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Minutes after turning off the M60 and driving into Stockport you arrive at an impressive motor alley of car showrooms, the various sites almost all owned by the Lookers Group.
The area has seen significant change recently, and among several major investments the finishing touches are just being applied to a £0.5m refurbishment of the group’s Renault/Dacia outlet.
Changes have seen a relocation of the group’s Skoda franchise, which operated from the site last year, and focusing on growing the Renault and Dacia businesses. The group also operates the neighbouring Kia, Seat and Volvo showrooms.
Sean Burke, a 25 year veteran of the industry with volume, prestige and niche outlets, and most recently seven years with a multi-franchise, family-run business, was appointed general manager in June 2016. His task was to manage the refurbishment and to turn the business around.
How much upheaval did the refurbishment cause? A great deal. Both Renault and Skoda wanted solus sites so Skoda moved across the road. The internal refurbishment was accomplished by splitting the dealership into two, rather than moving out into Portacabins which would have restricted space and compromised our site. We worked from the front of the showroom for eight weeks, then moved in March to the back until the first week of April. We had builders on site until the end of June doing the roof, and the exterior with new signage should be completed by the end of the year.
Was it an equally challenging time for your employees? We have had a lot of changes in staff. After I arrived we worked with the staff from June to December to see if we could achieve a culture change – the aftersales department came on board but the sales department needed a lot of changes, basically recruiting a new management team.
Lookers has a “Nicer” programme based on customer satisfaction and mystery shops which is carried out by the group in addition to any manufacturer CI. There is a league and in 2016 this outlet ranked 131st out of 133. Last month we were second, and in service first, which shows the journey we’ve been on.
How was this achieved? The biggest, most important thing in any business is to have the right people, then you have a good chance of being successful. So we’ve discussed with our people what we need from them, used their ideas to achieve it, and we’ve helped those with lesser skills to achieve
a skill set. We have regular conversations with our staff – they know when they are doing well and when they are not doing well.
One example of the changes we made is our customers could never find a parking space, so we were annoying them before they even entered the dealership. Now our designated car park manager knows he needs to maintain six front-row spaces so he has authority to make decisions, and to involve anyone, right up to me.
Did you face difficulties in staff recruitment? We have a good mix of staff, those with over 20 years’ experience and newcomers, eager, keen to learn and with new ideas. Recruiting is traditionally difficult but Lookers has set up its own recruitment agency, which makes the process a whole lot easier. I’m recruiting for a new trainee administrator and I’ve had 14 applications in three days, no outside agencies or people doing the rounds, applicants selected to the requirements I have.
Lookers also believes in succession, accumulating information on employees so that when vacancies arise Lookers can look inside the business first, and improve people, with those people already working to the Lookers way. It’s more joined up.
What is the biggest challenge of working in today’s retail market? To me it’s trying to sell the same number of vehicles as over the past couple of years without going heavily into pre-registration. Manufacturers do tend to use history as a part of their target strategy, and I think it is healthy for dealers to question such targets. Renault does not favour pre-registration as it devalues the product,
and the campaigns they have in place are very strong, as are the new models coming up.
We are taking on the new Lookers Used Approved initiative in October, a marketplace we haven’t been in before. We will be selling cars priced from £4,000, with five years and 50,000 miles, but with the same benefits as our other customers enjoy, including the same level of customer service. We’ll offer that to buyers who would normally go to independents for such cars.
How important is the Dacia barnd to the business? Extremely important. It attracts a different type of customer, though we provide the same standard of customer service, and ensure we know the product. Renault is mainly a PCP market but Dacia is totally different due to the price-pointing. We see the brand as a major opportunity that we haven’t fully exploited yet.
The key with Dacia is to get people into the vehicles as they are good and fun to drive. When the humorous ads appear on TV our footfall spirals, driving customers into our business. I see Dacia as a business we can build, and I can see the Logan producing fleet interest from potential customers such as taxi firms.
What does the near future hold for the business? Going forward we need to further stabilise our employees, ensure people are happy and by that means sustain our levels of customer satisfaction. Continuity of staff will lead to them becoming more experienced and more comfortable, and hopefully the information going out to customers will result in those who have previously dismissed us coming back into the showroom.
Last year was a case of get in and sort the business out. This year has been about the build, putting solid foundations in place and delivering a result. Next year we want to deliver an excellent result, sustaining customer and employee satisfaction and then generating bottom-line profit.
