Training agencies often try to help dive store owners be more successful by providing professional journals, books, and videos designed top help the store owner provide better customer service and enjoy financial success. In my opinion, some, or even much of this "advice" helps the agency more than the shop owner. Also, in my experience, most shop owners do a very poor job of listening to their customers. Much like a parent doesn't listen to his child, even after the child is 30 years old and has an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business, dive shop owners remember the diver taking his open water class and can't quite grasp the fact that after a couple years or even decades of diving that diver might have a valid opinion or two.
I'd like to ask SBers to use this thread to tell dive shop owners what they like, what they don't like and how things could be done better to make visiting a dive center a more positive experience.
Some possible topics include:
1. How you feel about dive shops being affiliated with a specific agency? Would you prefer generic stores? Do you feel more comfortable or more alienated by agency branding?
I would prefer to see dive shops and dive instruction separated ... it's an inherent conflict of interest. The business priority of a dive shop is to offer sales and service of dive equipment ... and do so in a way that assures a reasonable level of profit to the business owner. The business priority of a dive instructor should be to their students, by offering quality instruction at a reasonable price. When you combine the two, you put the instructor into a conflict between serving the best interest of the shop or the best interest of their students. This often results in the students not getting the quality of training they deserve, or precious class time being used to sell dive gear.
2. How do you feel about education? Are the time frames for classes too long, too short or just right? Do you like having lots of specialties? Or, would you prefer less specialty education? Did seeing all the educational opportunities excite you or almost turn you off to diving?
I don't think time frames are the issue ... the quality of the class is. In this respect, I think you're asking the wrong questions. I think that the prerequisites for becoming an instructor should be higher both in terms of experience and real-world diving knowledge. I think that more emphasis should be placed on in-water skills ... which may require additional pool time and/or more OW dives. Dive training should not be used as a loss-leader to bring customers into a dive shop, because cheap classes encourage corner-cutting. "Mastery" should not be viewed as "do it once on your knees and check it off the list". Divers who are uncomfortable to dive once class is over are far less likely to continue diving than those who are comfortable and confident with their skills.
3. Do you feel comfortable or a little nervous walking into a new shop? Why or why not? Are you happy or unhappy with your local shop? Do you go because you enjoy it or because they are "the only game in town" or have some form of emotional blackmail in place keeping you loyal out of fear?
I've never felt uncomfortable walking into a shop ... although I have felt uncomfortable walking out of a few. Those latter ones have lost me forever. When someone walks into a store, it's incumbant upon the store employees to make them feel as though their business is valued. When you fail to do that, you lose customers ... and making someone feel welcome is as simple as eye contact and a simple "Can I help you with something?"
Never make a customer feel guilty about purchasing something elsewhere ... your best sales pitch is the one that makes them feel like you have their best interest at heart. This means that you can't think of the shop down the street, or across town, or on the other end of the Internet, as your competitor. They're not ... your competitor is the bike shop, or the golf shop, or the ski shop, or any other business who vies for your customer's recreational dollars. The other dive shops in your area are your support group ... you can only grow your business by working together.
I live in an area where I can choose from any of more than a dozen dive shops within reasonable driving distance. I have excellent relationships with a few of them ... and give the majority of my business dollars to one in particular. Of the ones I frequent, the one thing that they have in common is that they greet me with a smile when I come in, they make an effort to be helpful when I ask for help, they never ... ever .. badmouth another dive shop, and if they can't help me with something I want, they won't try to sell me something I don't want because it's what they do have.
In other words, they treat me with respect ... are honest about what they can and can't do for me ... and assume that I'm smart enough to know what I want to buy.
4. What improvements can be made to the inventory? Too many choices? Too little choices? Too much fluff and not enough of what you need? Or, are you happy with the inventory? What products would you like to see taken off the shelves? What would you like to see carried in the store?
Different dive shops target different demographics. That's a business decision, and the owner of the business knows better than I do what segment of the market they want to focus on. Anyone with any level of business acumen understands this ... diving is a tiny market, and no dive shop can be all things to all people. What I want most is an honest answer ... do you carry it or not? If you have to order it, how long will it take? Be honest ... don't say you can have it in three days when you know it'll take two weeks. Don't give me some BS story about how the distributor screwed up my order when you knew before you ordered it that the item wouldn't be available when you told me it would.
