Member Spotlight: Jeff Runels

This month’s member spotlight features Jeff Runels of Keystone RV Company as he discusses company goals, his take on the changes of RV uses of new customers and the story behind Keystone Nation. Check out this Q&A with Jeff as he shares his story in his own words:

SHARE YOUR JOURNEY TO JOINING THE RV INDUSTRY
My parents took my sister and I camping for the majority of our vacations growing up. It was an affordable way to get the most out of our time together. We were able to travel from coast to coast, see anything along the way we wanted, and if something took us off course, we could divert because we were on our own schedule. There were no flights to catch or hotel rooms to cancel so we saw just about every battlefield, monument and tourist attraction along our way. 

When I got into high school, I took a part-time job at the same RV dealership where my parents had purchased their pop-up camper. From mid-high school through college, I worked odd jobs for the dealership. I did everything from wash trailers to pack bearings. I even painted buildings and worked in the parts store. Eventually, I worked through the service department and into the sales department. By the time I graduated from college, I got to know a lot of folks from the manufactures the dealership had worked with. Not knowing what I wanted to do for a living, I took a job as a sales trainee for one of the manufacturers, and before I knew it, that job turned into a career and it brought me to Keystone. 

HAS YOUR CUSTOMER BASE CHANGED, AND IN WHAT WAYS?
Our industry’s customer base changes almost every day. I think the most impressive changes though have been ushered in by some of the exposure the GO RVing campaign has brought to the industry. I think some of our customers today may have heard the term “RV” and thought it was just for a quick weekend vacation. Through Go RVing and some of the additional exposure our industry has had in recent years, people know that our industry builds everything from a tiny weekend use unit up to 45-foot Toy Hauler that you can travel the continent in and take your toys along with you. I think the more dramatic change has been in the way our customers have shown us how our products can be used. Whether it’s a mobile office for a content creator, a dog grooming station for someone who travels on the weekends with their pets from show to show, it’s giving us new ideas on what people may want or need in an RV.

HAVE CONSUMERS CREATED A NEW LIFESTYLE THROUGH RV USAGE FOR BUSINESS?
Yes, people from all walks of life with all sorts of backgrounds and careers have found that RVs are not only an affordable way to vacation, but also serve as a versatile form of mobile office. I think the best part of this new trend is that we are introducing a segment of the population to the RV lifestyle that most likely would never have considered it otherwise. This versatility helps our industry push to find new ways to make our RVs even more adaptable, and it drives us to make them even better. 

HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT MAKING RVs EVEN BETTER?
Over the last 10 to 15 years, we have seen advances in RVs that I would never have dreamed possible. These products are built to spend their life traveling down the road or parked in uneven terrain, so certain technologies seem almost too fragile to be considered for an RV, but that hasn’t stopped us from finding new ways to incorporate almost anything our customers would want or need in an RV. The most recent innovation I can think of here at Keystone is our In Command automation system. We worked with ASA to develop a digital automation system that in its latest form can be controlled through your smartphone to turn on your AC system remotely. That’s just one of many innovations that we have brought into RVs over the last ten years. Some come from the residential industry and some from automotive, but we are always searching for the next technological advancement for our customers.

DO NEW RV CUSTOMERS LOOK FOR FEATURES FOUND IN BOTH AUTOMOTIVE AND RESIDENTIAL AREAS?
We are in constant contact with our customers, so we ask a lot of questions about what they are seeing in their day to day life that they would like for us to incorporate into their RV experience.  Though our units are still very much handcrafted, we employ a variety of skilled workers to accomplish the quality and ingenuity required to meet our customers’ expectations. Our customers’ expectations in many ways are set by the vehicles they drive and the homes they live in, so, yes, we are graded along the same lines. At the same time, we want the standards to be even higher in order to satisfy the expectations our customers have. They may only get to use our products a few times in a season so it’s imperative that we not only meet the functional needs but exceed their quality expectations.

LAST YEAR, YOU HAD THE FIRST CLASS OF TECHNICIANS IN YOUR TECHNICAL TRAINING ACADEMY IN GOSHEN. HOW IS THAT GOING?
Our technical training program has been nothing short of a home run. Last year we were met at an open house with a multitude of questions revolving around availability to participate in the program and an expansion of the program in the future. This resonated with us and told us that there is a need for such a program. Our industry can’t continue to grow in sales without also continuing to grow its support for our customers. You have seen a number of our outstanding Keystone dealer partners make huge financial commitments to service over the past several years. We took the hint and wanted to be a part of supporting our mutual customers and have worked with the RV Industry Association to continue to grow the program and make certifications more attainable and plan to continue to grow the program in the future. 

KEYSTONE PROMOTES THE ‘ULTIMATE OWNERSHIP’ EXPERIENCE. HOW DID THAT KIND OF FRAMEWORK COME TO BE AND HOW IS KEYSTONE COMMUNICATING IT TO DEALERS AND CUSTOMERS?
The ultimate ownership experience has always been a part of Keystone; it’s built into our DNA. From day one, our organization chart was laid out by our founder Cole Davis - with the customer in charge. We all work for the customer at Keystone; it says it on our walls, and we focus on that in every department and in everything we do. Each department has a different way of helping the company achieve the ultimate ownership experience, so if you are in our service department, it may be written into how we answer the phones. If you are in engineering, it might be written into the way you design a closet or the basic storage you require a model to have. Each department works towards the ultimate ownership experience differently, and together, we are continually improving on it. The ultimate ownership experience may be different for every customer we have, so in many ways this is aspirational but we are in constant and relentless pursuit of it.

WHAT IS KEYSTONE NATION?
Keystone Nation is the group of customers, dealer partners, vendors and employees we have assembled over 25 years. It still feels like we are a young company, but relative to the industry, we are a veteran company. Keystone Nation is the framework that we continue to build upon every single day. It is what we are most proud of because it’s not something you can achieve overnight; it’s built on trust and a proven track record.

WHAT OBSERVATIONS CAN YOU SHARE IN REGARD TO HOW THINGS HAVE EVOLVED, AND HOW SOME THINGS HAVE REMAINED IN THE RV INDUSTRY?
The most obvious observation is the aesthetics of the units themselves. Both outside and in RVs have come a long way very quickly. From solid surface counter tops on the inside to colored fiberglass on the outside, the industry has evolved as customers tastes have changed. When I first started in this industry, most units were still limited to one or no slide outs. Now, most units have at least one slide out if not three or four. Having said that, what’s more impressive is what hasn’t changed. From the handcrafted nature of building an RV to the basic boxes that RV must check to satisfy the needs of the customer, this industry is still fundamentally the same as when I got evolved so many years ago. I think that’s a great thing and I think it speaks to the nature of our business. We are trying to keep it simple so that we can stay in touch with our customers and our industry.