RV LIFE Podcast
The RV LIFE Podcast, created by one of the premier companies in the RV industry, is for the RV Community with a mission to Educate, Entertain and Explore the RV Lifestyle. The Podcast will explore all things RV Life: living, working, exploring, learning. With hosts Dan & Patti Hunt, full time RVers, content creators, educators and explorers.
RV LIFE Podcast
How to Speed Up RV Repairs: Game-Changing Tips for Parts and Warranty Work
Today, I share my sit down interview with Todd Nuttall, President of Bish’s RV. After spending three days at Bish’s getting an inside look at RV repairs. This episode, covers game-changing solutions for RV repairs, the key questions to ask your dealer about warranty work, and how to get the parts you need—faster.
Updated information:
- Bish Fix is now called RV Fix
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- SEE the interview on my YouTube Channel Inspired Travels With Patti
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Are you looking for a better solution for your RV repairs? I'm Pettie Hunt and you're listening to the RV Life Podcast. Today, I'm sharing my conversation with Todd Nettle, the president of Bishes RV, after spending three days at Bishes getting an inside look at RV repairs. This episode will be covering game-changing solutions for RV repairs and key questions to ask your dealer about warranty work and how to get parts faster. The RV Life podcast was created to entertain, educate and explore the RV lifestyle, with the mission to inspire you to live life to the fullest. Before we jump in, I want to talk about my friends at Open Road Resorts. If you are looking for some parks to stay at this year, they have five incredible parks in Idaho, nebraska, new Mexico and two in Texas. All of their parks are highly favored parks and they're listed on the RV Life Campground Review site. These parks were chosen to be highly favored by you, the RVers. To check out what you RVers had to say about these parks, go to campgroundsrvlifecom or go to openroadresortscom to check it all out.
Speaker 1:Let's jump into this episode, which is different. I actually recorded this episode a few months ago and there are some changes that I want to let you know about First, instead of it being called Bish Fix, the product that we're going to talk about is called RV Fix, and to find out everything you need to know about Bishes RV and the new RV fix, you can go to rvfixcom or bishesrvcom. I also have some big changes and this episode is not only audio on the podcast, but you can check it out on my new YouTube channel called Inspired Travels with Patti, and there will not only be this interview about fishes, but I have a few others that you will see on my YouTube channel. So let's jump into my interview with Todd Nuttall. I interview with Todd Nuttall. I want to hear a little bit about you. You have been with Bishes for five years.
Speaker 1:That's right, you're married and have six kids? Okay, but who are you Tell us? Tell my listeners more about you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Todd Nuttall Bishes RV for five years. I've been in the RV industry really ever since I got out of college, so graduated college in 2007 and started right into the RV industry. My family grew. We had one kid when I graduated college. We have six kids now, five boys and one girl.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's second to last. We started getting a little confident once we had a girl. We're like, hey, let's get her a sister. That didn't work out, so we got another little boy, but he's awesome. And, yeah, my wife is a saint, I work a lot and she is an awesome mom and she would tell you she has seven kids.
Speaker 1:I understand that I get that kids.
Speaker 2:I understand that. I get that, yeah, so, but great, we left. I graduated from University of Utah, moved to Chicago and then we moved to Boise and I ran an RV dealership in Boise for five years, then moved back to Chicago for five years and then I moved back here and took a job with Bishes in Boise and I've been here now five years.
Speaker 1:Five years and you're the president of the company.
Speaker 2:That's right, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:Well, I want to welcome you to the RV Life Podcast.
Speaker 2:I'm glad to be here. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having me. Now we are here in the Bishes. Now you don't call it corporate office. That's what a lot of people refer to it as. What is this building actually?
Speaker 2:called. We call it our Dealership Success Center.
Speaker 1:Dealership Success Center. So I have been at the Dealership Success Center for the last two days and over at the dealership and it has been amazing. So I'm really glad to have you, be able to talk to you and share some of the things that I've learned while I've been here at Bishes.
Speaker 2:Have you ever heard the term corporate from a location employee in any business where they used corporate in a positive way?
Speaker 1:True.
Speaker 2:Right, Very rarely right.
Speaker 1:Right and you think like me. We've had a lot of conversation. I think the same way you do. I think about words and their actual meaning, so I like that you call this the. What did you call?
Speaker 2:it Success center the success center. Any employee we have that's outside of our locations, outside of our dealerships. We want them to consider themselves part of the success of the team, and if they're dealing or interacting with our people in any way, it's their job to help them be more successful. So that's where that came from.
Speaker 1:And it's so true I got to say as an outsider, coming in for two days at the dealership and here at the Success Center, I've been to a lot of corporate, quote, unquote corporate offices, a lot of different businesses, and you guys have an environment here that I have never seen before.
Speaker 2:Oh really, yes, well, hopefully that's good seen before. Oh really, yes, well, hopefully that's good.
Speaker 1:It is an absolute amazing experience the way people work together, communicate with each other, care about each other, help and support each other. You could see it and feel it as soon as you walk in the door. So great job, whoever created this. You can take some credit.
Speaker 2:I always feel like it comes from the top down and trickles down. Well, I appreciate that, yeah, and you can't really talk about Bish's RV and really the reason why I'm here without talking about our owner and his wife, so Troy and Stacey and really it's a family business from the start. So Bish's RV surprisingly started in Idaho Falls, but it was a tack and saddle Western wear shop.
Speaker 1:In 1940, right? Yes, I did some of my own work. Wow, yes.
Speaker 2:And really so. Bish is the name of our owner's grandpa, and he had this Western shop. And one of his grandsons, troy's brother, wanted to start this RV dealership and did it out of the back of this Westernware shop, and so they called it Bish's RV, because it was Bish's Westernware saddle, whatever.
Speaker 1:Because that's the grandfather's nickname that he had. Right, yes, okay.
Speaker 2:And he has a storied history of just doing the right thing. Even when, as a business back in the day of trading horses and everything else, he was faced with a lot of things, his mindset was always do the right thing for the customer, and our owners have really taken that to heart and it's just embedded in their DNA. They're phenomenal people. They're family first and they're awesome, and everyone in our company knows they're awesome and are appreciative to work with and for them. So I'd like to take credit but I really can't. That is just at the very heart of who we are.
Speaker 1:I read about a lot of that and their whole principle was honesty, fair dealing and treating customers right, and I'd love that as an overall goal. When the goal is to do what's right no matter what, and in the last two days of all the filming and interviews that I've done, that is the mission from everybody Do what's right, make it better. And we're going to talk about all that as we go through this interview. I'm so excited to be sitting here with you face to face. Okay, let's talk. There's so much to talk about. I'm trying to keep us on some kind of you know, moving forward the company goals.
Speaker 1:What are some of Bish's company goals? And again, I don't expect you to have a detail, but there are goals that you have set up here.
Speaker 2:I guess, more than goals, we have what we call our North Star, and this is it's going to, it's aspirational and it's a little bit vague, but it's our guiding light, and so we want to be the place that customers want to shop, we want to be the place where employees want to work and we want to be the place where vendors want to partner.
