1
Entrepreneurial Orientation in Dutch Car Dealerships
Eltjo Doddema S2559978 e.doddema.1@student.rug.nl PD dr. M. Wyrwich S. Murtinu Ph. D. June 2019 Master’s Thesis
MSc BA Small Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty of Economics and Business
2 Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate which innovative methods can be applied by car dealerships to improve customer satisfaction. Omnichannel integration and entrepreneurial orientation were emphasized in the research, and differences in size were considered as well. In a qualitative research design, thirteen interviews were conducted at car dealerships of different sizes in the north-eastern part of The Netherlands. The results showed that dealerships with a strong omnichannel integration and high entrepreneurial orientation find it easier to create customer experience. Contrary to the expectations, smaller car
dealerships do not have a higher degree of entrepreneurial orientation or closer contacts with customers. Based on the results, some managerial implications and ideas for further research were discussed.
3 Table of content 1.Introduction 4 2.Theory 6 2.1 Customer experience 6 2.2 Customer journey 6 2.3 Omnichannel retailing 7 2.4 Entrepreneurial orientation 8 3.Methodology 11 3.1 Data collection 11 3.2 Data analysis 12 4.Results 13
4.1 Omnichannel integration and customer experience 13 4.2 Entrepreneurial orientation and customer experience 18
4.3 Entrepreneurial orientation and size 20
5.Discussion 23
5.1 Conclusion and discussion 23
5.2 Managerial implications 25
5.3 Limitations and future research 26
Appendix I: List of co-operators 28
Appendix II: Interview questions 30
Appendix III: Coding scheme 32
Appendix IV: Interview transcripts 35
References 63
4 1. Introduction
According to BOVAG (2015), the Dutch branch organisation for mobility, the demand of cars and aftersales have been decreased. In 2014 the sales of new cars decreased to a historically low point of around 385.000 cars, while in 2008 nearly 500.000 new cars were sold in The Netherlands. The organisation does not assume that the decrease of last years was a one-off temporary effect and they assume that the decrease will continue in the upcoming years. Moreover, since 2011 the aftersales have been decreasing with around 8% each year. The decrease of aftersales will keep continuing as expected by the branch organization. A new reality has to be formed for the whole sector.
Worldwide, the automotive industry plays an important role in the global economy. The healthiness of the sector is seen as an important indicator of the general economy in developed countries. Not only the production of the cars and parts, but the expenses in marketing, selling and after-sale services have a big impact on the economy as well. In the United States 18 million cars were sold in 2013. In the same year, 8.3 billion Dollars were spent on advertising and over 20 million Americans are employed in the automotive industry (Fraser and Tseng, 2013). In The Netherlands around 385.000 new cars were sold, one million second hand cars changed from ownership (BOVAG, 2015). Since The Netherlands does not have any relevant car manufacturers, the costs of marketing in The Netherlands are paid by the importers. In 2013, they have issued 368 million Euros on marketing, which means that 882 Euros per car was spent on marketing in The Netherlands. The German volume car manufacturer Opel has the highest marketing expenses, with over 35 million Euros each year (Nielsen, 2014).
The quality of manufactured cars have improved greatly in the last decades (Zadry and Yusof, 2006). However, Kristiano, Ajmal and Sandhu (2012) state that the expected level of quality at the dealership level keeps rising for potential car buyers, which increases the pressure on car producers and dealerships to provide higher quality products and services. Dealerships form an important link in the automotive supply chain (Fraser and Tseng, 2013). The supply chain can be divided in four groups: component suppliers, car manufacturers, dealership networks, and buyers. The dealerships are the link to the customer for the car manufacturer, but according to Joetan and Kleiner (2004) automotive salesmen are seen as cunning and cold by the general public. The importance of a positive sales experience was investigated by Denove (2003), who found that nearly 50% of the customers who leave the showroom with a negative feeling will not buy the same car brand again.
5 Car dealerships are falling behind and need to change their behaviour according to branch organisation BOVAG (2015). The new car sales and after sales are decreasing, the car dealerships do not have a good reputation and are falling behind in their retail experience compared to other retail sectors. Therefore, research is needed to come up with suggestions to improve the retail experience of customers at car dealerships. The research question of this proposal is:
Which innovative methods can be applied by car dealerships to improve customer satisfaction?
This research will contribute to the automotive industry literature and will be executed through qualitative research, by conducting interviews at car dealerships of different sizes. Because of limited time, all interviewed car dealership owners are from the north-eastern part of The Netherlands. The following parts of this thesis consists of a theory section, where the important concepts and relations are explained. In the method section, the design of the research will be described. Finally, the results of the research will be described and
6 2. Theory
2.1 Customer experience
Lemon and Verhoef (2016) state that nowadays creating a strong customer experience is a leading management objective. In a study by Accenture (2015), excecutives were asked to give rankings on the most important priorities of the coming year and improving the
customer experience came up as top priority. Customer experience can be defined as every service exchange, regardless of its nature and form (Schmitt, Brakus and Zaratonello, 2015). However, this is a broad definition. Verhoef et al. (2009) define customer experience as a multi-dimensional construct in a retailing context, which is holistic in nature and involves the cognitive, affective, emotional, social, and physical responses of the customer to the retailer. According to Stuart and Tax (2004), in the case of creating customer experience, the firm is designing and crafting an experience for the customer to receive. Some large firms like Amazon and Google, now have a chief customer experience. However, most car dealerships are small or medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Fotopoulos and Psomas (2010) found that the implementation of customer experience of a high quality is much lower in SMEs than in larger firms. According to Chandler and Lusch (2015), the design and management of the customer experience can be viewed from different perspectives. It can be seen from the perspective of the customer, but it can also be seen from the firm’s point of view. Overall, the currently leading definition of customer experience is ‘’a multidimensional construct focusing on a customer’s cognitive, emotional, behavioural, sensorial, and social response to a firm’s offerings during the customer’s entire purchase journey (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). The experience of the customer consists of every contact between the firm and the customer, which are called ‘touch points’ (Homburg et al, 2015). The customer experience is built up through a collection of all touch points in multiple phases of a purchase journey (Pucinelli et al., 2009).
2.2 Customer journey
Customer experience consists of three main stages: pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase (Neslin et al. 2006). When trying to improve the customer experience it is more manageable to split up the customer experience of the complete journey in these three stages (Schmitt, 2003). Pre-purchase is the first stage. This stage includes all the interaction of the customer with a certain brand or category, before the initial purchase. According to Pieters, Baumgartner and Allen (1995) this stage encompasses the experience of the customer from the beginning of the need recognition to buy a product or a service to the moment of the purchase itself.
