Best Practices

Automotive News Best Practices compiles stories of auto dealers and their efforts to increase sales, improve their businesses and their bottom line and bolster the customer experience.
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Automotive News welcomes ideas of dealership best practices which aid stores in saving money and improving businesses. Submit your idea for review by Automotive News editors.

Don Hattan auto group uses assortment of digital tools to attract shoppers

A combination of Facebook and Google is helping to reel in buyers while also providing a glimpse of the Kansas dealerships' culture.

Changes to interviewing, onboarding turn around turnover

One dealership group in the Chicago suburbs revamped its hiring and onboarding process. The moves have significantly reduced employee turnover.

Dealership’s outreach method boosts Internet closing ratio

Curtis McMicheaux, general sales manager at Manly Hyundai, uses what he calls a "3for3" method to turn Internet leads into done deals.

Close attention to expenses keeps Smythe Volvo’s bottom line healthy

The Smythe Volvo dealership in New Jersey says it saves $50,000 to $75,000 annually with a strategy it calls “expense hygiene."

Chevrolet dealership in Fla. grows service business with in-house training program

To get ahead of a looming staffing shortage, Tom Gibbs Chevrolet in Palm Coast, Fla., created an in-house development program designed to retain and promote younger technicians, offering career progression and pay increases as they complete training.

Illinois dealer offers paid CPR training to staff following employee emergency

Instruction on CPR and automated external defibrillators isn’t mandatory, but staffers say it builds pride and confidence.

Ray Auto Group invests in future EV customers with Dine-N-Drive events

Ray Auto Group takes some of the mystery out of hybrids and EVs for consumers by offering low-key public forums with the experts who sell and service them.

Dealers seek shelter from Canada’s storms

When hail strikes, tents covering vehicles on lots can offer better coverage than insurance .

Food Truck Fridays help forge connections

Staffers at a Subaru dealership in Massachusetts spend some Fridays each summer showcasing new vehicles and interacting with potential customers at a local zoo.

Del Grande dealerships get ahead of California turf crackdown with low-water landscaping

When California announced a coming ban on watering ornamental turf, Del Grande Dealer Group made a plan to save water, save money and upgrade its Silicon Valley landscaping with native plants

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