What are the main responsibilities of your role?

First and foremost, my main responsibility is to ensure customers receive the level of service they expect, whether they visit, call, or make a digital enquiry. Within that, there is an awful lot of detail and process management, as first impressions involve a lot of channels and a lot of different expectations. I work closely with all our teams, including administration and valeting, so that, as a business, we are a single unit all pointing towards the same overall goals. So many dealership processes are inefficient as they pass from person to person and department to department. We have a unique and dynamic structure that involves far fewer people than a traditional set-up, but, as a result, our processes have to be micro-managed.

What are the most significant challenges ahead in your field of work?

Ensuring that our customers who choose a digital path get a joined-up experience when they visit the dealership. We are seeing less and less showroom traffic and with more of our business coming from digital channels, we have to adapt to the changed expectations that brings. Also, to continue to evolve service levels so we retain the customers we worked so hard to win in the first place. Our managing director is keen to remind us that lost customers cannot be replaced with new customers on a 1:1 basis, so we are constantly trying to improve our communication and feedback mechanisms to ensure that what we do is what the customer wants.