Thor Industries revealed a plan to track replacement parts across all brands at its kick-off breakfast Tuesday at Elkhart Extravaganza in Elkhart, Indiana.
Thor RV Group General Manager Matt Zimmerman unveiled a new integration enabling dealers to locate parts for specific models. To execute the action, Thor partnered with RV Partfinder, a software platform where dealers can search for parts and compare part pricing. RV Partfinder has over 10,000 appliances in its system.
Zimmerman said the integration stemmed from the manufacturer’s initiative set at last year’s event, to improve repair event cycle time (RECT).
Thor took the first step in its partnership with RV Partfinder by adding all Thor company catalogs into the software platform’s system. RV Partfinder owner Tom Utterback said the partnership enables RV Partfinder to include over 200 RV brand names in a lookup feature.
Zimmerman said, “You no longer just see distributors and retailers, but you will also see all Thor companies’ parts that are associated with that specific part number.”
Zimmerman addressed the need to have Thor parts under a similar SKU across brands.
He said, “When you plug in a part number for any one of our four companies, you can hit a Thor cross-reference button, and every Thor company’s part that is identical to that part, but with their unique part number, comes up on one simple screen, making it clearly identifiable.”
The integration enables dealers to search for RV VINs or choose the RV’s year, make and model to list the appliances installed on the coach from the factory. Through RV Partfinder, dealers can identify and source the appliance’s repair and replacement parts.
Utterback said, “The biggest advantage of this will be improving the customer’s experience, it’s all about customer satisfaction and making a visit to the RV business more pleasant after they buy a coach. That is my big push, improving the customer experience after they get their new RV.”
RV Partfinder connects to Thor dealer portals so dealers can keep the same account.
“These tools are just the beginning of our relationship with our RV Partfinder,” Zimmerman said, “to make it easier for your dealerships to source for parts.”
Other notable announcements included:
- Zimmerman shared additional tools with the dealer body, including Thor Business Intelligence (BI). The program gives dealers reports based on data measuring inventory, pricing and market movement insights. The program collects data on new and used RVs. The reports will assist dealers on how to sell specific RVs or which RVs are doing well in certain areas.
- Thor Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Todd Woelfer shared additional Thor projects with the dealer body. He said, “We wanted to test our theory that we believed we could influence consumers’ behavior in a really positive way, to improve their experience with the unit.” Thor conducted research with 1,000 RV owners. The company tracked owners’ RV use. Through the project, Thor sent push notifications such as emails to consumers who had become stagnant in RVing. The manufacturer found that the push notifications were effective in encouraging RVers to increase RVing habits. Campground stays increased by 15 % and mileage increased by 8% after the push notifications. Woelfer said the research helps the manufacturer “to make sure those customers that come to your lots get maximum enjoyment out of
Thor Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Todd Woelfer at Thor’s Elkhart Extravaganza breakfast. their units.”
- The manufacturer is also working on its HV1 electric chassis. The trailer can be fully off-grid for 14 days. According to Woelfer, the trailer’s battery is five times more powerful compared with lithium batteries.