Speaker 2:It really is those three things, and we feel like if we use that as our guiding light, then it influences so much of what we do. So like on the customer side. We track things about our customer sentiment, their behavior, the things that they like and don't like, more severely than I ever have in my career anywhere else, and it guides us. We really, really take to heart, we want to be those things and we realize customers have a choice, employees have a choice, vendors have a choice, and we don't take that lightly. Ultimately, they get to choose, and so it's not about trying to compel them to do business in one way or another. It's trying to find ways that we can align our business with the things that they want. So they choose us and that's really how we operate.
Speaker 1:And that is. I think that is great. There, just to give some details, there are 23 locations. I spent time at the Meridian in Idaho Meridian Idaho location, which is outside Boise just for my listeners and viewers, to get that background, and I had the opportunity to take the tour and or take a tour. I think it was just something I created. I'm not sure it's something that people do, but you see, all of the things that you said, you could see that and feel that with all of the people that I've spoken to. So as we go through, I want to lead people through what the sales process looks like, what going into one of your locations is like, and are not salespeople, they're sales outfitters. Do I have that?
Speaker 2:terminology right, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:I got it right. What does that look?
Speaker 2:like you really did your homework, I did.
Speaker 1:I did, and I was asking questions of people that would share information. So what's that look like when somebody walks into one of your dealerships? That might be different than just going into any other dealership.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think it's a lot, probably a lot the same, right, you walk in the door and there's someone there to greet you. We do want our outfitters to greet the customer, so we have what we call a rotation where when someone walks in, they take turns greeting the customer. Our outfitters again, words matter and been in this industry over 15 years and people don't love to be sold. They do like to buy things, but what they really like is to make a good decision. And I think a lot of times as a consumer for myself, if I put myself in the situation going to buy in a car or whatever else. You want to make sure you get a fair deal right. You don't want to get ripped off and you really want to make a good decision. So you do research, you try to learn what product, you study different features of it, we try to train our outfitters to be more of a resource and it's our objective. I don't know if you've heard of Josh Winters, the RV nerd.
Speaker 1:I did. I've stalked you. Yeah, I've heard of him.
Speaker 2:Okay. So he's kind of a lot of times he's the face of our company and rightfully so.
Speaker 2:He's dynamic and he's awesome, but he has a saying that I steal, which is we really want to help our outfitters, help people buy their second RV the first time. And sad reality is, throughout my career I've seen so many people make a bad decision in what they bought and it could have been avoided. So we actually train our team to slow things down just a little bit. Once you start going out and looking at RVs and walking through everything, you see a lot of gadgets, you see a lot of features, you get excited and it can be really cool. And so then all of a sudden, you start to make concessions in your mind.
Speaker 2:We like to actually hear what's happened at the coffee table at their home. What did they have on their list that's really important to them, what are the features? What are they looking for? And really we help ask questions about how they're going to use it, what they intend to do with it, the frequency of use, where they go, how far they travel, what time of year are they going to be gone. Try to map all of that together and help our people. Help them make a good decision, One of the things that kind of put your money where your mouth is, and I don't know of another dealer that does this. But if you do purchase from us, you have 72 hours to return it with no question asked.
Speaker 1:Okay, so wait. I have to repeat that for people who are right now saying wait what? Okay, so wait. I have to repeat that for people who are right now saying wait what? So? I buy an RV that I chose, I take it off the lot and 72 hours, within 72 hours, I say this isn't right for me. I could bring it back. Is that what you just said?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just wanted to be clear Do they bring it back? And there's a whole lot of questions. But one thing I think is important in my career so an outfitter similar to a salesperson they do have in our company. We've elected to have them have commission. I've heard of some where it's like they get a flat pay or whatever, but ours do get a commission if they sell something, and we do that because we've found certain people work harder, have a better work ethic, they call more customers, they follow up better with customers, and that that is the action that we want and we believe as they take the right steps to help customers, people will choose to buy from them and so we want them to be rewarded in that way for what they do. If you brought your RV back, they lose their commission, right.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:They do not want the customer bringing back their RV, and so the amount of focus they will put on making sure I'm listening to you, I understand what you need so that when you drive off here you're not just driving off the lot and I don't have to deal with it again. So our team, I think, puts a huge amount of focus on actually listening to the customer, understanding and helping get them the right thing.
Speaker 1:And not only they listen. There's a blue paper involved. So I've done a lot of research, so this blue paper. Every sales outfitter that meets with a potential customer takes a blue paper. There's no reason, I'm told, for blue unless you have a reason for it.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I don't know why it's blue.
Speaker 1:I was told it just stands out. So they use a blue paper to write all this information down and I went through this process and we'll add it to the podcast. I went through the process with John over at the dealership and talked about the things that I'm looking for and I mean he really asked questions.
Speaker 1:I was kind of trying to rush through it. He was taking a lot of time. So people have an example of that, and then everything is written on this blue paper. I saw people going out to the RVs and the sales outfitter had that blue paper in front of them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the blue paper originated from some training that's been done and it's stuck. But yeah, we've done some things on that to just help prompt our outfitters. We do training and there's little pictures on there.
Speaker 1:You probably saw.
Speaker 2:Oh, I didn't see the pictures, yeah so anybody that comes into our store they can ask them what are those pictures? Those pictures are just helpful as visual cues to remind them what questions to ask.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And again, a lot of those questions just stem from learning why customers bring something back. We study why did you bring the RV back, especially if it's within the first couple of years? We want to know, you know, did something about their life change or did something about what they bought not fit? And so then we try to learn that so that we can look at what we're asking, to make sure we're looking at the right things.
Speaker 1:And this is great. I mean, in my years of being on the road and talking to people who have gone to various dealerships, bought RVs, you hear over and over again that you know they buy their first RV, which is kind of their trial, so to speak, and then they buy the second RV, which is the one they should have bought to begin with.
Speaker 1:So, buying your second RV first as your goal is really helpful because a lot of times and again not to knock anybody down but you walk into a dealership and it's quick. I've been in a lot, a lot of dealerships. I've sat in an RV and a salesperson came in and is just trying to sell that RV. I'm sitting in without any background or any questions. So this idea of really taking time, so if somebody's coming, they need time, they need the time. So the communication between the sales outfitter and the customer, I feel in my two years of experience, a lot of times people don't know what they don't know. So you buy an RV, you want the RV, but there are so many things that you don't necessarily know. And so James or John was a big help with asking questions, even though I bought RVs or have had an RV. He was asking questions. They're like oh, I didn't think of that.
Speaker 2:Right. Yeah, I think it's helpful for customers and sometimes I think there can be a negative side to it. Sometimes customers are like I don't want to sit down with you, just show me the RVs. Right, just show me the RVs. I know what I want. Just get me out there. We're not trying to. If that's what they want, we're going to take them out. You can go. You can wander a lot. Everything's unlocked. It's not about a pressure situation, but it's exactly what you said. We really work hard to train our people to be experts as much as they can on the RVs and on the products. A lot of us RV. We take them out, we use them, we try to learn and understand what people go through on a regular basis and what that's like. So we want to be a valuable resource really to the customers, help them make a good decision.
Speaker 1:In today's environment, being able to Google everything under the sun, and people could go on your website see what's available. So Bicious does sell used and new and pre-owned RVs.
