Casey Colton saw firsthand how education helped transform his business. As the new chairman of the Pennsylvania Recreation Vehicle and Camping Association (PRVCA) Education Committee he hopes to help grow the association’s education programs.

“I’m excited to hop into the education chair,” Colton says. “There’s been a great team at PRVCA that’s put together some awesome programs. I’m excited to work with some true professionals and help put a stamp on how we can keep growing the education side of PRVCA, and how we can keep providing value to our members,” he says. “The association is a great resource. It’s not easy for small businesses to do all the time, and to have a partner that offers everything that PRVCA offers is awesome.”

Colton represents the third generation of family-owned Colton RV & Marine, which his grandfather started in 1962. The company now operates dealerships in North Tonawanda and Orchard Park, New York, and Wind Gap, Pennsylvania, as well as a service center in Blasdell, New York. Additionally, the company operates Budget RV Outlet of Buffalo at its service center location.

Growing up Colton was always around the dealership and officially began working part-time during the summers between high school and college. After college graduation, he went to work at a manufacturing company outside of the RV industry. Colton quickly realized how much he missed talking with customers at the dealership. After a year, he rejoined Colton RV in the parts department and steadily progressed through service and other positions. Today, he serves as chief operating officer and works closely with his dad, Jim Colton, who serves as president.

Colton says his time working outside the industry really cemented how special this business is.

“There’s not a lot of businesses that you touch your customers’ lives as close as we do,” he says. “When you think about folks going camping and making memories with their kids or with their grandkids or their spouse, we help them do a special thing.”

From 2008 to 2014, Colton RV & Marine grew rapidly. As its parts and service department struggled to keep pace, the company began developing training programs and documenting its processes. There weren’t many education opportunities for them.

“Having a resource like PRVCA has been huge,” he says. “It helped us get techs RVTI (RV Technical Institute) certified. It helped us get advisors and warranty administrators certified through RVDA (RV Dealers Association) programs. It provided educational seminars and training. When we put the training out to our team members, they jumped right on it. They want to learn.”

Colton RV went from having just seven of their 27 techs certified to now having 24 of their 29 technicians hold an RVTI certification, and seven are master certified technicians.

“When we talk about what makes us successful, it’s being the pros,” he says. “When a customer comes to us on the service or parts side, they just want to get back out there and go camping or get back out on the water. If it’s fixed right the first time and we can get them in and out quickly, it saves vacations. It saves those precious memories.”

“When we take the time and investment to train our team members and they become the pros, it helps the customers go out and experience their RVs and boats quicker. That has a huge impact on them.”

Over the next few years, Colton hopes to dial up the education program and increase awareness.

“Let’s look at the things people have been engaged with, and the classes that are filling up. How do we do more of those?,” he says. “How do we expand the offering of training that we provide? A piece of it too is awareness. There have been many events that have garnered interest, but there are a lot of things the association provides that may not be utilized to the potential it could be. It’s the types of trainings and events that employees across dealerships are dying for, and so how do we inform them and make it easy to access and help dealerships get the most out of a resource that not a lot of states provide.”

“It’s a great resource for dealers,” Colton says. “Being intentional about training takes time and effort and having PRVCA be a partner in that is a huge benefit to association members.”