Inventory doesn't mean a lot to me ... stocking a lot of inventory costs money, and most dive shops really can't afford it. It's in my best interest to help keep the local dive shops in business, and so I'm usually willing to wait a reasonable period to receive something that has to be ordered. But if you don't keep your word, I'll hesitate to give you another chance. And if it happens a second time, you'll lose my business forever.
5. Do you think a dive shop should just sell scuba equipment? Or, would you like to see something else in the store as well? If so, what?
Ah, now that's a good question. Diving's such a niche market that broadening your interests may be a good business decision. But what other products to carry may well depend on where you're at. For example, in places like Bali, South California or Hawaii, adding a surfing section may be a good choice. Other places it might be fishing or boating. In areas where diving is seasonal, it may be skiing. Having a multipurpose shop has benefits ... particularly if establishing relationships with the business owners/employees is important to you ... and if it helps them maintain a model that keeps the business healthy. But the potential drawback comes in how knowledgeable the help will be when you have questions that need answering. In other words, this will only make sense if in the process there is no degradation of the service performance you expect in a place where you're likely to be spending a lot of money.
6. What kind of employee do you most want in the store? What kind of employee makes you want to go elsewhere?
Mostly I want employees who treat me with respect, and who are knowledgeable enough with the equipment I use and want to purchase to offer reasonable sales and service on it. The employee that makes me want to go elsewhere is the one who tries to tell me what I want, who acts like we're in some kind of competition, or who tries to lay a guilt trip on me if I decide to purchase something elsewhere once in a while. These employees will drive me out of their store in a hurry, and once out I will
not come back.
7. Do you like going into the dive shop when the owner is there or do you try to only go when other employees are working?
Depends on the shop. There's a local dive shop chain that has some good store managers and employees at several of their stores ... I almost never see the owner, and that suits me just fine since I've established good relationships with his employees. The shop I visit most often is owned and operated by a young married couple who are fantastic to deal with. And another shop I like is just a "loft" in a strip mall that is run almost exclusively by an older gentleman who I've known since I was barely out of OW ... he's been a mentor and friend for a long time, and I love to send business his way when I can.
8. What do you consider timely service on equipment? Do you think service prices are fair or a rip-off?
It depends on the type of service. What I most care about is that the store employee give me a reasonable estimate, and that the equipment is serviced and available when they said it would be. Prices are what they are ... you generally get what you pay for. For some things, such as drysuit seal replacement or cylinder VIPs, I may shop around for the best price or quickest turnaround. For other things like regulator service and repair, I'm pretty picky about where I go ... and if it takes longer or costs more, that's indicative of the quality of what I'm getting in return.
9. What about gas fills? Do you feel hassled when you need an air fill, nitrox fill, or trimix fill? Or, is this normally an enjoyable part of going diving? What do you like or don't like about getting fills? Does your shop charge by the fill or by the cubic foot? Would you rather pay by the fill or cubic foot? Do they fill the gases that you need or do you end up going elsewhere for different fills?
I own upwards of 30 tanks, and have a monthly fill plan with my local shop. About once a week I'll bring in whatever tanks need filling, and pick up the ones I dropped off the previous week. I analyze them, and if one needs a top or an EAN adjustment they do it on the spot ... no questions asked. I like the monthly plan ... I typically get my nitrox for an average of $4 - $5 per fill (LP95, HP100, HP119 and HP130) and the store can plan on payment every month ... it's a win-win situation for both of us.
10. Anything else? This is a great opportunity to put it all out there.
Just this ... I think a lot of dive shops are stuck in a business model that worked for them years ago, but doesn't apply to today's market. They need to understand that both the customer base and the technology available for sales and service have changed over the past couple of decades, and they need to change both their business methods and their attitude to be more compatible with the customers they encounter today. "Loyalty" has little to do with how most people shop these days ... and if someone buys something elsewhere, particularly over the internet, and you impose policies or attitude to show your unhappiness about it, you're only hurting yourself. Dive businesses that succeed are those who make their customers look forward to coming into the shop ... if you treat your customers with respect, greet them with a smile, and make them feel that you have their best interest in mind, then the loyalty issue takes care of itself. You can't guilt-trip someone into being loyal to your business ... but you can easily treat them in a way that makes them
want to be ... and therein lies the difference between the business that dies and the one that thrives.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
