FAST FIVE Q&A with Sue Alford – Dealer Principal at Volvo Cars Doncaster, Volvo Cars Brighton, and multi-award winning Volvo Cars South Yarra.
When and where did your automotive career begin?
A long time ago. It’s solely my mother’s fault! She was in the car industry and my first job was as a receptionist at a Holden dealership, Patterson Cheney Ringwood. I actually came from an accounting background. I did my accounting qualifications at night and worked through from accounts girl, office manager, accountant, general manager and dealer principal.
Volvo Cars South Yarra has been awarded Major Metro Retailer of the Year at the Volvo Car Australia Pinnacle Awards of Excellence for the fifth year in a row. On accepting the award on behalf of the team, you praised the staff for being truly customer-focused. Why is this so important?
It’s the old saying: If you upset one customer, they tell 20 more. And the team here at South Yarra absolutely loves their customers to bits. They put themselves in their shoes. They understand the concerns that they’re going through. I have a good mix of females and males here too, so they can cover almost every issue that arises. And I see the love when someone’s delivering a car – the salespeople make sure the customer feels like a queen or a king. That is so important and what makes us different from the rest. If you just do it the same as everybody else, why would customers come back?
You are a member of Women in Automotive (WinA). What encouraged you to join?
I joined about three years ago. A LinkedIn post popped up and I read it. Plus, Mick (VACC Industry Policy Advisor Michael McKenna) was always telling me to join! I had 130 staff, and can only do so much, but I was curious. I really enjoyed reading about some of the womens’ successes. It just showed that there are a lot of us out there, and many of us don’t get recognition. WinA was giving them the profile they deserved.
What are your two key pieces of advice for women considering a career in automotive?
You must be resilient. The hours are difficult – if you don’t want to do the long hours, it’s probably not the industry for you. However, saying that, there’s a lot of talk within the industry about shortening hours per fortnight and even four-day weeks. Whether businesses in Australia can afford to do that at the moment is another consideration. We’re still recovering from COVID-19 and all the lost money and business during the last two years, so I don’t know if we are quite there yet, but we are becoming more flexible. I have a lot of part-timers now, and I wouldn’t have gone that way before. COVID-19 has made me realise that by being flexible, you will attract good people. We are getting there, slowly. I’ve probably got to push myself more to make it happen as well.
What do you think the dealership landscape will look like in five years?
Very unknown. With so much going digital at the moment, I hope we don’t lose the personal relationship with our customers. With some manufacturers going online (Mercedes-Benz and Honda) I hope we don’t lose that personal touch because that’s what we love, and customers love it. That’s been proven with the electric take-up with Volvo – customers still want to come in and touch, see and drive the vehicle. And we’re here for them. I hope that that never changes.
Read the full Big Chair article in the October edition of Australasian Automotive