2004 Dealer of the Year By Boat And Motor Dealer Magazine!
When Boat & Motor Dealer Magazine selected D&R Boatworld as the winner of its 2004 “Dealer of the Year” award, it wasn’t because of the proud history of the oldest boat dealer in New Jersey. No, it was because this dealership’s focus on customer service and attention to details has produced a profitable business and plenty of satisfied boaters.
2005 "TOP 100 DEALERS OF THE YEAR" RANKED BY BOATING INDUSTRY MAGAZINE. D&R RANKED 61 OUT OF 3300 DEALERS IN NORTH AMERICA!
History
D&R Boats began operations in 1956. At the time, Eisenhower was president, jet airplanes were still a work in progress, the idea of putting a man on the moon was a joke, and wireless phones belonged in Dick Tracy comic strips—not in the hands of most people in the world.
Donald Barone and Robert Barone are the current owners of D&R Boatworld, having taken over the dealership from their father, Dominic, who started the business in 1956.
With little book knowledge, but enormous passion and enthusiasm for boating, Dominic Barone, a World War II veteran who served in the Coast Guard, started up his boat dealership in Green Brook, New Jersey. Barone lived barely a mile from his office, and spent each and every day trying to make his dealership better. He taught his two sons, Donald and Robert—who currently own and operate D&R Boatworld—everything he knew about superior service and attention to detail.
Dominic guided his dealership through boom times and recessions, energy crises and military stand-offs. He expanded by opening two other locations, but he succeeded by practicing honesty with customers, professionalism with manufacturers, and integrity with both parties.
The business was doing quite well until the early 1990s, when a worldwide recession hit, causing a falloff in boat sales, and prompting Dominic Barone to examine his business. A Sea Ray dealer for more than four decades, Barone asked whether he could afford the overhead associated with three stores within 40 miles of each other. He wondered if it was worthwhile to remain a Sea Ray dealer if the manufacturer was getting out of fishing boats, and its territories were being emasculated.
Eventually, Dominic Barone decided that he couldn’t afford the overhead from his two other stores, so he sold them. He broke up his marriage to Sea Ray to offer a “Boat Mall” of complimentary boat lines. He didn’t want to compete with in-state dealers, so he not only talked product with prospective manufacturers, he also negotiated territory.
Because D&R Boats had such an excellent reputation, boat and engine manufacturers were eager to talk with Barone. After much discussion, D&R Boats chose three new boat manufacturers—Robalo fishing boats, Crownline bowriders, cuddy cabins, and crusiers, and Cruiser Yachts. The dealer needed to be where the boaters were, so in addition to Green Brook, it leased sales facilities at Normandy Beach on the Jersey Shore in 1994 and Liberty Landing Marina in Jersey City, New Jersey, on the mouth of the Hudson River in New York Harbor, in 1998.
When Dominic Barone passed away five years ago, the dealership was in good hands as his sons had gradually taken on many responsibilities. Today, Donald and Robert Barone manage D&R Boatworld from the main dealership in Green Brook. If their father were alive today, he would probably say his sons have learned well what integrity, honesty, and professionalism mean to a boat dealership, and these are the main reasons why D&R Boatworld is our 2004 “Dealer of the Year.”
Secrets to success
With three locations, D&R Boat-world sells a “complementary line of boats.” Its Robalo fishing boats cater to different customers based on price and equipment. “We wanted to offer our fishing customers a series of options to fit their price and equipment needs and wants,” Robert Barone said. “This is what the Angler and Robalo boat lines accomplished.”
The Crownline boats are primarily bowriders, cuddy cabins, and cruisers for the weekend boaters who enjoy waterskiing or just cruising the harbor. These are 18-ft. to 31-ft. boats that D&R sells at all three of its locations.
The biggest boats D&R Boatworld sells are Cruiser Yachts. “We sell 28-ft. to 54-ft. cruisers from the Liberty Landing Marina site, which includes a complete sales showroom for new and previously-owned boats,” Robert Barone said.
Buying a boat from D&R Boatworld is more than just signing paperwork, exchanging keys, and offering handshakes. The focus is on providing superior customer service.
