An automobile dealership is a busy place assisting customers in a variety of ways. While the cars and facilities are essential, it is the strong team of individuals who bring their skills to the dealership each day that is the core of a dealer's success. It's the professional staff that attends to the varied needs of customers.

In the Greater Toronto Area, dealerships vary in size. Some new car stores have perhaps two dozen employees while the largest may have two hundred! As a customer in a dealership, you will have occasion to deal with many of its departments. To assist you in achieving your needs, this article addresses the many people available to you and explains how they do their job. By understanding their assignments and abilities, you will be able to get the most out of your relationship with your dealer.

New vehicle dealers have different structures, but essentially you will find six groups within the four walls. Up front, the administrative folks resemble their counterparts at any medium sized business, but at a dealership their jobs are very specialized. For example, the Toronto Auto Dealers Association (TADA) offers a course especially for receptionists, who are expected to know their business thoroughly and have enormous people skills. You might be surprised to learn that the person who greets you is an important part of the dealer operation often responsible for customer follow up, the filing of many documents and frequently for large amounts of money.

Behind the reception is a group of accountants and administrators who must understand volumes of government and manufacturer requirements as well as insure that all paperwork and accounting is accurately completed. A vehicle dealer's inventory is often very large with accompanying financial considerations. The people who work upstairs in the office are thorough professionals, with extensive backgrounds in business and finance as well as leasing, financing, warranties, government regulations and much more.

Next, we meet the women and men who make up the sales team, often a customer's first contact with a dealership. Today's sales force is invariably well trained, having achieved formal qualification before they step on the floor of a dealership. They must have a comprehensive knowledge of the products they sell as well as the competitive vehicles in the marketplace. This enables them to assist customers to select the car or light truck they need, helping them match their tastes and needs to the best available choice. They are also responsible for coordinating all the details of the customer's dream car including delivery logistics, options and other customer needs.

Working with the entire sales team, the sales manager has a very busy role. The manager is responsible for keeping his team's standards high to meet industry and manufacturer expectations. He or she has a further list of responsibilities including hiring, staff scheduling and management, evaluating trade-ins and relations with the factory. The manager also arranges dealer trades to locate a model that may not be on the lot to accommodate a customer's request, such as colour or trim level. At some dealerships, there may be a separate manager for used car sales; sometimes one person is responsible for both.

A very valuable complement to the sales team is the 'F&I' group whose specialty goes well beyond finance and insurance. These people handle 'everything else' to do with a car purchase such as extended warranties or undercoating and administer the many manufacturers' programs which provide benefits to the customer. These programs, such as rebates or no-money-down purchase plans change frequently, so keeping current and communicating the information to the sales team and customers is essential.

These three groups work together in what we could call the front of the house at the dealership. Next week we will head to the back area where skills are equally high though very different. Every dealership's relationship with their customers only starts with the sale of a vehicle. It is up to our next groups ' technicians, parts and service mangers to make sure the vehicle gets on the road and stays on the road. We will discuss what each does and the talents they bring to their job as we continue our tour of the dealership next week in this space.