Staff are brought in on the basis of their alignment to our NICER values; if you get a highly aggressive controlling person they are not for us. We want helpful, friendly staff.
One of the things that we will probably do is change the way we pay, and we will almost certainly at the same time change the working patterns.
What we have at the moment is a pay structure where its low basic salary, high commission based on closing sales as fast as possible and generally anti-social working hours, working most weekends, often six days a week. That’s not going to attract a lot of the people - we want to attract particularly female staff members.
We’ll have to think about opening hours, we might have to open longer, but that might suit some people who would like to come in at eight o'clock and leave at four and so on.
If we pay them a proper salary with perhaps an element of something to go for, but not based on how many customers did you sell to today, it’s how happy did you make these people feel when they came in.
If we pay them a proper salary with an element of bonus based on customer experience, as opposed to volume and profit, I think we'll attract a much higher calibre of person.
How can a company like Lookers – with 100 years of history - keep all that’s relevant about the past, yet ensure future changes in consumer behaviour and technology are not ignored?
The key for us is to be at the forefront of change, to help to shape the future, not to become a follower. We need to just try and anticipate where things are going and get in pole position.
The biggest change is going to be the influence of digital on retail.
There is one thing that occupies my mind more than anything - what does car retailing look like in 10 years’ time?
Cars will still be sold, but I think that the businesses that will really prosper will be the ones who get this blend of online and offline right.
We had/still have a lot of good people who are doing bits of this, so it’s not just a technology thing, it’s not just a website it’s how the website integrates with when you come in the door and on so on, it’s the full experience.
Lookers represent the largest selection of manufacturer brands in the UK, are there any that we don’t have that you would like to add to the portfolio one day?
We're very happy with our brand portfolio, but we'd be proud to represent BMW and Mini at some point.
Before we let Andy go we wanted to ask him some quick fire questions about his favourite things:
What was the first single you ever bought?
Rat Trap by the Boomtown Rats in November 1978
Who is your favourite artist?
Elvis – I love most of what he did.
Do you have a favourite gadget?
Sonos wireless speakers that connect to Napster
Do you have any pet peeves?
Selfish and inconsiderate people
Favourite film?
The Great Escape
Favourite sport?
Football
Favourite team?
Rangers and Scotland
Favourite Food?
Spanish
Who is your biggest influence in life?
My parents and my predecessors Peter Jones and Ken Surgenor
Current car?
Range Rover
Finally Andy can you tell us something nobody knows about you?
I failed my driving test four times, but happily passed fifth time around.
Paul Cape - 14/03/2015 05:38
I have been preaching the need for a paradigm shift in our industry for years and i am so pleased that someone in a senior position is finally going to do something different. Something that reflects modern life and expectations. We need our employees to be 'safe' from a financial point of view so that they can give great service without fear and in terms of sales we can get away from going straight from the introduction to the close! Here in South Africa we the same issues as the UK (the industry is exactly the same only more profitable here) and with my work with VW and Audi we are also working to develop Dealers profitability in Aftersales and Used Cars. Great article and good luck to Lookers