Motor Trader The award-winning and longest running UK magazine for car retailing professionals. Your first stop for News, Jobs and Reports for the motor industry.
UNDER Archie Norman’s leadership Asda has become one of the best supermarket chains in the UK.
It was one of the first big companies to break-down traditional barriers between managment and staff by introducing an informal structure where everybody from chairman down is referred to by first name and encouraged to contribute ideas. It was the first supermarket to introduce a standalone clothing brand. And it put the emphasis on people, encouraging retirees to take part-time jobs and stressing a friendly, helpful image in its advertising.It is this success that Dixons boss Paul Dixon clearly hopes to tap into by recruiting a senior Asda director to his board. Dixon says he wants to change the culture of his group from car dealer to modern retailer and learn lessons from those who put “serving people” top among their priorities.
Dixon is not the first in the motor industry to talk about importing standards from blue-chip retailers. BMW boss Kevin Gaskell last year found himself in deep water after talking about using Marks & Spencer as a template for how a car brand should be sold. A newsaper jumped to the conclusion that BMW was considering dumping its dealers. Troubled Car Group made a big noise in its advertising about changing the way Britons bought cars by making its used car supermarkets more like grocery supermarkets. Many dealer groups swear by recruiting customer-facing staff from sectors such as travel or financial services rather than a traditional motor trade background.
As anyone who has been ignored or patronised in a designer clothes shop or sold a duff holiday will know, not every high street retailer has got it right when it comes to “serving the customer”. But the motor trade cannot be complacent. We report on an Office of Fair Trading survey this week which shows more complaints are received about car dealers than anyone else.
There are too many horror stories of appalling customer service in the motor trade, and business is being lost as a result. Having the right product and the right location is pointless if customers are being turned off by the behaviour of staff.
Dixon is not the first in the motor industry to talk about importing standards from blue-chip retailers. BMW boss Kevin Gaskell last year found himself in deep water after talking about using Marks & Spencer as a template for how a car brand should be sold. A newsaper jumped to the conclusion that BMW was considering dumping its dealers. Troubled Car Group made a big noise in its advertising about changing the way Britons bought cars by making its used car supermarkets more like grocery supermarkets. Many dealer groups swear by recruiting customer-facing staff from sectors such as travel or financial services rather than a traditional motor trade background.
As anyone who has been ignored or patronised in a designer clothes shop or sold a duff holiday will know, not every high street retailer has got it right when it comes to “serving the customer”. But the motor trade cannot be complacent. We report on an Office of Fair Trading survey this week which shows more complaints are received about car dealers than anyone else.
There are too many horror stories of appalling customer service in the motor trade, and business is being lost as a result. Having the right product and the right location is pointless if customers are being turned off by the behaviour of staff.