Dealership Treats Customers Differently

Customers are different, so act accordingly when selling them cars, says Evelyn Camilo, general manager of Germain Toyota of Naples in southern Florida.

“Salespeople shouldn’t feel it’s a cookie-cutter approach, because it’s not,” she says.

Some shoppers research extensively before visiting the dealership. Some don’t.

Some customers prefer price negotiations, some don’t.

“Boomers love negotiating,” Camilo says of graying consumers. Millennials in their 20s and early 30s don’t necessary relish going back and forth on price, “but they want something thrown in” to sweeten a deal.

Her store employs all sort people. “Diversity is important,” Camilo says. The store trains the staff to engage with people of different ages and ethnicities.

A hot topic of auto retailing today centers on speeding up car deals. But certain customers don’t want it fast and furious.

Germain’s Millennial salespeople are told to slow it down when dealing with older customers who want to take their time buying a car, Camilo says at this year’s Automotive Resource Network conference in Hollywood, FL.

On the other hand, a Baby Boomer salesperson is trained to speed it up with time-conscious Generation Y customers.

The store tries to match customers and salespeople of the same age and ethnicity, such as a Hispanic salesperson handling a Hispanic customer, Camilo says.

But part of the store’s daily 15 minutes of staff training includes how to work with customers who are different than you.

Also covered is how to deal with both tech-savvy shoppers and those who find modern vehicle infotainment systems baffling.

Germain has set up something akin to Apple stores’ genius bars. Tech-smart staffers help tech-challenged customers so they understand the features of today’s automotive wizardry.

The dealership is part of Columbus, OH-based Germain Motor. The 12-store group is No.74 on this year’s WardsAuto Megadealer 100. Three Germain stores hold spots on the WardsAuto Dealer 500.

Camilo praises young staffers who are relatively new to the workforce, while noting they typically show work habits that are different from those of their older colleagues.

“You have to learn how to talk with Millennials,” she says. “We do that one-on-one. We keep an open-door policy. We find out where they are going and tell them where the business is going.”

Millennials seem to prefer earning less money if they can work on their terms, she says. “They’ll become your store’s biggest advocate if treated right. They’ll become ambassadors. That’s important to realize as more and more of them join the workforce.”

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