A bike on a lift in the showroom increases traffic
The Polar Vortex had not yet reared its head, but the weather outside was frightful when Crossroad Powersports outside Philadelphia held its annual service department open house. Even so, customers came in droves.
“I was shocked at how many people we had at the event,” owner Eric Osner said. “We brought a lift into the showroom and brought in some chairs to make it a classroom setting. It was a super cold day. It was also part of our Customer Appreciation Day, and a lot of people came in.”
Pete Alberici, a 35-year veteran of powersports service departments and the dealership’s service manager, had a motocross bike on the lift and presented seminars on a variety of topics, from oil changes to storing and maintaining a bike in the offseason.
Dubbed a success by Osner, the event was a way for the dealership to bring bodies into the store on an otherwise miserable winter day.
“Pete does a great job of putting it all together, and it’s a good time for us to do it. We include 50 percent off select parts and accessories to get the customers involved even more,” Osner said.
Crossroad never was able to overcome a second quarter in which “it rained every day in March, April, May and June,” Osner said. “It was horrendous rain. We’ve been playing catch-up since July. We had a strong October-November-December, but we couldn’t catch up with what we lost. In service, people weren’t bringing in their bikes because it was raining, but then come July, everything hit the fan and it got busy. He’s still busy back there now and it’s 5 degrees outside.”
Osner’s 17 years in the business has him taking a positive outlook for 2014.
“I think 2014 is going to be good for powersports, I can just feel it in my bones,” he said. “For five years we’ve been getting pounded. I noticed at Christmas time. We sold a lot of little bikes. That’s a barometer for what’s going to happen come spring.”
