John Hine Mazda Embraces Change, Emerges Stronger

John Hine Mazda Embraces Change,
Emerges Stronger than Ever
For the team at John Hine in southern
California, 2009 was a challenging year, no
doubt about it. Last year this storefront included Pontiac, Dodge and Mazda. In May 2009
they got a letter saying that within 60 days,
they would no longer be a Dodge dealer.
Meanwhile, Pontiac, as everyone knows,
has been discontinued by General Motors. For
the staff and loyal customers, there was one question that quickly came to mind: Could the dealership survive two major blows in one year?
But General Manager Dave Miller and
the rest of the management team took the
challenge head on. With major changes to
their operating structure, they have been able
to emerge from the economic downturn with
surprising results.
Using F&I to Provide a
Competitive Advantage
With their Dodge franchise gone, Chrysler
also pulled the dealership’s Five Star program,
as it is exclusive to Chrysler franchises.
“We were one of the first to qualify and
implement the program when it first came out,
but they had no problem taking it away. When
Five Star went away, so did our certified preowned and certified used vehicle programs,”
stated Miller. “We ended up doing our own
program with MEPP and EasyCare, the John
Hine Advantage. We put it on all our cars; it
gives customers a reason to buy here versus
other dealerships.”
Matching Online Sales Approach to
Match Consumer Buying Habits
The second major change for the dealership was responding to new consumer shop12
Auto Remarketing
ping habits. Increasingly, buyers are doing their
homework on the Internet, trolling sites like
Craigslist, eBay, AutoTrader.com and others.
“Within these sites people have two basic
criteria by which they search — price and distance. It’s hard to sell on the Internet. You can
bring them in with price and distance, but everything else needs to be sold in-house,” said Miller.
“If you are not in the top five listings by price and
distance, you won’t see the customer.”
“It’s hard to sell on the
Internet. You can bring them
in with price and distance,
but everything else needs to
be sold in-house. If you are
not in the top five listings by
price and distance, you won’t
see the customer.”
Dave Miller
John Hine
The dealership’s online pricing strategy
changed to including only the basics to keep
the vehicle’s price competitive on the Internet;
upgrade options would be offered when customers come to the dealership. The sales team
has found that this process is working well.
They also offer extensive Mazda Extended Protection Plan information on their Web
site so that customers come into the dealership
already knowing about the coverage and what
choices are available. This has paid off in more
sales, and their warranty penetration has improved significantly.
Right-Sizing and Reaching Out
Now the storefront is exclusively a Mazda dealership — a Mazda Superstore. With the
two franchises gone, the management team
needed to make tough decisions in order to be
viable. They immediately combined their two
sales forces into one, serving both new and
used customers. This allowed them to decrease
the number of sales managers without losing
floor sales personnel.
The most drastic change was the need to
“right-size” their business to consumer demand, which meant cutting staff. They have
roughly half of the full-time employees they
had before the fallout.
“There is a tendency to over-hire in order to keep up strong levels of customer service. We needed to invest more time in getting
the right people in the right jobs; consequently we have been able to keep the same strong
levels of customer service with less staff,” explained Miller.
Basically, the staff now needs to multitask
and be able to step in at a moment’s notice to
take over another individual’s job.
In their service department, John Hine’s
loyal Chrysler/Dodge customers were being
lost to other dealers, as their factory warranty
work could not be done by a non-Dodge dealer. But with a consistent recovery program
and specific, targeted campaigns, the fixed ops
team was able to bring many of those customers back for non-warranty work.
“Fixed ops was critical to keeping our
doors open,” Miller said. “Customers just
www.AutoRemarketing.com
needed to be reminded they could still get
great service from the technicians and staff
they knew and trusted.”
Promising Results
“The team is so positive right now, and we’re
picking up steam. We really turned the corner
in February of this year. We became profitable,
with consistent month-over-month growth,”
stated Miller. “In fact, the last two months have
been our best months in the last 3-4 years.”
He went on to say, “We now have the
right people in the right jobs, are communicating with customers consistently and with
the right message, and are positioned to make
2010 a banner year.”
About John Hine Mazda Superstore: Located in San Diego, John Hine Mazda Superstore
has only one goal in mind: to offer our customers as many options as possible. Whether looking for a new Mazda or a full line of quality preowned vehicles, the team at John Hine is focused
on customer service and satisfaction. You can
learn more at www.johnhine.com.
About EasyCare: Since 1984, EasyCare has
been helping dealers like John Hine build their
business by providing benefits that enhance the
buying and ownership experience of their customers. Benefits are provided under the EasyCare brand as well as on behalf of some of the
most preeminent manufacturers in the automotive industry, including Jaguar, Land Rover, Mazda and Volvo. They consistently maintain a Better Business Bureau rating of A+, and
have been honored with numerous customer service awards, including the 2008 Dealer’s
Choice Platinum Award. Visit the Web site at
www.easycare.com.
May 15–31, 2010