Well Hello, Arkansas,
Bill Veuleman, General Manager of Crain Ford of Little Rock here again with our next “Letter from the General Manager.” This is my second one of these and I am excited to share some of where we have come as a company and where we are going. It’s been a little over 90 days since my arrival on November 1st. To say the least, it’s been a challenging but very rewarding start to the story. Let’s get right to it with some of the challenges we have overcome. One of the most rewarding parts of my job is to get involved with situations where the customer is not getting the experience that I believe they all are entitled to. I believe every customer deserves to get the ultimate experience, whether in sales, service, parts, or any other department of the dealership. Most customers are patient and understand that “life” happens, but where they run into a problem is in communication. That is where we have put a ton of work in. Not just the individual problems we encountered early on, but in how we deal with the problems and how we communicate our solution with the customer, and how we keep them informed of how the solution is progressing. Something as simple as how we handle the phones and make sure the customers are answered and followed up with if they were not able to get the answers to their questions on the initial communication. We still have a way to go but I can assure you we are making progress. Thank you all so much for your patience through this transition and growth phase of the journey. I promise you; we will get better and will continue to train and improve to provide you all with the experience that I expect us to provide.
Now to some great news and results. Crain Ford of Litle Rock has in a very short time catapulted to the top of the state and the Memphis Region in sales and Customer Satisfaction. All 3 months since my arrival in November, we have been the #1 Ford Dealer in YOY increase in new vehicle sales in the entire Memphis Region. That covers multiple states and some pretty large markets. YOY sales increase simply means no one had a larger increase of sales in a current month compared to the same month a year ago. What does that mean? That means that thanks to you, our customers, and our team members, we are one of the fastest growing Ford Dealers in the South. Another metric that I am even more proud of is our Customer Satisfaction score in sales has risen just as fast as our sales. I believe that the two are intertwined and a direct result of the other. Simply put, if you take better care of the customer, you will sell more cars. We are so very grateful and humbled by the success our customers and team members have made possible for us. Thank You. We have made strides in our Parts and Service department as well. We went out and hired one of the best Parts and Service men in the state, Lee Moore. We are about 45 days ahead of Lee up front in sales but he has already made up ground and he is just as committed as I am to providing our customers with an amazing experience as well.
To close, we are so grateful and blessed to be part of this community and we look forward to growth and giving the people of Central Arkansas the best experience in our industry. Be safe out there on the road today, and God Bless.
