When the Government of Quebec announced that dealerships across the province were not considered an essential service, Groupe Vincent in Shawinigan was one of the few exceptions, for emergency needs.
Maxime Vincent, President of Groupe Vincent, said they were able to start implementing strict health and safety measures early on — well before the CCAQ (La Corporation des concessionnaires automobiles du Québec) released its protocols for dealers to open service departments in April and sales in May.
Back in March, Vincent said they laid off 90 per cent of their employees. “We kept 10 per cent for administration, sales, and essential services for the service department, and we remained like this until April 15 when other service departments were able to restart. And now sales are coming up,” said Vincent, in an interview with Canadian auto dealer.
For about six weeks, Vincent said they watched the situation evolve and had to be very strict and meticulous with their hygiene measures when it came to dealing with employees coming in after weeks of confinement. He said this was important in ensuring the health and safety of his employees and customers.
“It’s a matter of feeling safe doing our things, for both our customers and employees. We had to fight with a lot of different information, whether from the media or social media, not everyone was in the same place regarding the COVID-19 situation,” said Vincent. “Now after about two weeks, after our employees were back in fixed ops and sales, we can see that things are pretty good — that people understand.”
He said that has allowed them to go about their business, maybe not at the same pace as before, but in an environment that is better for everyone.
He also said their protocol was prepared internally, and that they reviewed the CCAQ’s protocol when it came out. But because the dealership was already open, their protocol was based on information from the Minister of Health, from conferences, what the grocery stores were doing — all these different things were like a GPS for Vincent.
“In the end, we can follow 800 pages of protocols, but at some point, in social situations you need to wash your hands. Everything you do has to be aligned with that,” said Vincent. “So we prepared our protocol around that.”
The dealership was already disinfecting vehicles coming in for service around March 23 or even before. Keys were being placed in ziplock bags, and papers to be reviewed and signed were being delivered 24 hours in advance to customers, along with an explanation via video conference. So when the CCAQ protocol came out, he said the adjustments to his own protocol were minor.
“Everything is based on that ‘GPS’ concept,” said Vincent. “It comes back to safety, and explaining to people that life goes on and that we may have to live with this for a few years. At the base you have to be very meticulous, which is what I said earlier and will probably have to repeat about 20,000 times during the month of May to all my employees: we wash our hands and respect the 2-metre distance.”
“If people follow those rules, I can’t see how the situation would not improve in other domains,” said Vincent.
