The National Marine Manufacturers Association's (NMMA) Marine Industry Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) program recently achieved another major milestone-participation of its 100th member. With the recent addition of Southwind Boats of Elkhart, Ind., the program now includes 100 participating boat and engine brands.
"This marks a significant achievement for the NMMA CSI program and all program participants alike," says Howard Papke, CFO of Pro-Line Boats and chairman of the Marine Industry CSI Steering Committee. "Clearly, the program is growing and the industry has focused its full attention on the importance of taking care of its customers first and foremost."
"Southwind Boats is serious about customer satisfaction," says Ron Betzer, director of Customer Service for Southwind. "We launched the brand this past summer to fill a need in this segment for a hybrid in the deckboat/pontoon product categories reflecting our passion for quality, innovative design and best overall consumer value. We plan to achieve the same standard of customer service and CSI recognition as our other brands, including
Bennington and Sedona, have in previous years."
NMMA launched its CSI program in 2001 to provide boat and engine manufacturers with an independently-measured, cost-effective tool to help improve the quality of customer satisfaction in the boating industry. Since the program's inception, more than 450,000 surveys have been sent out to new boat and engine customers, allowing participating manufacturer companies to monitor customer satisfaction on an ongoing basis, and to benchmark themselves against the industry and their competitors.
"The value NMMA's CSI program provides for participating NMMA members and their customers is clearly evidenced by its ongoing expansion," says NMMA president Thom Dammrich.
In July of 2006, the NMMA CSI program placed expanded Industry Quarterly Customer Satisfaction Data online, making it available to program participants 24 hours a day, seven days a week through www.nmmacsi.com. Program participants can log on using their username and password. The online reporting system provides more detail, better benchmarking data and is easily accessible by all participants.
The Marine Industry CSI program meets the 2007 model year CSI requirements of the NMMA Boat/Yacht Certification program. For manufacturers that are full participants in the Marine Industry CSI process, the included reporting also fills the dealer level CSI requirements of the Marine Industry Dealership Certification program.
For more information about the Marine Industry CSI program, contact program director Terry Leitz at (312) 946-6212; tleitz@nmma.org.
National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) is the leading association representing the recreational boating industry. NMMA member companies produce more than 80 percent of the boats, engines, trailers, accessories and gear used by boaters and anglers in the United States. The association is dedicated to industry growth through programs in public policy, market research and data, product quality assurance and marketing communications.
