A training course aimed at helping car sales executives make more appointments with likely customers has paid off for leading motor company Hendy Group.

The course, which was entitled Appointments Sell Cars, was run by performance improvement experts Douglas Stafford and specifically focused on training staff how to successfully arrange sales appointments with likely purchasers.

The sales leads came from several sources including people who had made recent enquiries about cars but hadn’t yet made a purchase and from previous purchasers who were likely to be now considering buying a newer vehicle.

Staff were given training in the most effective ways of dealing with customers on the telephone in order to encourage them to make an appointment or in order to re-open negotiations about the purchase of a vehicle.

Following the seminar, held at Hendy Group’s Eastleigh showroom, 31 appointments were made, 19 of which were kept and eight cars were sold as a result. In one case a customer came in and bought a car the same day.

“The course provided an excellent refresher for some of our staff and was an induction for others into prospecting and following up enquiries and it equipped them with skills they can use forever,” says Mark Busby, Group Sales Development Manager at Hendy Group.

“It was also useful in encouraging our staff to see making follow up calls as something they do every day not just during quiet times. This course wasn’t about cold calling, it was about contacting potential customers who had made enquiries to us about a vehicle and had given us their details.

“We have a good relationship with Douglas Stafford, who we use for mystery shopping, and we trust them to offer us services that are of benefit to our business and I am sure this course would be of great use to other dealer groups.”

 Trevor Holloway, Business Development Manager at Douglas Stafford, said: “We welcomed the opportunity to work closely with Hendy Group by providing support to their sales teams to help them make contact with previous and current customers and to arrange showroom appointments.

“Since the ending of the Government’s scrappage scheme there is a real need to create reasons for previous customers to re-visit the showrooms. Our training course helps sales executives to create the right support environment so customers get the very most from every given sales opportunity.”     

About Douglas Stafford

Douglas Stafford has been working with companies across a broad range of consumer markets for more than 20 years delivering performance improvement programmes which help them measure, understand and improve their customers’ experience. These are achieved via highly cost effective mystery shopping, customer surveys and supported by industry leading training programmes and a process that is proven to improve standards of customer service. www.douglasstafford.com

The results of a carefully targeted programme of mystery shopping have helped one of Britain’s leading motor groups to improve and update its sales process.

Hendy Group, which has 18 branches across the south and south west and employs more than 700 staff, asked mystery shopping experts Douglas Stafford to review the performance of its 96 sales staff.

Mystery shopping often only assesses the quality of service at a business in general but Hendy Group wanted to see how individual sales executives were performing, so each member of staff was visited by experienced video mystery shoppers posing as customers to check that they were giving customers the highest possible levels of service.

The results showed that while showroom sales staff were helpful and knowledgeable, watching the video footage of the mystery shop visits revealed to Hendy Group management that there were also opportunities for improvement.

Mark Busby, Group Sales Development Manager at Hendy Group, said: “We decided to undertake mystery shopping as part our staff assessment programme to help them develop their skills as individuals and it has worked really well for us. We were surprised about how quickly it helped us focus on our sales process and look at whether our sales process was exactly right for today.

“Consumer behaviour is changing rapidly and we want to make sure we are ahead of those trends. The internet has changed everything. People are able to read a great deal about vehicles and therefore know a lot about the car before they even set foot into a showroom. It is not always about price, it is often about the experience and the trust that customers have in the company they are dealing with.

“Hendy Group was founded 1859 and has recently celebrated its centenary as Britain’s first Ford dealer in the UK – we are in business for the long term. We want to give a world class service not just a first class service. The hard sell is not our way. We want people who buy from us to be glad that they did and those who haven’t to wish that they could.”

The mystery shopping programme – which included covert camera video footage and detailed written reports rating each mystery shop – helped Hendy Group enormously. “The visual evidence particularly is extremely helpful because it shows things like body language, rapport building and enthusiasm. These are things that you have to see, not just read on a report,” says Mark Busby.

“We know that the difference between us and the competition is the sales person – they are our frontline and can make a key difference. First impressions are everything and we focus really hard on making the right one. The results of the mystery shopping showed us that we could be doing better than we were doing so we saw it as good news and as an opportunity.

“So we have reshaped our entire sales process based on the results of the mystery shopping and we have put together a new draft sales process across showrooms, on the telephone, online and have undertaken extra training and development. Some people feel nervous walking into a car showroom and we don’t want them to feel like that.

