Dingy customer waiting rooms with out-of-date magazines and out-of-order snack machines, and dark, cramped offices off narrow halls are out. So, for that matter, are cozy fireplaces and thick pile carpeting.
Play areas with toys and videos for children, semi-private “pods” with glass partitions, lighting with a mission and ceramic floors are in.
Welcome to the 1990s model new-car dealership, which is racing to catch up with trends in retailing by updating facilities. This often entails–at a cost of some big bucks–redesigning the dealership concept. And it can dramatically affect how the customer feels and how he or she perceives the products.
“We asked customers what they expected in dealerships with products in our price range,” said Ron Sobrero, head of sales and service for GM’s largest-selling division. “While there were differences in answers, they consistently told us they want a clean, well-located, contemporary facility.”
So Chevrolet, and its parent company, General Motors, has developed an Image 2000 philosophy and Plan 2000 blueprint to give GM dealers a uniform identity. Customers can look forward to easier access to information and improved buying and delivery conditions.
A blue light bar that wraps around the top of the building, along with the familiar Chevy bowtie and Geo name, will be part of Chevrolet’s signature, said Sobrero.
Chevrolet has prototype dealership plans available to any dealer who may be relocating and building a new facility. There also is help, financial and design, for any dealer who wants to update his or her facility.
Dick Hoskins took Chevrolet up on its offer when a road widening project left his Elk Grove Village dealership out of compliance with the village’s 25-foot setback requirement.
Hoskins studied GM’s Image 2000 program, consulted with his district manager and got to work. Now nearly complete, the new facade reflects the Image 2000 coolness: it’s gray and black with the blue Chevy accents and new signage. Hoskins also remodeled first- and second-floor offices in the building where his business has been since 1969.
Despite having to close an entrance and route customers into the dealership through sidestreets during the road work, Hoskins has managed to keep a sense of humor. The sales staff has worn plastic hardhats, and there have been construction specials for customers.
Don Flow Chevrolet in Winston-Salem, N.C., started with a “vintage 1950s” one-story, dark-brick building. Flow added a story, replaced “dark” with off-white inside and out, added a play area with playhouse and television for children and put in a deli with a copying machine and phones nearby.
“Today’s customer is our focal point, not the customer of the 1950s,” said Dennis Chriss, Flow’s executive director of operations and a former GM manager.
Now, a greeter circulates at the Chevrolet-Geo-Oldsmobile dealership that Flow bought in the 1980s, directing customers as needed. And there’s an on-site deli that serves locally prepared snacks, sandwiches and beverages to customers there to buy or to get service for their vehicles.
A greeter/information desk is a good idea, said Robert Nank, a retired GM design specialist who in his years with the corporation traveled the globe consulting with dealers on new facilities and updates for existing ones.
Nank said dealerships reflect a basic attitude toward the customer as well as a country’s way of doing business. In Saudi Arabia, for example, buyers tended to come in, quickly pick out a car and pay cash, perhaps from a suitcase or paper bag. And there are no service departments there, he said. Cars are driven until they expire, then abandoned.
“The Japanese presented competition that made dealers in this country think twice about how they treated customers,” Nank said. GM, he said, “used to do all it could to help its dealers, no matter who or where. It used to provide design services and architectural plans free to dealers.”
The successful dealership must have a knowledgeable sales staff, an attractive facility and the right internal systems, added Mark Thimmig, managing associate of Automotive Practice at Coopers & Lybrand Consulting (Detroit).
The revamp doesn’t end in the showroom, said Chevrolet’s Sobrero. “Delivery is a special time, and it deserves a special place in the dealership,” he said.
Customers used to wait in “lounges,” often an afterthought in dealership planning, said Thimmig. Dark and windowless, the lounge became a repository for outdated furniture and periodicals and unwashed ashtrays.
At Jerry Gleason’s Golf Mill Ford, in Niles, there are a couple of waiting areas. One includes a play area for children with full-size seats for parents. The second is next to the service department.
“We have a large new window separating the waiting area from service,” said Gleason. “This was only a part of an updating of the dealership that took 18 months.”
Gleason added 8,000 square feet to his service write-up area; he brought former “closing offices” out into the showroom area to make managers visible and available to customers.
The renovation of the 30-year-old dealership took a lot longer than forecast. “The original estimate was at six months, eight months at the outside,” said Scott Kindy, Gleason general manager.
