Best Practices for Managing Multiple Dealership Locations
It’s challenging enough to run and manage a dealership from a single location. What if you could unite your workforce, foster a positive work environment, and increase sales at different dealership locations all at the same time?
Here are some best practices for managing numerous dealership locations, whether you are a dealership with several sites or one that is considering growing and launching additional ones.
Identify yourself
Establishing your dealership’s identity is the first step toward achieving cohesiveness. What distinguishes you? Regardless of how many people you employ at your dealership—5, 50, or 500—you should always be striving to create a culture where everyone is in line with your business goals.
Your turnover will go down, productivity will remain high, and employees will be content no matter which dealership they work at thanks to a solid company culture. After all, losing employees may be very expensive!
According to some studies, it costs an organization an average of 6 to 9 months’ income to replace or lose a salaried employee. That’s $20–30k in expenses for finding and employing new employees for a manager making $40,000 a year!
1. Appoint the appropriate personnel to each dealership location
As your business expands, having many dealerships may make sense, and having a presence in several different places may be essential for boosting sales. But don’t allow it to affect your staff negatively.
Hire the proper people, whether you’re filling a position or taking on all new hires. For instance, if you are unfamiliar with the new area, consider hiring a local to assist you in managing the business. Ultimately, you want to be able to assemble a team of dependable workers to make sure the site can function independently without assistance from you or your main dealership/headquarters.
2. Make all of your dealership locations follow the same policies.
Your personnel will be better equipped to process orders, explain policies, and comprehend processes when you standardize your operations, which will improve the entire customer experience.
Think about standardizing your
Customer service: how to address grievances and provide clear guidelines for employee conduct.
All financial transactions, including approved forms of payment and information on how to handle returns and exchanges.
Security and safety: correct protocols for dealing with common security and safety issues (who opens and closes the dealership, who to report incidents to).
Dealership layout: all locations have the same physical layout, giving them a unified appearance and feel.
Give the appropriate equipment to every dealership staff member.
Dealership owners have a high risk of forgetting important aspects along the route because managing several locations requires them to take various considerations into account. Think about investing in dealership management software that will aid with tasks like managing inventory, boosting sales, interacting with customers, processing orders and returns, etc.
You may take seasonality into consideration, define minimum and maximum order levels, and offer automatic purchase recommendations when you have a system that offers you a clear picture of your inventory across all locations. By doing this, underordering in busy seasons and overordering in slow ones are both prevented.
You should be able to view real-time information on practically every area of your business with your dealership management software, giving you 24/7 peace of mind.
Read on to learn about 8 dealership management system characteristics.
3. Adhere to the dealership’s rules.
There should be consistency in the company’s standards and policies among all of the dealership locations. Sure, you might need to take into account different requirements for various locations, but for the most part, salary, hours, and attendance should all be similar.
4. Establish company-wide customs and holidays
Traditions inside the firm are the best thing for fostering a sense of community. Some of these could include things like planning a dealership-wide picnic each summer, setting up a happy hour gathering once a month, carrying out a service project as a group once every three months, or holding competitions and giveaways.
Promote positive corporate vibes and acknowledge accomplishments everywhere. The lack of interpersonal interaction is one of the largest costs associated with expanding new dealerships and dividing staff.
Conversations in the hallway or on the way out the door at the end of the day are examples of the small things that count. It consists of office jokes, lunch conversations, or rants after meetings. These are what shape the culture at each dealership and establish the framework for teamwork and friendships among staff members across the board.
Success for your dealership comes from more than just completing orders and providing a positive customer experience. It depends on a healthy business environment where staff members are united across all locations.
Do you intend to grow your company by adding a new dealership location? You can save thousands of dollars on your next store thanks to some fascinating insights that our multi-location customers have provided.
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