Leaderboard

I personally think there are as many types of buyers with as many types of preferences as there are types of dealers. The big guys gain and build their customer base with the customers that like 'every car in every colour', a manufacturer badge over the door and, whilst browsing, get greeted by a pretty lady in a freshly pressed uniform waiting to serve them tea and biscuits in their brightly lit car palace. They get called sir or madam and treated like they're the most important person in the world, they know the customer's satisfaction (regardless how unreasonable the request is) is of the utmost importance because that is what they get bonuses on. These customers will always shop this way, the big guys take this capital gained and buy up those that are trying to compete in this market but simply can't afford to keep up. The other hand is us lot who (hopefully) treat the customer like a human being, build a rapport and gain their trust through honest trading, not a veil of clever pre-learnt phrases taught at this weeks training course taken by a person who's never been near a car showroom. Our customers come back to us because they like us, they tell their friends for the same reason and, as long as we keep heart when the times are tough and continue to do so, we have a chance of strong survival & to flourish if the business model is good enough too. Something has to give to allow us to work as i've described though, we can't keep paying too much for good stock, too much to let the public see our stock AND backing them up to the hilt to keep the customer happy if it goes wrong. As Phil said, we can't live on fresh air alone! Just my 2p