A blend of tradition and modernity sees Pearson of Wemyss Bay take Suzuki’s top accolade

For a retailer that prides itself on its traditional values, Pearson of Wemyss Bay takes a modern and innovative approach in many areas

We’ve known for months that large-scale events are not going to happen again any time soon, and all but the most ambitious had resolved themselves to the fact that the black-tie suits and dresses wouldn’t be making an appearance at the sort of awards ceremony that usually brightens up the dreary days of January. Not this year anyway.

Thankfully said ceremonies are joining the long list of events that have migrated online. In a year where good news has been hard to come by, and where the automotive retailing industry has battled on many fronts, the fact that those who have excelled will get the recognition they deserve feels like particularly good news.

One such retailer is Pearson of Wemyss Bay, which celebrated the start of 2021 by being named Suzuki’s National Dealer of the Year.

The site is one of Scotland’s longest established retailers, having been established in 1901 by the grandparent of current dealer principal David Pearson.

The team nearly missed their big moment, though, with David explaining that the team had always been in the mix but had never picked up the main prize.

“We have always punched above our weight, and wondered what we had to do to win,” explains David. “This year we didn’t hold out much hope and weren’t too worried about it.”

As a result of this, he says that he nearly didn’t pay as much attention to the awards announcement, but is “absolutely delighted” that he did.

Something old

David attributes the company’s success to what he calls its “old-fashioned approach” among other things.

“We are old fashioned in our ways, we are rural and try and do things our way with old fashioned principles, we try to do simple things like treating folk as you wish to be treated,” he says. “We are rural on the river Clyde, we attract a certain type of people who have had their fill of the big boys.”

He points out that the team has a huge amount of experience on its staff, saying: “I have been here 50 years, service director John Docherty has been here just under 40 years since he left school and Kenny Hyde, sales director has been here 35 years. If we have good people we try and keep them.”

In addition to this, David’s son Ross is the dealer principal at the company’s other site down the road in Largs and his daughter Emma runs the administration side of the businesses.

The ‘old-fashioned’ approach is typified in their attitude to some of the basic touch points that the customer experiences.

“One of the biggest frustrations these days is being kept hanging on on phone calls. You get a menu and then a menu – you spend 20 minutes on the phone and then hear ‘your call is important to us’,” says David. “We have no menu phones; the phone is answered by a human being every time. It might go to sales or parts, but someone will answer the phone.”

This extends to customer interaction, with David saying: “We keep in touch with customers with emails and everyone gets a welcome letter signed by me, telling them a bit about us, who I am and what we do. We have a good system for staying in touch with people. We try and make it very personal. We keep a record of who sold the car – our staff don’t change so that person will sign the letter and we add in general chit chat.”

Something new

Despite looking to maintain what they see as a more traditional approach to customer service, the team has fully embraced many elements that are required of a modern retailer, having taken advantage of the first lockdown to launch a new website.

Rather than being a refresh, the new site allows customers to go through the whole process online: “The website is up to date, you can do finance online. Our website has been very good for us in the last couple of months.” says David, adding that you can buy a car without coming in and get it delivered. The team is also doing personalised walkaround videos for customers and making sure they follow up on every video.

When it came to picking a company to do the website, David relied on word of mouth primarily. “We spent a bit of money and there was a website company in Scotland who were fantastic,” he says. “They have a lot of motor trade experience on their books. We do everything by recommendation and did some sussing out by talking to other dealers – we have heard some horror stories.”

Despite the challenges that 2020 and 2021 have brought so far, there aren’t any horror stories at Pearson, though.

Tapping into the holiday market

The Pearson team are not the only ones looking forward to the time when we can start going on holiday again, but there is an added reason for the Suzuki retailer to be eagerly anticipating the return of tourists. The Wemyss Bay site is in an area popular with holidaymakers and is located close to a large caravan site.

“We have customers far afield, they have come up and they might have bought cars on holiday. There is a big caravan site nearby and people come and walk about in the summer months,” explains David. “We don’t just keep it as a one-off, we try and keep in touch with them.

“We have got a family from Birmingham who come up – we sold them a car once on holiday and liked them and they have bought about three or four cars since.”

Despite the family being located more than 300 miles away, David explains that the team would look after them to the extent that they would organise a delivery of a car to them.

About the company

Where? Wemyss Bay, Renfrewshire

Established: 1901, with Suzuki since 1997

Staff: 40