Dealer Insight: Gravells with MD and owner Jonathan Gravell

Motor Trader speaks to managing director and third-generation owner of Gravells, Jonathan Gravell, on the group’s family atmosphere and how it has earned several customer service awards.

Gravells is a familiar and long serving face in South Wales, with the company founded in Kidwelly in 1932. It then took on Renault in 1954 making it the oldest Renault dealership in the UK. It first partnered with Kia in 2007 and has expanded with the brand to six showrooms across the region.

Those Kia dealerships have recently received several awards for their customer service. The Kidwelly site was among the first ever dealerships to be accredited with the ‘ServiceMark with Distinction’ by the Institute of Customer Service (ICS). ‘ServiceMark with Distinction’ is the highest level of accreditation awarded by The Institute and is currently only held by 14 organisations in the UK. It had never before been awarded to an automotive dealership.

The Abergavenny and Narbeth dealerships were also awarded the 800 Award by Reputation. Reputation scores dealerships using several criteria ranging from customer reviews across various websites with relevancy, time response and length of reply all taken into consideration, as well as search engine optimisation (SEO), social media engagement and many other metrics.

Following this recent recognition of its excellent customer service, Motor Trader caught up with Gravells managing director and third generation owner, Jonathan Gravell, to talk about the group’s approach to customer service, the uptake of EVs, and how it has negotiated the pandemic.

Family and community

Gravell pointed to the family nature of Gravells, being a family business and at the centre of several Welsh communities, as part of its success when it comes to customer service. He said: “I think it is quite a Welsh thing to create a family atmosphere, which is what we aim to do. We are not dealerships that talk about staff retention or staff turnover. When staff are here five or 10 years they are still almost regarded as a new joiner, and we have some in the business with over 20 years of service. So, our staff are very comfortable with the day-to-day work and practices, and in turn comfortable with the customers who they have likely dealt with many times over the years.

“Our long serving staff are keen to exceed customers’ expectations because they know them very well. This means we are keen to find some way of helping with whatever the customers’ situation is. For example, if your car has broken down while a caravan is attached, we will be hunting for a car with a tow bar so that you can take that car on holiday and by the time you come back your car will be fixed. It is all about trying to find ways to make the process less painful for the customer. We want to help where we can, so when it comes to awards, we don’t target those things at all, but it is nice to be recognised for our work.”

Home-grown audience

When it comes to finding customers, Gravells employs a mix of traditional and modern methods. Social media is something that Gravell feels is more useful for city-based dealerships with potentially a more digital focused customer base. For the South Wales communities Gravells serves, this is not always the favoured approach.

He said: “Our most effective form of communication, when it comes to sales, remains the letter to the customer. You do not get letters today, especially personalised letters, and that can be quite powerful in terms of customer engagement. But you can go through the social media and texts regarding vehicle updates, bookings or recalls. It is about trying to judge what will get the best response from your audience.

“We have been in South Wales since 1954, and we started in Narberth about 14 years ago. One of the challenges we had, which is the big challenge here, was engaging a new audience. So, it is important to keep recruiting a new customer base to your business without neglecting the base you already have. I think that we have, so far, balanced that quite well in terms of brand and product attraction.”

Word of mouth and family ties are important when attracting new customers for Gravells. “We find a lot of our customers come in families. So, we first see the grandparents, then maybe the father, son, daughter. You often find that whole family tree will come through the business because of the experiences and support they have had, meaning they are keen for their family to have the same level of service. But you must have the relevant product or proposition. And so, the service we provide only works if the product and the offer fits what the customer wants.”

And the retailer varies its stock and offers from dealership to dealership, depending on what the local market calls for. Gravell said: “At our Bridgend dealership we provide a lot of contract hire lease offers to the market because we find the audience in that region are looking for premium products, and we use Instagram and Facebook more to conquest a younger group of people. We also recognise the popularity of minimal deposits with a reasonable payment among younger buyers, whereas older people who might be more traditional and want to use cash or HP. So, we adjust our approach depending on our audience.

“It is about understanding the buying habits of a customer base. We recently opened a Kia dealership in Abergavenny, and we have been finding the best way to attract and engage that new base. Abergavenny is a wealthy county town, somewhere that people who live in the city might have a second house, and has become very trendy. So, it has become our biggest seller of the Kia Niro electric over the last four months, and everyone in that town seems to be getting on the electric trail.”

Going electric

Gravells has dealerships with brands that are building their EV offering, such as Kia and Renault. Gravell said that he and his staff are finding that those customers interested in EVs are now well informed before coming into the dealership and just need that extra bit of information from the staff.

He said: “Customers that are interested in EVs are very well informed. We are at the point with EVs now where the customers have heard a lot about them and want to learn more, and there is a bit more pressure to explain the different propositions. When EVs were new on the market the customer’s and staff knew as much as each other, so in some respects it was quite easy.

“Now we need to be educating them regarding charging and how to make life easier for them. Kia is good at this because the showrooms feature an EV wall, so there is good point of sale to take people through the different models and charging mechanisms. We need to address customers’ questions like whether an EV will work for them and if it will save them money. We are seeing changes in behaviour, with customers coming in further down the line to EV adoption.”

The buying experience

“This last year has been crazy,” said Gravell when asked how the group has managed the pandemic. And, as the year progressed, customers became less understanding of delays on the dealership end.

Gravell said: “When we reopened after the first lockdown, customers were delighted and were so grateful. After that initial lockdown there was a real appreciation. However, following the latest lockdown customers are far more annoyed. They are annoyed that they cannot get things or go places. They are annoyed that parts are not available for their car. There is a real sense of community frustration. If you have got a part on backorder or you cannot resolve it because if you have been isolating, people are not as prepared to accept the delay, but I think that comes from the frustration they have experienced over the past year.”

Although the pandemic has highlighted the importance of digital services in automotive retail, Gravell believes that the physical side of the business is something that the customers absolutely want to hang on to.

He said: “The physical experience of going to see and touch a car is enjoyable. It is quite exciting. We are seeing a lot of reservations online or test drive bookings, but the customers are still coming in to confirm the car is with they expected. We are not getting many people wanting to fully transact online. I think they still want to come and check if the car is the size they thought it was, or if they like the comfort and layout. I think some of those steps are difficult to make fully digital; there are elements here that need the physical dealership.

“During the last lockdown we did about 50% of normal business to what it would normally be. We are now pushing 150% of usual business since reopening. So, people really want to come down and have the dealership experience. Having the finance online works fine for the customer, but the actual receipt of the vehicle at the dealership is still important.”

Looking forward, Gravell addressed the current shortage of both new and used cars but was hopefully for the coming quarters. He said: “Good used cars are incredibly hard to get now, and new cars also have supply issues. We have had a great first half of the year, but I also feel like I have never worked as hard. I think if new car supply settles it will get easier because customer demand seems to be strong.

“I also think that there is a bit of a behaviour switch where people are reluctant to go back to public transport in big numbers, and I think they are happy to switch to electric. So that is not going to be a challenge if affordable, and it really is down to the choice of product and the right payment options. Customers are confident and are behaving as they would in a normal circumstance. With more supply, you could sell more cars, which is a great position to be in.”