I had the great pleasure of dining recently with John Clark and his wife Pam last night.
John, as some of you will know, is the Dealer Principal at J. Clark & Son Ltd., a GM store in Fredericton that will be celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2015. John is also a past Chairman of the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association (CADA).
There was no particular agenda to the conversation, which is generally true of the best conversations, and certainly true of the most engaging dinners. We covered plenty of ground, and I thought it worth sharing a little with our broader audience, as much of what was covered is common to many in this business.
In particular, we explored the role of the zone managers and other staff in the OEM zone offices. While much is written about dealership best practices in all aspects of your stores, I have not found much coverage relating to the role of the zone office in providing a critical go-between in the relationship between an OEM central office and its network of retailers.
It’s no secret that the OEM-dealer relationship can be a challenging one. Nor is it a secret that perhaps the most powerful tool to improve that relationship for both parties is better communication.
CADA’s annual Dealer Satisfaction Index (DSI) awards are testament to that, as OEMs consistently find they can improve their scores by improving and expanding their communication to their dealers, irrespective of whether the news being communicated is good or bad.
It stands to reason that the zone office staff have a very important role to play in building the OEM-dealer relationship, as they are the front line staff, able to deliver first-hand conversations to and from head office.
So how well are they doing?
It’s not information that we hear about a lot in our offices at Canadian auto dealer magazine, but it’s an area of the business I would like us to explore more. I believe this tier of the industry is being impacted by technology and consolidation as much as any aspect of the business.
In fact, one of the possible outcomes of a more technologically-integrated automotive business, with tighter data integration between the OEMs and their dealership networks, could be the reduction or elimination of this middle layer.
I don’t expect that this role will go away. I do expect the characteristics of a highly productive zone office, and the day-to-day details of the role will change as all other aspects of the industry adapt to new realities and processes.
Look to future issues of this magazine to explore the topic further. Help us by sharing examples of zone manager best practices you’ve experienced. Let’s collectively shed some light on how this layer of our industry can maximize its contribution, in the eyes of Canada’s dealers.
And if you want to share those stories over dinner, we’d love to drop by.
