Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 23

MY STYLE, I WOULD SAY, IS TO LET MY
MANAGERS MANAGE. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT
TO ME THAT MY MANAGEMENT STAFF KNOWS
THEY'RE IN THE RIGHT POSITION..."
every year Subaru does a program
called "Share the Love." This will
be the tenth year of the program, I
believe, and it allows dealerships to
pick a local charity. Subaru donates
money to a couple of national charities for every car the dealership
sells. The customer gets to choose
where to donate the money. We
educate the customer about wanting to keep the money local and an
overwhelming percentage of them
choose the local charity. We also
match a certain percentage of it.
In 2016, we raised $87,000 for the
charity. Our goal by 2020 is to have
raised $500,000 and we're on track
to hit that.
Our other main charity is the
Arts. We are a sponsor of the
Count Basie Theatre. The Count
Basie Theatre Voices is a seventh
through twelfth grade ensemble
group that I run with a very good
childhood friend of mine. We are
personally able to give back to the
youth, the kids. I was given many
opportunities when growing up. I
was mentored by many people. I
think the Arts are phenomenally
important to the development of
our kids and everyone who wants
an opportunity to be exposed to art,
be it music, theatre, dance, should
have an opportunity to do so.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE
YOUR MANAGEMENT STYLE?

I'm going to go back to my team
answer. My style, I would say, is to
let my managers manage. It is very
important to me that my management staff knows they're in the right
position and that I respect them,
support them, and I want to make
sure I'm always available to them
to make the important decisions
that need to be made. But on a
day-to-day basis I want them to feel

empowered to make the decisions
they need to make without feeling
they're being second-guessed. And
that translates over to the customer.
I think you get one chance to do
the right thing when it comes to a
customer interaction. I want my
managers to understand when they
have a customer on the phone or in
person with an issue that needs to
be dealt with I don't want the customer to feel as if they're being put
off or my managers to think they
always have to check.

LET'S SHIFT TO MARKETING. WHAT IS YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY?

Digital, a lot of digital. Another
huge part is our online reputation
through third-party websites. If we
could only use one digital tool it
would be Google Search, with a focus on position. A vendor can come
out and say I can get you x-number
of clicks or x-number of dollars per
click. What they overlook is I can
get you the lowest cost per click in
the world but if you're on the second page of Google you might was
well not have spent a dollar. Some
dealers will ignore how important it
is to have great positioning.
We use social media extensively.
We have over ten-thousand people
following our Subaru page and
almost thirteen-thousand people
following the Jeep page. Social media is a big part of telling our story
and keeping our customers updated
on events, promotions, anecdotes,
special offers and so on. For CRM,
we use VinSolutions.

WHAT STEPS OR PROCESSES DO YOU FOLLOW TO ENSURE YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE
SATISFIED?

We really want to make sure the
customer feels they are receiving

exceptional care, be it sales or service. We have delivery coordinators
who go over the vehicle with the
customer. That's been a big boost
in CSI for us. It allows the sales
consultant to spend more time on
selling and gives the customer the
benefit of a full vehicle delivery of
all of the components of their car.
Customers can fully understand
how to pair their phone, how to
use their navigation, if it has it, or
their enhanced safety systems with
lane sway and pre-breaking and all
that. At the Subaru store, we have
a service concierge who will review
the work done, walk you to your car,
make sure everything is tip-top and
the car is clean. We've already seen
some online reviews in a few short
weeks that mentions the customer's
appreciation for that extra level of
service.
To help improve customer satisfaction, we created a web page to
capture customer reviews on three
main websites that we rotate, such
as DealerRater, Google, Facebook.
Sometimes we change that to Cars.
com, Edmunds, Yelp, etc. There
is a hang tag that goes in every
vehicle serviced or sold that asks
the customer to go to our reviews
website and leave feedback. There
are bonus plans in place for sales
consultants and delivery specialists
who get 5-star reviews that mention
them by name.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST
ABOUT BEING IN THE AUTO
RETAIL INDUSTRY?

No two days are alike. I love that
every day is literally a new adventure and you don't know what the
next day is going to bring. I've been
in the industry for fourteen years
and still love going to work every
day. ■

D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

AUGUST 2017

23


http://www.DIGITALDEALER.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - August 2017

Digital Dealer - August 2017
Contents
Letter from the Show Director
Rediscover the Lost Art of Mentoring
Developing a Dealer-Minded Attitude
The Potential Demise of the Automobile Franchise System?
Advertising ‘Attitude’ is Everything!
Does Your BDC Leverage Lead Data to Increase Sales?
Joe Wajda
Digital Dealer 23 Show Highlights: Top Sessions, Keynotes, Exhibitor Listings, Summary Agenda, & Attractions in Vegas
Data Drives Dollars: Google Analytics Is Your Key to Finding Serious Shoppers
5 Tips to Getting Your Customers to Sing Your Praises Online
Still Having Trouble Proving Social Media ROI? You're Not Alone
Clicks for Cars: How AI and Machine Learning Are Revolutionizing Automotive Marketing
Winner, Winner, Recall Dinner!
Vance Chrysler Hits a Home Run in Humanity
Want a 50%++ Parts Margin & Other Benefits Benny? Keep Reading
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - Digital Dealer - August 2017
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - Cover2
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 1
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - Contents
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 3
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - Letter from the Show Director
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 5
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - Rediscover the Lost Art of Mentoring
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 7
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - Developing a Dealer-Minded Attitude
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 9
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 10
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 11
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - The Potential Demise of the Automobile Franchise System?
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 13
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 14
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 15
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - Advertising ‘Attitude’ is Everything!
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 17
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - Does Your BDC Leverage Lead Data to Increase Sales?
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 19
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - Joe Wajda
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 21
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 22
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 23
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - Digital Dealer 23 Show Highlights: Top Sessions, Keynotes, Exhibitor Listings, Summary Agenda, & Attractions in Vegas
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 25
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 26
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 27
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 28
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 29
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 30
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 31
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 32
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 33
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - Data Drives Dollars: Google Analytics Is Your Key to Finding Serious Shoppers
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 35
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 5 Tips to Getting Your Customers to Sing Your Praises Online
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 37
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - Still Having Trouble Proving Social Media ROI? You're Not Alone
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 39
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - Clicks for Cars: How AI and Machine Learning Are Revolutionizing Automotive Marketing
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 41
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - Winner, Winner, Recall Dinner!
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 43
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - Vance Chrysler Hits a Home Run in Humanity
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 45
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - Want a 50%++ Parts Margin & Other Benefits Benny? Keep Reading
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 47
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - 48
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - Cover3
Digital Dealer - August 2017 - Cover4
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