How to Change Your Dealership’s Structure to Improve Performance

The automotive industry is entering an era of radical change, which is bringing strategic issues for vehicle retailers.

Many experts have made predictions about what the future of automotive retail will look like, the most extreme envisaging an end to dealerships as we know them.

Natural Selection

Our prediction is that dealerships who are prepared and willing to evolve will survive and thrive, while those unwilling to adapt will be phased out. The strongest dealers are versatile, ready and able to adjust their business to embrace new strategies, systems and processes as the industry and consumer behaviours change.

Rethink Your Structure

Traditional dealerships adhere to a departmental model, but this can be limiting, as it encourages separation and a silo mentality. When the workforce is departmentalised, this affects the way in which customers are viewed and dealt with; they can be seen as the responsibility of the sales team or the service team, rather than the dealership team as a whole.

This business model may lead to a lack of communication and knowledge between teams and a lack of motivation to assist each other, for example, by referring customers. Introducing a more integrated structure will encourage solidarity, help you to offer a seamless customer experience and improve retention.

Put the Customer at the Heart of Decisions

Putting customers at the centre of decisions is not a new idea, but it is one that is all too often forgotten. Staff are so eager to meet their own goals that they care more about this than adding value to customers’ experiences. Consumers will pick up on this and chances of retention will be reduced.

It is this approach that leads to widespread mistrust of car sales people, but it is not the fault of the individuals in sales teams, rather target-based reward systems which exist in dealerships. Incentives should instead be centred around boosting customer satisfaction.

Be Open to New Technologies

Consumer buyer habits are changing, and more of the car purchase process is happening online. Remain open minded about the possibility of new technologies being used in your dealership, keeping your processes flexible enough to adapt to that sort of change.

More and more dealerships are beginning to introduce systems which allow their customers to create a deal and reserve online and as consumers get used to this process and it becomes normalised, businesses which do not have these capabilities will begin to suffer.

For more information about Click Dealer’s online retailing platform and how we can help your dealership’s performance, get in touch today by emailing us at marketing@clickdealer.co.uk, calling us on 01782 478220 or sending us a message via our contact page!