Office Staff

I can't help but wonder if most dealers are going through the same "power" struggle between the office staff and the sales staff. In my sales career, having experience with more then one dealership, I have noticed the same struggle being played out, and I wonder if the dealer principals really notice. Let me give you "My Take" on how the sales staff sees the struggle between the office and sales department.

In the retail world, there are simply two types of employees. One who works face to face with customers and one who doesn't. With some of the office employees I've worked with, they are rightfully in their position because, quite frankly, they shouldn't talk to customers. They just don't have the right personality to talk to fellow "human beings" let alone customers. I'm not quite sure why they believe the sales staff is much more inferior then them. I have my theories and most of them play a small part, but I also believe that if my job was as repetitive as theirs day in and day out, there would be a lot of little things that would get on my nerves too.

One reason there are little things that, "send them over the wall" as I've been told, is the daily connection with the dealer principal or owner, who will turn to these individuals and constantly ask the "what, where, when, and why". In turn, these individuals will ask the sales staff the same questions and add "who and how". The sales staff will give their explanation or details on how something took place and then the connection is lost, the blame game starts. Instead of working together, and discussing the "what, where, when, and why" it becomes a battle.

The inability to communicate between the two types of employees is due largely because the office staff rarely has the satisfaction of overcoming objections, rejections, and obstacles that the sales staff deals with in nearly every interaction with customers. It makes the little things that are forgotten in a deal very trivial, and makes the person complaining about the little things missed, seem very unappreciative. "Things should have been done this way and they were not, or they should have been done that way and it was not" now you've added some anomaly to their black and white day and it causes pandemonium in there simple yet repetitive day. I've seen chaos caused because of simple things like a missing drivers license number in its appropriate box, or a phone number missing a digit on an application or worse yet a deal that had yesterdays date instead of today's.

To be fair, I know the jobs of the office staff is not simple. I know this because I don't want to do them. I know the importance of the office staff and I show appreciation through respect to those individuals. I appreciate the fact that the office staff will dot our "I's" and cross our "T's" when we forget to, and fill in the blanks and do all the other stuff they were hired to do. That in its self makes it that much easier for the sales department to do their job, which is SELL! Let's all remember that in your retail store, if you're not selling your not making a payroll, and a payroll includes everyone from the shop porter to the owner, which includes the office staff somewhere in the middle. To treat the front line workers as inferior and with a lack of respect only places more animosity towards the office staff.

This may not be true at your dealership, the person or people you have working the office has people skills, and you never have had any issues with them. If this is the case, be very thankful. Appreciation for each others roll in the dealership goes a long way. More often then not, issues will get resolved. Tensions will dissipate, and things will get back to normal. But time and time again someone will have a bad day, something will be missed, and someone will have to fix it. Working together in this economy is paramount, and that's what it's going to take to ensure that everyone gets paid on payday, and your dealership survives to see the next one.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The most important roll in a dealership is the salesperson. Whether it's in the showroom, parts department, service department or accessories, they help in the customers decision to make a purchase that day and in the future. Without customers purchasing your goods or services in your "retail" store, there wouldn't be an office staff.

With that said, April 21st is "Administrative Professionals Day". Make sure you show your appreciation for all that they do and treat them to something nice.

That's "My Take"