“We are aiming to make our sales process transparent. We tell our customers exactly what is happening and we don’t hide anything from them. There’s no pressure and we believe that is what customers expect now. They don’t expect high pressure sales or a tough environment. They want a warm, welcoming place where they feel they can trust people and we feel that with our heritage and good reputation we are able to make buying a car from us a pleasurable experience.”

Testimonial:

“The service Douglas Stafford provides is excellent. They are flexible, the reporting website is fantastic to use, its staff respond very quickly to queries and the quality of video mystery shops is excellent. I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending them.”

About Douglas Stafford

Douglas Stafford has been working with companies across a broad range of consumer markets for more than 20 years delivering performance improvement programmes which help them measure, understand and improve their customers’ experience. These are achieved via highly cost effective mystery shopping and customer surveys and supported by industry leading training programmes and a process that is proven to improve standards of customer service.

For further information about mystery shopping please contact: [email protected]

Leading mystery shopping company Douglas Stafford has won praise from iconic British motorcycle manufacturer Triumph for the role it has been playing in helping the firm’s continuing growth and success.

Since January 2009 Douglas Stafford has undertaken four waves of mystery shopping across Triumph’s UK dealer network to test the effectiveness of its sales staff and the results have helped Triumph to improve the performance of its sales staff and increase customer satisfaction.

For Triumph, Douglas Stafford offers reliability, flexibility, a clear understanding of the company’s needs and what it is trying to achieve, clear and fast reporting of results and high quality mystery shoppers – in this case, using real motorcyclists to do the mystery shopping.

Despite difficult trading conditions in the motorcycle market, which has seen the sector shrink by around 20% in the past year, Triumph has seen growth over the past two years and its market share has increased from 9.8% to 17%.

“The motorcycle market is down heavily at the moment but we have grown in the last two years,” says Triumph’s Dealer Development Manager Steve Cooper. “If you ask us why we’ve maintained our position the answer is: It is not just one silver bullet. It’s because we have a good product, a good sales process and also through the concentration of effort in investigating our sales processes through Douglas Stafford.

“Mystery shopping has been one of a number of key programmes that we have undertaken that have led to our success over the past two years and Douglas Stafford has certainly played a role in that success.

“What you always need to know is: ‘Are we doing the best we possibly could be?’ Mystery shopping has helped us to be confident around the abilities of our dealer network and enabled us to identify shortcomings and then improve on them.

“I would have no hesitation in recommending Douglas Stafford – the company offers a very high quality service”.

“The company and its staff are very professional, totally reliable and the quality of their mystery shoppers and the technology they use is as good as it gets. We do two waves a year and our dealers value it and deal with the results and feedback very positively and constructively because they know it will help them to succeed.

For Triumph, mystery shopping is a vital tool. “The owners of the dealerships would like to think that every time enquiries are made about a motorcycle at their dealership contact details are taken, customers are told all about the brand, appointments are made for demonstrations, enquiries are followed up and that customers have a great experience.

“The fact is we know that that doesn’t happen every time but mystery shopping gives a very clear insight for sales managers and owners into what goes on in the business when they are not there. It gives them a fly-on-the-wall view and allows them to make improvements when required.

“It gives us the ability to identify areas that need more work or training and to have objective discussions with business owners about their sales processes and it means that we are able to do that factually rather than just using supposition about what might go on.

Mr Cooper believes that it is Douglas Stafford’s tailored approach that makes their mystery shopping findings so effective. “Douglas Stafford has a real ability to understand its client’s individual needs and its staff take time to make sure that everyone involved is really well-briefed on what we are trying to achieve”.

“Each programme is very flexible so if there is a particular area of our selling process that I want to put more emphasis on then I can easily adjust the weighting of that particular part of the questionnaire or if I want to add or remove questions, it’s done without any big drama and it all works seamlessly. When it comes to the results, the quality of the video and audio streaming is very high and the reporting is very transparent.

“And from a motorcycle point of view, having actual motorcyclists as mystery shoppers was important to us as the credibility of the shopper is an absolute must. You can tell if someone isn’t a real biker when they go into a dealership and sit on or look at a bike. It really does show if they don’t know how to ride one and if that happens then it is likely that the sales person will suss them out!

About Douglas Stafford

Douglas Stafford has been working with companies across a broad range of consumer markets for more than 20 years delivering performance improvement programmes which help them measure, understand and improve their customers’ experience. These are achieved via highly cost effective mystery shopping, customer surveys and supported by industry leading training programmes and a process that is proven to improve standards of customer service.

For further information please contact: [email protected]