NeXus RV Hosts Owners Rally with Tour, Q&A, Camaraderie – RVBusiness – Breaking RV Industry News
ELKHART, Ind. – NeXus RV welcomed over 100 owners of their motorhomes to the company’s campus Thursday as part of the 2024 NeXus RV Owners Rally, taking place in nearby Shipshewana, Ind.
Thursday’s activities at NeXus included a catered breakfast, tours of the company’s 2025 models that were on display, and a healthy Q&A session with co-founders Claude Donati and Dave Middleton and other members of their team.
“It’s always nice because of the camaraderie,” Donati told RVBusiness. “We get to let them ask their questions, what they’re experiencing, and provide any insight to make our product better. We do factory tours, we take down their questions and concerns, feed them, give them some apparel, and it’s just a nice morning to spend with them.”
Middleton noted that when he and Donati founded NeXus in 2010, it was initially a factory-direct business model before changing to a dealer network in 2018. Because of that, he said, the two have an even greater appreciation for their owners.
“We want to try to keep that intimate relationship with the customers, and I think we try to step in as much as possible to make sure that the customers are taken care of,” Middleton said. “In this busy world our dealers live in, sometimes they aren’t treated as well as we want them to be. So, we really work our tail off to keep that intimate relationship with the customers, and I think today is a great example of that. We feel like we’ve known some of these people for a long time.”
Indeed, Donati and Middleton interacted with the owners as if they were at a family reunion, with hugs and smiles all around. In fact, due to demand and the limited space at the Shipshewana campground, Donati noted that the rally next year will move to Elkhart Campground.
“This is part of the big reward of starting Nexus RV; it goes beyond selling a motorhome to somebody and making money or getting market share. It’s about creating a fun environment for people. It’s rewarding,” Donati said.
“And when you look at a company like NeXus versus the big guys, the customers are selling the product for us,” Middleton added. “They’re on social media, and when they see that we are interacting, we’re answering their questions, they see that we’re here every day as owners, we’re not absentee owners. That goes a long way with them. And because of them, that’s why we’re growing and having the success we are.
“I’ve said it a million times – I’ll probably say it a million mor – without our customers, we don’t have a business,” he continued. “So, we understand the importance of how we want them to be treated, and we’re going to make sure we do everything we can to give them the best service and product in the market.”
