Introduction
Sullivan’s Auto World is a dealership specializing in selling new and used cars and providing services of repairing and fixing vehicles to customers. However, the sales have been decreasing in recent years, and customers demonstrated dissatisfaction with the experience and service department well organized and represented to the customer’s view. After nine months, the overall satisfaction rating for the selling dealer was below average. The likelihood that the consumer would return to that dealership was one full point lower than the likelihood that they would purchase another Ford product.
The company is missing the opportunity to gain clients’ loyalty by introducing them to the service department, demonstrating to them possible offers, and stimulating them to choose Sullivan’s Auto World in the future. The absence of decent and appropriate space for mechanic services makes workers uncomfortable showing it to the people, which leads to a lack of engagement and demand. In addition to this, the cases where the reason for the dysfunction was diagnosed wrong or not from the first attempt also decreased the trustworthiness and did not encourage customers torn to the company for such services. However, the outcomes could be better if Walter Sullivan had taken the time to personally deal with the client’s complaints and paid more attention to their problems. His priority should have been to assist them with everything he could.
Alternatives
- Renovate the service department and create a pleasant and modern space for comfortable customer visits and improvement of the company’s image
- Implement new corporate values with an emphasis on customer service and develop a professional attitude toward their needs and problems
- Hire new employees instead of those who do not manage to meet the professional requirements and train new specialists according to the company’s standards
Evaluation of the Alternatives
Renovating the service department will boost the revenue of the dealership and will allow retaining more customers after their first visit to the salon. Clients will not have to change the provider to fulfill their needs when they see that everything is needed in one place. Since cars always require care and technical support throughout their usage, paying attention to the service department is crucial. Although, despite the changes and improvements in the department, it is still not the primary source of income, and it will not guarantee significant financial growth.
It is also necessary to implement new corporate principles that place a focus on providing excellent customer service. Working on corporate values is a crucial step in the overall increase of customer satisfaction and productivity of the company (Fedele et al., 2020). Because Sullivan’s Auto World is directly connected to the operations with clients, it should be one of the highest priorities for the future. The job performance should be client-oriented, and everyone from the writers and mechanics to the sales managers has to be trained to focus on helping customers and resolving their questions. Nevertheless, attempts to try and train current employees on the new approaches to the work might be tough and sometimes unsuccessful. For a long time, they worked with different schemes, and they might be resistant to new changes.
Another step is to hire new employees instead of those who demonstrated constant unprofessionalism and low job performance. It includes finding new writers and managers to effectively communicate with clients and provide them with the most pleasant experience. However, despite the costs of hiring new employees, there will be additional expenses for the training to ensure that the new employees are aware of the company’s standards and working according to the company’s policies.
Conclusion
Give it a year or two to try to recover financially, and if the turnaround was successful in the latter case, the company might be sold for more money than it was currently asking, or the family could hire a general manager to run the dealership on their behalf.
Reference
Fedele, A., Miniaci, R., & Tortia, E. (2022). Strong client orientation, little leverage in nonprofit firms? Small Business Economics, 58(1), 541-563.