As you know from the last giant issue that thumped on your desk before the holidays, Canadian auto dealer recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.
As we were putting the finishing touches on that issue, we were also well into the planning for January/February and for the rest of the issues for 2016. It’s a common practice in the publishing industry for magazines to create an editorial calendar to give the advertisers a bit of a heads up about our plans for the year.
A lot of our discussions about what to cover this year involved ensuring that we maintain our laser focus on the issues that directly impact dealers today, but that we don’t miss out on the larger social and economic trends that are affecting all of us.
It’s akin to doing a great job in the kitchens, dance halls and engine rooms of the Titanic, but neglecting to climb to the crow’s nest to look for any dangers that might lurk ahead.
And speaking of the Titanic, it’s a lesser known historical footnote that the lookouts in the crow’s nest of the Titanic weren’t equipped with binoculars on their maiden voyage. The binoculars were in a locked cabinet and a crewman mistakenly removed the key before the journey.
While historians debate whether binoculars would have saved the Titanic from peril, suffice it to say we want to ensure the keys to our binoculars are always available for our team.
That outward-looking focus is what led us to introduce new and regular features in 2016, such as “Retail Revolution,” and “Fingerprint” that make their debut in this issue.
Those articles are intended to flag trends, issues, opportunities — and yes, possibly icebergs — that could impact dealers. But the sources and examples for those stories are from companies and personalities outside of the automotive retail industry.
Whether they are examples of best practices from online-only retailers, or companies whose expertise shines in customer service, we want to offer our research and analysis on why these issues will affect your customers, and ultimately, your businesses.
Once customers get accustomed to a certain level of service or an experience, they carry that expectation forward into all other aspects of their lives.
That means every customer experience in your dealership, like it or not, will always be benchmarked against a customer’s best experience — not just another dealership.
To help us remain ever vigilant on our lookout watch for dealer’s interests, we’ll always be striving to ensure our binoculars are keenly focused on the seas ahead.