Speaker 1:So you have those options and sometimes people come in and say, okay, I did all my research, this is the RV I want, but they may have missed something else, something that just came in, that, hey, we now have this available, that might be a better option for you. But yes, and again, it's meeting that customer where they are and I feel like that's how your sales team, your sales outfitters, have been trained.
Speaker 2:That's the goal. I think sometimes we'll back them up a little bit to say, hey, walk me through. You've done your research. Come to this. Can you give me some insights as to why? What prompted you to do this one? Why do you like this one so much? We really want to understand. For that reason, if there is something else that makes sense, if there's something they haven't considered, if there's any way we can be of a resource. But you're right, in today's environment, more and more people are coming to a decision before ever having anybody else involved. They know what they want. They've talked to their family, they've talked to friends, they've talked to other people, they've done a lot of research and they know what they want. And if that's where they're at and they're confident, awesome. We don't want to interfere.
Speaker 2:We're just here to help.
Speaker 1:So yeah, we kind of see a whole spectrum of customers like that Right, and what I've seen and in talking to you and a number of your people I mean, I've been talking to your people for probably eight, 10 months, so I've talked to a number of people the integrity is there. It really isn't about let me try and get somebody in a different RV, for whatever reason. It really is about doing the best for your customers and let's talk about that, because that's bottom line. You guys look to do things better all the time.
Speaker 2:I talked about a North Star. We also have four pillars of our business. The time I talked about our North Star, we also have four pillars of our business. So, if you think of a building, our foundation is our culture. So we believe that everything starts with culture and that who we are and what we are, our integrity it serves as the foundation. Then we have these four pillars that we talk about, but one of them is innovation and that we feel like, in order for us to have a very stable organization, a long lasting organization that can stand test of time, we have to be on the front edge of things, not on the back, and as we innovate, we want to do it around the framework of the customer.
Speaker 2:So a lot of times people will innovate and in businesses I've been in, you'll innovate, you'll try to do new things, but sometimes, when you back it out and say, why are we doing this, it's interesting the answers you get and I'll talk to people a lot about that because I'm very interested in the subject. But a lot of times it's about we're going to speed up our processes or we're going to make more money or we're going to, and it oftentimes is around the company. So we've kind of made it a mission to say our pillar here is innovation, but what we really want is to innovate around the customer framework. What is it that they experience? So we are working on a lot of things based on insights we've gathered from customers. Sometimes it's just things we're saying. I think this is where customers need to go. Like, we all have iPhones. No one knew you needed an iPhone until you had one.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Until it was invented. But if you would have asked someone with a flip phone what do you really want in a phone, they probably wouldn't have said an iPhone. Right, someone had to create that. So there's other things we're working on that we believe are that that are creative, that are forward thinking, that we don't even think a customer would know that they think they need until they see it. So we've got several things that we're working on, but you've experienced, I think today or yesterday, an opportunity to see kind of some of the things we're doing in service that I think are different. You talked to our director of operations today, our VP of operations rather, and he told you a little bit about what they're doing on the finance side of things, which I think is different. But all of those are patterned after ways we think customers would rather do business.
Speaker 1:And I'm seeing that we're going to break some of those down, because this is what's important when somebody is looking for a dealership, they want to make sure they're going to be treated fairly all the things you spoke about. So let's break some of those down. We talked about the sales outfitters. Now I decide I'm going to buy an RV. There are things that are going through my head, so we'll talk about the finance side of it, because that is very innovative. I talked to James about that, or John about that. Yesterday, the manager at the dealership let's talk a little bit about you saw a pain point for the customers, so you created innovation that is going to help the end customer. So can you talk a little bit about that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, a lot of this stemmed actually from our own experience, and it's not just the RV industry, but even if you buy a car you mentioned it but I mean it takes forever to get through the paperwork. And I was talking with some customers the other day and the last RV they bought it took them five hours at like just sitting at the dealership after they'd found what they loved, wanted. It was like they were there all day. Uh, we didn't want that. And so and we know customers don't want that we also have experienced in our own business, as we've evolved, customers that come in to pick up their RV and when they show up they're waiting and waiting and waiting for our finance team and sometimes it's hard to control the schedule.
Speaker 2:Customers come in and do an orientation with our technicians on their new RV. Sometimes it takes 30 minutes, sometimes it will take them three hours and you never really know. And so when a customer gets done in 30 minutes and you were expecting it to take an hour, now they're sitting for 30 minutes. And so we kind of looked at a lot of different factors and, honestly, covid kind of helped, because now you had to have this contactless and over this time we really figured out a way to automate a lot of what we're doing on the finance side and on the paperwork side, and so today nearly every one of our customers is signing their paperwork in their home. So we'll pop in and 30 minutes over the phone on a video conference and they're doing all their paperwork on their couch.
Speaker 1:And that's what John was sharing and that's incredible because it's a very stressful kind of situation. The other thing he was talking about is when you're sitting down and you're negotiating the sale of that RV and that salesperson gets up and walks to the finance people behind the door. I have sat at car dealerships and you can see them and we were sitting there for so long I said I swear they are there arguing over what they're having for lunch.
Speaker 2:That is what it felt like.
Speaker 1:It was like their mission to make us sit weak. I'm not even kidding, I'm like they are discussing lunch and where they're going to order it.
Speaker 1:And it's just so frustrating. I'm trying to buy a car, so it should be a happy, exciting time, and I think the same thing with an RV. For me it's my home, I live in it, or for somebody it's their vacation. So to have that person get up and now they're walking to the finance people at the dealership I was at it's all glass windows. You could see what's going on, and John had talked about how they minimize that back and forth process to speed things up, to get things sped up. So I love that. It's all about the customer. We talked a little bit about the Google reviews and I think for most businesses companies they're looking at the five star. Many five-stars do we have? Obviously, that's the goal you pride yourself and your team on looking at the one and the two stars to see how to improve right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I could go a long time on Google reviews and customer feedback and things like that. But I look at Google reviews every day. I read every single one of them, I watch them. We have a saying in our company. It's one of our values.
Speaker 2:We're a values-driven organization and one of our values is we get it right, we don't make it right. And then, underneath that, we also say no, if we don't get it right. We got to make it right, but it's our goal to get it right. So look at your processes, look at what we do to make it right so that when you, the first experience you have is right. And that's really our goal is to design our processes so that when a customer goes through your workflow and is purchasing an RV and it goes through service and then it goes through orientation, there's a lot of pieces that you have to coordinate as a dealer and you want to make sure that those go right. So you don't always get it right.
Speaker 2:And we have another value that says we may not always win, but we never forfeit and we always learn.
Speaker 2:And so when we don't get it, review it's not going to cost them their job.
