Many dive store owners started their business because they love diving and wanted to make it their full time profession. In economies such as the recession we are currently in, operating a scuba diving business can be extremely taxing. This post will give the scuba business owner a few tips to think about to improve their business.

Trying to come up with ideas can be very difficult in a bad economy. This can be difficult when you work long hours, sometimes under stressful conditions, but there are ways to overcome this. The truth is, there is no shortage of ideas if you start to listen to your customers. If you don’t understand, let me repeat it. There is not shortage of ides if you LISTEN TO YOUR CUSTOMERS. This is very important and is the deciding factor whether or not your scuba business survives. If you’ve not been paying close attention to this – then you need to start NOW!

Change and Knowledge

As a dive store owner, you need to continually add new products and services to your business in order to increase sales. You can also run promotions for new products or services that you would like to introduce into your business. This gives you the added advantage of “market research” in identifying what your customers are interested in and giving you the edge over your competitors.

However, this does come with a caveat. Product knowledge is going to be your ace in the hole in determining the success of adding new products and services. If you watch the dive stores on internet message boards, you will see that they advertise new products, services, classes, etc. But very rarely offer any useful information about these products except what is written in the product brochure. If you know these products inside and out, including the pros and cons, this can distinguish you from the competition. People don’t want to hear sales pitches. All products have good and bad things about them. Share your expert knowledge, assuming you’ve taken the time to become an expert, about these products with your customers and they will appreciate your work even more.

Build on Quality – Not Quantity

Every business needs to make enough money to pay the bills and a little extra for profit.You’re in business to make money and if you can’t accomplish your selling objective you’re heading for trouble.

Before you start increasing your sales, pay close attention to the quality of products and services that you’re offering. Improving the quality or standard of your products or services will have a more positive long term impact on your business.

Selling large quantities of inferior goods can be disastrous for your business. You might make a lot of sales initially, but that will not last. The biggest mistake that the dive stores make is that they focus on short term, large sales instead of selling quality for long term success.

Offering your customers better quality products and services will lead to more sales. This includes your scuba diving classes in addition to your products. This is where you can greatly influence your customers. Show them mastery in the water and give them expert knowledge to help make them better divers, who will dive more often.

Customer Appreciation

Your customers want to feel like they are a part of your business. Set aside a special day for your customers where you offer some special discounts, especially for new customers. This will give them good reason to come back and at the same time they will recommend others.

This is also when you can give prizes to your loyal customers who brought in the most guests. But you will need to keep in mind that product discounts will not always lead to loyal customers. I see this in many of the shops in my area. They continually offer products at a discount. The people that purchase from them, only purchase the cheap/discounted products and never purchase the higher priced products with a higher margin. So you have to have a special day with discounts/specials on products or services that you normally do not discount.

Don’t just run an internet “tribe” or on-line coupons. People still like personal relationships. Consider doing a special day at a local dive site. This encourages people to dive in addition to hanging out, chatting about diving. There are many dive store owners in my area who don’t even dive. If you are not out diving with your customers, you are not listening to what they are saying or new trends that may be developing in the scuba industry.

Many of this may seem like like common sense or you may already know it, but are your actually putting it into practice? Do you know how to gather information from your customers? Remember, you’re in business to make money, but don’t be caught up in the frenzy of that only. Like many dive professionals, you entered this industry because you love diving. Don’t sell out your beliefs just to make a few quick bucks. Pay close attention to your customers, develop a caring attitude towards them and their families and show them that you care about all of their diving goals even if it conflicts with your philosophy. This is the most powerful attribute that you can incorporate into your business to make it a success.

Dive Safe,
Duane Johnson
Precision Diving

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