After more than 50 years of family ownership, a Ford dealership in London, Ont., is thriving because of two time-tested business principles: an emphasis on postsales service and keeping a reserve of cash on hand for emergencies.
“If you look after [customers] in the service department, they’ll come back to you through the showroom,” said Robert Vitali, president of Highbury Ford in the southwestern Ontario city.
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Long before high-performance service departments became fashionable, Highbury Ford was focusing on providing good value to customers who brought their vehicles in for service.
“My grandfather [Stanley Stonehouse] was an auto mechanic who became a Ford dealer,” said Vitali, referring to dealerships his grandfather owned in Forest, Listowel and Brampton, Ont. “He thought the back end of the business didn’t get the attention the front end [sales] did.”
Vitali, who was 21 years old when his father bought the London dealership in 1975, said he learned key strategies when he attended dealership group meetings. “My dad was a good mentor. He taught me [success depends] on the people you surround yourself with.
“All successful dealers have solid people. They care about their customers.”
The success of Highbury Ford’s service department can be traced to the company’s empathetic approach to customers, he said.
Affordable solutions
Service advisers are taught to treat customers as if they were serving their own parents, Vitali said.
“A person is not in the service department because they want to be in the service department. They have a need,” he said.
When a serious problem with a vehicle is discovered during diagnosis, for example, the adviser works with the customer to find an affordable solution, Vitali said. Money-saving alternatives include using less expensive third-party parts rather than Ford’s certified parts. If the repair is major, such as a cracked engine block that can costs thousands to replace, the customer is given the choice of repair or trade, if they think the repair can’t be justified.
Vitali said the goal with each service appointment is to live up to customer expectations.
“There are many places people can take their cars,” he said. “They’re coming here because they’re going to the manufacturer’s representative. We have to live up to that.”
Vitali said an “old-fashioned” approach to finances, such as maintaining a cash reserve, has helped the dealership through crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which was declared a public health emergency in March 2020.
When Ontario dealerships’ sales departments were shut down by government order, Highbury continued to pay its service employees, Vitali said. Once those departments were allowed to operate as “essential services,” Highbury Ford had plenty of experienced staff available.
“Seventy-five per cent of our parts and service staff wanted to come to work,” Vitali said. “We got through COVID without a hiccup.”
While Vitali declined to disclose the amount of cash reserves, he said it is significant.
“It lets us sleep at night,” he said. “You have to protect your finances. Conserve that cash.”
In a half-century of operation, the dealership has gone through “skinny periods,” but always managed its way through by keeping debt to a minimum.
The dealership had 140 vehicles in stock when sales were halted at the beginning of the pandemic, but “burned through” the supply quickly when sales restrictions were lifted, Vitali said. Yet, the company reinforced customer loyalty through its service department, which meant buyers were willing to wait for delivery. Vitali believes that loyalty continues to pay dividends in customers who regularly return to buy new vehicles.
Highbury Ford has a staff of about 70 and sells about 1,100 new and 450 used vehicles per year, Vitali said.
‘Old-fashioned concepts’
Independent reviews indicate a high level of customer satisfaction with Highbury Ford. Google reviews by 1,186 customers delivered a satisfaction rate of 4.1 out of five. Dealerrater.ca reviews by 644 customers put the score at 4.7.
“These are old-fashioned concepts,” Vitali said. “Whenever sales start to drop off, we shine up our shoes and get back to basics.”
Those basics also include being competitive on price while also focusing on relationships, Vitali said.
“You have to be competitive but [sales are] also based on relationship and trust,” he said.
“The younger generation; they are looking for someone to do business with. And it’s not always going to be the cheapest.”
