By: Nick Bunkley

Training at delivery frees salespeople to work with other customers

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Teenagers' addiction to their smartphones may be annoying to parents and teachers, but it makes them perfect candidates to work for Quirk Ford.

The dealership in Quincy, Mass., employs high school students as young as 14 to teach customers how to use the increasingly complex technology in their vehicles. Members of the Technology Team work with customers at delivery or during service visits -- giving tutorials, answering questions and pairing phones with Bluetooth.

"They were surprised the job would be so simple for them," said Quirk Ford's general manager, Mike Quirk. "Technology comes to them pretty easily."

Quirk Ford started the Technology Team four years ago. The program has been so successful that Quirk Auto Dealers, owned by Mike Quirk's brother Dan, has expanded it to most of its 14 other locations in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

About 70 students have been hired since it began, with most staying a year or two before going on to college. Demand for the jobs has far exceeded the number of available positions, Mike Quirk said.

The students earn $11 an hour working evenings and weekends during the school year and full time during the summer. For many, it's their first actual job and a welcome alternative to McDonald's, Walmart and other places their friends end up working.

"I love coming to work every day," said Thomas Pugsley, who started right after turning 16 last fall and previously worked part time at a T-shirt shop. "We're dealing with customers who are buying expensive cars and want to know what they're getting for their money. We show them their vehicle basically top to bottom, from the hood to the spare tire."

The students go through Ford's sales-support certification program, just as a traditional employee would, and frequently are tested on their knowledge of Ford and competing vehicles. They recently received training for Ford's newly introduced Sync 3 system.

Pugsley acknowledged that some customers seem put off at first by having teenagers help them, but "they do respect us at the end once we show what we know." The dealership's full-time staffers often come to the students with questions as well, he said: "We're their go-to guys."

The Technology Team frees salespeople to work with other prospective customers without trying to hurry through the delivery process. Team members typically spend about an hour with each customer.

"It's nice for the customers because it becomes a separate environment from the sales process," Quirk said. "Customers find it a very comfortable situation where they're not rushed."

The dealership takes on about 10 to 12 students each year and usually schedules four of them at any given time, with two in the showroom and two stationed in the service department.

The strategy evolved out of the dealership's participation in Ford Motor Co.'s Drive 4 UR School program, which donates $20 to a local school each time someone takes a test drive during a fundraising period. Hiring students has helped burnish Quirk Auto Dealers' reputation for being civic-minded, Mike Quirk said, building loyalty among the families of the team members.

"It creates a great relationship with the parents and the community," he said. "They've brought a lot of goodwill through their parents and relatives."

The program also inherently creates a pool of candidates for more permanent jobs. Quirk Ford has hired three of the students as permanent employees already: two for its Internet sales department and one as a service adviser.

Pat Freeman, who graduated from Quincy High School in the spring and will attend Quincy College this year, is one of the Internet sales hires.

"This is a great first step to start in the business world," said Freeman, 18, who had an iPhone but knew little about in-car technology before joining the Technology Team in March 2014.

"Before that, I had a paper route," Freeman said, "so this is the real deal."

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About I.C. Collins

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