Speaker 2:But if they're not willing to learn and change because of what they learned, they're probably not going to make it in our company, because we will listen and we'll learn and we'll change things. And so there are certain processes and features of the way we do business that I could pinpoint and I could tell you customers' names and be like this is because of, this is because of Because we're never on that side of the table, so it's really our way of getting information, and so the problem is not everyone's gonna leave you a negative review. I mean, how many businesses have you gone to where you didn't like the service or you didn't like something so you just don't go back, right, right. So Google review is, like, honestly, one of the last places we get our negative feedback. A lot of that will come through other channels, because not everybody wants to be public about that, which it's funny. I'm rolling on this, but it's funny because our guys get a Google review and they want the customer to change it because it's so public.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And I'm not worried about that. I actually think it's okay for customers to see a negative review. What I want them to see is how we respond to it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Right. So I make a concerted effort with our team to make sure when we get something, let's make sure that our other customers know what we're doing about it. Most of the time when we get a negative review, it's because we did something wrong. Honestly, I see a lot of times our guys went well, we did this, this, this. At the end, we did something wrong and it didn't come across right, and so we want to let people know yeah, we screwed up here, and then we work through it, and some of our best customers are people that actually started that way and they had a bad experience, and I don't care if they ever changed their review. I'm grateful for the opportunity to work with them.
Speaker 2:We do surveys, though, and if I were setting up a dealership, if I was giving any advice to any other RV dealership if you're currently not measuring this, you should. So every customer that comes through whether you buy an RV, you get your RV serviced, you buy a part, anything in our process we're going to send you a text message with a very simple survey. It will take less than a minute, but we ask a very important question, and that is how likely, on a scale of one to 10 are you to refer your friends or family? And it's called the Net Promoter Score Index and that score means more to me than anything else and the feedback we get from that survey means more to us. So we have thousands upon thousands of these surveys that have come back and we review the data and we have a way of organizing that data into some sentiment and we can take and see the commonalities. And you can see the commonalities by store, you can see it by department, you can see it by individual and you can actually learn like consistent things that customers are experiencing. And when you have that, it's not an anomaly, you're getting this regularly and so you can adjust what you're doing.
Speaker 2:We had a dealership in the Midwest Kearney. Our Kearney location had a pretty low score in service earlier this year and it was like fire alarms going off, like hey, what is going on. We met with the team, we worked on a plan and literally within three months their index turned around, turned around completely. But we could never have done that. We didn't know what to really address until we dug into what the customers were saying and once we did, we found a theme of about four things that kept surfacing and they attacked those four things. And now it's I think they're number like five in our group with customer service scores.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's incredible and that's what it's all about. Nothing is perfect, nobody's perfect, nothing is perfect, no company. I want that feedback. I want feedback on the podcast, like, okay, be nice, I'm asking for it. But I'd rather have feedback and say, okay, this is a common thread, this is what I could work on, you know, just for me, and this podcast always looking to get better, so I'd like that. There's absolutely nothing, nobody's perfect, so the willingness to keep improving.
Speaker 1:I want to interrupt this interview to thank my sponsors. First, I'd like to thank NIRVC, who is the host of the Music City Motorhome Expo. I'm going to talk a little bit about this event, which takes place May 31st to June 4th in Lebanon, tennessee. June 4th in Lebanon, tennessee, and at this event you could be the first to see the 2026 model year coaches from all the major manufacturers. There's a link in the show notes to this event. Again, you could check out these new, brand new coaches and so much more going on at this event.
Speaker 1:I attended this event last year and it was amazing. I highly recommend it. But I've got to say in June it was a little hot. So those people staying in an RV, I have a solution and that is Cool RV.
Speaker 1:Cool RV is also called AC Connect and what it does is it keeps the cooler air coming out of your vents 44% cooler and there's more airflow that comes out of your vents. And not only that, it keeps your AC quieter. This is a DIY installation and it costs you just $84.95. I want to say how much it costs because that is an incredible price for something that does so much for you and you could go check out everything there is to know about CoolRV by going to CoolRVcom. There is a link in the show notes. I'm also going to put my interview with the inventors and owners of CoolRV in the show notes Now as we go through the RV buying experience and people having an RV. You guys do service Well. Besides that, you have parts, so anybody needs a part. I even asked John if, for my 2002 Monaco Diplomat, they could buy parts.
Speaker 1:He said they would do their best, but so you have a parts department.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I did a video of that and people will get to see that video. Pretty amazing operation back there. And you also have service, which another amazing operation and I did video on that. Talk a little bit about how you guys again are innovative, doing things different when it comes. That is a pain point for rers. You have to bring your RV in for service. You're stressing it's pain Whether you live in it, like I did, or you're just traveling doing vacations weekends. So talk about the difference in your service departments.
Speaker 2:The reason I left where I was at and came to Bishes is because of RV service and I truly believed, believed. I had a vision of what I wanted to see, I had a focus on this and I really believe it's the opportunity in our industry to keep people camping. Reality that a lot of people get out of the RV lifestyle because of service and the problems that they associate and creates a lot of headaches. You've seen that.
Speaker 1:You've traveled for a lot of years.
Speaker 2:You probably know some people that do.
Speaker 1:Yes, personally yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we're attacking that and while it may seem very simple from the outside, looking in, this is one of those things where, as you get into it, there's a lot of layers to this onion that you peel back. But at the very core, we realized that service is a function of a couple of things and on a dealership side, it's coordination, it's planning, it's communication and really the other piece of that I would throw in there is processing. So coordination, planning, processing and communication. And when you our team, our dealership most people don't know this 70% of our employees are dedicated parts and service and 30% sales. So you have far more people that you have to coordinate and you've got to work with. And there's just, you know, while you may sell, like in one of our, the store you're in today, we'll sell upwards of around 1,700 RVs a year out of that facility, but we'll process tens of thousands of warranty work orders or, I'm sorry, not warranty but work orders. A lot of those are warranty, but so there's just a lot more moving parts and pieces and the cycle time and everything is just. It's a lot busier and there's a lot more opportunity, or far more opportunities for things to fail and failure points. So we have gone to great lengths to map the flow, what happens, the parts of entry, everything that has to do with from a customer, from the time they say I want my RV fixed, to the time it leaves, and everything in between. And there are hundreds of different tasks and steps and procedures that either happen or can happen, depending on different scenarios. And so that's where we started.
Speaker 2:But in the light of all of this, we started to recognize a couple of things. I have a really good friend. His name is Kevin, and he worked with me in service for a lot of years. So Kevin actually his son and my son were on the same baseball team growing up, and so I was coaching the team and I found out he was fixing RVs in Yuma every winter and it was summer, and I was like, why don't you just come work for me? I got a shop I could keep you busy all year, and so he did, and then we worked together for a lot of years.
Speaker 2:Well, when I take out an RV, if I had an issue, I would call Kevin. I'm out in my RV, something's wrong. I'm calling Kevin, kevin, what's up with this? And walking him through it. Right, and a lot of times he'd guide me through it. Kevin ended up going and running one of our other stores at the time and then eventually he drifted back into doing his own mobile repair and had a very successful mobile business. And so I trusted Kevin so much. If a customer called me and needed somebody in their campground, I'm like calling Kevin. If I'm traveling on myself, I was calling Kevin even though he didn't work for me, like I just it's how it was. So Kevin and I actually maintained this relationship.
Speaker 2:I had lunch with him one day. We asked several questions, but I thought this was really interesting. So Kevin was a mobile tech and I said Kevin, how often when you go on site to fix someone's RV do you have to leave because you don't have the right part once you've identified what's going on, and then come back and he goes. You know it used to be a lot, but not so much anymore. And I was like, well, what did you change?
