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Neil Simpson started working in car retailing as a boy, assisting his father at the used car business and petrol station in Colne, Lancashire, founded by his grandfather in 1945. He sold his first car at the age of 16 and has never looked back.
Before taking over the family business in 2001 he carved out a career as a professional rally driver, competing in a works Volkswagen Polo S1600 in the MSA British Rally Championship and also acted as an official test driver for Volkswagen Motorsport in Wolfsburg. He returned to rallying last year in the Simpsons Skoda Fabia S2000.
Having sold numerous brands over the years the group was appointed by Skoda in 2003 and now represents the brand in both Colne and Preston, placing it at the heart of the North West at both ends of the M65 corridor. The group also operates a multi-marque Simpsons Online used car business.
The group has built up a strong social media presence on Facebook, building up 320,000 followers and is the winner of Skoda’s Retailer of the Year Awards for aftersales, used car sales and fleet sales. Simpsons as also just embraced the brand’s new CI and describes itself as “Skoda’s most dynamic retailer.”
What was the attraction of representing Skoda?
Having experience of the VW Group way of doing business in my rallying days, I considered the group had a robust, well-strategised philosophy. It soon became clear that Skoda was the brand with most growth potential, in terms of product and its retailer network and I wanted to be part of that. Skoda UK still has a long way to go – the product is brilliant and the brand is on a journey; its new corporate identity is part of that journey.
What difference does the new CI make?
Many retailers see a new CI as an expense, I see it as an investment that is required to take the brand to where it needs and wants to be. The products have moved on dramatically in recent years and the environment in which our customers experience the Skoda brand needs to match the product. It makes a huge difference. We’ve gone through tremendous pain operationally in putting this new CI in, we’ve been out of our showrooms for over 14 weeks, which is difficult, but the difference since has been terrific, not only for the customers but also our staff – everybody feels it’s a nicer, better place to work, so it’s positive all round.
The staff must have played a key role in the rollout.
Yes. We spent a lot of time talking with our staff, explaining the scope of the work and what it would mean to them individually, making sure everybody embraced it. It is absolutely critical that everyone has regular updates and knows where the work is up to. The motor industry is a fast-moving, changing business, how we communicate with our staff is vital. When we were a small business I knew the names of every staff member’s family and their hobbies. You can’t do that with a bigger business but you must maintain the communication.
Four years ago you implemented changes to your customer satisfaction strategy, what prompted that?
Our customer satisfaction feedback wasn’t a disaster but could have been better. We engaged with all our staff, aiming to put the customer at the front and end of everything that we do. We do that culturally as a day-to-day thing, absolutely focusing on our customers. Today, any of our staff should be able to ask any customer if we could do anything to make their experience better. Everybody makes mistakes – it’s how you deal with those mistakes that makes the difference.
How important is digital marketing to the business?
Today digital and social media is critical. Most car-buying journeys begin online – customers spend an average of 26 hours researching their purchase and visit only 1.1 dealerships as a result. We have a dedicated digital sales manager within our business focused on this area. We insist that our online presence should match that of our personal one – from clicking on Skoda UK’s website to picking up the keys of your new car should be a seamless journey. A key focus area is Facebook, on which we believe we can deliver consistent messages about our business, not necessarily offers but messages in a soft way to a very broad audience. We’ve built up 320,000 followers, a reach of 24 million, mainly through motorsport – we returned to rallying in the European championship last year, with me driving. We now have two Facebook pages, one for motorsport and one for our core business and we bring the two together in any outbound messages.
How do you feel the FCA’s changes to the way GAP is sold will impact your business?
There’s no reason to panic! I see the changes as necessary, and we will all be better businesses for them. I believe it’s every customer’s right to be given the opportunity to make an informed decision about every product and service we sell and the new regulations absolutely tighten the industry in that respect. We’ve invested a lot of time and money in training, systems processes – really looking at how we do business with our customers on a day-to-day basis to seamlessly embed the new procedures.
To what extent will the GAP changes increase your focus on other add-on sales activities?
Clearly F&I sales are a huge contributor to our franchised business. I don’t see the new environment as a barrier, but an opportunity. The key thing is that everything is auditable, our customers have been given this transparency – I see real positives.
How are the September plate-change and the rest of the year looking?
We are running at more than 100% of target across both sites, which is good. An area that Skoda as a brand is focusing on is profitability. We are selling a lot more cars and service hours, but overheads have increased – it’s a short-term concern but I have confidence in the VW Group to improve profitability – the Skoda management team are working hard on it. Overall I predict a toughening market in the coming months, it’s extremely aggressive right now. But we have the right products for the market and our campaigns are as strong as ever.
Factfile
Simpsons Motor Group
Established: 1945
Brand: Skoda (also online used car business)
Location: Colne, Preston
Staff: 80 (30 in aftersales)
Ramps: 14 (+2 MoT)
Neil Simpson
Position: Managing director, Simpsons Skoda
First Job: Used car sales, Simpsons Motor Group
First car: Talbot Sunbeam Ti
Current car: Skoda Octavia vRS
Newspaper: The Sunday Times
Film: The Italian Job (“the original”)
Downtime: Rallying, mountain biking
Best business decision: “Taking the Skoda franchise”
Worst business decision: “In the early days, not making the best staff decisions for the business”
Andrew Charman
