If the current economy is worrying anyone else, welcome to the madhouse. This isn’t the first-time interest rates have traveled north and buying power and disposable income are low, however when things like this happen businesses struggle to stay afloat. The only thing that’s different this time around is we are also navigating the tail end of a global pandemic that has turned many industries on end and shuttered businesses in its wake.

Now is the time to make sure that our business practices are spot on, and we are presenting a professional and educated front. Consistency in our professionalism and process needs to be present from our reception to the BDC, to our sales staff on the phone and it should transfer right to when the customer walks through our doors. We need all customer-facing interactions to be, well, exemplary. With rough waters ahead, everyone needs to batten down the hatches to weather the storm. 

Taking advantage of every opportunity that comes our way is going to be crucial to continue to keep a flow of customers coming into the dealership. This is car business 101. As we all know, when someone comes in that they are one step closer to a purchase. With that being said, it may be time to take a step back and really dig into our processes. Is there anywhere that we are struggling as a team? How can we start to address the issue? Is it just a matter of going back to the basics or is there a greater culture change needing to take place? And anyone that says “just” and “blocking and tackling” are surely going to be selling sporting goods in the very near future.

Some may see this time to cut costs, others will see this as a time to sharpen our skills. I see this as a time to do both, sort of. This is when we need to reallocate expenses to those that pay greater dividends in order to sharpen our skills, i.e. ongoing coaching and training by the pros.  There has never been a more necessary time to crack open the books and get back to what really matters. Starting with how we treat our customers and what types of processes we use to create an exceptional customer experience from our first encounter, all the way to delivering the unit. Now is the time to make sure that all of our processes are spot-on, and that our sales staff are on board with the culture that we are looking to keep in the building. When everyone is on board with all processes, things flow smoothly, however, if someone is going rogue and not holding up the standard on their end, it sticks out like a sore thumb.

There are plenty of tools out there to assist dealerships with this exact thing and it’s absolutely time to make sure that they are working for us!