What's a picture worth?

In some cases, pictures are priceless. That's why we've upgraded all our salespeople with iPhones and some serious picture and video capabilities.

Today we had a good example. Scott sent a picture of the shaft a propless oddball Yamaha outboard (see picture). We came up with a prop that might fit, and we're sending it to the customer. The old days of "hold it up to the phone so I can see it" are over.

I hope this shows our commitment to doing whatever it takes to keep customers happy and on the water. And we'll be pursuing new ways to make our new iPhones make more money for all of us.

If we can, we will

Here's a great customer service story that says a lot about our company.

Yesterday a good customer, owns a big dealership, called at about 11:3o a.m. and said he'd bent the 1-1/4" shaft on his inboard boat badly and needed it straightened quickly so he could do a trip this weekend. We said bring it on. Due to some delays it didn't show up here until 3:30 p.m.--normal quitting time for our head machinist, Nick. He agreed to stay late to get it done.

Problem was, the shaft was bent REALLY bad--I mean, the tapered end of the north/south shaft was pointing east/west. So only option was to build a new shaft. Which we did, and the customer was on his way back to the boat before 4:30 p.m.

This was a testament to our people, who are willing to do just about anything for the ultimate goal--keeping people boating. And our preparedness. We keep stuff in stock, and we had a shaft on the shelf with a machined end on it ready to go. All we had to do was cut it, key and fit the coupling.

This kind of thing can't happen every day. Somedays, we're just too slammed. But if we can, we always will, even if it takes a little extra effort.