Speaker 2:So he said that he started changing the way he would ask questions when a customer called, so a lot of times he was out on jobs they'd leave a message. Well, he would make a point to return those calls and say I just need 15 minutes to 20 minutes of your time to really understand what's going on. And when he did that, he said now I know most of the time what's wrong before I get there. Just by hearing what the customer had to say and I thought man, when the technician has to drive their vehicle to the RV, he started asking different questions. But when a customer drives to our lot, we don't even think about it, because the customer is the one that's emptying out all their stuff out of the kitchen, is getting everything set up, pulling in the slides, hooking up, taking time off of work. It's their time, so it's not on our radar and we're like our process is wrong. So we started working on something. So hired, kevin, I'm like Kevin.
Speaker 2:I need you again, buddy. So he ended up kind of shutting up all of his mobile service and transitioning that to one of his friends in the industry and he joined us and since then we've added quite a team, as you saw today, and we generated kind of an extension of our business that we call Bish Fix.
Speaker 1:And that's huge. And that's where the conversation with us started.
Speaker 1:And again talking from personal experience. Before we jump into it, we had somebody, had mobile tech come out to the RV because my husband, dan, would try and do as much as possible on the RV and he could do a lot of it. Came out to the RV, looked at what was wrong after explaining to him what the problem was. Looked at what was wrong oh, I have the problem. Was looked at what was wrong oh, I have to go get a part and had to drive to get the part. Came back to the RV charges the second charge for coming back to the RV a second time and then fixed it. And then said he got it all fixed. It cost more for him to come out twice than the part and the labor. And after it was all done my husband said I could have done that myself If somebody had told me what was wrong. There was just something he couldn't figure out and he said I totally could have done it. Okay, explain, bitch, fix, jump in.
Speaker 2:Well, that's it, you just kind of.
Speaker 1:I explained it.
Speaker 2:Well, that's the deal, though that's what happens on the mobile side. So you've had, your guy shows up and then needs to go get the part, is able to run and do it. You're paying multiple site charges because it's costing fuel and gas and drive time and everything else, and he's also losing time that he could be working on something else. So you end up paying for all of that.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Right, something else, so you end up paying for all of that. On the other side of it, if you bring your RV into an RV dealership, in most cases you're signing up to get in line again. If it takes you two weeks to get in, they set an appointment. Well, that puts you now in their queue to get into the shop. Most RV dealerships don't coordinate to where it's. You show up and it goes into the shop the same day. There are some helpful tips to any RVers out there. That's a question I would ask. If you're setting up service, I would ask them, when I drop it off, what's your schedule to actually get it in the shop?
Speaker 1:Right. Instead of sitting there for a full-time RVer like I was, I'm either going to a hotel, sleeping on somebody's couch, whatever.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:That's a problem. But even if you're on vacation it's a problem, because yeah it's ruining the vacation.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, and and worse, like and I mentioned this to you earlier. But if you're a full-time rv or if you're on vacation, they know you're, you're like in their, their dealership. They're looking at you every day, so they're probably putting you in a red folder that moves a little quicker, that puts priority and kind of keeps pushing other people back, so that's a secret.
Speaker 1:If you're in a red folder, it's a good thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, red is good if you're an RV customer who wants it fixed fast, but if you're a local customer who just says hey, I got back from a trip which is most of them I got back from the trip, these are the 10 things that I need to fix, or five or one or whatever, and you take it in. It's kind of just moving into a process and there's not really great software systems or anything to coordinate the scheduling of this. So a lot of people are doing it on the back of papers or they're doing it just literally in like folders, getting stuck in queues. So, like I said, there's a lot of coordination there, but when you bring it in, it waits to get in line and then it waits to get in the shop and then, once it goes through the shop and let's say it's the same issue you had the technician diagnoses. This is the part I need.
Speaker 2:Now all that circles back to the parts department. If you have it in stock, the technician can work with the team to grab it and go put it on, and that's a pretty quick one. But the sad reality is that there's so many different parts and pieces to every RV, the likelihood of having everything in stock when you need it. It's just impossible. You just never can anticipate all of that and if you did, you couldn't run a profitable business and service because you'd have way too many parts going stale and bad. Some of the stats around this and I mean there's probably viewers that are going to listen to this they take an RV in for service and they're going to be like okay, this is like kind of a transparent look in, and even then I think they're going to be like I don't believe that that's crazy, but I've looked at this through hundreds of dealerships at this point and once a technician orders a part, what would you guess is the average amount of time before that part is actually ordered?
Speaker 1:just the ordering process, you mean yeah.
Speaker 2:So the text says I need xyz part right now, from the time that they've recognized the technicians recognize I need a part to the time that it actually gets placed. The order gets placed so that it can be put on your rv somehow or another.
Speaker 1:I would hope that it happens that same day or it gets done immediately. I'm working on this rv. I know it needs this part. Go to the person, or if they can type in this part I need and order it, but somehow I'm thinking that's not going to be the case.
Speaker 2:Well, I'll tell you my experience again in looking at hundreds, thousands of work orders is over two weeks.
Speaker 1:Over two weeks, just to put the order in for the part. Yeah, I could have ordered it on amazon and had it next day, kind of correct okay.
Speaker 1:So um, and there's a lot of, there's a lot of reasons why I'm saying a lot of people would be like that's crazy right and it is it's nuts, it's nuts but is it because and I'm gonna kind of stop is it because this is the way the system was back in the day and it just stayed that? Where you know what I mean, if you just, well, this is the way the system was back in the day and it just stayed that. You know what I mean. If you just, well, this is the way it's always been, until people accept it, and then nobody changes it until somebody looks at it and says this is crazy and you're worse.
Speaker 2:I think that's a lot of it. I do Not that it matters.
Speaker 1:It matters more that you are looking at it and saying this is crazy, what can we do about it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that you are looking at it and saying this is crazy, what can we do about it? Yeah, so there's a lot of steps, like if you're a technician, I know the part, I know exactly what it is and it's on the shelf, easy right. If you're a technician, you're like this is what I need and it's a 2002 Monaco Diplomat and they're not currently making parts for 2002 Monaco.
Speaker 1:Diplomats. They're not currently making parts for 2002. Monaco diplomats, not even making them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there are several parts that are fully replaceable on that diplomat of yours. Then there's other ones that are going to be a lot harder to find. So we have actually created an internal research team for parts. I have a whole team.
Speaker 2:That's all they do is research the parts that are needed. Some of those can take five minutes, some of them can take three days to try to find. And so we've been able to break down what causes these delays, right. Why does this happen and what causes all that to happen? But that's an area where you don't realize you've just waited to get your RV in Now. You waited for it to get your rv in now. You waited for it to get into the shop and now you're waiting for parts.
Speaker 2:And I guarantee you've heard this. If you go on any reddit thread, you go on facebook groups, you're gonna hear this. You're gonna hear a customer that says I bought my rv from so-and-so dealership and they said they'd ordered the parts and they're waiting on the manufacturer. I, I called the manufacturer and the manufacturer said I've never received an order from that, right. So you get dealers that are like trying to save face or something and will say something that we've sent it to the manufacturer or waiting. The manufacturer's like, well, I don't have an order for that, right, and it's because there's just it's quite a process.
