You Should Be Embarassed to Work at Brad Benson

Brad BensonWell, the car shopping experience for my girlfriend Beth finally came to a conclusion. I’m sure you read my recent blog about car shopping. If not, then shame on you and hit the hyperlink.

After weeks of deciding, she chose the 2013 Hyundai Elantra in red. We went to Brad Benson Hyundai in South Brunswick NJ since Beth wanted to get her car that day and they had the best selection to choose from. A bad first impression came for us when she said she had an appointment, but they didn’t have her name on file. Nice internal communication guys, not like you want to sell cars or anything.

But I digress. We got a guy named Frank Simonetti (spelling might be wrong and maybe the first name is wrong, too), who had only been working at Brad Benson Hyundai for 4 days when we went in and left his previous dealership because he didn’t like the managing style the team had to offer. Oh how unfortunate the next set of events would be.

After waiting for 2 hours during the entire sales process (test drive, negotiating, etc) and Beth decided to get that car, a person who I think was sales manager Steve Y. called a sales team on the sales floor. With customers present.

What was said in this meeting? We only sold 40 cars today. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Even if you sold a car today, you should be embarrassed.

Customers who bought cars were still sitting in the dealership and heard every word of this meeting. Not only are you belittling your employees and probably not motivating them very much, but you make your customers feel like they don’t matter because they’re only one of 40 people buying a car (and it took another 2 hours to complete the entire sales process, making it seem like you were taking time out of the customer’s day). I don’t feel like this is an effective management style.

Hell, even Rocco Cara who was the financial advisor helping Beth out, said that he hates when management calls sales meetings while customers are still in the showroom. I didn’t get an opinion from Ed Gilbert, the Delivery Coordinator that showed us first-class customer service by showing us how everything in the 2013 Hyundai Elantra worked. I still got a good share of business cards and Beth got a good car, so everybody wins.

Except for poor Frank (or whatever his name is) who is probably regretting his decision to start working at Brad Benson Hyundai. Womp womp.