It has taken additional resource and investment, but Hulcoop believes this new structure will pay off in other areas of the business too. 

Product geniuses can help the service desks with customers when dropping off cars in the morning and smooth over any customer interactions across the business.

A little bit out of a lot 

The new team structure also means the group doesn’t have business managers.

Finance is still a big income stream for Cotswold, but the group has set its sights on a consistent level of income which is always in the best interests of the customer.

Hulcoop describes the finance strategy of “getting a little bit out of a lot of customers”.

Customers are also quoted consistent rates and APRs.

Customers can get the same deal on different days and they will all have access to the same deal.

It’s all part of the way Cotswold wants to provide absolute transparency when dealing with customers.

The group uses information from BMW Financial Services to monitor its customers’ replacement cycles and pinpointed an 18-month average.

The change cycle was traditionally three years for customers a few years ago, but Cotswold now knows that if it talks to customers at the 12-month point, it can get a customer into a new car without making a massive change to their monthly budget.

The key is starting the conversation early.

Cotswold knows its customers are looking at monthly payments when justifying a purchase and the business has found that if a customer can change without a huge impact to their finances, they will change their car as frequently as they can.

It’s been a massive boost to the group’s customer retention by making sure no opportunities are missed and the teams in the dealerships don’t leave it to the last minute and wait for finance agreements to come to an end before getting in touch with customers.

The group has been recognised by Mini specifically for its strength at retaining customers, winning the Mini Retention Award.

Hulcoop said: “In an ideal world, if you work hard at retaining customers on every car that you sell, once the business has been going five or six years it should be absolutely self-generating.

That is an ideal world, and we’re not in one.

However, if you start with that view, you’ve got half a chance of getting somewhere close to it.”

A little bit of tlc

Service plans have long been a buzzword in the industry, but arguably Mini pioneered the idea with its popular TLC package which offers customers their servicing needs taken care of for three years or 30,000 miles for £275.

There are now many imitators, but the TLC and BMW Service Included (SI) paved the way.

These packages have also been a great way to keep customers within the Cotswold group with a 90% penetration with customers.

The business sold 50,000 service hours in 2012, up 5% on the previous year.

Hulcoop said: “If you don’t believe in a product you can’t sell it and I think it’s very easy for our sales team and customers to believe in the value TLC and SI represents.

“It’s transferable so customers can buy their car and if they trade it in after 18 months they will see the benefit because we’re more likely to pay more for it in part-exchange and that also becomes a selling point to the customer.”

The service plan doesn’t necessarily lock them in to Cotswold as customers could take their car to any BMW approved service centre, but invariably the customer comes back to the group.

Customers can also join Cotswold’s aftersales loyalty scheme which qualifies everyone that signs up for offers from the business.

Currently 5,000 people are part of the scheme.

Hulcoop said: “Some dealers might discount the labour rate if a customer asks, but ultimately that’s not fair to your customers.

If we want to discount our labour that should be an offer that we automatically give to these people, subject to them being involved in this scheme.”

The group sends out periodic offers on certain items or service. It also helps the group retain older cars in the post three-year-old vehicle parc too.

 

Net promoter score

 

More and more dealerships are now using Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Cotswold has been using it in the service department for 15 months.

The group has a dedicated team, which is growing, to handle customer relations and find out where the business might be going wrong based on feedback.

Each week these customer relations executives meet with the group service manager, a service adviser, technician and valeter and share suggestions on what might be going wrong with customers.

Hulcoop said: “It’s a fairly big commitment from us in terms of headcount and the nice thing is that the girls who do the feedback don’t put any slant on it, they will tell the team exactly what customers have said.

“The guys in the businesses take action on that feedback.

"The feedback is instant and it’s also fairly interesting.

"When you call a customer and they have some negative feedback, within 24 hours we ring them to discuss that and to see what we can do.

"The feedback from this is unbelievable.

"They expect you just to ignore them.”

Hulcoop was keen to highlight that customers are never told they will be getting a phone call from the manufacturer.

He said: “We are not doing it to tick the box – we are doing it to get honest feedback that we can action and do something about to make our business stronger for the future.”

It’s also not about criticising people when they have made mistakes.
Cotswold wants a culture where, rather than staff being defensive, they can learn from mistakes and own up to how they might have potentially failed to meet customer expectations and be proactive to correct the problem.

NPS is now being rolled out to all areas of the business and the next stage is to turn the results into a biannual staff score too.

Hulcoop said: “Having a dedicated team looking at customer feedback means that they’re not just doing it when it’s quiet, it’s their job.

“The resource that we’ve got in to do that is not insignificant but, again, the value we believe we get from doing it is immense.”

Plans for the future

The £100 million turnover mark is usually a jumping off point for further expansion and Hulcoop admits the business is ready to expand if the right opportunity comes along.

He said: “We’ll continue to improve on what we do. 

"We’ve got a lot of development going on in the year.