“We lost business on account of the inconvenience of the work, but I figured, if we build it, they will come,” Gleason added.
In late October, the dealer welcomed more than 200 guests to a grand re-opening, at which they nibbled on catered foods and listened to live music.
William House, who teaches design at Detroit’s Center for Creative Studies, said lighting also is important in showing off products and in creating atmosphere.
And lighting expert Ron Harwood even speaks of intelligent lighting, which moves across a subject. This is a technique his company, Illuminating Concepts, of Farmington Hills, Mich., is pioneering. And Lexus dealerships use lighting to show off the cars’ fit and finish, he said.
Harwood said he can imagine a dealership with intelligent lighting that moves over a car as a taped voice describes its features.
Illuminating Concepts has done extensive work in retail and entertainment settings. Harwood and his staff seem to know how to direct a consumer’s attention to each product and create a desire to buy it. He cited The Limited women’s clothing stores as a dealer in modern retail settings.
“Dealers today also need to keep in mind the speed at which new, unique vehicles are being brought to market,” Harwood said. “Their lighting should be flexible, interchangeable, perhaps three-dimensional; lighting that adds drive-by appeal; lighting that brings out features and helps emphasize value over price.”
Lighting wasn’t the problem at Schaumburg Chrysler-Plymouth-Mazda–a fireplace pit in the showroom was.
“Before we bought it, the dealership had used Fireside in its name,” said dealer Steve Napleton. “I guess the fireplace was supposed to make it a friendly, cozy place–warm and fuzzy.”
After consulting Chryler’s Project 2000 image program, Schaumburg Chrysler-Plymouth-Mazda filled in the fireplace and updated the shingled, mansard building.
Today’s buyers are looking for professionalism in the dealership and its staff, said Napleton. “Well-trained, qualified people are more important than the facade.”
At Wickstrom Ford in Barrington, dealer Tim Wickstrom decided to show off his professional staff by bringing them out into the open. Not only would office staff appreciate it, but customers might like to see them–“they’re often our best-looking employees.”
With the addition of 5,000 square feet and lots of glass, the service area has a showroom-like atmosphere, Wickstrom said. There’s so much glass at the dealership, it has to be washed every two weeks to keep it bright, he said.
Cleanliness is very important to customers, said Steve Keyes, director of sales operations at Volkswagen of America in Auburn Hills, Mich. A clean, well-lit environment is inviting.
“When you consider that dealerships mean cars and gas and oil, it’s not unusual for them to get dirty,” Keyes said. “Consumers rate a dealership from the minute they walk in the door; they are immediately influenced.”
VW hopes its dealers will project the personality of its Volkswagen and Audi products by creating a high-tech, contemporary atmosphere, he said. That can be done with textures and fabrics, flooring, lighting and artwork. Audi is breaking away from the staid luxury-car image associated with dark hues and wood grains by using brighter colors and chrome or steel for a more high-tech appearance.
“Most VW dealers are dualed with other makes, so it is important for the dealer to carve out a space for VW products–kind of like the Polo section in a clothing department.”
IT’S TOUGH TO REGULATE TASTE
Car dealerships over the years have run a wide gamut.
Robert Nank, a Detroit-area retired GM design specialist who has traveled the globe consulting with dealers on new facilities and updates for existing ones, recalled one in the Deep South that was a Quonset hut with a dirt floor.
In contrast, Nank also was involved in showcase dealerships, such as a Cadillac store a few decades back on Manhattan’s Park Avenue.
That project also included his colleague William House. House, who now teaches design at Detroit’s Center for Creative Studies, fondly remembers preparing this elegant showroom.
“It was a factory store (not owned by an independent dealer) with huge floor-to-ceiling windows,” he said. “We converted a large open area into a beautiful showroom with a rosewood ceiling, Japanese gold-leaf wallpaper and hand-blown glass chandeliers.”
Part of the problem with decor of new-car dealerships is that most are owned and run by independent business people. So if the dealer likes scarlet shag carpeting or wants a waterfall in the showroom , there’s not much to prevent it.
“Good taste is not always a given, and in the past a corporation like General Motors felt that since the dealer was making the investment in the dealership, appearance was the dealer’s choice,” said Mark Thimmig, managing associate of the Automotive Practice at Coopers & Lybrand Consulting (Detroit).
