Business View Magazine l October 2022

155 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 10 B I LL COLE AUTOMOT I VE GROUP In addition to selling cars, the other arm of the business is its service and parts business, which in the wake of the COVID pandemic, experienced a severe parts shortage. “The parts shortage makes for some pretty tough discussions with our customers as to why we cannot get their vehicle fixed,” says Bill Cole. “Making the situation more challenging is that there are fewer new and used cars for sale because people are keeping their cars longer, which then translates into more service and parts requests. It is difficult telling someone ‘I know your car has been here for 30 days, but there is no end in sight’.” Bill Cole Automotive Group has turned to innovative means to solve this issue, one of which is buying parts from other dealers out Jason and Lee Cole are at the forefront of the company’s cultural practices, the latter working as Fixed Operations Manager. Their efforts receive the full support of senior management, a crucial ingredient to their success. “It’s easy to put a process in place, but it starts to fall apart quickly when senior management isn’t reviewing the process to ensure it stays in place,” says Bill Cole. “As management, we ensure that the culture is adopted companywide with a clear understanding that it is all about the customer. If we do not provide that incredible customer experience from the beginning of contact to end, well, frankly, there will not be an end. We must also provide an exceptional experience because we do business repeatedly with the same people in the rural market we operate in, so we must get it right every time.”