Speaker 2:It's actually very difficult to coordinate and organize in our industry, but most customers don't know that is the biggest issue Parts not in shop. If you don't have parts on stock or in shop, that's one of the biggest draws to lengthen your repair time. The other one is warranty. If you're bringing it in for warranty, the process and the coordination with the manufacturer for warranty can be a little bit burdensome. Plus, we both peak at the same time for how busy we are. So the amount of warranty requests that come in in April, may and June are very high and they're all coming in at once.
Speaker 2:Also, the volume of sales like for us are also very high. So the work you're doing to get out, so everything culminates at the same time, right and so that's another issue. And then the coordination with the warranty. A lot of them they're trying to kind of scrutinize the repairs, make sure that they're getting treated fair, which is the right thing to do as a manufacturer. But it's requiring you're taking these pictures, it's requiring certain feedback. Sometimes they're like I need another angle of that picture or I need this or that and all this coordination so it's very difficult. So I only give you that backstory, because no matter what happens when you bring your RV in, there's all these moving pieces. As a customer you really don't care.
Speaker 1:No, I don't care, I just want my RV back. Get it fixed and give it back to me, right?
Speaker 2:right, and so that's where we've put our mindset, is that we really track. The most fundamental things are when did they drop it off and when did they get it back and was it fixed correctly, right? So we actually measure that too. I didn't mention that with customer service, but in our survey we ask everything that was fixed on the rv, we ask was it fixed correctly? And every technician can tell you their quality score what percentage of the time did they fix it right? That's a big deal. We found that's a huge driver of customer satisfaction.
Speaker 2:So anyway, so whether you had that tech come out or you drop it off, those are kind of the two varying things that are happening the process that it takes, where the time is where your tech had to leave and go get that part, and where our dealerships struggle to get the process of parts and warranty and all that communicated. All of that has to happen somewhere right. The problem in both cases is you'd already gone down the path of hiring a technician who was on site. He did the diagnostic and then said, okay, this is what I need. And in our shops they do the diagnostic, they give the information to the parts warranty teams and then sometimes got to get customer approvals and all that in between. And then it begins. We said, wait a second, could we get our more and more of our RVs diagnosed without them ever coming into the shop? And if we could, could we get more and more of our RVs diagnosed without them ever coming into the shop? And if we could, could we start ordering parts, could we start writing the warranty? Could we start having all of the administrative stuff done? So when the RV shows up, we just fix it. And that was kind of the thought process and that's what Bish Fix is designed to be and to do.
Speaker 2:So what we've seen early on, what we do, our process is pretty simple. We're training our customers and they're getting more and more used to what BishFix can be for them. But instead of coming home on Saturday night or Sunday and Monday morning making the call to the service shop, we're encouraging our customers when you take it out and it's Thursday and your awning's not coming out, don't wait until Monday to bring it into a shop, call us. And what we're finding is more and more customers are starting to realize they have access to technical support and help now anywhere, wherever they're at, and 40% of the time. This is crazy to me. 40% of the time when our customers call with an issue, we're able to fix it over the phone. Several of those repairs involve, like your husband, someone who's handy they're doing it themselves. We're guiding them Open that. Use your screwdriver here. Here. Our technology allows us to see what they're seeing and they guide them through, and a lot of the customers can fix it themselves once they know the issue Right.
Speaker 1:They guide them through and a lot of the customers can fix it themselves once they know the issue Right, and so I want to just go back a little bit, because I had the opportunity to look at how that whole fish fix process works. So I call and I say, okay, there was a problem with the electric. That's what the problem was. I'm on video. I watched the technician upstairs. They move the camera a little here, let me see this, let me see this, let me see that, and then they'll guide me even me, because I'm kind of handy. I don't like electrical stuff, but I'm pretty handy to exactly what to do and how to fix it, to take it apart so it could be diagnosed, or I could go order a part. Now, upstairs, one of your technicians was working with somebody. They were having a problem with the toilet, so I couldn't hear what they were saying, but you could see on the video. And then he was ordering a new one for them. So right then, and there, toilet was a problem. Here's the order that is now being placed right now. That customer never had to come in. They didn't have to wait in line, they didn't have to wait for a you know, an appointment. What a great idea.
Speaker 1:Now I'm I'm going to state this statistic. It is mind boggling to me. You said on a phone call that you had 10,000, about 10,000 customers and that with Bish Fix people calling in being able to handle an issue with a technician $4 million was saved in repairs because the customers were able to do it themselves $4 million. I have to say to my listeners and my audience I have confirmed this with everybody I talked to in Bishes over the last three days I said look, is this right? Did Todd say this right? I have it written down in my notes, is it right? And what John said to me was that's a conservative number and that was from January to July, not even a full year. $4 million, that's amazing, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I'll tell you there's a lot of crazy things we've learned here too. Um, but when a customer takes in the rv, if a technician on on average spends probably between it's probably averaged out to about 30 to 45 minutes on diagnostics, sometimes it can be like super fast, but a lot of sometimes it'll take up towards of an hour or more. Those technicians don't work for free, so it gets built into the pricing, whether they specifically itemize it out and say here's your diagnostic fee or not, it's in there. They've got to account for that time and that lost time. So our customers that call in and we have currently, if you purchase an RV from us, we give them a membership to Bish Fix and there's really only two models we could think of for Bish Fix, like how to support it financially. One was a subscription or like an annual fee and then you could just call as many times as you need. Or the second one was do it per call, and so we opted to look at something that's more annual and you pay an annual fee and then you just call in whenever you need to.
Speaker 2:We've had customers have called 15 times like just anything they need. So it's pretty cool. But when they call in. That fee, like right now and we'll subscribe up to 20,000 members, is what we have capacity for. That we'll add and we're charging introductory. Partly this is low, we know it's low given our model. It's $200 that we're doing introductory right now for these first group of members and partly because we're asking them, we're going to give them an introductory price. Normally we think it will be around $399 a year to $499, and it may vary depending on what kind of RV you have.
Speaker 1:I got it, so I was talking to James upstairs, who's the director of Bish Fix right, he said that the membership was $16.50 a month. Yeah, okay, it comes out to like $199 a year. Okay, so you could pay for it yearly. I just want to be clear, because that would be put in this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, most people. That's what we use. I mean, I think everybody has. Like I got this every month and I don't know subscriptions are getting crazy.
Speaker 1:Right, everybody has like I got this every month and I don't know.
Speaker 2:Subscriptions are getting crazy, right, so I think a lot of we've. We've done it, we've just processed it. But yeah, that's monthly, that's the rate.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, let's just 50 cents a day we could go down to it, yeah exactly less than a pizza week yeah, right, the key is for us is like we're keeping it very low, partly because we're learning a lot right now. Um, a lot of what we're doing is new and we're trying to have as many people come through because it helps us understand more and more and more and more. So I think what we're doing today offers a great value to the customers. We can run through more of what we're seeing but at the same time we have a long way that we're going. We have a lot of future plans for how this will evolve but, like I said, at an early rate we've been able to help.
Speaker 2:I mean those 40%. If you just take the 40%, we have over 10,000 customers that have gone through the process. 40% of them had them fixed right. They were able to fix it over the phone. Several of those were done by them doing their own kind of work, but it's still. I mean in some cases we're on the phone navigating through the repair 30 minutes to 40 minutes to an hour or more, but they're not paying that labor time for a technician, and when they call in and we do the diagnostic, they're not paying that diagnostic fee.
