To borrow a theatrical reference, allow me to peel back the curtain, to break the fourth wall. I, Andy, owner of Sterling RV Services, want to talk to you directly, our Customer.
From the Field to the Shop and Back Again
It is June 2025. I have just made the painful decision to downsize. Just a few weeks ago, I had a 5-person team – three RV technicians and an Office Manager. All of us were busy with shop jobs, mobile service calls, insurance claims, and the other rigmarole of running an RV service company. At any one time, we could be juggling up to 75 work orders in progress.
I hired great people. I could sing their praises for the next 10,000 words. But the unfortunate truth is that my business expansion anticipated the growth of RV roofing and reconstruction projects: year-round shop work. This plan was made for many, many reasons, most of which are beyond the scope of this blog post. What it boils down to is that roofing work doesn’t require the same extensive troubleshooting knowledge, parts sourcing, and project management necessary to manage a full-time mobile service schedule. It is scalable.
Our phone has been ringing off the hook since March – but not for RV roofing projects. Our customers have continued to ask for repairs to slide-outs, water tanks, water heaters, furnaces, air conditioners, oven ranges, windows, fans, batteries, inverters, hydraulic jacks – and those are literally just the projects from last week!
What It Means to Be a 5-Star Company
I’ll cut through six months’ worth of trial and error, market analysis, and number-crunching to say this: A 5-person mobile service team is a tough business model. Tough to teach, tough to scale, and tough to make a profit when, like the bees, we only have half the year.
Most importantly, it has been difficult to maintain the same 5-star quality of work that I was able to provide during my first two years of business. That has bothered me, bothered me tremendously. I care about my company. I care about my employees. I care about my customers. I deeply care about doing the job right the first time – no missed parts, no forgotten tools, no denied claims, no delayed appointments. And if I’m honest, a few customers have fallen through the cracks. That’s not okay with me.
What Sterling RV Services Looks Like Going Forward
For the foreseeable future, Sterling RV Services will remain a small team of people: myself plus 1-2 other RV field technicians. We will spend most of our day in the field, working for you. We will still be able to complete largescale shop work on a short-term basis, but we are not offering a full suite of Service Center services.
We will be able to provide the 5-star, personalized surface that Sterling RV Services is known for. We will focus on the advanced diagnostics and repair jobs that make us worth our pay. We will do your job right the first time. We may not be able to answer every phone call that comes our way, but we can guarantee expert, speedy service once your job is queued.
Thank you for being a customer. We look forward to helping you.