7 and social media, followed by a portal of the car manufacturer. In addition reading about automotive news online and in magazines are part of the pre-purchase journey. In the end of the pre-purchase stage, customers often talk about their buying intentions to family or friends. The car dealership is merely at the end of the pre-purchase part of the customer journey. First the customer wants to see and feel the car, and then they want to make a test drive. This is the main reason why car dealers exist in the automotive supply chain. Most customers will not buy a car completely online (GfK, 2013).
The second stage of the customer journey encompasses all the interaction with the brand and its environment during the purchase. Most likely events in this stage are making a decision, ordering, and the payment of the product or service (Keller and Kotler, 2015). Elberse (2010) states that in this stage the seller has to be careful that he does not give the customer an overload of information and choice. This could cause the customer to stop his search and defer the purchase of the product or service. In successful cases, the deal will be closed (Iyengar and Lepper, 2000). In the automotive industry, this stage includes making a choice about a certain car brand and type. Then other choices, like type of engine, colour and options (GfK, 2013). To avoid an overload of choice, a decade ago, car manufactures decided to put combinations of options together in packages. The choice became more easier but more limited. The currently leading approach is that customers have the opportunity to make the car as personal as possible.
The third and last phase of the customer journey is the post-purchase stage. This stage consists of all interactions of the customer with the brand and environment after the
purchase. The most common events are the usage of the product or service and requests of service, repurchase, and word-of-mouth (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982; Kelley and Davis 1994; Bolton, 1998; Van Doorn et al., 2010). Especially in the automotive industry, this is an important stage. According to BOVAG (2015) aftersales, like maintenance intervals are a big part of the total revenues of the car dealership. However, according to GfK (2013), there are a lot of points of improvement in this stage. Only 30% of Dutch car buyers are pro-actively approached by the car dealership for a repurchase, while repurchasing are increasingly becoming important, since today’s customers switch brands easily.
Lemon and Verhoef (2016) state that firstly, firms have to understand the perspectives of the purchase journey of the firm itself and its customers and identify the key aspects for both of them. Secondly, the firm has to identify all the important elements or touch points that could occur during the customer journey. Thirdly, the firm has to find out which trigger points lead customers to continue or stop the journey.
2.3 Omnichannel retailing
8 2014). Within the omnichannel, all the different channels have to be used interchangeably and seamlessly during all stages of the customer journey (Verhoef, Neslin and Vroomen, 2007). The change is driven by new technologies that allow to integrate the physical, traditional online, and modern online channels. The transition between visiting a store physically, on mobile devices or through social media channels should be smooth (Piotrowicz and Cuthbertson, 2014). According to Verhoef, Kannan and Inman (2015) omnichannel retailing can be defined as the synergetic management of the numerous available channels and customer touchpoints in such a way that the customer experience across channels and the performance over channels are optimized.
According to BOVAG (2015), today’s customer expects that the combination of channels is integrated completely, like in many other retail sectors. Customers get the best retail experience in the supermarket industry. The automotive industry is falling behind when it comes to integrating different channels. The car manufacturer and the car dealership have to be connected and be consistent in messages and experiences. This is important since the automotive market is changing. A decade ago, customers visited the car dealership four times before deciding whether they would buy a new car or not. Currently, the average amount of visits is two. This is because customers already made a choice at home, based on the information of the car manufacturer. The main goal of visiting the car dealer is feeling the car and making a test drive. It is important that the customers get the same information from the manufacturer as they get from the car dealer.
H1: Car dealerships with a higher degree of omnichannel integration will find it easier to create higher customer experience.
2.4 Entrepreneurial orientation
The idea that organizations with a more entrepreneurial strategic orientation have a better performance is widely spread (Knight, 1997; Namen and Slevin, 1993; Zahra, 1991). A high level of entrepreneurial orientation of business owners seems to make them able to see new opportunities faster, which could result in a competitive advantage for their business. Entrepreneurial orientation involves the willingness to take risks in trying something new and handle more proactive than competitors when opportunities arise (Covin and Slevin, 1991). Wiklund and Shepherd (2005) state that entrepreneurial orientation tries to capture specific entrepreneurial aspects of decision making styles , methods, and practices.
According to Miller (1983), an entrepreneurial firm is one of the first firms to come up with an idea, acts proactively and is willing to take risks to gain a competitive advantage.
Based on that perception, Wiklund and Shepherd (2005) came up with three dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation: innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking. An innovation is a new idea, which could be a combination of old ideas or a unique approach which is
9 innovativeness entails the ability to develop new products or services, but also new
administrative systems, for example.
The second dimension of entrepreneurial orientation is proactiveness. Lumpkin and Dess (1996) state that proactiveness is the ability of anticipating and acting on future wants and needs of the market and creating a first-mover advantage. According to Jauch and Glück (1988), a proactive strategy is one in which the entrepreneur acts before they are forced to react to environmental threats and opportunities. They state that it is not a reaction to environmental change, but symptoms of upcoming change. This is a difficult task according to Urban and Hauser (1993), but when the launch is successful, the product becomes established.
The third dimension of entrepreneurial orientation is risk taking. The most common definition of risk is a high variation in the distribution of possible outcomes. It can be
measured by the variance of the probability distribution of possible gains and losses (Arrow, 1965). According to Miller and Friesen (1982), risk taking is the willingness to commit more resources to projects were the cost of failure is high.
Previous research found that business owners with a higher entrepreneurial orientation perform better (Wiklund, 1999; Zahra and Covin, 1995). The automotive industry is a
conservative industry, which, according to BOVAG (2015) is falling behind compared to other retail industries on customer experience. I therefore propose that businesses in the
automotive industry with a relative high entrepreneurial orientation perform better in customer experience.
H2: Car dealerships with a higher entrepreneurial orientation will find it easier to create a higher customer experience.
According to BOVAG (2015) large dealerships in The Netherlands keep growing. Twenty years ago, Volkswagen importer Pon had around 250 contract partners. Currently, they have around 70 contract partners and according to BOVAG (2015), only 25 contract partners will survive in the next ten years. Although previous studies suggest that businesses which are situated in a stable environment, but have limited access to capital, can be superior performers if they have a high entrepreneurial orientation, other studies found that
10 have the access to resources, are less innovative due to bureaucracy, which discourages creativity, and less flexibility. I therefore state that smaller car dealerships have a higher degree of entrepreneurial orientation.
H3a: Smaller car dealerships have a higher degree of entrepreneurial orientation than larger car dealerships.