Speaker 2:And so the average dealer right now the average service shop is somewhere between $150 to $200 or more an hour and the average diagnostic fee is somewhere around an hour. So if you just take that at an average of $200 an hour, that's $200. They save just on the diagnostic alone. That's getting expensive, and the more expensive service gets, the more likely people are going to say I don't know if I can keep this in my lifestyle, and so we think this is a very inexpensive option. We've had people sign up and they're like I paid more for a site charge for a mobile service tech to come out to my facility than I paid for your service for an entire year and you fixed three things already. So they're getting a value out. They're getting a return. We're learning in the process and the best part for us is it's nationwide. It's the first part of our business that can be done coast to coast. So we have facilities, like you mentioned. We actually have 22. Our website still says 23.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So you're not wrong, but two of those well, 23, technically. Two of those are service centers.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:So we closed up our RV sales dealership in Virginia, but we still do service mobily there, and then in Myrtle Beach we do mobile service, okay, and so we're trying to learn and better understand all walks of the service experience and how to make it better. We have actually coordinated this is cool. We've coordinated with over 500 different technicians not Bish's RV techs, mobile techs, different dealerships, service centers between US and Canada and have actually fulfilled work orders that were originated through the Bish Fix process but were fulfilled anywhere from all through Canada to Florida, to New York, all over.
Speaker 1:Because the other side of it for people. So, if it is something, our RV broke down in Memphis, tennessee, and it wasn't a quick fix, so it ended up being the fuel pump, an $8,000 plus job. But while we're going through the process, in the middle of nowhere, I could have called into BishFix and said, listen, this is what's going on. So that's the added benefit, even if obviously I'm not fixing the fuel pump, we're not fixing it ourselves. That's the added benefit of being able to have a technician from BishFix right.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So if you did that, our team of people, our processors, would take the information that came out of your call with the master tech and you got to meet them. But those guys, on average I think, have over 20 years each of experience and these are all certified master techs. Two of them actually helped write the curriculum for the standardized RVI training for technicians. These are very qualified, competent technicians, but they'll walk through it. Based on their assessment, one of our processors will actually do a write-up and give you an accelerated repair plan and in that plan it will itemize out what you're seeing, what our technicians were able to diagnose. So we talked about 40% of the time they're able to fix it, but that leaves 60% that didn't Well, 85% of the time we're able to diagnose it. So there's 15% we can't diagnose right now. On average, however, even when we can't diagnose it, nearly every time we're able to rule out a number of different things which should helpfully eliminate steps that would go on in a normal diag.
Speaker 2:So, for example, I had a customer early on. Their slide out wasn't coming in and out, and so we went through it. We couldn't actually pull up what we needed to see the gear mechanisms on the slides and so. But we were able to identify it was one of three things and we were able to give them an estimate on all three of those things and say, if it's this, these are going to be need, parts are going to need to be ordered, this would be the cost and this would be the timeframe you should expect to have it fixed. And so, at least in the customer's mind, they knew what to do, they were in control, they had a good estimation of what it was going to take, and when they found out what it was, it was all. It was one of those three things.
Speaker 1:Right, and that's really helpful with. You know again, especially with those huge repairs, I didn't know anyone. There wasn't a lot of choice of places for us in this particular situation. It wasn't like I could sit there and Google like the RV was not going anywhere. So it's not like I could say, oh, you know, google like the RV was not going anywhere. So it's not like I could say, oh, you know, 30 miles down the road there's a better, you know, repair place. I didn't know if that was advisable to drive. So it's nice to be armed with the information that I could get. And a lot of the customers also are dealing, and I see this a lot. Somebody will say, oh, something's wrong with the water, you know the water's not flowing Well, they just didn't push the button for the water pump, right. So you deal with a lot of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's that. You know one of the things, though, the majority of what we deal with and, I would anticipate, most any other RV dealership deals with, and I would guesstimate that the majority of customers who are frustrated with service a lot of those are people who've just purchased and their RV is under warranty. The average repair time in America. There's a. Actually one of the computer software systems that a lot of dealers use. They aggregate these stats and if your RV is in for service, and it has, it needs warranty and there's a part that's needed that they don't have. It's averaging and it changes depending on the time of year, but it averages anywhere from 60 to 100 plus days to get those out.
Speaker 2:So even on the low side like 67 is, I think, the lowest I've seen 67 days, like that's two months. That's a huge part of the summer, right. So warranty is a big deal and, like I said, the parts is a big deal when you get this accelerated repair plan. We have broke down a lot of the barriers to processing, so we have right now there are some repairs like parts that you have to research, but usually those are with RVs that are a little older and parts are no longer being built, but on the warranty side it's usually a little bit faster. 80% of our part requests right now are actually processed for research, meaning they get identified what the pricing and availability is within 13 to 15 minutes. So where we were talking before, our ability to get parts ordered is now measured in minutes, not weeks days.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's incredible.
Speaker 2:And so what we're able to do, just like you saw with that technician with the toilet. We get your information, we figure out what's going on, we immediately have parts and warranty, jump on it and on your accelerated repair plan, whether we, if you brought it into a Bish's RV dealership for service or you had a mobile technician, which I'll talk about in a second do it. It's going to list out here are the parts you need, these are the vendors that you could use, these are the estimated prices you should pay, and then here's the labor that you're going to need done. This is the estimated amount of time. This is what you could expect to pay, both low to high, on labor rates. This is what you could look at on pay.
Speaker 2:Now, if it's warranty, we take it a step further. There's only a very few amount of manufacturers we don't carry at one of our 21 selling dealerships and we actually code the warranty for you. So we take it. We look at the manufacturer's codes, we understand what needs to be taken. We've already taken the pictures. We look at the manufacturer's codes, we understand what needs to be taken, we've already taken the pictures, we've already written the stories and now we code for you. These are the labor rates. So if you were to take that to your dealership who even sold you the RV and maybe you've experienced as a customer, maybe you've experienced where you bring it in for service and it takes weeks, months to fulfill right you could bring this to your dealership, say here are the parts. It's already coded for labor, for warranty. You've literally eliminated weeks out of what they would normally have. So that's why we call it an accelerated repair plan and what I like most about it.
Speaker 2:Most people don't know. If you bought your RV and you're struggling to get it serviced with where you're at, I would give them a chance. With the accelerated repair plan you might actually help them do a good job. And if they have a really good technician in the back who can do a good job for you, that's ultimately what's going to matter, as long as they can process it well. So I would give them a chance. But I would ask the right questions up front. I would ask when's it going to go into the shop? Are you going to take this information I have and basically say I don't care that you already got that and start all over, or will you take this into consideration and I can give you a bunch of information of what we've already found and do the work, and if they do and they follow it, they're going to get paid from the manufacturer, just as though they didn't Right, literally make their life easier.
