Banned from Pro Dive

[PinkPADIgal]

I have read the posts about LDS all over the world and it sounds like no matter where you are, many of the shops are not servicing the customer. The shops depend on gear sales to make money and hire people at minimum pay to sell it. What happens is the shops are surviving on a shoestring and blame it on the internet, rather than looking inward at themselves. The shops do not plan ahead and think of what is happening now, rather than what the future.

What needs to happen is for shops to wake up and realize why their customers are going elsewhere. They need to clean up their stores, hire and TRAIN qualified salespeople and instructors and offer something the customer wants: full-service every time they come in. Will there be people who shop on line? Of course. In the long run, LDS customers will shop with them because of how they are treated every time they enter the shop.

True story: Client of mine walked into my travel agency 5 years ago and wanted to book a quick trip to Reno. I was very busy working on much more expensive trips for other clients but I took a few minutes, talked with her about what she wanted and booked her the $200 trip to Reno she wanted. Since that trip, she has also booked 3 trips to Vegas, 2 trips to Maui and 4 cruises. She could have booked with Expedia but she liked the fact I treated her with respect and honesty. She has booked trips on line but she always comes back to me for the important stuff and refers her friends.

Bottom line is, whoever loves me (the customer) and treats me with respect, gets my $$$.

Amy

 

[pchelp]

MikeF, not sure about one of your comments?

"As things are now, the fact is that if a class doesn't sell equipment there just isn't any reason to teach it."

What equipment do you usually sell after someone completes a "rescue" class, and does that mean there is no reason to teach it?

 

[Lead_carrier]

PinkPADIgal once bubbled...
..., many of the shops are not servicing the customer. The shops depend on gear sales to make money and hire people at minimum pay to sell it. What happens is the shops are surviving on a shoestring and blame it on the internet, rather than looking inward at themselves. The shops do not plan ahead and think of what is happening now, rather than what the future.

What needs to happen is for shops to wake up and realize why their customers are going elsewhere. They need to clean up their stores, hire and TRAIN qualified salespeople and instructors and offer something the customer wants: full-service every time they come in. Will there be people who shop on line? Of course. In the long run, LDS customers will shop with them because of how they are treated every time they enter the shop.

Amy

I'm sure you are correct about some dive shops not having trained people assisting with equipment sales. The shop I work at has no trained salespeople. We have trained dive professionals that help you choose scuba gear. The most inexperienced one of us is getting ready to begin her divemaster training this summer. None of us depend on this for a living. We make no commision so we are not motivated to sell high ticket items. We do have a number of loyal customers that buy from us rather than shop online and we have more that let us know that if we can't give a quanity discount because they are buying 2 items then they will have to start shopping elsewhere.

Will the internet hurt the LDS, yes, simply because of pricing. Will it hurt me as a diver? Not much, I still have a compressor and access to enough parts to repair MY regs for a long time.

 

[MikeFerrara]

pchelp once bubbled...
MikeF, not sure about one of your comments?

"As things are now, the fact is that if a class doesn't sell equipment there just isn't any reason to teach it."

What equipment do you usually sell after someone completes a "rescue" class, and does that mean there is no reason to teach it?

First of all except for mask, snorkel and fins with th an OW student most classes don't sell equipment directly. The class gets people in the door and in the water. Also, few classes have the overhead of an OW class and therfor have a little more profit. By far, most of the certs issued are for OW.

It works this way. We put some one through an OW class. With luck we sell them mask and fins. If we're lucky the class is a break even (actually we loose some on it) but we sell some equipment. With luck some buy an equipment package (which is rare these days). Use of the tank, reg, wet suit and BC is included in the class. Actually if you just rented equipment for the length of an OW class (5 nights in the pool and two days in OW) and bought the books you would spend more than the cost of an OW class and I wouldn't even have to be there. If an OW class doesn't sell almost everyone mask and fins and equipment packages and additional classes to some, it's just a wast of my time. Well, way worse than a wast of time because it's a lot of work and risk to do just so you can loose money. If they continue their education (most don't) the other classes have way less overhead so if you don't have to travel too much for too few students you might make a little. Also, the other course costs don't include equipment rental so by the time they are continuing their training they are usually thinking about owning equipment and if not we at least get rental fees.

An advanced class might directly sell a light or reel or something. In general, though, the subject of the class being taken has little to do with the equipment they purchase.
Teaching classes alone won't pay the rent and it certainly can't pay me for my time and travel.

It's all about equipment sales PERIOD. There just isn't anything else that we do with a big enough margin to be worth doing and in fact most other services are in part subsidised by equipment sales.

So my point is that if I could buy equipment from the manufacturer without owning a store and I could sell it on the net, why in the world would I ever teach a class? The answer...I wouldn't because the only real profit center is retail sales.

 

[augie]

Mike,

If I understand correctly, the manufacturers will not allow dive shops to sell their equipment below a certain price, yet sell the same equipment to internet merchants without the same pricing restrictions?

Don't they see that they're slowly putting themselves out of business? Dive shops cannot survive forever with that imbalance and without the shops to train new divers, it seems that the market for the manufacturer's products would eventuall go away.

What am I missing?