Beartooth Kawasaki -- The Personal Touch

By Robert Janis

Jim Kujala and his wife Lauri are sick and tired of the lack of personal customer service in business today. He's sick and tired of those automated phone systems that ask in that computer voice to press button number one or button number two or the pound key, etc. to get automated answers to questions. Many of us who go through the frustration of these encounters with business can't really do anything about it. The Kujalas can. They own and manage Beartooth Kawasaki, a dealership in Red Lodge, Montana that sells Kawasaki motorcycles, ATVs, and mule utility vehicles. With them, business is friendly and personal. When you call the dealership you get a real live person to serve you.

Jim Kujala opened the dealership on February 14, 1997. It sells only Kawasaki products. He did a lot of research to settle on this brand. "Prior to owning the dealership I traveled extensively," began Kujala. "I controlled inventory for car dealerships. So I had the opportunity before I decided on what manufacturer's products to sell to stop and visit with service departments and dealers to research manufacturers. That helped me decide to handle Kawasaki. And that's based on its maintenance." Kujala knew that his dealership would be in a location where the demographics of his customers would be mostly farmers and ranchers. And he knew that this community would be rough on the product. He knew that they would need tough machines.

Beartooth is a family business. Not only is Kujala's wife involved, he has one son and two daughters who help during the Summer. The Kujala's have six kids -- a son who is a road musician when he is not working at the dealership; a daughter in college; a daughter in high school and three daughters out of college. Of course, Kujala hopes that they will come into the business full time. However, right now it looks like one will carry on the family tradition.

The Nuts and Bolts
In the Summer Beartooth has nine employees. Total sales average a little over $2 million a year. According to Kujala, the Mule utility vehicle accounts for about 60 percent of sales and ATVs account for about 25 percent. The rest of the sales is in motorcycles. Eighty percent of his business is to agriculture. Twenty percent is to recreation. Kujala said that he has the ability to customize any ATV that is sold at Beartooth but there is not much of a demand to customize units. Farmers and ranchers usually take the ATV as is. Beartooth also has a youth ATV line consisting of 80s and 50s. He sells 50s for 7 year olds up to 9 year olds. And he sells 80s for 9 year olds up to 16 year olds.

Beartooth also has a leasing and fleet sales programs and also sells pre-owned ATVs. In addition, it sells to the government and many commercial entities.

The leasing program is through Marlin Leasing in association with Kawasaki. According to Kujala, Marlin solicits Kawasaki dealers. They set up the terms, buy the papers from the dealership after the lease/sale and then manage things from that point on. "Leasing is a small percentage of our sales," explained Kujala. "Maybe about 5 to 7 percent. It primarily works best for the commercial market -- mining communities and commercial entities that has 20 to 30 vehicles or 10 or 15 they want to lease. I refer them to Marlin Leasing and Marlin sets up the terms."

Fleet sales for Beartooth is based on the entity doing the buying, said Kujala. He noted that they are commonly municipalities or private industries that may buy three, five, seven or 10 units. "Our fleet sale buyers go mostly for the Mule utility line," said Kujala. "This group can include big farms, mines, commercial entities that spray crops, and government entities. We do a fairly large business in commercial fleet sales."

As for the pre-owned sales program, Kujala said, "Good and used doesn't go in the same sentence." When the dealership gets a trade-in, it thoroughly inspects it. If it appears to be in good shape and it is feasible for Beartooth to re-condition it the dealership will do it. The trade-ins that don't pass the inspection are sold wholesale to an auto auction, said Kujala. "People usually keep their ATVs for an average of three years," he continued. "Some guys trade in every year and then there are farmers and ranchers who never trade in their ATVs. They keep them and just run them out."

Kujala noted that Beartooth doesn't necessarily encourage trade ins. However, it would rather receive trade ins of recreational units over utilities. "Recreational riders are weekend riders. They don't ride their ATVs that much. And they buy a lot of accessories because it is important to them how their ATVs look. So these types of trade-ins look good and don't have much wear and tear. ATVs used by farmers and ranchers, the working ATVs, have a lot of wear and tear. Farmers and ranchers put up to 4,500 miles a year on their ATVs. Those machines get a lot of hard use and abuse."

Finally, Beartooth Kawasaki has been selling ATVs to the government for six years. "Because we are in a rural community we thought we had to be innovative to get business and go out of the area. So we solicited the government business," said Kujala. "Selling to the government is a very lengthy process. It is easy to become discouraged because it involves a mass amount of paper work. It takes a lot of patience and a lot of time. But it has been good for us."

