Digital Dealer - September 2017 - 23

for the competition, then they're
probably not the person I want
to hire. But if a man or woman
is sitting in front of me and I'm
thinking "I can't let this person go"
and "I need to put them on the floor
today," - that's a good sign. I want
the proverbial puppy wagging its
tail with excitement sitting in front
of me.

HOW DO YOU KEEP YOUR
EMPLOYEES CURRENT ON
PRODUCTS AND PROCESSES?

I don't want my team to be current;
that's a low standard. I want them
to be ahead of the curve. I want
them to be seeing around corners.
I want them to be smashing a customer's expectations when it comes
to customer service. The car knowledge is a given. They've got to know
that cold. But I'm really looking for
ways to blow the customer's mind
with exceptional service, that's what
we're looking for. Again, I think we
have a high energy machine. The
dealers we compete with nationally, in the group we're within, are
among the best and the brightest
in the country. If you slip up in any
part of your game, they're going to
gain distance on you. I look at it as
if we're professional boxers at the
highest level of the game. You can't
make a mistake when you're up
against a professional. He'll knock
you out. It's the same with the people we compete against. If you're
not on your game in new car sales,
used car sales, service, internet,
marketing, people development,
you're just not going to be able to
compete with these very formidable
competitors.

WHAT STEPS OR PROCESSES DO YOU FOLLOW TO ENSURE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION? You start well before you

ever measure. We teach our team to
begin each transaction by placing
themselves in the customer's shoes.
How would I want this transaction
to go? What would make things
as easy, frictionless, and even as
positive as possible for me if this

was my car being serviced, or if it
was mom or my child buying this
vehicle? When your whole team is
focused on the customer's experience from the beginning, rather
than the process or the numbers,
you often see satisfaction numbers
that reflect that focus.
We also recognize that customers
are using technology in increasingly
sophisticated ways in every other
aspect of their lives. This goes back
to what I was just saying about
keeping ahead of the curve; if we
don't provide an experience that
reflects the patterns and behaviors
customers expect from other businesses they interact with, we will
seem inconvenient at best, archaic
at worst. That's why we keep looking at ways to make the technology
that people already use a bigger
part of our process.
And of course, we have internal
metrics to track customer satisfaction. We have two separate
companies that follow up and ask
questions after every transaction
in sales and service. We've got a
team of people that analyzes any
transaction that rates as less than
a favorable review; we break that
down and look for trends. We then
take this information and make real-time changes that have a positive
impact on the overall experience of
our customers. We are constantly
working to improve in all aspects of
our business.
HOW DOES PARAGON GIVE
BACK TO THE LOCAL COMMUNITY? The most important thing

is the tax revenue we generate for
the local municipalities. As you
know, automobile dealers contribute among the highest level to state
tax bases. Most people don't realize
that but the sales tax that we generate, millions of dollars a month,
goes to help pave the roads, pay for
the firemen, pay for the police and
the other infrastructure. We think
that's part of being a good neighbor.
Of course, we're one of the largest
employers in our market. This

creates tremendous opportunities
for the community. We have, right
now, over 450 employees. As far
as charitable giving, I'd rather not
talk about specifics. We're proud
to support local communities, local
schools, and local charities in our
market. It's an important and often
over-looked role that we play. Usually the most generous businesses
in any community are the local auto
dealers.
WHAT DO YOU SEE AS THE
BIGGEST CHALLENGE FACING
PARAGON HONDA AND PARAGON ACURA? Paragon's chal-

lenges are not really separate from
the challenges facing the industry
as a whole. The biggest challenge
facing the industry, in my opinion,
are the disruptors: the Gang of
Four of Google, Apple, Facebook
and Amazon. They are promising
to change the business model. So,
it's best for us to change the model
before they do. I'm much less concerned about the competition from
other dealerships. At this point we
can handle ourselves fairly well
against most competitors. I'm just
saying that what the local Nissan
dealer or local Toyota dealer are going to do -- that's not the stuff that
keeps me up at night. The concern
that I have is how do these other
entrances into the market impact
the future of retail.

ANY CLOSING WORDS
OR FINAL REMARKS? I think

dealers are best equipped to lead
the change that's happening in
the industry -- dealers working
together with the OEMs. The OEMs
can't figure this out themselves and
the dealers probably can't, either.
I think together we can do a good
job preparing our industry for the
changes coming. In fact, we can
lead the way with those changes.
Jack Welch once said, "The most
exhilarating thing about business
is starting something new inside
of something old." I think that's
a great pull quote for what we're
talking about. ■

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

SEPTEMBER 2017

http://www.DIGITALDEALER.COM

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