D&R Boatworld has a fully staffed service department operating at its Green Brook location.
Superior service begins when a person enters the dealership. The Barones develop a personal relationship with each new or existing customer. Care for the customer manifests itself in the dealer’s hands-on approach. “I personally call each and every customer after a boat sale to make sure everything went well, and they know we will take care of them if anything goes wrong,” Robert Barone said.
Boat delivery is more than just a part of doing business at D&R Boatworld. “We have three full-time employees whose sole jobs are to deliver boats to customers and take whatever time is needed to explain the boat’s operation,” Robert Barone said. He added that one of these three persons is a licensed captain who spends one to two days with the new owners of boats 37-ft or longer. The captain is a 25-year employee of D&R Boatworlds who got his captain’s license as part of D&R Boatworld’s education and training program, Barone added.
D&R Boatworld’s focus on the customer also results in exceptional customer service index (CSI) ratings. This year, Cruiser Yachts awarded the dealership its highest CSI rating and D&R Boatworld was among the top five dealers for CSI ratings with all its manufacturers.
But the dealership’s best customer service tool is it mobile repair shop.
Robert Barone described this service as D&R Boatworld’s “biggest competitive advantage.” The genesis of this idea came from the Green Brook location, which is on a busy highway, has 1,500 feet of space to display new and used boats, and has a full service repair area. “What we don’t have is water for testing boats,” Barone said.
Recognizing this limitation, the dealer knew that it had to come up with a unique value-added concept to hold customers—it decided on a mobile repair team that would fix/repair customers’ boats at home or on the water. Customers didn’t need to place their boats on trailers and haul them down to the dealership. They didn’t need to take a day off to have their boats serviced. No, they simply call the Mobile Service.
In the 40-plus years since the service started, it is been a cornerstone of the dealer’s operation. Today, the mobile repair service has six trucks, each of which is staffed by a certified, factory-trained professional and stocked with an extensive inventory of the most needed parts, such as pumps, batteries, docklines, propellers, and so forth.
The accessories store at Green Brook stocks close to 2,000 items and has a loyal clientele that shops year-round.
Superior customer service begins when a customer calls the dealer and receives a cheerful greeting.
"there’s a real benefit—customer satisfaction.” By treating customers fairly, offering customers the products they want and need, and “going that extra mile” to service customers’ boats, D&R Boatworld builds up loyalty.
When other dealers shy away from taking trade-ins, D&R embraces them. “Anytime we get a used boat, it means that we’ve made a trade-in on a new boat, so this is good, ” Robert Barone notes. The dealer reconditions each boat traded in, and sends it to the service department for tune-ups and repairs. “We treat each used boat customer the same way we treat a new one, so there is no difference in our service or attitude,” Barone said.
Although D&R Boatworld only has a fully staffed and operating service department at its Green Brook location, the mobile repair service and close proximity of Green Brook to the other two locations (only 90 minutes way) make repair services a real “star” in the dealership’s operations. “We have a fully-staffed service department whose motto is ‘We service what we sell,’ and this applies to both new and used boats,” Robert Barone noted.
The accessories store stocks close to 2,000 items, the store has a loyal clientele of its own.” Some of the more popular items the store sells are water skis, water toys, PFDs, electronics, and even trailer parts and fiberglass repair equipment.
D&R also has a parts department that is open six days a week and responds to phone and Internet orders. The parts store sells engines and parts for Mercury Outboards, OMC, Yamaha, Volvo Penta, Johnson, Evinrude, and other engines.
Industry involvement
D&R Boatworld is the oldest family-owned boat dealership in New Jersey, it is very active in the local Rotary Club, is a member and strong supporter of the New Jersey Marine Manufacturers Association, and is a member of MRAA. As for current national industry issues, Barone is enthusiastic about the Grow Boating initiatives, perturbed about the Mercury engine dumping case, and iconoclastic in his dealer-manufacturer agreement views.
Finally, D&R Boatworld appreciates receiving Boat & Motor Dealer’s “Dealer of the Year” award, and views it as an important stepping stone toward celebrating 50 years of service to boaters in 2006.