Previous studies found that products outperform services on perceived quality (Fornell, 1992; Johnson, Gustafsson and Cha, 1999). However, there is a major difference between services and products in the way they are produced and consumed. Services are produced in an interactive process with the customer and service employees of the company
(Edvardsson, Johnson, Gustafsson and Strandvik, 2000). Because services require more human resources of a firm than products, it is harder to achieve predictable quality levels (Bateson and Hoffman, 1999; Edvardsson, 1997). According to BOVAG (2015), aftersales, like maintenance intervals, are a big part of the total revenues of the car dealership. However, according to GfK (2013), there are a lot of points of improvement in this stage. In the automotive industry, car sales are seen as the product, while aftersales like maintenance, are seen as services (BOVAG, 2015). Since services require more human resources of a firm, growth of the car dealerships, often with multiple establishments, makes it harder to have a predictable quality level of aftersales services. Besides that, Cotton and Tuttle (1986) found that the employee turnover rate is positively correlated to size. Therefore it is harder to create a strong bond with employees of a large car dealership. I state that smaller car dealerships have closer contacts with their aftersales customers than larger car dealerships.
11 3. Methodology
In this section the methodology will be described. The Dutch car branch organisation BOVAG believes that the automotive industry at dealership level has to change fundamentally, and in this research the ‘’how’’-question is central. If the phenomenon has not been researched in academic literature yet, theory development is needed (Van Aken, Berends and Van der Bij, 2012). Therefore theory development seems to be the right choice for this research. For this type of research, the most common way is qualitative research based on interviews. This form of qualitative research is useful for theory development. Because the study is about car dealerships in The Netherlands, I have interviewed thirteen car dealership owners or store managers, that sell or sold new cars of different brands in the north-eastern part of The Netherlands. The interviews were conducted in Dutch, because this is the native language for all the interviewed attendees.
3.1 Data collection
In this research primary data is used. The data consists of interviews with dealership owners of different car brands in the Dutch provinces Groningen and Drenthe. Qualitative data is necessary for answering the research question (Eisenhardt, 1989). Thirteen interviews with car dealership owners or store managers are used for this research. I am trying to reveal how the different dealerships in The Netherlands are trying to create innovative methods to create customer satisfaction and how the customers react on those different methods, to find out which methods are effective. In order to do this, car dealership owners of different sizes were interviewed. The sample consists of (1) two companies who had a dealership in the past, (2) two companies that are authorized repairers of a car manufacturer, (3) four car dealerships with one establishment, (4) three car dealerships with at least three
establishments, and (5) two automotive groups with multiple brands and at least ten establishments. The list of co-operators can be found in Appendix I.
I approached all respondents in person, because I think that approaching by e-mail or telephone is less personal, which makes to chance of success smaller. After approaching respondents, all interviews were conducted in the next week. In the first four categories, I approached twelve different companies. Only one company (Renault Schoon) did not see the benefits of cooperating with the research. I reached out to multiple automotive groups in person, but getting into contact with the right person was an issue sometimes. Only two companies were willing to cooperate immediately, the others (e.g. Nefkens Peugeot,
Terwolde Renault and Tesla Inc.) did not want to cooperate or gave me an e-mail address or a telephone number to get in contact with the responsible person. After calling or e-mailing the possible respondents, there was no willingness to cooperate.
12 and customer experience. Questions 15-20 relate to the relationship between
entrepreneurial orientation and customer experience. Question 21-23 refer to the
relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and size. The interview questions can be found in Appendix II.
The interviews were conducted in a semi-structured way. I asked open questions which were prepared in advance, but there was room to ask extra questions when interesting
opportunities arose during the interview. The interviews were situated and spontaneous, the interviewee knew the subject of the research beforehand, but he did not know the questions of the interview. The interviews were held in person, to see the visual cues of the interviewee. The interviews were conducted in May 2019.
3.2 Data analysis
Every interviewee was asked whether he agreed with recording the interview using a
dictaphone. All of them agreed, however, some stated explicitly that some information they gave was competitor sensitive and therefore had to be removed in the version handed out to other respondents. Due to the importance of research ethics, this was carefully done. Afterwards, the complete interviews were transcribed in Dutch and analysed. Old and new situations were compared. The process is inductive, the concepts emerged from the data. All the raw data of the interviews was analysed through coding and interpretation.
After reading the interview transcripts, the important excerpts were highlighted and translated to English. The analysis is executed using the method of Eisenhardt (1989). Through open coding, the excerpts were grouped into categories. After refining these categories through axial coding, new subcategories arose. The last step of the analysis was identifying the core categories and relationships by selective coding. The translation of the transcripts and coding schemes can be found in Appendix III and IV. When theoretical saturation was found and no new insights emerged, no new interviews were conducted. Finally, when the core categories and relationships were found, conclusions were drafted. Based on the conclusions, managerial implications were prepared. By implementing these recommendations, they could improve their commercial behaviour. Afterwards,
13 4. Results
4.1 Omnichannel integration and customer experience
In the last twenty years, the automotive industry has undergone a transformation. These changes can be divided into technological and market changes, and changes in customer behaviour. First the technological shifts will be discussed.
4.1.1 Market changes and technological improvements
According to all thirteen respondents, internet transformed the automotive industry the most. Customers are much better informed than twenty years ago. In those days, a car salesman had to search for customers and then he had to advise them. On the internet, customers can find all specifications and reviews. In a lot of cases, the customer sends a brochure request to the importer of the car. Nowadays, it is even possible to configure the car online. The market has become much more transparent for the customer. The
orientation is at home, visiting the showroom is the last step of the process. Therefore, knowing how to be found on the internet is very important.
Knowing that the market is much more transparent, it all depends on the price. Since the prices of new cars do not differ a lot, it mostly depends on how much money they get in return for their second hand car. This behaviour is shown when customers search for a second hand car. In that case, prices play an even larger role. The negative consequences are that customers are comparing apples with oranges. However, it also takes less time of the car salesmen to sell a new or second hand car. Another phenomenon that occurred in the last twenty years is private lease. In a lot of cases, the customer has never visited the showroom when buying a new car with private lease. That makes one of the respondents feel that he is more an order picker than a car salesman.
Market forces also played an important role. Around 2000, nearly all car importers gave their contract partners a choice; they had to grow or the contract would not be extended. In that period a lot of car dealerships became independent or got connected with formulas like Kwikfit, Vakgarage or Bosch. Therefore, small car dealerships nearly do not exist anymore, and the scale increased. For example, twenty years ago, Volkswagen had between 80 and 90 contract partners in The Netherlands. Currently they have only 25 contract partners, and in the upcoming years this number will decrease to fifteen to twenty. Twenty years ago, most car dealerships were in private hands and the owner was also the company manager. Nowadays most car dealerships are groups, owned by investors or rich families with roots in the automotive industry (e.g. Porsche family), or in different industries (e.g. Mandemakers family).
