Does the motor trade want to sell cars?
December 3rd, 2009 by Jon Clements
Are you in the market for a new car?
Good luck - you may have trouble finding a dealership wanting to sell you one. Bear with me - this isn’t a post about cars, but about customer service.
This year, the UK’s retail motor industry welcomed, with outstretched arms, a new word into its lexicon - “scrappage”. In the middle of a thumping recession, the Government-funded scheme has helped the car business boost sales with a £2k sweetener for buyers agreeing to scrap their 10-year-old vehicle when buying a new one. Without it, the world of the motor trader in 2009 would have been a very different one.
A world without scrappage was depicted in a recent speech by Joe Greenwell, Ford’s UK chairman and president of the Society of Manufacturers and Motor Traders at its recent annual dinner. He said: “Without scrappage, this year’s total registrations would have been less than 1.7m. Against a high of nearly 2.6 million units in 2003, current expectations are for car registrations to fall to 1.8m in 2010. There is no doubt that..underlying demand remains weak.”
And this is the point. At a time like now, every customer counts.
It was Chris Brogan’s recent blog post on frustration with bricks and mortar retail that came to mind on a weekend trip to several high end car dealerships from which I came away convinced that some dealerships don’t want to sell cars.
First up - VW: we entered an empty showroom where the only person keen to talk was the receptionist. A salesman just about managed to grab some brochures but the car we wanted to see was “being used by a colleague over the weekend”. That’s fine, but did he want to arrange a viewing? No.
Next, BMW: we were sitting ducks, asking to be sold the benefits of a particular model. The salesman - not looking terribly busy - said: “I’ll get you a brochure. It’s all in there.” What about the boot space? The car battery was flat so the boot wouldn’t open. Now there was a veritable crowd of customers awaiting the grand boot opening. Eventually the lid was lifted and off the salesman skipped: “Leave it up, won’t you,” he chirped.
Lastly, Mercedes: best of the lot, but not great. We did get invited to sit down, but for a rather lacklustre chat about the car in question and promises about the great vehicles coming out of that manufacturer in the next couple of years.
For an industry facing a steep incline next year with a spluttering engine, it’s a worrying picture of customer interaction.
One man who knows a bit about car sales is one Derek Clements (disclosure: my father) who spent more than 50 years in the car business and ended his career training dealership staff in customer care. He said: “Getting new customer enquiries is expensive and dealers have to make the most of every one. It’s vital that sales staff make people truly welcome, comfortable and unthreatened before talking to them about what the customer wants or needs and matching that with the features and benefits of a car.
“In other words, make the customer feel important, listen to what they’re saying and start to build their confidence in dealing with you.”
With all this in mind, I asked Letty - a woman of advancing years and 10 years on the local Tesco checkout - what she felt customer service was all about and she said: “It’s just about being friendly. People seem so detached from each other these days and it costs nothing to smile.”
Listen to Letty - you could do much worse.
Tags: BMW, car dealerships, Chris Brogan, customer care, Customer service, Mercedes, motor trade, Retail, scrappage scheme, SMMT, VW
December 4th, 2009 at 11:46 am
I despair at the lack of customer service I experience, especially when it is becoming more and more important to retain customers (as well as finding new ones). Customer service is a big role in PR, and one that every employee in every company has a role in somewhere down the line. If a shop assistant took 2 minutes to take me to the appropriate aisle instead of tell me ‘it’s down aisle 5’ without the slightest glance look at me, I would be more likely to leave the shop with a smile and return again. It’s so simple! I’m very surprised at car salespeople though, as the point of their job is to sell. Maybe their sales incentives have been reduced/taken away?
December 4th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Kate O
I think you’re right about customer service at any time, but in the midst of a recession it has to be even more critical to obtain and maintain customers.
Going back to boom time, car buyers were walking into showrooms and surrendering. Maybe sales staff are simply not used to a tougher environment and how they need to respond.
January 9th, 2010 at 5:46 pm
Interesting that all three showrooms were for German cars. German manufacturers have been relying on the myth of thier “superior products” for a long time - and it may have now affected the attitude of their sales staff. A customer wandering into a VW/BMW/Merc dealership could be labeled as someone who doesn’t need to be treated with respect and decent customer service - they are just another mark who will happily pay overinflated prices for a badge.
January 11th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Thanks for the comment David.
I was certainly surprised by the attitude displayed by the dealerships at a time when the recessionary conditions in the UK are far from over.
However, I don’t know that it’s endemic with all dealers representing German car makers, as a visit to another dealership at a later date couldn’t have been more different.