Bloody dive shops...

[Marie13]

DRIS recently bought Scuba Emporium, another shop in Chicago’s south burbs. Emporium had been around since the mid -70s with the same owners, who wanted to step back some and just be instructors. The plus is the new location has a pool onsite, but it’s small.

Will be interesting how it works out. I’ll still be going to the original location as it’s closer.

 

[Scuba Lawyer]

Maybe it was owned by partners that started fooling around, swapping spouses and such

Wait, this is an option? Dang, I did not get the memo or I would have taken an entirely different career path...

 

[Divectionist]

I get why some say that email is not the appropriate way of communicating. I guess I like the written trail and always feel like people fail to jot down notes for a phone call and action what was said, when I reach them at the bakery. When someone checks their emails, even if it is a couple days later, they should be in a position to arrange things and confirm a request.

In fact, when a shop has a few employees and the owner is not behind the counter all day, you would think an email would be preferred so the person who's on duty can view and action it.

I don't think a ticketing system is needed, just mark as unread what has not been actioned yet, or sort it into folders, and then work down the list. Even a second system to order and prioritise tasks costs nothing at all these days via certain web services. It is clear that they won't pay for a customised system.

Day to day business skills are the easiest skills to acquire.

My local places are pretty good. My biggest beef with most LDS and charters is the fact that they rely on Facebook for everything. Whats your class schedule? "Check facebook". Trips? "check facebook".....

Many people, including me, do not use facebook. It gets harder and harder every day to book classes or trips the normal way. Have they all just gotten too lazy to actually interact with humans? Do people really book classes on Facebook without talking to potential instructors first? No thanks.

I agree, the exact thing happened to me just the other day when I asked the owner of a shop for a schedule of their fun dives. I asked whether there's anything else, as I do not use facebook, but that is really their only channel.

There's two boat operators here that keep an up to date schedule with live booking system on their websites, really makes a difference. But they do not run shops.

A couple of months ago I tried to reach out to a shop about 1.5h away to book the first tech course. I was really keen on changing away from PADI and they were the only guys in the region, so I once again sent an email to get a structured response leading into the course and also gauge the outfit based on their responses. My initial emails with two follow-up emails a couple of weeks apart - utterly ignored. I then called the shop and someone picked up, seemed like it was forwarded to a mobile, and not mentioning their name, I was told that it wasn't a good time now but that they would know now and call back later that afternoon. Do you think I ever received that call? Would you beg them further to take your money? Rubbish.

 

[Stoo]

A lot of diveshops are run by people that got into it because they loved diving, not because they're business people.

What you describe isn't uncommon, but there are many exceptions. It may be partly that you spread you business around to a bunch of shops. As a result, you aren't anyone's "good customer".

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

In my area, I do believe that most shops make a concerted effort to take care of their customers. They do follow up with email, phone calls, etc., and rarely drop the ball. While I have not patronized every shop in the area, the first dive shop that went out of business after I started diving was opened not because the owner loved diving, but out of spite. The owner said they would put a dive shop chain out of business (they are still there, doing as well as ever). Another dive shop came and went that had horrible customer service. Saw everyone as an ATM, screwed over staff and customers alike, so no surprise.

I think in general in my area the shops do a fairly good job at taking care of customers. Some might have antiquated systems, but they make an effort to have both a FB and a website presence.

 

[homerdoc]

1. No
2. No
3. No
4. No

I love my local dive shop. Heck, I buy stuff there even knowing that I can save 10% at some website. Every time my family or I walk in, they treat us a family. They fix stuff no questions asked.

The owner also was the guy that trained all the Abyss divers and supplied the equipment, it makes for some cool stories.

I only buy knick nacks on the interweb, and anything that is dive functional - reg, bcd, tanks etc. I buy from them, but again I pay a premium, but I really want them to stay in business, and if there is an issue they fix no questions asked.

JJ

 

[Bob DBF]

Wait, this is an option? Dang, I did not get the memo or I would have taken an entirely different career path...

And then you would be wishing you knew a good laywer.


Bob

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

At the last LDS I worked at, email was our preferred method of communication. Mainly because we were in the water a lot or out of the office assisting divers on land. This was a hotel based dive center so a little bit different than the typical U.S. based LDS. Emails were always looked as soon as we were back on land and answered quickly. It may seem outdated but it gives everyone who works there a chain of events via the conversation to understand the customer's needs and what we needed to action.

As for outdated systems, I will say that finding a good POS, with an inventory system and powerful CRM is not easy to find for dive centers. There are some great ones out there but the costs can be quite high and the more "affordable" options usually lacked key features required. I spent months trying to find a good solution as I was the one pushing the idea to the owners that we needed to get away from the 1950s way of doing things with ledgers, hand written paper invoices, etc. We never did find a solution that worked for all the things we needed.

Even the ones made for dive centers seemed to be terrible. Part of it was because how we did trips so their dive scheduling never worked right for us. Dive specific systems do not have a lot of money put into them like the systems used for retail, resturaunts, etc.

 

[Foothills]

Like many others, I have found the level of customer service & organization at the various LDS's that I have associated with over the last 2 decades to be underwhelming. The bright spots tended to be associated with individual staff or instructors, and only one owner. Highly motivated staff tend to move on if they feel that the environment that they are in doesn't support growth & success.

I can accept that running an LDS in a "non-destination" location is likely going to be a grind to break even and that a lack of cash flow will make it hard to invest in the most modern systems.

I have struggles with the fact many owners are (or were) divers first, and they want to socialize with their customers. I think that familiarity breeds contempt, and owners mix up providing friendly business with business with friends.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Like many others, I have found the level of customer service & organization at the various LDS's that I have associated with over the last 2 decades to be underwhelming. The bright spots tended to be associated with individual staff or instructors, and only one owner. Highly motivated staff tend to move on if they feel that the environment that they are in doesn't support growth & success.

I can accept that running an LDS in a "non-destination" location is likely going to be a grind to break even and that a lack of cash flow will make it hard to invest in the most modern systems.

I have struggles with the fact many owners are (or were) divers first, and they want to socialize with their customers. I think that familiarity breeds contempt, and owners mix up providing friendly business with business with friends.

Interesting. I always thought it would be a great idea to have a little coffee area in a shop. People could wait their turn with the staff or chat with staff and other divers. Talk about diving, get hooked on a new piece of gear or a trip or a course. But that would be expensive real estate just in the hopes that it would pay off in other ways.

Maybe a cash bar, lol. Always money in booze.