14 Tivoli is an example of a car, which is not for sale in The Netherlands, because this car cannot be priced competitively due to taxes. But also signals of the city of Amsterdam, not allowing any fossil fuel cars in the city within ten years, make customers postpone buying a new car. 4.1.2 Changing customers
Not only the technology and market changed in the last two decades. The customers changed enormously as well. Due to internet, they are more aware of the prices of cars and the costs of maintenance. That makes them more assertive, but also more critical. In some case that is fair, because the automotive industry does not have a strong image. However, they are also more demanding or even rude. Customers expect more effort of the car dealership. Some respondents think that it is fair to demand more from the car dealership, because they are paying a large amount of money for their car. However, others state that the margins on new cars are quite small, whereas people think that car dealerships make a lot of profit.
What people desire from their car dealership has changed as well. Twenty years ago, customers wanted to create a strong bond with a car salesman, and drink a cup of coffee with him. Nowadays only the elderly expect this from the car dealerships. Younger people do not value the possession of a car, but see it rather as a user object. They rather want
certainty. That is why car leasing became so popular. The customer pays an amount of money every month, and besides that, the only cost that is left are fuel costs. The taxes, insurance and maintenance are paid by the lease company. The business driver wants to be served fast and it has to be right immediately. It is becoming more and more important to adjust your behaviour to the wishes of the customer.
The automotive industry, especially on car dealer level, does not have a strong image according to all respondents. Some say that is right, because a lot of companies are fraudulent, like with MOT. On the other hand, some respondents think that people have more confidence in car dealers than is being said. Internet also makes it harder to fraud. Negative reviews on websites like Google, have an enormous impact on the reputation of a car dealership. However, it is becoming more and more important to give customers a positive feeling about the car dealership, because nowadays customers jump from one car dealership to another like a flea.
4.1.3 Proactive selling
All respondents agree that a high service level will create that positive feeling. The way they are trying to reach that differs, though. The independent companies and smaller car
dealerships are trying to act normally and doing their work right. They are proud that they know the customers by their names. They also answer the telephone themselves, opposed to larger car dealerships, which have call centres. The smaller companies of the sample also think that honesty, honouring commitments and transparency (e.g., taking a look in the workshop) can distinguish them from the larger companies. They are trying to steal
15 free. They see small size as their competitive advantage opposed to the impersonal large competitors. The large companies are trying to reach a high service level by making it their customers as easy as possible by acting proactively and generating leads to new sales. Acting proactively is broadly accepted in the automotive industry when it comes to
maintenance. All respondents act so when the car needs service or an MOT. Customers even expect that from that car dealership. Some car manufacturers even made an app, like
myOpel, which tells you exactly when the cars needs maintenance. However, the opinions about proactively trying to sell a car differ a lot. Especially the smaller companies do not want to call customers or make them an offer beforehand. They do search cars for
customers, but only when they are aware of the fact that someone is searching a new car. The car salesmen of smaller companies mostly dislike being called by electricity or
telephone companies themselves and are afraid to be intrusive. One respondent thinks that acting proactively will work in some parts of The Netherlands, but not in the northern part. Another respondent thinks that people expect to get a high price for their second hand car when he makes the customer an offer beforehand.
Trying to sell cars proactively is done by all larger companies and is also stimulated by the car importers. All large respondents have a system for customer retention. Most of them call customers every year. The salesman gets an automatic message that a year has passed since the last phone call. After three or four years, depending on the phone calls, the salesman makes the customer an offer for a new car. Everything is written down in their system. Calling the customers keeps the relation between the seller and the customer ‘warm’. The larger companies want to speak with eight to ten contacts a day. How the salesman generates these contacts completely depends on the salesman himself. Salesmen of larger companies also speak to customers when they bring the car for maintenance and sometimes make them an offer and lay it on the passenger seat of the car. Only one small company calls customers proactive for sales. He thinks that having a phone call with a car salesman is different compared to a phone call of an telephone company, because they are strangers to the customer, whereas the customer is familiar with the car salesman. However, just like the large companies, this respondent thinks it is a successful way of selling cars.
4.1.4 Online customer journey
16 May 2019, whereas only a few customers visit the showroom each day. Nowadays, your website is your showroom.
Websites are the most important tools to attract customers to your showroom. The website needs to be found easily and has to be up-to-date all the time. It has to be attractive, not only on the personal computer or laptop, but also when the website is visited with a mobile phone or a tablet. The steps towards the physical car dealerships have to be smooth, customers may not stray, when they are visiting the website of the company. Telephone numbers and addresses have to be found easily and search functions need to give proper results. Smaller car dealerships often have a website made by the car importer. This shows a lot of uniformity with the website of the importer and car manufacturer, which makes it recognizable for the customers. However, it makes it harder to distinguish the website from others. Larger car dealerships have websites of their own most of the time, which are
sometimes even better than the website of the manufacturer. Not everyone is satisfied with their website, but with techniques changing this fast, no car dealership is ever done with adapting their website.
It is hard to find grip on the visitors of the website. That makes it important that people leave their personal data on the website, which makes it easier to get in contact with the potential customer. When the car salesman can get into contact with the customer, he could be attracted to the physical showroom. The larger brands already have systems that
immediately make contact between the customer and the nearest car dealership, to get them in contact with each other. The larger car dealerships also use retargeting. In that case, the customers keep seeing commercials of the car dealership, even when he is visiting other websites. However, it is hard to measure the success of retargeting, according to the
respondents, since it is rather expensive. Van Mossel Automotive uses this technique a lot to be discovered. Even though they are a larger player nationally, they are relatively new in the northern part of The Netherlands.
4.1.5 Offline customer journey
17 Online needs to connect seamlessly to the physical showroom and create a positive brand experience. They created a campus with shops of all the brands they sell, but also a car wash and other complementary businesses. They constantly try to attract customers to their physical stores and try to create a strong brand experience, so the customer will return to that brand in the future.
4.1.6 Relationship importer
Since internet and potential customer contacts became more important, a strong bond with the importer seems essential. However, not all car dealerships are satisfied with the
relationship they have with their importer. Only two car dealerships of the sample (Toyota and Volkswagen) have a private importer, the majority has a factory importer, controlled by the manufacturer. The two companies with private importers are most satisfied about the relationship with their importer. Close contacts and sharing information on a large scale are strong points of the relationship between the private importers and their car dealerships. The opinions about the factory importers are divided. Car dealership are more satisfied about the relationship with smaller importers, than the larger ones. Less car dealerships means more attention. However, one importer became so small, that the factory merged the Dutch importer with the Belgian importer. The respondent is unsatisfied, because the Belgian staff does not understand the Dutch tax system, which is very important in the automotive industry.
