Dealership Welcomes Employee With Featured Article In Newspaper

When a new employee joins your dealership, you may introduce him or her to the staff, perhaps send out an email to the entire store or the group. The question is, would you put an article about that individual in the local newspaper? For one Cadillac store, that was their way of welcoming their newest member of the sales staff.

Jack Schmidt Cadillac out of O’Fallon, IL  put an article in the St. Louis Dispatch welcoming Amanda Lugge to their sales staff. In the article, Lugge is quoted as saying, “finding customers exactly what they want is very rewarding to me.” Lugge joined the dealership this past fall and the store decided to welcome and introduce Lugge to the community using this very unique method. Dealer Elect John Schmitt showed support for the new hire when he said in a statement, “We are happy to see Amanda as part of the crew here at Jack Schmitt Cadillac and feel like she will make a big difference.” The article also touched on the personal side of Lugge noting her enjoyment of hiking as well as spending time with her daughter and dog, Ollie.

On the heels of our report from NADA about the turnover in retail automotive, the question is, what do you think of this strategy? This store isn’t treating this employee as someone who will be there today and gone tomorrow, rather they put her name in the local paper and welcomed her to the community. Would your dealership ever do something similar? Could showing this type of confidence in a new hire help improve morale and lead to better employee retention rates?