Paul Meijer discusses his business, DealerVendorMatch.com, and what 41 years in the automotive industry have taught him about customer service. In this chat with Corey Smith, Paul talks about why dealerships need to be open to change and how they should adapt to the needs of today's customers.

The wants and needs of automotive customers have been changing rapidly over the last few years. Covid kicked a lot of those changes into high gear. The customers that dealerships have now aren't like the customers they had a decade ago, but dealerships tend to be set in their ways. They want to keep doing business the way they've always done it because that's the way they've always been done.

That's not going to work with today's customers. Dealerships need to listen to what these customers want and adapt to their needs. It's the only way to keep a dealership going.

Paul offers a few more pieces of advice about how dealerships can adapt:

●  Try something. If it fails, try something else. But be open to trying new things as a dealership and see if the customer reacts to them positively. If they don't, you can try something new.

●  Practice continuous improvement. Take ownership of who you are and what you do so you project confidence and the customer knows they can trust you with their vehicle and their money.

Want to hear the full story about what Paul has to say about adapting to the needs of today's customers? Hit play and listen to his full episode with Corey now.

A calendar year is a convenient timeframe for measuring goals, but that doesn’t mean that the end result is the only thing you should celebrate! Since you’ve already determined the actions your dealership will take to achieve your goal and how you’ll measure success throughout the year, choose milestones along the way and mark their achievement. Taking the time to acknowledge milestones demonstrates meaningful progress toward the end goal; it is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture in the din of day-to-day work obligations, so calling out these achievements for your team is key in drawing their attention back to the long-term goal. Celebrating key milestones also lets your team know you value their contributions and hard work, which helps keep them engaged with the end goal as well as the business and its success.

Want more insight from Zach about keeping your team engaged with goals? Hit Play NOW! And Listen to his full interview with Corey

It’s that time of year again: the holidays are upon us! The holiday season brings with it a natural period of reflection and feelings of gratitude for our triumphs—personal, professional, or otherwise—over the course of the past year. When it comes to embracing this aspect of the holidays in a professional sense, it is especially important for leaders to demonstrate their appreciation for their team(s) for a year of hard work and achievements. Every business is different, and fortunately there are many ways for managers and leadership to demonstrate their appreciation for their teams. Particularly now, with COVID remaining a part of our working lives in the form of PPE or dealing with economic challenges resulting from the pandemic, acknowledging everyone’s hard work is that much more important for fostering a climate of engagement and camaraderie. When employees feel valued, they will be more invested in the business’s success and be more likely to stay with you long-term.

Want more insight from Eric? Hit Play now and listen to his full interview with Corey!

To construct a culture of high development, start at the very top with the purpose your executives define and operationalize. Their attitudes, beliefs and behaviors about purpose will cascade -- what they believe, everyone will come to believe. Engineer a communication network that carries those values into the lived experiences of workers. Draft a plan that shepherds employees' development, with an eye toward their strengths, throughout their entire career. And, above all else, teach managers how to engage workers. Half of all workers have left a job to get away from a manager at least once.

Do your most talented employees know the purpose of your company? Do they know what their next steps are? Do their managers acknowledge their excellent work and look for ways to leverage their strengths and stretch their capacity? Are they part of a network of people who champion development? Are they engaged? Are they bored?

Want more insight to these questions from Zach? Hit Play now and listen to his full interview with Corey!

If all your team hears is “sell, sell, sell!” they aren’t hearing why they should care about the success of the dealership or their teammates, or the satisfaction of their customers. Put another way: if your customers are only giving your store high survey marks because your employees say it will help them keep their jobs—rather than because they actually had a good experience at your dealership—what does that say about your business to your staff? To your customers?

Having established why employee engagement and retention are important, the next step is to figure out how to increase these metrics at your dealership. While the action items themselves may sound simple, committing to them is something your store’s leadership must be motivated to do continuously in order to achieve meaningful results. Employee engagement cannot be a once-a-year initiative: it is an ongoing practice that, when done well, will build a stronger connection between your business and the people who help make it a success. Ultimately, your employees and customers will be happier and will want to continue their relationships with your dealership for the long haul.

Want more insight from Steve about maximizing employee engagement? Hit play now and listen to his full interview with Corey

In our first episode on recalls, we talked with Sean Reyes, the Chief Marketing Officer of Recall Masters. Sean discussed the current recall crisis and how service departments can use it to bring in new customers and increase revenue. Sean returns to the podcast in this episode to talk about:

The laws surrounding selling used vehicles with open recalls

Who has the responsibility for recall repairs

What dealerships can do to get more customers in for recall repairs.

Three Key Takeaways About Recalls

Recalls are a problem that isn't going away. Data shows that more dealerships and consumers are taking action, but the numbers are still way below what they should be. Recalls are piling on top of recalls from previous years.

The scariest variables are the recalls coming from software and electronics. These technologies govern driving, braking, and vehicle operation. If one in four vehicles on the road has a dangerous recall involving key vehicle operations, it's a very scary scenario. And that's not even taking self-driving cars into account.

This is a critical moment. There is a shortage of parts and a lack of technicians. But there are positive changes accelerated by the pandemic, such as mobile repair and vehicle pick-up and drop-off. Dealerships need to embrace these changes instead of trying to return to a pre-pandemic way of working. These new processes can win back customers from independent shops and evolve the recall department to be a revenue driver in the future.

If dealerships and consumers don't get the recall issue handled soon, it's likely more federal and state legislators will get involved in the next five years. We can avoid this by simplifying the process for consumers and making compliance a keystone of the process. Dealerships that want to handle recalls more effectively for their customers can reach out to Recall Masters. The Recall Masters team can offer advice and education to help dealerships share success within the industry.

Hit play now to listen to the full interview with Sean Reyes and get more insights into how your service department can take advantage of the recall crisis.