dealership remodel strategy..

[sallen1]

O.K., bear with me.

My store is due for a remodel and the Factory wants some input, of course. I will need to justify the fluff my franchisor wants with what I think my customers want with what we can afford. Here's are the two strategies:

My strategy: make the dealership as convenient and time efficient as possible. Don't overdo the furnishings, et. al. since we really don't want people to spend any more time at the store than neccessary. A customer told me that while our current store lacks the niceties of the new Mercedes store down the road, the Mercedes store needs more comfort because they force you to wait and wait and wait. I'm more for getting the people on their way. However...

Factory strategy: Make our store look like the model they want all like-make stores to look. Signage, obviously, but also interior furnishings, exstensive waiting room comfort, etc. While the "McDonalds-ization" of all the stores make make sense on paper, it seems expensive. An example is a single black leather chair (of which we'd need 10) are about $5800 each. Yikes!

I think maybe retired people like to have a place to play bingo and hangout, but I'm not running a resort.

What do you think? What would you do?

[Paradise]

The first thing to jump out at me is you want people to move along...not linger.
Reverse that thought. You DO want people to linger and not mind having to linger. Why? To personalize them with not only your staff < bonding with your employees and enjoying being there>..but to feel like they are in a friendly, relaxing environment. Not a cold selling, servicing assembly line rolling people along and spitting them off the end of conveyor belt. Same mentality behind why Execs are requesting "comfort food " for their important meetings. Fried Chicken, Meatloaf, Pot roast. Relaxing people, dropping defenses.
Think about your demographics. Where are you located? Whats your brand ? We were Jeep..close to the mountains. I went with the hunting and fishing lodge look. Yellow waiting room walls..black and white Ansel Adams prints..worn leather seating.
Laptop stations, big TV, segregated play area for kids with copious toys..small TV running popular children videos during day
< make child safe and untouchable> A choice of coffee and teas in morning. Iced bowls with individual juices, bagels...toaster. In other words..small courtesy area. USA Today's ,other news papers and magazine ranges from Parent to teen to guns to Golf to Newsweeks.
All seating was comfortable. Gave it a retreat/den look.
Bathrooms were warm and squeaky clean with womens bathrooms offering a basket filled with sample sizes of lotions and small hairsprays, etc.
All of this was done inexpensively
< cheap>..and the pay off was great.
I would walk the areas from time to time during the day and keep picked up.
We avoided framed factory propaganda posters..like framed posters of oil filters..oh joy..how attractive.
In every facility there is a closet decorator who is a purchasing guru..who actually has taste and knows where all the dirt cheap deals are on nice furnishings and accessories. I spent less than 5 grand on the entire lot.
Our customers were more relaxed. Less pacing and bugging the advisors about vehicle status. They were reading, E-mailing, eating and watching TV and..the key here.. chatting with staff. Defenses go down. Kids preoccupied. We lost the institutional look and feel.
The original factory furnishings were hideously expensive and one leg lower than a hospital waiting room .
Think comfort. Think friendly. Think..people actually do not mind being stuck there for whatever reason. Think..they have more time to stroll, relaxed looking at your new vehicle line..and kick the tires with your staff.Think...your staff encouraged to pop in and out of waiting room bonding and chatting with customers instead of holed up in their cubby holes bonding with eachother waiting for an up. You've created an environment filled with potential ups and defenses down. You've created an environment that will encourage people to mention it to their relatives, neighbors and co-workers. Afterall...someone mentioned how nice the Mercedes facility was to you. They mentioned it others to. It obviously made an impression !

[fburrows]

I agree with Paradise. The customer areas of the dealership are really a small percentage of the entire store so why not take the opportunity to make a great impression and still provide fast service. I think they are mutually exclusive. Some people do a great job and others are really bad. I dont think you will make a great impression with the high dollar chair but if you spend some time visiting your competitors showrooms and waiting areas you would come back with some great ideas and a much better knowledge of your competitors. It is a great excuse to visit them and at the same time get a free education.

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Frank Burrows
Automotive Business Solutions
frank@autobusiness.org

[bjrainey]

Great people sell cars, not buildings. Manufacturers will put you in a bind if you let them. Keep your head and if your successful use your instinct, if your not successful, use this as a chance to improve your operations and customer relations within your means.

Don't shortcut though.

B.J. Rainey
bjrainey@yahoo.com

[Nick W.]

We have five stores in New England and have gone through two remodels in the past three years. In both cases, what we found was that our manufacturers' regional managers wanted to be able to tell headquarters that they had a "new design" dealership that was put in. The measuring stick for this, essentially, is whether they can bring their bosses in from out of town and point at your facility from the road and say, "See the new-design store that we got done."

To do that, all you need is some photos of what their prototype design looks like. You don't need to use their official design firm or use any of the interior design elements other than maybe using some of the colors that they picked.

We did both of our projects this way, it made the factory and regional managers very happy, and we got to keep costs down and choose functionally what worked for us and our customers on the interior.

Forget the $5000 chairs. The guys who do that stuff are the guys who go out of business.

Unless you have Lexus. In which case just do whatever they tell you to do, pray they don't add any points in your area, and happily count the money every month.