Speaker 1:Yes, and so and I just want to reiterate, when we talked several months ago, bixfix was, there was people on a waiting list. You're now saying it's opened. So anybody out there that wants to try and from what James told me correct me if I'm wrong he said that people could try, they could call in, they could try it the first time without having a membership, without signing up for the membership yeah, okay, just want to confirm my information. And there's no pressure, like it's not about pressuring people to buy this. I personally think this is from the time I heard about it this several months ago.
Speaker 1:It's a no brainer for the cost. You use this one time and you're more than paid for itself and you're just adding on all this extra stuff that really is going to help the end user get their RV fixed, get on the road or something that you just don't know how to operate. And that's a big hold back with people. I had somebody who was at a campground. He didn't know how to dump the tanks. I don't know how you take an RV out without knowing. I showed him, but you know it's good to be able to call and say how do I do this and make sure you're doing things right, so that is awesome, and people could go to bishfixcom to get to that.
Speaker 1:Okay, so check it out. On bishfixcom.
Speaker 2:I think there's a discount code that they need to know to get the introductory discount, so we'll have to put that in the notes or something We'll put it in the show notes.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you have a code. I'll get that code. So there you go. There's openings. You have given a lot of incredible information. I am sure there is a ton more we could sit and talk about. So we're going to have to do a part two of this. All right, I'm going to come back here to Idaho in the summer. I hear it's beautiful here in the summer.
Speaker 2:You'll love it. You might not leave.
Speaker 1:We'll talk about that. Love it. You might not leave. We'll talk about that. I might get a job here. Bish, that sounds good. It might be a whole new career for me.
Speaker 2:You never know.
Speaker 1:Certainly love the environment. That is for sure. But now it's time for the question of the week and it's brought to you by OpenRoads, innovative Toll Solutions. This toll pass covers all 48 states All 48 states $24 a year. If you have an issue, they have concierge service that will help you with any issue you have. That's going to be in the show notes. You could go to myopenroadscom and go to Innovative Toll Solutions. This question is for you what's one of your top places? You would recommend for my listeners to put on their bucket list Something you want to do or something you've already done.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's hard. I know I'm putting you on the spot.
Speaker 1:We did discuss this. I'm going to talk, to give you a minute to come up with a place. I know you travel in an.
Speaker 2:RV.
Speaker 1:Now you have a Class C, right, you have bunks in there for six kids.
Speaker 2:Well, it has bunks. It's a 31-foot Greyhawk, Pretty traditional floor plan. It's got the bunks and the slide out, but we have six kids. But you got the overhead cab and then the we call it a taco sofa.
Speaker 1:Right, oh, taco sofa. Yeah, aka jackknife, there you go, I like that taco sofa. Right, oh, taco sofa. Yeah, AKA jackknife, there you go, I like that taco sofa.
Speaker 2:We like food, so here we go, and so we got everybody, then the two bunks. So you know, when I got an RV, everyone asks you when you're in the RV industry, what would you buy if you?
Speaker 1:you know what one would you buy? Oh, people ask me that all the time yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, I always said like I buy a fifth wheel, I think they're cool, I love how roomy they are, like how big they are and open they are. But then when you actually get in the moment, like the real thing, the real question, you should ask what rv would you buy if you were in my shoes? Right because then I was like wait, I have six kids. If I buy a fifth wheel where, like what truck? How am I going to move this thing around?
Speaker 1:and drive the the kids yeah, I'd have to have a second like a chaser vehicle.
Speaker 2:So motorhome really was the most logical thing, but anyway, we love it. Okay, the bucket list location.
Speaker 1:That was just to give him time to think of a place.
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, that's hard. That's why I asked and I don't know if I'm saying this because if you haven't been there, it and I don't know if I'm saying this because if you haven't been there, it definitely is a place you should see, but it's also the most recent trip we've took in it.
Speaker 2:So, maybe it's fresh in my mind, but we had an amazing time at Banff in Canada, up in Calgary area or Alberta. If you haven't been to Banff, it is a wonderful place to experience in an RV. There's so many places you can stay. Wonderful place to experience in an RV. There's so many places you can stay. I was surprised at how much non-advertised camping spots in the national parks up there, but you probably need to know the length. They have some requirements and if you do that, there's no hookups.
Speaker 2:So you got to be prepared to boondock it boondock?
Speaker 1:okay, yeah, and that's a great question that I'm sure your sales outfitters ask people as far as whether they're going to boondock or be in full hookups, a very important question I have. A lot of my listeners are dreaming of the rv lifestyle in one way or another, so I'd like to give them that education.
Speaker 1:Okay, so canada, bamf, canada bamf canada I've never been, so I'm going to put that on my bucket list. Thank you so much for being on the podcast giving so much incredible information, and again we're going to do a part two in the summer. See how much Bish Fix is growing and look at those percentages and people that you've been able to help.
Speaker 2:Awesome, outstanding. Well, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:After the interview, todd and I talked about diesel fuel and I shared the Open Roads fuel card with him. That is a fuel card it is easy and free to sign up for. You get the card in the mail and then you could use that card at many of the major truck stops and you will be able to save money on diesel fuel. This card has saved me so much money. There is a link in the show notes and you could go to myopenroadscom Again. Just click on the link to find out all about this fuel card.
Speaker 1:It is now time for the featured campground of the week, and it is brought to you by RV Life Pro. This week's featured campground is Mount Hood Village RV Resort in Welch's, oregon. This is a thousand trails campground, but you do not need a membership to stay here. This RV resort has many amenities that truly impress. It's got natural attractions in your backyard and a tranquil paradise with full hookups. It's got a dog park and it's got unique accommodations if you do not have an RV, and there is so much more. It has a solid 8.0 rating on the RV Life campground site, with 142 reviews. All you have to do to find out about this campground is go to campgroundsrvlifecom this campground is. Go to campgroundsrvlifecom type in Mount Hood Village RV Resort and you could see all the pictures, all the tips, the full list of amenities and so much more. Everything you need to know about this park will be there and, what's really nice, because it is a featured park there is a great big red book. Now button that you can book your stay right from campgroundsrvlifecom. Now campgrounds RV Life Campgrounds is part of the RV Life suite of products and it is the most comprehensive source of RV parks, for campgrounds, resorts, as well as city, state and national parks, courts of engineer, properties and more. Visit campgroundsrvlifecom. If you are not part of the RV Life Pro Suite of Products, there is a link in the show notes for a 25% discount. Check that out. Rv Life Pro Suite of Products is the greatest way to travel in an RV.
Speaker 1:I want to thank Todd and the whole Bishes RV team for the warm welcome and all of the incredible information they provided. As I said, you could check out Bish's by going to Bish'sRVcom and you could check out RVFix which, as I said, we mentioned in the interview. It was previously called BishFix, so you could go check that out at RVFixcom and you could see all the videos of this interview and other videos that I will share by going to Inspire Travels with Patti. I would love for you to subscribe like comment. You know all those things you do on a YouTube channel.
Speaker 1:It is just starting out, so I appreciate your support, as always. I would love to hear your thoughts on this podcast on the YouTube channel, and you could go to RV Life Podcast on Instagram and Facebook and let us know questions, comments, things you'd like to hear, topics you'd like for me to cover would love your support. I want to thank you, my listeners, and remind you life's a journey. Live each day to the fullest, without regrets. I'm Pettie Hunt and you've been listening to the RV Life Podcast, thank you.