Yesterday we held one of our regular AM/Shell Lubricants breakfast briefings. As with previous briefings, the gathered dealers agreed that the biggest issue for the industry is the quality of staff.

No matter what policies and processes the management implement, if the people on the dealership floor don’t have the customer-focused skills, training and attitude then the business will always be missing out.

The industry continues to put up with some staff who are simply waiting for another career. It reminded me of a recent conversation with a friend, who’s just been told his new Peugeot is finally at the dealership, after being on order for almost three months.

When given the good news, he told the salesman he’d pop over on Saturday morning to collect it. At which point the salesman told my friend he might be busy on Saturday, so couldn’t he come to collect it on a weekday afternoon. Which means my friend has to take an afternoon off work.

What an odd message that sent out. If the dealership isn’t happy to accommodate a simple request after getting several thousands pounds of business, what service might my friend expect from its aftersales department…