Lance Camper’s office and manufacturing team	Lance Camper’s customer service and parts team	Gary Conley, National Sales Manager, standing on a Lance drawer
Charlie Sweeny, Lance’s brochure, advertising, and web site designer	Gary Conley, National Sales Manager, shows us a Lance quality control checklist	David Oseguerra measures and drills a roof into the cabinets below
The Lance slide out production line	Lance’s two camper assembly lines	A new camper is pushed off the assembly line to be tested
A slide-out is installed in the final stages of production	After leaving the assembly line, campers are tested and detailed	Lance has between 80 and 200 campers in inventory at any time

Lancaster, California – Moments before we pulled up to Lance Camper we received a call from Norm Jacobson, Marketing Manager.  Norm was pleased to hear of our imminent arrival and would be meeting us out front.  We no sooner parked the camper than Norm came out to greet us.  He told us that there had been a meeting about our visit and that our two days at Lance had been scheduled to ensure that we learned as much as possible.

As it was late in the evening before our first day with Lance, Norm invited us to dinner.  This is when we discovered Norm’s proclivity for acceleration, and how.  A few minutes later we arrived at a restaurant and talked about the truck camping industry, marketing, and trends.  Lance’s marketing efforts with print advertising, their web site, and annual brochure are legendary and it was good to talk with the person who championed those efforts.


Handing Over Our Harley

On schedule, we began our first day at Lance’s Customer Service building.  We walked in the door and met Jim Allen, Customer Service Manager.  We had emailed Jim a list of minor things that needed adjustment on our camper and he was ready to take care of them immediately.  If you bring your Lance Camper to the factory for service, you will most likely be working with Jim.  From what we experienced, Jim really knows Lance Campers and can quickly diagnose problems and prescribe solutions.

Before we handed over the camper keys, we moved Harley, our truck camping cat, inside the building so he wouldn’t be in the way while the camper was being serviced.  Lucky for Harley, the secretary and the Dealer Parts team gave him more attention than he could have possibly deserved.


Meeting Paul Harris and His Team

After handing over our cat and camper we met Paul Harris, General Manager of Parts and Service.  Paul came to work with Lance eight months ago after running his own Lance dealership in Eugene, Oregon for many years.

Paul gave us a tour of the Customer Service building starting with the conference room.  There Lance holds regular seminars with fifteen dealer technicians at a time from all over the country.  The technicians get parts and service training on truck support equipment and service installation techniques.  They’re also given a factory tour, learn tips for customer walk throughs, and take a completion test for Lance certification.

Then Paul walked us down the hall and introduced us to Doug Means.  Doug’s full-time job is answering customer questions.  If you have a question about your Lance camper, you can call Doug at extension 255.  Across the hall from Doug is Rod Morgan’s office.  Rod has been at Lance for twelve years and had twenty years of Lance dealership experience before that.  Paul told us that Rod has a well known Lance catalog collection dating back to the 1960’s and now answers questions from Lance’s 100 plus dealership network.

After meeting Doug and Rod, Paul escorted us into the service and parts warehouse area located in the rear of the building.  There we saw about a half-dozen Lance campers being worked on including our truck and camper.  The service area was very clean, open, and bright.

Paul then introduced us to Steve Castaneda, Lance’s Parts Warehouse Supervisor.  Steve has been at Lance for twenty years, eighteen of which were on the camper production line.  Steve told us how Lance keeps its inventory bar coded and live on the parts warehouse computers allowing him to know exactly what they have in inventory and where it was. 

To wrap up our morning with Customer Service, Paul took us into his office to show us Lance’s online dealer parts catalog.  On the dealer only web site, Lance posts service and technical bulletins and gives dealers the ability to directly order parts online.  Once a part has been ordered, a dealer can track the order through the web site with UPS tracking.  Paul told us that parts ordered by dealers are almost always shipped same day.


Over to Lance HQ

After a good start with Paul and the Customer Service team, Gary Conley, National Sales Manager, drove us over to Lance’s main building for the rest of our day.  Shortly after arriving, Gary escorted us into Lance’s boardroom for a meeting with himself and Norm. 

In the boardroom we were immediately drawn to a large bay window that overlooks the production area.  While took in the dense manufacturing scene in front of us, Norm walked in and we all sat down at the boardroom table.  Gary showed us a recent National RV Dealers Association (RVDA) dealer satisfaction report which polls 106 dealers on thirty-eight RV manufacturers.  Norm called to our attention a row of award plates behind him and explained that Lance has won the RVDA Quality Circle Award for eight of the past ten years by scoring 80% or higher in all polled categories including aggressive sales promotions, innovative product design, and competitive product quality.  Gary said that only three to four RV manufactures a year are typically awarded each year.

Next Norm pulled out a stack of the customer surveys that are sent in with new camper warranty cards and invited us to take a look.  Norm explained that all eleven managers are required to read each and every customer survey and sign-off that they have read it, including Jack Cole, Lance Camper’s President.  You read that right; if you send in the customer survey for your new Lance Camper, the President and the top brass are all required to read it.

After reviewing the customer surveys, our conversation jumped around a bit.  Norm talked about how there are between 1,100 and 1,300 Lance Campers in dealer inventories at any given time plus between 80 and 200 campers at Lance.  He also said that by February 15th they will have more camper orders than they can fill.

We asked Gary how he handles production forecasting.  Gary explained that he taps into his twenty-five plus years experience at Lance and takes a careful look at trends in the industry.  He also tracks what’s selling on dealer lots on a monthly basis.  Norm added that there are different kinds of camper buyers depending on the time of year.  In December, buyers are typically people who are planning a trip and have conducted a lot of research.  In June, buyers are typically more impulse buyers.  This kind of information tells the management team what campers to build, when to build them, and in what quantities.


The Boardroom

Lunch was brought in while we were talking followed by members of Lance’s senior team.  Sitting at the table was Jack Cole, President, Jeff Souleles, Vice-President, Gary Conley, National Sales Manager, Geoff Ford, Plant Manager, Paul Harris, General Manager of Service and Parts, Jan Kurahara, General Counsel/Chief Administrative Officer, Norm Jacobson, Marketing Manager, Jim Allen, Customer Service Manager, Les Fowler, Product Development Manager, and us, of course. 

Sitting behind closed doors in Lance’s boardroom and taking questions from their entire senior staff was one of those moments when we had to ask ourselves, “How did we get here?”  Suddenly the atmosphere was quite serious, perhaps more so than at any other time on our tour.  We discussed industry trends, Truck Camper Magazine, and how we can work together to effectively grow the truck camper market.  About an hour later we left the boardroom feeling a bit like we’d been on the Apprentice, only it was a very positive experience and no one got fired.


Meeting Charlie Sweeny, and Beyond

After the boardroom, we walked down the hall to meet Charlie Sweeny, Lance’s Creative Director .  Charlie designs Lance’s web site, brochure, advertising, and sell sheets.  If you see something in print or on the internet from Lance, Charlie designed it.

For our next Lance tour installment, we’ll get into the factory, walk the assembly lines, peek behind the research and development curtain, and reveal a surprise last minute meeting.  Stay tuned.

For more information about Lance Camper Manufacturing, visit their web site at www.lancecamper.com .