Success Story Alison Spitzer VP of Operations Spitzer Auto Group
built to last OVER 100 YEARS OF PROFITABLE CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS
Spitzer Auto Group
Built to Last
Over 100 Years of Profitable Customer Relationships
Taking care of customers is a family tradition for the Spitzer Automotive Group and it goes back to 1904 when Henry Ford personally recruited George Spitzer to sell Model T’s in Grafton, Ohio. Ford had been polling the community to find local business owners who had a positive reputation and who possessed both the business acumen and the people skills necessary to help him reinvent the way people think about getting from point A to B. Since then, four generations of Spitzers have grown the family business into a highly profitable mega group with 17 locations selling 10 different brands. Although a lot has changed since 1904, Spitzer Auto Group has remained firm in their belief that serving the customer is the key to long-term profitability.
The current champion for this cause is Alison Spitzer, the group’s Vice President of Operations who, at the age of 29, joined the family business just in time to help her father navigate through the second biggest economic downturn in American history. During this process the group lost 10 of its dealerships, as franchises were pulled by the manufacturers in a last-ditch effort to stay afloat. Spitzer helped lead the charge to save their stores, eventually going all the way to Capitol Hill. She and her father, Alan Spitzer, helped to get legislation passed to close the franchise loophole and gave every dealer their day in court to fight for their franchises. Spitzer Automotive Group eventually won back eight of the 10 stores, losing only one and selling another. “In 2009, our first goal was survival,” said Spitzer, “but where others only saw instability we saw an opportunity to make big changes. Everyone was starting over, so we used this as an opportunity to reinvent ourselves. The Internet became the foundation for our new business model and we adapted a ‘burn the ships’ mentality with
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all of our general managers. We were all in this together.”
FACING THE CHALLENGES
With the immediate battle won, the group still faced a harsh reality. In order to survive in the long term, the combined leadership decided that it had to accomplish four tasks: • Increase sales without increasing its spending • Create a customer-oriented sales process, which included a reliable and consistent way to measure how customers were being treated in sales, service, the stores and group wide. • Create a work environment that produced careers, and not just jobs. For this, it needed an accurate, scalable way to evaluate and train employees. • Increase the performance of all their stores without distracting them with busy work. For this, it needed a system that would deliver the information they needed — to the right person, when they need it. With these goals in mind, Spitzer Automotive Group reinvented its sales and service models. While many companies have a mission statement that is soon ignored, Spitzer created a statement that served as a launching point for all of the company’s future activities: “We are going to lead the industry through creating a simple, transparent, customer-oriented experience every day.” Living up to that statement has paid off for the company. The dealer group was back in the black by 2010, and has experienced double digit sales growth every year since. In fact, it is now one of the most profitable dealer groups in America. By practicing collaboration, employee development and accountability, the group’s employees became “students of the customer experience.”
COLLABORATION
“We created a ‘Culture of Collaboration’ that brings senior executives and general managers together for weekly conference calls and quarterly off site meetings,” Spitzer said. Between off-site meetings, leaders participate in “customer
experience-based field trips” (such visiting an Apple Store or shopping at Nordstrom) and are required to bring at least one idea to the next meeting. “We drive this ship together,” Spitzer said.
Units sold per salesperson is up from seven per month to 12 — an increase of 33 percent.
EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT
PERFORMANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY
In addition to bringing the GMs together to share ideas and experiences, the group also implemented a GM coaching program, where the GMs work with career coaches to learn how to become mentors and foster leaders within their organizations. By becoming better at leading, rather than simply managing, the company gets better results from their teams, and the teams are happier in their careers. The company also changed its hiring processes and compensation plans to attract and keep the best people, building a smaller, yet more effective team. By doing this, the company cut turnover by 50 percent in 2012, and is able to have fewer people actually sell more vehicles.
“We are a great place to work,” Spitzer said, “and, oh yeah, we happen to sell cars.”
