7:18 am, January 19, 2023
Mazda is not planning an agency sales model, according to Mazda Europe CEO Martijn ten Brink.
Speaking at the Brussels Motor Show last week, where the firm revealed its MX-30 R-EV plug-in hybrid, he told Car Dealer that the manufacturer had no current desire to change the model through which it remunerates dealers.
‘At this moment, no. I think we are quite happy with our dealers,’ said ten Brink.
‘I’d like to think that we have a trustful relationship with them, because you make promises to your network – they’re your partners and they invest their own money – and you need to deliver on your promises.’
Mazda’s European boss also highlighted two long-standing figures within Mazda UK as being an integral part of the relationship between the manufacturer and its retailer partners.
He said: ‘People like Jeremy Thomson and Peter Allibon have been in position for 10 or 15 years – they’re credible and trustworthy people for the dealers.
‘And if there are difficult things that you need to decide, or you need to make changes to some of the processes, if you can do that hand in hand with your dealer partners at fair costs and fair prices, that’s for us the preferred route.’
A spokesperson for Mazda UK confirmed there was no agency sales model on the horizon, but did not rule it out completely.
He said: ‘Mazda UK will not be implementing an agency-style agreement for the foreseeable future.
‘This has been shared with, and welcomed by our dealer network who continue to operate very successfully under the existing franchise model.’
Up-market move
Dealer staff, suggested ten Brink, will also be at the centre of the firm’s move upmarket – with Mazda choosing to focus energy on improving customer service, rather than trying to ape the luxurious showrooms that define many premium brands’ car buying experience.
‘You can define “premium” in many different ways,’ ten Brink told Car Dealer.
‘I personally don’t like the word, although it tends to be used a lot.
‘I just think that what we want to focus on is the connection, the relationship with our customer. I don’t want to define it just through the car. I don’t want to define it just through a driving behaviour.
‘We’ve also established as a team, that we’d like it to be the relationship with the customer throughout the journey, and that everything we do for the customer becomes as easy as possible.
‘So from buying to leasing to ordering, to having claims returned, to connectivity… really trying to create an experience that’s as seamless as possible, without going into a golden palace with marble floors. So I’d like to define it around relationship and customer service.’
Ten Brink suggested that existing customers should already start to notice the changes the manufacturer has made – with aftersales in particular an area the firm was trying to digitise.
He added: ‘I think it’s easier to understand for existing customers, because they see the differences that we have [made from] three, four, five years ago.
‘What we’ve tried to do is, implement a communication platform across Europe for the best tailored, useful information to the customer as possible, and offering all of the services that you would normally have to get onto the phone to do, digitally. So we’ve tried to really go after the difficult ones.
‘Can you offer them the digital experience, for example an online service booking – but a real one? Can people make proper quotations or forecasts when parts will be delivered in times of part shortages? So can you really connect all those systems to create, more predictability for the customer, be nicer, and relieve the frontline staff from the administrative burdens that they classically were bothered with?
‘So that’s where we’re focussing, and that’s where especially existing customers see a difference to a couple of years ago.
‘Conquest customers, I hope that we’re at least as good as some of the established premium brands… because maybe their focus has been on a different area of the customer journey. Maybe there’s been more focus on the showroom experience.’
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