Lucy Ford (pictured), a Kia product genius at Bolton Kia, reveals the importance of her role in educating consumers about the features and benefits of electric cars.

What are the main responsibilities of your role?

The Kia genius role aims to help guide customers through the sales process in a non-pressurised way. We help them feel at ease while they are deciding which model best suits their requirements, for example through personalised demonstrations and test drives. Another part of the role is to assist with online enquiries, we go the extra mile and make personalised videos and photographs of the specific car a customer has enquired about. We’re also trained to know all the specifications of the entire Kia range and this helps us guide customers in the right direction for what they seek.

What are the most significant challenges ahead in your field of work?

The ever-changing landscape of the car world, with announcements such as “electrification by 2030”. Helping customers understand what electric and hybrid cars are and how they would fit into their lives is a further challenge, as they’re new to most people. We also encounter a lot of incorrect preconceptions and it can be difficult to change people’s minds on electric vehicles (EVs). At the moment, most of the people who enquire about EVs have never really looked at them before, so our task switches to being an educator and we need to confidently tell people how good EVs can be to put people at ease when they consider moving that way.