A car dealership is more or less a franchisee. Most of the respondents are unsatisfied about the high demands of the importers. The importer decides what the appearance of the
showroom should look like (e.g., signs on the outside, the colours, the type of lights, the type of glass, the type of floor, the tile pattern, the furniture, and demonstration cars) to get uniformity. It takes large investments, before the car business owner may sell cars of a certain brand. And with the transition from fossil fuel to renewable sources of fuel, the investments will keep rising in the future. But the importer also has high demands about sales and customer satisfaction. Opel was property of the American company General Motors, but they sold it to the French Peugeot SA. All three respondents which are an Opel car dealership conclude that the demands became higher after the transition. The more powerful the importer, mostly when brands are sold on a large scale, the more demands they have. However, one respondent states, the demands are always fair as long as the brand in total stays profitable.
18 pictures. And now, when the car is introduced, most of them are sold for over 30.000 Euros, while the average price for the Renault Captur is 24.000 Euros. The respondent thinks that the Volkswagen has a higher quality, but that this difference is not worth 6.000 Euros. This is brand image. Seat and Skoda have a less strong image, which means lower loyalty and lower retention. But also shared information, financial support, training of the personnel, and promotion are benefits of a car dealership. An active importer is very useful in the
automotive industry, but on the other hand, car dealerships with a less active importer are most of the time more creative themselves.
The car dealerships with large brands are mostly unsatisfied about the high demands, car dealerships with small brands are more satisfied about the demands, but notice points of improvement. Jaguar and Land Rover have a slow operating car configurator online and the website is very basic compared to the other high class car websites. Suzuki tries to attract customers to their showrooms, but also prevents customers to visit their showrooms by offering them a price online for their second hand car. That makes it hard for the car dealership holder to build up a relationship. Mazda can make improvement when it comes to promotion and Opel has different loose planning systems which cannot be integrated. Importers rate customer satisfaction as one of most important issues. All respondents agree on that point, but some are very unsatisfied with the way this is measured. One respondent states ‘’sometimes the customer seems to be forgotten because we are so busy building customer satisfaction’’. The customers have to rate the car dealership when they bought a new car. Importers are only satisfied with 9/10 or 10/10, while, especially in the northern and eastern part of The Netherlands, the majority of the customers a 7/10 or and 8/10 gives when they are highly satisfied. In a lot of car dealerships the car salesman just asks the customer if they want to give a 9/10 or a 10/10, otherwise the car dealership would not get a bonus for customer satisfaction. One car dealership even made a golden star out of chocolate, to make customers rate their car dealership with a golden star. According to some respondents, this may go at the expense of real feedback.
4.2 Entrepreneurial orientation and customer experience 4.2.1 Attracting customers
19 workshops. Social media is also frequently used by respondents to attract customers, using a sense of humour to attract their attention. One respondent tried to attract customers by advertisement on shopping carts at large supermarkets in the region.
The larger car dealerships have more innovative ways to specialize or integrate horizontally. According to them, that is important since the society is changing and there will be less maintenance in the future with electric cars. One respondent specializes in campers and two respondents opened an establishment of Euromaster complementary to their car dealership. The importers do not like this way of attracting new customers, since they are afraid that it goes at the expense of their brand. The large car dealerships try to keep the customers within their group all the time, to prevent them from buying at a competitor. Large
dealerships have their own leasing companies, former lease cars are sold in their own outlet centres, cars can be repaired at their damage repair company after an accident, and cars can be washed at their carwash.
Van Mossel Automotive even made an outlet website with new premium cars like Jaguar and Land Rover. Due to a new automotive tax system, some of those cars became 10.000 to 23.000 euros more expensive, so they bought a high amount of cars before the starting date, which were sold at their outlet afterwards. However, since the possession of cars is
becoming less interesting, the larger companies also thought about different ways of transportation. Car rental has been done a lot in the past, but Volkswagen and Toyota are working on different car sharing concepts. Cars will be parked at random parking spots and that particular car can be opened and started with your own mobile phone. Especially with electric and self-driving cars, this will be very interesting. Century Autogroep even started with electrical bikes to broaden their assortment.
4.2.2 Goodwill
Car dealerships also try to gain goodwill from customers in innovative ways, using small things like giving a money box with the logo of the car dealership to young parents or leaving some chocolate Easter eggs in the car after maintenance. But also by creating convenience for customers by producing an app, in which it is possible to make service appointments directly in the planning of the car dealerships and getting a push notification when the car is ready to be picked up. Some car dealerships organize special events to keep customers satisfied, like a barbecue. But some try to be different.
20 heart foundation outside their establishment to help the local people in case of a heart attack. A hand full of people were already helped with the AED.
4.2.3 Risks
Entrepreneurship always comes with risks. Some respondents think that car dealerships take more risk than other franchises, because the size of the market is unclear, profit margins became smaller, high investments, importers want car dealership to grow, targets have to be met, less loyal customers than in the past, uncertainty about future fuels, and the Dutch and European government have a stake as well. However, nearly all respondents think the risks were all calculated by not focussing on one brand only, not growing too fast and not only looking at current politics. One respondent concluded that he tried to grow, with multiple establishments, but he was unable to make it a success. Another respondent stated that starting with a car dealership nowadays would be impossible. If he had to start now, he would specialize in diagnosis of electronical problems and future fuel systems.
4.3 Entrepreneurial orientation and size 4.3.1 Development
All respondents conclude that it would be nearly impossible to start a car dealership yourselves nowadays and since the bank wants more security than in the past, it is impossible for a private person to take over an existing car dealership. The investment pressure from the importer is also very high and besides that, importers want less contract partners. Less contract partners mean less contacts and less consultations. Importers stimulate car dealerships to grow and want to help them to realize that growth. This development started around 1999. Car dealerships had to grow or they had to leave. In those days Opel had 250 contract partners, but they want to reduce it to 25.
The car dealerships all have to grow. It depends on the importer, but three establishments seems not to be enough. From the thirteen respondents, only two consider themselves as a large player in the market: Century Autogroep and Van Mossel Automotive. The companies with three establishment do not see themselves as a group. Where Century Autogroep and Van Mossel Automotive gave all their acquisitions the name of the group, Toyota Drenthe kept the three historical names on the showrooms. The opinions of the respondents about this subject differ enormously, however, the development itself seems to be irreversible. 4.3.2 Entrepreneurial orientation and growth
Some respondents state that there are no major differences in the ability to see
21 by private persons, banks or importers. That makes them depending on those investors and it could we argued which interests are being served by the large car dealerships.
However, the majority of the respondents thinks that it is easier for large car dealerships to see opportunities and try new things. The more personnel a car dealership has, the easier they could realize new things. Large groups have complete departments for research and development. Large companies can purchase more at a smaller price, which gives them a competitive advantage. The investments could be earned back more easily, which makes the risks smaller. On the other hand, when a new idea completely fails, it has big consequences, so the risks are in some cases even higher. For example, the outlet website of Van Mossel Automotive could never have been realized by a small car dealership.
