks that they used to have in kindergarten, Legos might be the simplest toys ever made. I wondered what the sales and marketing discussions were in the Lego camps when the video game and Internet assaults started focusing on our kids a few years ago. I decided to take a look. 
A week before Christmas, I was delighted to receive a $100 clothing store gift certificate as a “thank you” for a favor I’d done for a family member. After a little research, I discovered the items I wanted to purchase with it were only available online. Now, I have to admit, I’ve never purchased clothing online because I like to try it on before I buy. This time, I made an exception. 
Sean H. Griffin, account executive/marine specialist, Commercial Insurance Division, Cook, Hall & Hyde, Inc. — According to Association of Marina Industries (AMI) data, there are approximately 14,500 marinas in the United States, a large percentage of which have inadequate risk management procedures in place. Further, the current distressed economy has added new exposures to marinas in addition to the traditional risks. 
By Peter Granata, president, Granata Design and the Marine Design Resource Alliance — December 17 is National Regifting Day. For those of you not familiar with the practice of regifting it is described as the act of taking a gift that has been received and giving it to somebody else, sometimes in the guise of a new gift. 
By Gary W. Druckenmiller, Jr., co-founder, TheOpenSea.com — Like most of us, I’ve been boating for years. I started as a kid sailing daysailers, then got my license and began bombing around the bay in my Dad’s bow-rider. As I got bigger, so did the boats. In the early 90’s, my family moved up to a larger cabin cruiser and that became the centerpiece of family water travel for years to come. Trips to Shelter Island, Montauk, cross-sound to the Connecticut River. Suddenly, nothing was out of bounds, and I was always driving. 
During the Marine Dealer Conference & Expo last month, I was thrilled to hear Joe Verde talking about the importance of marine businesses getting the right people working in their companies and leading and training them well. That is essential if dealerships are to recover from the effects of the recession and grow. 
If it’s true that what happens in the recreational vehicle industry foreshadows developments in the boating business, then a release yesterday from Citigroup may offer a glimmer of hope that market conditions will improve in 2010. 