In order to improve results, the group first had to find out what results they were getting in the first place. Finding the right technology to help them with this was key. Spitzer Automotive Group selected CallRevu.com, a company that focuses on call management and training, to help them establish a baseline and then increase their results. “CallRevu is not a tool,” Spitzer said. “They are a part of our business plan. They are the glue that gives the group visibility into how everyone is performing and how our customers are being treated in sales and service.” Spitzer said that there were immediate results once the system was in place. “One of our vendors was dropping calls; if we did not have CallRevu, we would not have known,” she said. “Up to 30 percent of their calls were not getting through. Once CallRevu was brought in, that number fell overnight to only 11 percent.” More importantly, the new system allowed the group’s leadership a new vantage point to see where change was needed. “This allows us the group-wide and store-wide visibility we need to provide employees with accountability and give customers and great experience,” Spitzer said. With this technology in place, and with every sales and service call monitored, managers now had real-time alerts when calls were missed or mishandled to allow them to re-engage with the customer
Spitzer receives real-time alerts every time a sales or service call is missed or mishandled. These alerts include a detailed summary of what went wrong so that managers can take action without having to listen to recordings
Spitzer Auto Group COMPONENTS OF SPITZER’S 360° RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
Alerts
Analytics
Support
Call Tracking
Training
Full Service Call Center
Monitoring Enterprise Reporting Spitzer Auto Group uses an integrated call management system that monitors 100 percent of sales and service calls across all 17 locations in real time and that combines tracking, monitoring, alerts, reports and training into a single, easy to use solution.
before the opportunity was lost. The system also delivers performance reports to all managers group wide each week, which allows Spitzer to hold company-wide conference calls each week to review the results. “We now have real-time visibility into what’s happening at every store,” Spitzer said. “The report goes out to every GM on Monday morning so we can dive in and see where the red flags are.”
“CallRevu is not a tool...it is the glue that gives the group visibility into how everyone is performing and how our customers are being treated in sales and service.” Alison Spitzer
receive detailed, employee-specific reports they can use to coach and train salespeople and service advisors. This information, coupled with a coaching program Spitzer Auto Group started to better train GMs on how to become mentors and leaders to their team, is a powerful tool to improve both individual and overall results. The system also notes when a team member needs special guidance in handling calls. Sales team members must maintain an acceptable appointment percentage in order to get sales calls. If they do not, they are taken out of rotation until a manager can coach them, and sign off on them going back into the rotation.
VP of Operations Spitzer Auto Group
“This new visibility and accountability gave our GMs a feeling of partnership with CallRevu,” Spitzer said. “It allows them to have a long-term training program for improving the performance of both individuals and managers.”
The system also allows for leaders to build the skills of their teams by giving them actionable data on areas that could be improved. Dealerships
The service departments in the Spitzer group have seen a remarkable turnaround since the new system was adopted. Before, up to 30
percent of the service calls were lost; now, 89 percent of service calls connect with the right person. And, service volume has increased overall by 20 percent, without spending any extra marketing dollars. As impressive as these stats are, Spitzer is quick to point out that their success is driven by people, not technology. The technology they use simply empowers their managers, salespersons and service advisors to do what Spitzer Auto Group has been passionate about for over 110 years – create simple, transparent, customer oriented experiences every day. For more information on the companies and strategies used by Spitzer Auto Group, email: successstories@autosuccessonline.com
Success Story
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Spitzer Auto Group
We are going to lead the industry through creating a simple, transparent, customer-oriented experience every day. Alison Spitzer, VP of Operations Spitzer Automotive Group
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Success Story
IN A NUTSHELL
Built to Last
Over 100 Years of Profitable Customer Relationships •
Used the auto industry’s economic meltdown as an opportunity to reinvent Spitzer’s sales and service models. New strategy focused on creating transparent and simple customer experiences.
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Created a “Culture of Collaboration” that brings senior executives and General Managers together for weekly conference calls and quarterly off site meetings.
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Cut employee turnover by 50 percent by restructuring compensation plans and hiring processes to attract and keep top talent.
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Increased service volume and sales volume by implementing a system that monitors 100 percent of sales and service calls and alerts managers when opportunities are mishandled.
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Increased average sales per salesperson by 33 percent by using call management reports to coach underperforming team members and by implementing a call management process that only gives sales calls to those meeting the company’s required appointment percentage.
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Increased ROI on marketing spend by more than 25 percent by partnering with a call management company that helps them connect and convert more sales opportunities from the same number of leads.
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