Through the decrease of contract partners of the importer, more information about the market and customers can be shared between the car dealerships and importer, which could make both of them stronger. Large groups are also convenient for the customer, they never have to leave the group for all car related issues. At Van Mossel Automotive customers do not even have to leave the group when they switch between brands when buying a new car. However, especially the respondents from smaller car dealerships are afraid that the
relationship between car dealership and customer will be impersonal at larger car dealerships. The larger car dealerships do not agree and think that, because of the larger amount of personnel, it is even easier to keep contact with the customers.
4.3.3 Customer and growth
Besides the respondents of Century Autogroep and Van Mossel Automotive, all responds think that the growth of car dealerships leads to a less powerful bond with the customer. According to them, large car dealerships can differentiate by mass sales, while small car dealerships think they can differentiate by providing high quality levels of personal contact. The smaller car dealership respondents think that customers are more like a number at larger car dealerships instead of a person. They are proud of the fact that they know their customer by name. They also do not have a telephone selection menu or telephone operators, but a technical employee with automotive knowledge who picks up the telephone. Larger car dealership are less transparent, it takes more time to find the right person. The respondents also think that large car dealerships have more rules and frameworks, and less freedom and own creativity.
22 Van Mossel Automotive is a large group, but the different brands are divided in clusters based on brand and location. The Jaguar Land Rover location in Tynaarlo, was cooperating with Jaguar Land Rover locations in Zwolle and Apeldoorn. They also want to keep close contacts with their customers. Where it is hard to find the right person in a lot of large car dealerships, Van Mossel Automotive even has the personal mobile phone number of the CEO placed on their website. He even picks up the phone when you call him or he calls the customer if he missed the call due to a meeting. The different clusters can also differentiate themselves within the group. Where all Van Mossel Automotive salesmen wear blue suits, the Jaguar Land Rover salesmen wear green sweaters, because this has a closer match with the brand image.
4.4.4 Future
Some respondents think the whole development of growth will be reversed in the future, because customers will criticize the way of operating. Other respondents think that the number of contract partners will keep declining. Only the large cities will have car
23 5. Discussion
5.1 Conclusion and discussion
Technological changes, different market circumstances and changing customer behaviour transformed the automotive industry in the last twenty years. The internet made it possible for customers to orientate themselves at home without visiting the showroom. This made the market more transparent and today’s customers better informed. Due to market forces, the scale of the car dealerships increased. Most dealerships became part of a larger group, small dealership nearly do not exist anymore. The transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources of fuel and the rules and regulations made by the government make the market uncertain. Customers changed as well, they became more assertive and more critical. Possession of a car became less important and customers became less loyal to brands. These changes made it more important to give customers a better feeling about the dealership. High quality service levels will create a positive feeling. Smaller dealerships try this by doing their work right. Larger small dealership try to make it their customers as easy as possible. Acting proactively is widely accepted when it comes to maintenance. Large dealerships have smart systems for customer retention. Only larger dealerships approach customers for buying new cars, which was proven to be successful. For new customers, the steps toward the showroom have to be smooth. Customers may not stray on the website of the manufacturer or the dealership itself. Only some are satisfied with the state of their website. However, websites are never finished, due to changing demands.
Since dealerships find it hard to get grip on the online visitors, dealerships have to find ways to make customers leave their personal data on the website. Larger dealership already have these systems and that makes it easier to get in contact with potential customers. The online steps are the most important steps in the customer journey, however, a salesman only gets one chance to close the deal. Online experience needs to connect seamlessly to the physical showroom, to create an overall positive brand experience.
Since internet and potential customer contacts became important, a strong bond with the importer is essential. Natural accretion, continuity, recognition, brand image, promotion, and staff training are benefits of a dealership, whereas different kinds of demands are disadvantages according to the respondents. The dealerships with private importers are most satisfied with their relationship, because of the high amount of shared information and close contacts. Merging importers of different countries does not seem to be a good idea. Customer experience is highly valued by importers, however, importers should not
emphasize too much on numbers. This might go at the expense of real feedback. The steps in the customer journey include both online and offline channels. These channels have to connect seamlessly to create the strongest customer experience. Therefore
24 partly dependent of the importer, because their website plays an important role in the journey and data of potential customers has to be shared.
Customers switch brands more often than in the past. Therefore, importers and dealership have to distinguish themselves by innovative ways to attract customers. Small dealerships mostly have not enough time or personnel to come up with innovative initiatives. They try to differentiate themselves by providing high quality service and close contacts with customers. Larger dealerships found more innovative ways to specialize or integrate horizontally. They want to keep customers within the group all the time. That is the reason why they have their own leasing companies, second hand car outlets, damage repair companies and car washes. The largest dealerships are also developing modern ways of transportation, like car sharing concepts and electrical bikes.
Dealerships try to gain goodwill by giving small presents, creating convenience, create brand experience by showing all different products of the manufacturer, energy challenges, or events to discover the possibilities of a car. However, it is not all about the money. Providing cars for charity, or an AED for the neighbourhood are examples of initiatives to do something for the community. Nearly all dealerships think they take more risk in their business
activities than other sectors, because the size of the market is unclear, profit margins
became smaller, large investments, and uncertainty about fuels in the future. However, they all think the risks are calculated. There are no major differences in risk perception between the different sizes dealerships.
Customer Experience was defined as focusing on the customer’s cognitive, emotional, behavioural, sensorial, and social response during the entire customer journey. The companies with a relative high entrepreneurial orientation take more risk, try something new and act proactively. The risk perception is the same for all respondents. However, the dealerships that come up with new initiatives or try to gain more goodwill with innovative ideas, and act proactive towards customers and different ways of transportation, focus more on the cognitive, emotional, behavioural, sensorial, and social responses during
pre-purchase, pre-purchase, and post-purchase. Therefore, hypothesis 2, ‘’car dealerships with a higher entrepreneurial orientation will find it easier to create a higher customer experience’’, cannot be rejected. However, the dealerships which come up with new initiatives and think about modern ways of transportation are mostly larger firms. Therefore, hypothesis 3A: ‘’smaller car dealerships have a higher degree of entrepreneurial orientation than larger car dealerships’’ had to be rejected.
25 matches with the desires of customers at different brands and establishments. Van Mossel Automotive divides their establishments in clusters based on brands and location to make it operate like a smaller dealership. The clusters can also differentiatie themselves within the group and it is easy for customers to get in contact with the CEO. Therefore, hypothesis 3B: ’’smaller car dealerships have closer contacts with their aftersales customers than larger car dealerships’’ had to be rejected.
