How The Great Outdoors RV Reduced Repair Event Cycle Times by 15 Days with IDS

Founded as an independent, family-owned dealership, The Great Outdoors RV has built its reputation on personalized customer service and fostering long-lasting relationships. In a market increasingly dominated by large conglomerates, the dealership takes pride in the culture created by its hands-on ownership, which is reflected in the strong relationships they’ve formed with their customers.

Today, IDS helps The Great Outdoors RV enhance operational efficiency, improve service turnaround, and maintain the high standard of customer care that defines the dealership.

Upgrading to IDS

Steve first encountered IDS at his previous dealership, where he saw the system’s reporting and operational insights outperform any DMS he had used.

Steve Shackelford: “The reporting, the various ways that reports are customizable, and the system itself is customizable in a way that no other DMS that I’ve been involved with is. You can customize the Service Manager and the Parts Manager windows to operate the way that you want them to. I think that’s probably the biggest advantage to IDS that I see.

When he joined The Great Outdoors RV, IDS was already in place, but he quickly recognized opportunities to help the team leverage the system more effectively.

Their main goals with IDS were to:

• Streamline service operations and eliminate paper-based workflows
• Improve communication with customers and internally among staff
• Reduce work order rework and improve service turnaround

Steve Shackelford: “The reporting functions were far better than the system we were using at the time. It seemed like a no-brainer.”

Transforming Service Operations

Under Steve’s leadership, the service team at The Great Outdoors RV has leveraged IDS to streamline operations at every stage, from drop-off to pick-up.

Work Order Dispatching

Implementing the technician mobile app and digital work order dispatching allowed The Great Outdoors RV to move to a largely paperless workflow, improving efficiency and reducing errors.

Steve Shackelford: “I think the biggest difference right away, at least from a service perspective, was in work order dispatching, which had been a bit chaotic before that. Being able to begin using the technician mobile app in conjunction with the work order dispatching system in G2 just streamlined that process and really nailed it down. We were able to go paperless.”

Promise Dates & Customer Communication

Steve Shackelford: “The system that we use involves the promise dates and the ability to track things that way. The service writers can customize the work order manager screen with the promise date field and set those updates to match each individual customer’s expectations.

It works great; we’re able to stay right on top of our customer contact and individualize that communication for each customer. Some people want to be called or reached out to every day, some once a week, and we can dial that in to meet customers where they are.

In the first year of using IDS, we cut the RECT number down by 10–15 days on average.”

Open Recall Management

Steve Shackelford: “The Forest River Open Recalls integration took a lot off my plate. Specifically, in that I spent a lot of time comparing our inventory to recall lists, going through manufacturer systems to identify recalls and open the work orders for those recalls, and calling customers back in to do a recall. To be able to see recalls in the moment, while a customer’s there—that’s a game changer.”