As a standalone dealer, RWC Group has 18 locations. But RWC doesn’t stand alone often.
RWC is a dealer group that prides itself on collaboration: with its OEM partners; its fellow dealers and, of course, its customers. Founded just 14 years ago, RWC Group has expanded quickly by leveraging every resource available to make its business unique.
RWC General Manager Josh Schouten says in an industry where customers are “fighting for tenths of a cent” and the line between success and liquidation is pennies per mile, fleets cannot afford working with dealers who are unable meet their every need.
Those efforts also have helped the company be named a finalist for the first time in 2024 for the Successful Dealer Award.
“I think it has to do with our customer service reputation and the relationships we have in the industry,” says Schouten of the company’s nomination for the award.
[RELATED: Learn about Successful Dealer Award finalist Lakeside International]
Relationships are a huge part of what makes RWC work, and that starts with owner Bob Cunningham, Schouten says. After two stints in leadership with Swift Transportation and time in the Freightliner dealer network, Cunningham purchased the first store that would become RWC in 2010. From the outset, Cunningham founded the business on building relationships through integrity, teamwork and honesty — traits he deemed essential from his previous roles.
RWC Group has a large service fleet to support customers across its 18 locations, as well as customer experience support team to aid customers in need.
“You know it is important to the owner when he is willing to say it out loud,” Schouten says, adding RWC lives those values through employee recruiting, training and a focus on internal culture. On the former, Schouten says RWC highly values personality during interviewing; on the latter, he says the company’s investment in training is unmatched.
“Training is one of the hardest things to do, but it is so important to success,” he says. “We never want an employee to be in a position where they cannot act to help a customer because they haven’t been trained on what to do.”
RWC works hard to ensure that never happens.
Beyond a corporate training center at its headquarters, RWC also has professional trainers who are OEM certified and travel across the company’s network to train salespeople and technicians. Other departments are trained using vendor training, third-party programs and custom curriculum designed internally to stress RWC’s value proposition of “delivering exceptional commercial truck solutions through a commitment to integrity, customer satisfaction and continuous improvement.”
RWC Group has a strong relationship with its OEM partner, Navistar. The dealer works with the company to help develop operational and marketing programs to benefit the entire International dealer network.
The company’s RWC University is a great example of those efforts.
By offering courses that enable customers to earn vital OEM certifications for service work, Schouten says RWC is able streamline customer service operations, reducing their reliance on outside repairs and improve uptime.
“Talk about customer retention,” he says. “When a customer knows they can get education from you, it makes it hard for another brand to take that customer’s focus away.”
RWC’s oil analysis is a similar value add. By testing customer’s fluids at service events, Schouten says RWC is able to proactively uncover engine and performance problems. The company’s evaluation of customer telematics do the same. By monitoring customer equipment and detecting issues before breakdowns arise, RWC keeps customers from disastrous downtime.
Schouten says the services are especially valuable for smaller operations who often lack the internal resources to do proactive monitoring. “They know they have to do something to stay competitive, and that’s what we try to offer.”
But not everything about RWC’s customer service philosophy is based on competition. Within its OEM dealer networks, RWC is a welcome collaborator.
The company’s leadership team is active across its OEM dealer councils and regularly volunteers to beta test new manufacturer programs. It also lends its own expertise in areas such as technical acumen, sales and marketing to help OEMs build processes that will roll out network wide.
Says Schouten, “We want every Navistar dealer to be great, because in the end that benefits us too.”
Internal benefits also have a lot to do with RWC’s success.
Schouten says Cunningham’s generosity toward his workforce of more than 700 associates is legendary. On multiple occasions Cunningham has purchased vehicles for loyal employees in need. Medical bills have been covered, too.
RWC Group holds many customer training and appreciation events to strengthen relationships and build rapport in its markets.
RWC prioritizes offering the best pay in its markets, has profit sharing programs for management and strong bonus compensation packages. Employees also have access to free physicians assistants for lab work, physicals and urgent care needs.
Schouten says Cunningham’s generosity was best exemplified early in the pandemic, when he told Schouten he would keep paying every employee for six months even if the company didn’t take in a cent.
“That he had thought about it, and was willing to do that, meant a lot,” Schouten says.
The 2024 Successful Dealer Award is sponsored by Automann, Interstate Billing Service, Karmak, National Truck Protection and Premium 2000. For more information on the award program, go to the award story archive.
