You are a guest at Bolton Hyundai
Only two years into being a part of the motoring landscape in Bolton, Bolton Hyundai is bringing a new way to do business that hopefully influences the way the industry does business.
“I have my sales people refer to everyone as guests and not customers, in my opinion that’s who they are,” said Steve Fogliato, General Sales Manager for Bolton Hyundai.
He believes passionately that people should be treated the way that he would want to be treated no matter where he visits, as a guest.
“I hate the term customers, they are guests.”
“I believe the old school ways of come on in and make an offer, and the old ways of buying a car just do not work anymore. Today, it’s all about transparency,” explains Fogliato. “People are so much more educated now. People want to come in and feel comfortable doing business, because when it comes to new cars, anyone can get a new
car anywhere.”
He has been at Bolton Hyundai for only
a year and this is the atmosphere and culture change he has brought to the dealership
experience.
“I really try to make the experience here a little bit more different, a little bit more relaxed, a little bit better,” Fogliato added. “If someone wants us to appraise their car, I’m going to appraise their car. I’m not going to make them an offer. I’m not going to make them jump through hoops. If you want a number on your car we will let you know what we are going to give you on your car.”
And these are more than just words, he and his dedicated sales staff and top-trained technicians are here to make your auto shopping experience fun, easy and financially advantageous.
“Just an open and honest approach,” he believes is the key. “We will leave the numbers out in front of everybody and let them know exactly where every penny is going and I don’t believe in the typical car sales games of ‘come on down’.”
That has hurt more than helped the image and challenges facing the industry in the past.
“I think those days in the car industry have changed and the dealers that are still reacting like that are not going to survive.”
To him, buying a car should not be a painful atrocious process that it seems to be in most people’s heads.
“At the end of the day you are buying a car. It’s an exciting time in someone’s life when they acquire a new vehicle, whether it’s a new car or a used car,” he continued. “It shouldn’t be the dreaded process. I don’t like when people come in with their backs up and I can understand why they do.”
He even encourages ‘guests’ to utilize the various online resources and allow the excellent network of people to show his guests the ideal car, truck or SUV furthering the openness and transparency he looks to cultivate at Bolton Hyundai.
“It’s the way the industry has been done in the past before the advent of the internet there was no way for people to know what their monthly payments would be, know any of that information before they came in,” he added.
“Now with the internet, people are coming in knowing more often than not what model they want, they have an estimation of what the payments are and they are looking for somebody who is going to build value and make them comfortable, somewhere they feel relaxed enough to do business,”
discussed Fogliato. “I don’t want them to feel pressured because in today’s day and age if you’re going to sell one person one car once, you are never going to survive, especially in a small town. You need to build positive atmosphere within the dealership and I am not going to make this store successful by selling one car to one family once.”
Aurora-born, he feels his small town roots coupled with an industry that is better understanding its role in the community will serve not only his team, but the entire Bolton Hyundai dealership for years to come.
“I need the family to feel more comfortable so they will come back and buy more cars and refer their friends and family to come over here and buy a Hyundai,” he said.
The one thing that has surprised him in many ways is not the response of his guests who come to the dealership, but the Hyundai product itself in so many ways.
“The Hyndai product since 2011 has really taken off. In the styling and in the feature content, what you’re getting as far as bang for your buck in feature content in a Hyundai far exceeds a lot of other cars in the market,” said Fogliato.
This comes from a sales manager who has spent over a decade working for many car companies in multiple dealerships. And even he is impressed with the product.
“For example, the Elantra GL, which is pretty much the entry level has heated seats and Bluetooth. If you look at the model with the sunroof, it gives you heated seats, in an Elantra. Normally, people do not get heated back seats until you’re into 50 or 60 thousand dollar luxury cars,” he described.
The Santa Fe has a heated steering wheel,” he continued. “It has windshield wiper de-icers, cooled front seats in the limited model. The feature content is really beyond the class of car that they are.”
This makes it very exciting for a small town guy to be able to lead a team in a small town dealership that delivers big to all its guests.
Written by Wallace Pidgeon
