The challenge

Following a period of growth and change, our client was experiencing a concerning decline in customer satisfaction scores across its UK dealer network. At the same time, staff turnover hit 40%, with a particular issue in employee retention in the sales teams. This eroded awareness of the brand identity and heritage; the remaining staff were less confident in what the brand stood for.

The client recognised the need to re-embed its brand purpose nationally and planned a large-scale communications campaign, culminating in a pan-European event to relaunch the brand purpose with the dealers.

They wanted to ensure the UK centres were prepared for this event and asked Change Associates to help.

What we did

Our team of change managers recommended a workshop approach that would prepare each dealership for the European event, ensuring the manufacturer got the most impact from their investment.

We designed a half-day workshop, which was delivered to 240 staff across 43 dealerships over two months. The programme included customer journey mapping to identify pain points and exercises to identify potential blockers to delivering the customer experience levels expected.

Our consultants asked each team to reflect on their own knowledge and understanding of the brand purpose, how embedded it was in their centre, and where they felt there were opportunities to improve.

Each centre created an action plan with tangible outputs and clear responsibilities for improving their culture, as well as a Kaizen continuous improvement plan to enhance the customer experience.

The result

• Self-reported confidence in the staff’s understanding of the brand purpose improved from 4/10 to 8.1/10 by the end of the session.
• Customer satisfaction stopped declining and began to improve.
• Employee engagement increased, with staff saying they valued the opportunity to discuss issues openly and be heard.
• Immediate improvements included:
  • Customer enquiries were answered more reliably.
  • Cars consistently prepared and ready for customer test drives.
  • Clearer sales handover communication.
  • Improved onboarding and buddy systems for new hires.
• The centres also reported stronger team collaboration and communication, and greater adoption of Kaizen tools, to support ongoing continuous improvement.

Image (c) Shutterstock | Anatoliy Cherkas