Success on the double for West End Skoda

A rise of one position up a brand’s annual rankings might not sound like much to celebrate, but when that rise takes you from second to first it certainly is.

This is the achievement being celebrated by West End Skoda in Edinburgh. Being close to the top last year meant that there was, if possible, more drive than there would have been had the team finished lower down the table.

“There has never been more fuel in the belly of the team in Edinburgh to go one better than that and that is to win,” says Daniel Houghton, partner at West End Garage.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say there has been a change in approach, is just never-ending attention to detail.”

As well as the overall win, West End Skoda also picked up the award for the best performing site for aftersales, but this hasn’t come at the expense of other areas of the business – it finished second in the sales category, having won it last year.

Aftersales drive

The foundations for the aftersales success have been long established.

“In Edinburgh we’ve represented the territory where we are since 2012,” says Daniel.

“We are very fortunate that we are usually outstripped by supply so we’ve usually got a two- to three-week lead time. We’re constantly driving to find extra capacity which, unfortunately for the team, means overtime.”

This might change in the future, as there are plans to create a small development on the Edinburgh site that would create an extra ramp facility. This in turn would allow the employment of one or two extra technicians. In the short term, though, covering it means extra hours for the team in place.

“We’ve looked at trying to introduce shift patterns. I think the big challenge is that there is far more to the aftersales team than technicians and where we then need to look at service drivers, valeters, service advisors, service supervisor, etc it creates a bigger challenge.”

As a result, the preference is to offer the team overtime, but it has to have the buy-in of all those concerned.

So far there hasn’t been an issue with the costs outweighing the benefits – that excess demand covers any concerns on that front. Daniel says that managing the extra work need is something that is dictated by customers’ needs, with holidays not available in the traditional peak months of March and September to cover the surge in demand. This allows them to manage the team to cover what is needed.

Electric specialists

Electric vehicles don’t form a core part of Skoda’s model range yet, but with more models set to join the recently launched Enyaq and the forthcoming coupe version they are set to play an increasingly important role.

West End has sought to get ahead of the curve on this front, having signed up to be a Battery Competence Centre. This will enable the site to take in vehicles from other retailers that don’t have the ability to maintain them.

“If we are one of the first in the UK to become a Battery Competence Centre, we’re probably doing something that the rest of the network will be expected to do whether they like it or not in two years, five years or whenever it will be,” says Daniel.

With electric vehicle work often requiring two technicians, the demands will soon increase on the technicians and the team.

Sales challenges

When talking sales, Daniel cites the same reasons for success as he put forward for the aftersales win – paying attention to the devil in the detail.

With the awards focusing on 2021, this included a period where Scotland was in lockdown. Key to the emergence from this, says Daniel, was the careful management of staff returning from furlough.

“Having the right people back at the right time that were the most multi-talented and multi skilled and then building the team back up to meet with the demands of the business and our customers and the brand was done very well,” says Daniel.

“Another massive part of our used car success is a brand-new used car website, which was very timely in terms of modernisation and digitisation. It has used car inventory, but full end to end ecommerce with reserve online, finance application right the way through to organising delivery 100% from somebody’s sofa at home.”

Delivering the goods across the nation

Like many retailers, West End offers full home delivery and plans to continue doing so.

“People’s expectations have definitely changed or are changing and people expect to be able to work with a retailer who’s potentially 200 or 300 miles away as if they were 20 or 30 miles away,” says West End partner Daniel Houghton. “I think there has definitely been a long-term change to people’s expectations that if it’s on the internet it can be delivered for the same price.”

When it comes to delivery the team uses a mixture of in-house and outsourced solutions, depending on the distance involved. It a car is only going 50 miles or less then it will be done by a member of the team but if it is further than that then they will tend to outsource it.

“What we would normally say is that if it’s 200-300 miles we would throw in the first 50 miles for free but then usually it’s a pence per mile or a cost per mile to pay. But it also then depends. Is there a part exchange to return – is it a one-way trip or is it a two-way trip to get a car back to the origin?”

ABOUT THE COMPANY

• Location: West End Edinburgh, Sight Hill
• Established in: 1987 took on Skoda franchise
• Staff numbers: 67 across all three and 30 at Edinburgh
• New cars in 2021: 928 across the three sites, Edinburgh 481
• Used cars in 2021: 1256, 412 Edinburgh
• Turnover: £38,284,567 for all three sites