Valley auto dealer putting millennials to work
May 26, 2014, 5:00 AM | Updated: 5:00 am
PHOENIX — A Valley auto dealer is putting millennials to work in an area many of them know quite well.
Sanderson Ford in Glendale has hired four millennials to help troubleshoot and teach car buyers about all the bells and whistles new cars come loaded with today.
“They can tell you right where to go sitting right in your car, ‘click this button, do this, do that,'” said David Tedder, internet director at Sanderson Ford.
As cars have become highly technological, Tedder said they were seeing negative feedback and complaints by customers who did not fully understand how to use their vehicles.
As a solution the dealership decided to hire millennials to help customers, because so many millennials intuitively understand new technology, Tedder said.
“I wanted people that were patient (and) could teach all ages of people, but that intuitively understood it,” he said. “When you take a guy that is 19 (or) 20 years old, our oldest I think is 22, and walk them out to the car for the first time and in ten minutes that can be telling you stuff that you didn’t even realize that car could do … it’s almost magic.”
After hiring the group of millennials, Tedder said the dealership has helped their customers get more out of their vehicles.
“It’s just a matter of enjoying what you bought,” Tedder said. “If you buy something and you don’t know how to use it, then you’re forever going to be wondering what it was about.”
The new hires have also help with their customer satisfaction, Tedder said because the millennials not only help people at the dealership, but also travel to customer’s homes and offices to help them out.
“You’d have to buy a high-line vehicle like a Mercedes (or) BMW, something like that to get this level of service,” he said.
Tedder said the most common complaints the dealership receives are over entertainment systems and climate controls. He added that other systems such as automatic parallel parking commonly require help from the new hires.
“For these customers, it’s like learning how to use a computer for the first time,” he said. “It’s like magic for them because they just didn’t know these things were available.”