5.2 Managerial implications
Firstly, managers should be aware of the customer journey when buying a car, to prevent them from losing grip on the customers. Due to the internet, being aware of the different steps of the customer journey is essential for improving the different channels online towards the showroom. These steps between the channels have to be smooth to create brand image and customer experience. However, since the desires of customers are
changing constantly, a website can never be finished. Therefore, large dealerships also have to keep monitoring the environment.
Secondly, they should engage in a more proactive sales style. Whereas acting proactively is widely accepted when it comes to maintenance, most small car dealerships do still not practise this in selling new cars. The larger dealerships already proved that it is a successful way of selling cars, but only one small company in the sample acts this way. This respondent was surprised that it turned out to be successful. Small dealership owners often compare it to annoying salesmen of telephone or electricity companies. However, the important difference is that those salesmen are complete strangers to the customer, whereas customers are already familiar with the car salesman.
Thirdly, managers should consider a strong relationship with the importer to create brand image and customer experience during the online steps of the customer journey and to get more grip on the customer online. The demands of the different importers are high, but as long as enough income is being generated with the products of the importer, dealerships should meet the demands. On the other hand, importers seem to focus too much on customer satisfaction numbers. Customer satisfaction is important, but a number will not tell the whole story. Therefore, managers could debate on this issue with their importer. Fourthly, they should recognize the possible necessity of having more than three
establishments, because importers want to reduce the number of contract partners, in order to increase cost efficiency. Especially when it comes to bestselling car brands, like
Volkswagen, Opel, Peugeot, Ford, Kia, BMW, Renault, and Toyota, one to three
establishments seem not to be enough. This means these companies have to grow or these dealerships could be taken over by larger groups.
26 finding the right personnel which fit the brand and location, doing research in future ways of transportation, finding innovative ways to create brand experience, leaving room for
creativity within the blueprint of the group, and a strong relationship with the importer to become a successful automotive group.
5.3 Limitations and future research
Besides the universal garages and the automotive groups, all respondents were interested in the results of this thesis. Especially about the innovative ways to keep customers satisfied and attract new customers. However, the information that respondents gave on those subjects might be competitor sensitive, leading to possible incomplete or incorrect
responses. However, altogether the respondents came up with enough innovative ideas; this might be a limitation.
The Volkswagen Group and Toyota are imported by private organizations in The
Netherlands. All the other brands in the sample are imported by fabric importers, controlled by the manufacturer. Century Autogroep and Toyota Drenthe are most satisfied about the relationship with their importer. Since the relationship with the importer becomes more important, it might be interesting for further research to investigate whether all private importers have closer contacts with car dealerships.
Being critical on the relationship with the importer might be a sensitive theme as well. One respondent absolutely did not want to tell anything about their relationship with the importer. Other respondents were more open, but some phrases had to be deleted in the version for the other interviewees. This might be a limitation as well. Suggestions for further research are to investigate whether the importers are equally satisfied about the
relationship with the car dealerships and vice versa.
27 Lastly, since all respondents are located in Groningen and Drenthe (north eastern part of The Netherlands) it might be interesting to find out whether my conclusions will hold on in other parts of The Netherlands and on a larger scale through quantitative research, in the future.
28 Appendix I
List of co-operators
No. Company Employees Respondent Establishments Brands
1 Autocentrum Borger Tom Gazevoort** 9 Tom Ganzevoort (owner) Drenthe: Borger Germany: Opel 2 Autobedrijf De Winter ** 8 Daniël Fokkens (owner) Groningen: Winschoten Japan: Mazda 3 Auto De Groot* 4 Gert-Jan de Groot
(owner) Groningen: Winschoten 4 Autobedrijf Oosterhuis* 5 Peter Oosterhuis (owner) Groningen: Heiligerlee 5 Century Autogroep ***** 430 Bert Meijer (aftersales manager Volkswagen) Groningen: Delfzijl Groningen Sappemeer Stadskanaal Veendam Winschoten Winsum Drenthe: Assen Emmen Hoogeveen Czech Republic: Skoda Germany: Audi Volkswagen Spain: Cupra Seat 6 Autobedrijf Ambergen **** 44 Raymond Groenwold (location manager Winschoten) Groningen: Stadskanaal Winschoten Drenthe: Emmen Germany: Opel 7 Autobedrijf Borghstede*** 9 Joop Hoogenberg (owner) Drenthe: Assen Japan: Honda 8 Toyota Drenthe**** 41 Lars Noorman
(location manager Auto Gorter) Drenthe: Assen Emmen Hoogeveen Japan: Toyota
29 13 Van Mossel Automotive ***** 2500 Jordy Bezema (location manager Tynaarlo) Groningen: Groningen Drenthe: Meppel Tynaarlo Friesland: Leeuwarden Overijssel: Hengelo Oldenzaal Zwolle Gelderland: 4 establishments Utrecht: 2 establishments Noord-Holland: 10 establishments Zuid-Holland: 6 establishments Noord-Brabant: 12 establishments Limburg: 3 establishments Belgium: 3 establishments Germany: 1 establishment Luxembourg: 1 establishment Czech Republic: Skoda France: DS Peugeot Renault Germany: Audi Mercedes Opel Smart Volkswagen Great-Britain: Jaguar Land Rover Italy: Abarth Alfa Romeo Fiat Romania: Dacia Spain: Cupra Seat USA: Ford Jeep Japan: Infiniti Nissan South Korea: Hyundai Kia
*Dealership in the past
**Authorized repairer of car manufacturer ***Car dealership with one establishment ****Car dealership with three establishment
30 Appendix II
Interview questions Introduction
1. For how long have you been owner/manager of the company? 2. Do you have any prior experience in the automotive industry? 3. For how long has the company been dealer of brand x? 4. How many employees does the company have?
5. Which differences do you see in the automotive industry in the last ten to twenty years?
6. Why do you think, these developments are positive or negative? Omnichannel and customer experience
7. What are the differences between the current customer contacts and the contact you had twenty years ago?
8. What do you think is the opinion of car salesmen and car dealerships in the eyes of the customer?
9. According to you, which steps does a customer take before he is visiting your showroom?
10. How are you trying to create a better customer experience?
11. To what extent are you satisfied with the cooperation with brand x?
12. To what extent are you approaching customers pro-actively after selling a car for maintenance or buying a suitable new car?
13. To what extent do you think, it is important that the different channels of the car producer, like websites, apps, social media and showroom are in line with each other?
14. To what extent are these channels currently in line with each other in your company? Entrepreneurial orientation and customer experience
15. What are you doing to make customers return to your dealership? 16. To what extent were these initiatives successful?
17. To what extent are you trying something new now and then to attract new customers or to make customers return to your dealership?
18. To what extent did brand x offer you innovative methods to satisfy customers? 19. To what extent are you trying to come up with innovative methods to satisfy
customers yourself?