Very Personal Customer Service
Beartooth's hours are supposed to be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. But actually there are no hours. "We never doze, never close," quipped Kujala. "We have after hours service and the local customers know it. A lot of our sales are made late at night because farmers don't have time during the day. So they will call us to make an appointment to see and buy an ATV after business hours. This is a rural community. I've lived here all my life. People know me and they know where to call."

The dealership services a 100 mile radius from Red Lodge, Montana. It has a pick up and delivery maintenance service as well as a mobile service.

The pick up and delivery service is free, said Kujala. "We will do your first 10 hour service free on ATVs and free first 50 hour service on Mules," he said. "It gives us the opportunity to drain everything from an ATV after its first 10 hours of use and from a Mule after its first 50 hours of use to take a look to assure that there are no shavings or castings or anything like that. We think it is a necessary thing to make sure of the longevity of the vehicle."

The dealership has two service vehicles and several trailers that do the pick up and delivery. "In the Summertime we have a utility guy who also helps with service who goes out and picks up and delivers the units. In the Winter time it is not quite as prevalent because farmers and ranchers are not irrigating and doing what they need to do when they put their ATVs to work in the Spring," said Kujala.

"A lot of dealerships won't do this because they think it is too costly," continued Kujala. "The fact is once you get so many units out there it can become practical. We may bring four or five ATVs back to their owners on one of our 20-foot trailers and bring back four or five. We are in a real rural community. The nearest towns to us are 25, 35, 40 miles away. So when we make a run in one direction we may take back three or four and pick up three or four for service.

"One of the benefits of this service for us is that even though we sell only Kawasaki, a lot of the farms and ranches may have six or seven ATVs and some of them may be a different brand than Kawasaki," continued Kujala. "We pick up other brand ATVs for service and these customers become loyal to us. So, the next time they purchase a new ATV, they buy from us."

The Mobile Service is for people whose ATVs may break down when they are in the area of Beartooth. "If you are in the area and your ATV breaks down, if you need it picked up we will do it. If we can diagnose the problem over the phone, someone will jump into the rig, go to the ATV and fix it there if we can. If we can't fix it there, it will be brought back to Beartooth for repair," explained Kujala.

In the Summertime the Beartooth service department has five employees.

The Internet
Kujala knew that with the local demographics they would have to find a way to go outside of the community to be successful. So in 1998 the dealership put up its first website. Today it has four working websites: http://www.beartoothkawasaki.com is the primary site; http://www.kawasakiatv.org is an informational site; http://www.kawasakimule.org offers information about the Mule; and http://www.kawasakimotorcycle.org is a forum. These sites are 100 percent owned by Beartooth. Kawasaki has no connection.

Kujala said that sales of parts and accessories are done on the website. "It is a huge part of our business," he said. The forum was started to help build a community of motorcycle and ATV enthusiasts. It was started in 2002. Today there are more than 10,600 members worldwide. Kujala said that he monitors the forum several times a day and it is a great source of information that helps him sell products. "The forum gives me feedback. It tells me what motorcycle and ATV owners like and don't like. It is a major source of information for me," said Kujala. He and several other forum member volunteers monitor the forum 24 hours a day. "When the forum first started I was constantly answering tech and mechanical questions but the forum didn't grow that fast. A friend who has experience with forums told me to let the community answer the questions and if I saw that an answer was wrong, then I could jump in and help. I took his advice and that has become the success of the forum. " According to Kujala the forum attracts a wide age group from about 25 years old to 70 years old. The core group, however, are 35 to 55. Not only do users of the forum pass on general knowledge and ask questions, they also use it to organize local rides in all regions of the country.

The Fun Stuff
Beartooth Kawasaki also organizes rides. "Red Lodge is located in a recreational area of Montana," said Kujala. "Primarily it is a ski and golfing community. There are not a lot of open access for ATVs. But we do sponsor some local rides. We also belong to an ATV club. Some clubs are up to three hours from us. We have been known to truck people and their ATVs to different locations to participate in ATV club events. We try to attend big ATV events a couple of times a Summer. We also have some folks who go down to Utah."

For the local rides Kujala will try to get a group together and go up to Beartooth Pass as often as he can. He noted, however, that it is difficult because the riding season is so short. "We have snow in April. And there are times when I see snow on the fourth of July. The riding season is very short. It usually may run from May to the end of August," said Kujala.

Now it is apparent why Beartooth Kawasaki is a successful dealership despite its isolated location and long, cold, snowy winters. It extends its family out to the community and offers real personal service and a whole lot of fun.