Temporary Closure of your Used Car Business due to Covid 19-What Now?!

Who ever saw this coming?? What started as a rumour of a bad flu a couple of weeks ago has rapidly turned into everyone's worst nitemare! All this as we were just starting to see a recovery from the uncertainty of Brexit and the Election. I do not think I am alone in feeling in safe hands with Borris, Rishi and co, while some people think they have been short changed, the scale of the support packages are far in excess of anything I thought we would see.

The longest closure I ever had in my retail career was three days a year! Christmas Day, Boxing Day and Easter Sunday, although we always ended up with Sales Execs fighting over whether we could stay open! This must be such a heart wrenching, scary and frustrating time, especially for the 'Owner Drivers' who are not worried about reporting to a board but are worried about keeping their homes and potentially losing everything they have invested over the years they have been trading. This is an area I have a lot of experience and can offer reassurance, an insight into what is to come and some practical advice on how to deal with it all. If you are anywhere near this point or just want to chat something through, please reach out and I will do my very best to see what I can do to help or advise.

So, you have closed up-what now? You are probably just getting to remind yourself what your partner and kids look like! A number of my clients have said they have never had so many consecutive days off in their entire career unless they have been on a foreign holiday. As time goes by, it is going to get increasingly frustrating. It has been interesting to see how different companies have handled this. While this is completely alien territory to everyone, the action you take now is going to either make you or break you in the recovery stages. A template 'Covid 19 Update-We are have had to close, see you when this is all over' has seemed the norm on a lot of sites, but this is simply not enough. At the least, there needs to be contact numbers or email addresses for 'If you have Broken Down', 'If you are a Key Worker that needs our assistance', 'If you want to enquire on a vehicle' or, heaven forbid 'In case of emergency'. It is imperative that you as a business stay contactable and reachable.

Now take a minute to picture the dealership that closed the third week of March. They put the standard script on the website, Furloughed all the staff off, put Netflix on and waited for it all to end-none of us know whether this is going to be a three week, three month or something longer lock down. When they finally reopen, the staff have all put three stone on and can hardly remember your name, its going to take time to bed them back in and that's if they have not found alternative jobs delivering food for Supermarkets on twice the salary of the basic they left on. The Dealership has no order's, no enquiries, a forecourt of overage cars and they might as well be a new start company but with the burden of a forecourt full of overage stock.

Now picture the Dealership that is still taking enquiries, they took the Database home and are ringing customers to check they are ok? Letting them know they are here if they need them and at the same time, cleansing the database. They are posting regularly on social media, not ramming cars down peoples throats but engaging current and potential customers with meet the team posts, bit of history to the company, what they are all doing during lockdown, a picture of the dog, anything but trying to sell cars but keeping their brand and business in front of an audience and still engaging. How many PCP's and HP agreements are ending during lockdown? These customers are ripe for the taking and why stop at your own? If you are engaging and their supplying dealer is not, there is a good possibility of pinching their customers as well. These customers WANT contact, they want to know what to do. I think the tone of your posts needs to be empathetic, local and caring. This dealer is opening with the same stock problems as the other dealer, but with fresh leads and enquiries to go at, as well as a spring cleaned database for you to market to. Rather than furlough everyone, why not retain your salespeople that are best on the phone and have the better email etiquette and change their package to reflect contact numbers rather than sales? If you have furloughed staff, to ensure you retain them and to get them to further buy into the business, contact is essential. Personally, I think a phone call to check on their families well being is the best route to take. Technically, they are not allowed to work so emails are a bit of a sticky area and would need to be worded carefully, but a phone call is very personal and I do not believe anyone could take offence to you checking on their well being. I also think the employees partner/family would find it quite endearing ensuring you meet less resistance when they employee gets back to work and you need them to go 'above and beyond' on your road to recovery.

The other massive opportunity is your website. Update the 'About Us' page, make sure you're finance calculators are working, but most importantly, make sure EVERY car you own is advertised. Get the photos up to date, there should not be one car with 'Awaiting Photography' on it! It does not matter if they don't get on your turntable, are not immaculate, get them ON! Even if you have to go in yourself and snap them on your smart phone. Web traffic is up by hundreds of percent, people are at home with nothing else to do, do not miss one opportunity. I would also invest in Sanitiser Bombs and advertise on every car that the car has been thoroughly valeted and sanitised. This would also make a good social media post.

This is just a part of what we have been discussing with our clients over the last two weeks, I will post some more articles in the coming days. Rather than curl up in a ball, try and see it as an opportunity to bolster your branding and online presence which will set you in good stead to hit the ground running when this is all over. Get your procedures and paperwork up to date and get the business running as lean as it possibly can do.

Just as important as looking after the business is looking after yourself and your family. Try not to get stressed out - I've been there and its not pretty. the sleepless nights, the squinting as you log in to the online banking first thing in the morning - it takes its toll on you and your loved ones. It is what it is, you are in this position through no fault of your own. Keep positive, we operate in a fantastic professional community that is full of people in the same position and if you think I can do anything to help you or your business, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Brett Whiles