31 Entrepreneurial orientation and size
21. To what extent do you think that it is easier for larger competitors in the automotive industry to recognize opportunities, take risks and come up with innovative
methods?
22. To what extent do you think that the growth of automotive organizations will cause a decrease of customer loyalty?
32 Appendix III
Coding scheme
Selective Coding Axial Coding Open Coding
(EX) Experience (MT) Market Changes (Tech) 1. Internet 2. Informed 3. Reviews 4. Showroom 5. Price 6. Contact 7. Easier 8. Leasing 9. Order Picker 10. Market Forces 11. Larger Scale 12. Rules 13. Uncertainty 14. Europe (MP) Market Changes (People) 1. More Assertive 2. Critical 3. Expectations 4. Possession 5. Click 6. Loyalty 7. Negative 8. Positive (CP) Customer Preservation 1. Service
2. Personal 3. Honesty 4. Transparency 5. Normal 6. Suit 7. Target Group 8. Misfit 9. Proactive (PR) Proactive 1. Maintenance 2. Sales 3. Search 4. Calling 5. Leads (OM) Omnichannel (CJ) Customer Journey 1. Journey
2. Past
33 7. Mobile Phone 8. Commercials 9. Never Finished 10. Showroom 11. See 12. Experience 13. 360
(IC) Importer Cons 1. Demands 2. Contact 3. Investments 4. Differences 5. Creativity 6. Customer Satisfaction (IP) Importer Pros 1. Continuity
2. Appearance 3. Brand Image 4. Promotion 5. Recognizable 6. Data 7. Points of Improvement (EO) Entrepreneurial Orientation
(EX) Extensions 1. General
2. Quality 3. Complete Package 4. Used Cars 5. Sales 6. Shows 7. Social Media 8. Shopping Carts 9. Innovation 10. Specializing 11. Broadening 12. Rental 13. Outlet
(GO) Goodwill 1. Presents
2. App 3. Online Planning 4. BBQ 5. Experience 6. Winning 7. Charity 8. AED
(RI) Risks 1. Risks
(GR) Growth (DE) Development 1. Starting
34 4. Grow
5. Partners
(CH) Chances 1. Chances
(CU) Customers 1. Customers
35 Appendix IV
Interview transcripts Interview 1
Autocentrum Borger Tom Ganzevoort Tom Ganzevoort
Friday 3th May 09.00 AM
Which differences do you see in the automotive industry in the last ten to twenty years? Currently you need 50% equity to take over a company. In those days, I already had some own money, but only the stock is already hundred thousands of euros, so I was depending on the bank. [GRDE1]
Why do you think, these developments are positive or negative?
It is becoming a major problem. When I will sell the company in the future, I have to sell it to a large player in the market. For small players, like I was myself, it is
impossible to take over the company. Banks have high demands on equity. [GRDE1] It is also hard to get in contact with the right person at large companies. I used to call and speak to the materials guy, however, now I am calling with a telephone operator and that costs time. [GRCU3]
I already see customers returning to my company, because there is less personal contact in these large firms. [GRCU2]
Everything has to be larger. Opel also wants less contract partners. I don’t think it’s a good idea. Twenty years ago, they had 250. They want to reduce it to twenty.
[GRDE4]
Sometimes we lose a customer, because the large companies have to sell large numbers, so they can settle for smaller margins per car. However, when it comes to maintenance, customer pay 20 euros for a light bulb. [GRDE2]
When one of our customers’ needs a lightbulb or half a litter of oil, they don’t have to pay everything. That is an idea of my workplace chef. However, he always asks if they want to think about us when they have bigger problems. [EXCP1]
What are the differences between the current customer contacts and the contact you had twenty years ago?
36 What do you think is the opinion of car salesmen and car dealerships in the eyes of the
customer?
Not always positive. Garages sometimes cheat with things like MOT. And on that point it is possible to distinguish yourselves by dealing honestly. [EXMP7]
We only have 30% Opel in the workshop. 70% are strange brands. We want to distinguish ourselves by providing the complete package. [EOEX3]
What are the benefits of a dealership to you?
You need to sell forced numbers of cars, so we stopped the cooperation as a
dealership. Now we sell mostly young, but used cars. We buy company cars in sets of 10-15. A car of 30.000 euros only costs 23.000 euros after a year, whereas it is practically a new car. [EOEX4]
According to you, which steps does a customer take before he is visiting your showroom? Completely different compared to the past. The customer delves into cars on the internet. He knows better what his second hand car is worth. In the past, we had to advise customers completely. [EXMT1]
Nowadays, it is only about the price they have to pay. That is also a benefit for us, since it takes less time. [EXMT5]
To what extent are you satisfied with the cooperation with brand x?
The demands are high. Opel has been taken over by PSA and they even increased the demands. And with the upcoming fuel change to electrical fuel, it will become more expensive. Opel already wants us to buy a number of charging stations. That means enormous investments. [OMIC1]
The contacts with Opel are also less pleasant, compared to the past. [OMIC2] To what extent are you approaching customers pro-actively after selling a car for maintenance or buying a suitable new car?
Opel wants us to act proactive, however, our workplace is fully booked in the next four weeks, so there is no need. [EXPR1]
When it comes to sales, we search cars for customers, if we know which car they are interested in. [EXPR2]
But we don’t call customers if they want a new car. [EXPR4]
37 You can’t get away from it. Sometimes we see the customer for the first time when he picks up his online ordered car. [EXMT8]
To what extent are you trying something new now and then to attract new customers or to make customers return to your dealership?
The amount of maintenance will increase, so we renovated the company completely and bought a bridge for camper and van maintenance. Campers are hot since it is going better financially. Opel doesn’t like that, but they also are trying new things themselves all the time. [EOEX10]
To what extent are you taking risks in your business activities?
We take risks every day. Margins are under pressure. But entrepreneurship is taking risks. [EORI1]
To what extent do you think that it is easier for larger competitors in the automotive industry to recognize opportunities, take risks and come up with innovative methods?
The larger the company, the more personnel they have. It that case, it is easier to try something new. Century has a couple of hundred man working for them, than it is easy to realize things. However, I am afraid that it will become less personal. [GRCH1] To what extent do you think that the growth of automotive organizations will cause a
decrease of customer loyalty?
A lot. However, when a customer leaves, it is not such a deal. We try to do our best to keep customers satisfied. When customers want to see their car in the workplace, that is okay. [GRCU1]
Interview 2
Autobedrijf De Winter Daniel Fokkens
Tuesday 7th May 11.00 AM
Which differences do you see in the automotive industry in the last ten to twenty years? Market forces, car companies are everywhere, from small to very large. [EXMT10] The market became much more transparent for customers. [EXMT2]
What are the differences between the current customer contacts and the contact you had twenty years ago?
