RV Executive Today: An Interview With Bill Stewart, Education Director For RVTI

Recently, I sat down with Bill Stewart, the new education director for the RV Technical Institute (RVTI). I have known Bill for around 15 years and had the opportunity to work with him while I was consulting for an Ohio dealership. After a little reminiscing, we got down to business and I asked some questions to get a feel for who Bill is and what his plans are.

Tony: Your background included a few dealers as I recall. I worked with you at All Season’s in Ohio and then you went to another Ohio dealership, right?

Bill: Yes, I went to Clay’s RV, then worked with Fleetwood and got sent to Walt Michael’s in Michigan. There I worked with their service and legal departments.

Tony: Was your experience at these dealers limited to service or did you try your hand in other departments?

Bill: After Michigan, I went to Best Buy RV where I was general manager at two locations. Back at All Seasons in Ohio, I worked as a sales manager. Just before coming to RVTI, I worked for General RV and did tech training.

Tony: After working for all of these dealers, did you notice much difference in the working culture, in how different departments worked with different owners?

Bill: Yes, every dealer was different. Working at different places and for different people was an education in itself.

Tony: I ask about working at the different dealers to see if you’d received any insight on how these people worked with Repair Event Cycle Time or RECT. This is on everybody’s mind these days. What do you think can be done from the dealer tech side to shorten this RECT and to keep customers happy?

Bill: At General RV we had what was called, “Keep you camping.” If a customer called and had an issue that would keep them from camping, they would bring the unit in, and that issue would be a priority to the point where parts were next day aired in. If the issue was cosmetic like a tear in vinyl flooring, that wouldn’t keep them from camping.

Tony: How will RVTI training help technicians reduce RECT?

Bill: Technicians need to be trained to understand diagnostics and actually repairing an RV. They need to understand principles and know sequence of operation to efficiently and quickly diagnose problems. I’ve run across a lot of technicians who have really good intentions but just haven’t had training. I want to be able to change a person’s life. I feel that RVTI has the program to offer a person a chance at a real career.

Tony: I’ve noticed, in my experience with techs, that a lot of them are simply parts replacers. They put new pieces in until the problem goes away.

Bill: That’s very true. That’s why I preach about the sequence of operation. The problem may not be a part at all. Maybe a bad ground in electrical or low pressure in LP. They need to understand how things operate and what they need.

Tony: We’ve talked about warranty work and how much it pays. Are you teaching technicians anything about their own time management? Will you be showing them what to do if a warranty flat rate gives a certain amount of time and they know they can’t get it done in the time given?

Bill: Again, I think that if they know how things operate, it won’t take them as much time to make repairs. There may be some adjustments that need to be made to some warranty times and that has to be addressed with the manufacturer. If the tech gets a good write up from the service writer, it also makes it easier for the tech to find the problem in less time.

Read the rest of the interview in the September issue of RV Executive Today here (interview continues on page 14).