Recently, Ford’s Quebec chief, Betrand Lessard said that dealers in the province need to be open on weekends.
“Ideally, we should be open when the customer requests it. It’s as simple as that. And that is no longer limited to weekdays only, but also on Saturdays and Sundays,” he said.
However, in Quebec, where closing dealerships on the weekends has tended to be the norm rather than the exception, the notion of extending opening hours to Saturdays and Sundays has always been a sensitive issue.
But it might appear that many auto retailers no longer have much of a choice. Fierce competition from major used car operations, as Auction Direct H. Gregory or Montreal Auto Prix are appearing to challenge the status quo, with a number of new car dealers seriously looking to extend opening hours on weekends.
As for Ford, which boasts a network of 3,500 employees and 78 dealers in Quebec, concessionaires such as Montmorency Ford and Jacques Olivier Ford, are now open seven days a week.
Although Lessard recognizes that the seven days a week strategy might not necessarily be relevant to all Ford stores in Quebec, for those in certain markets, such as Montreal, where there is greater competition and a customer driven need for convenience, it something that should be implemented or at the very least considered. Lessard says the weekend opening hours should apply to both sales and service.
Lessard says that if customers have to take time out of their schedules during the week to get to the dealer, it isn’t very convenient. As a result, if it’s for simple maintenance such as an oil change, they’re more likely to take their vehicle to their local Canadian Tire or service centre that is open six or seven days a week.
“Whereas there used to be a case for opening five instead of seven days a week 20 years ago, today that is no longer true,” said Lessard. “If we are not open on weekends, then our customers are more likely to buy something else or from somebody else instead of us. They might even postpone buying a new car because of inconvenient hours at our stores.”
