Canadian auto dealer was the exclusive media outlet covering the CADA Summit event and had in-depth interviews with many of the keynote speakers and delegates. Here are a few snapshots of those interviews:
Bob Lutz
Bob Lutz
Keynote speaker and industry legend, offers advice for dealers on how to focus on their customers:
“Over time, less successful dealerships that I’ve known have been the ones that are purely financially focused, purely financially driven, very bottom line focused. They start shaving away a little bit at some of the customer amenities, or the customer focus. They are not quite as generous at cleaning up the car after a major repair, etc. Or they take advantage of the customer during the trade process of the used car coming in and the new car plus the F&I…Those dealers are the ones with the monstrous advertising budgets. The dealers with the very, very high ratio of totally satisfied customers almost live on repeat business and referrals.”
I think that too many people have fallen victim to the philosophy as taught at Harvard Business School, and other institutes of higher learning, that you always focus on costs…That’s true. You want to eliminate waste — wasteful costs…But the cost that’s spent on making your customers really, really happy, where people say; “You can’t believe what that dealer did for me,” that’s not a cost. That’s a good cost that provides a benefit at the other end. You cut those out at your peril.”
Steven Rattner
Steven Rattner
American financier, and President Obama’s former Car Czar, talks about the state of the U.S. auto sector and dealership counts:
“I think we know what’s happened, I don’t think there’s much more to wait for. We have three companies in Detroit that are all very profitable, all producing cars people want to buy, with really good management teams, with succession… and people behind them to take over, and completely re-capitalized. I think in terms of worrying about these companies, that’s over, but certainly we still want to root for them.
Nobody wants to eliminate jobs or companies. I didn’t like the idea of cutting dealers. But everybody, including the U.S. dealers association, NADA on down, said to us, “there are too many dealers.” I think you could make a strong argument that we did not cut enough dealers… I don’t think there’s any prospect of really materially changing the dealer count at this point, I think it’s done, and now you just run the business.”
Ramesh Swamy
Ramesh Swamy
Member of Deloitte’s National Retail and Distribution Leadership Team talks about the next generation customer:
“The key takeaway that I kept hammering home, was the importance of the customer experience. That is going to be everything going forward. Generation Y is more interested in customer experience than they are in vehicle design. Gen Y indicated in their survey that they wouldn’t want to visit dealerships, but I think in today’s world they have no choice but to. The opportunity there for dealers is twofold: One to improve the dealership experience. The second opportunity is to create more robust technology on their websites to be able to actually transact or move down the purchasing process a little further.
You need to actually have an active and very relevant dialogue with your customers. Entering that shopping dialogue is not going to be easy for some auto dealers and retailers who traditionally have not entered that world. But I think that’s something they are going to be forced to do.”’
Mary Nurse
Mary nurse
Dealer principal, Nurse Chevrolet Cadillac discusses the CADA Summit and looking towards the future:
“It was a fantastic day; certainly a broad range of speakers that were truly enlightening. I got a feel about where we are going in 2013 and certainly got some ideas about the future. With the next generation it is a work in process — certainly they are future buyers and it is wonderful to get some insight into the types of things that make them tick.”
Steve Chipman
Steve Chipman
CADA Laureate, President at Birchwood Automotive Group, discusses the CADA Summit and the challenges facing dealers:
“I’m really enjoying it. I’ve learned a lot already. I think it’s been a very worthwhile summit. I’m still nervous about service retention. I think we’re slowly losing customers. But I think it’s industry wide. I don’t think it’s just the new car dealer. I think it’s the chains and the independents, they are all struggling. It’s a people business… We are challenged to try and keep people in our organization.
Al McPhee
Al MacPhee
Dealer Principal, MacPhee Ford in Dartmouth, N.S. discusses why more dealers should attend next year’s CADA Summit:
“I would like all Canadian dealers to be with us next year. It’s just a great opportunity. It’s a learning experience for all of us. What we need more now than at any other time is more knowledge because our business is changing rapidly.”
