From the January 2016 issue
If Apple enters the auto business, as some observers think is inevitable, it may not be its cars that matter. At least, not as much as the stores in which they are sold. The Apple Store ethos?seamless customer interaction, effortless problem solving, speedy service?has become the benchmark for retailers of all stripes. This customer experience is as integral to Apple?s success as its elegantly simple product designs, compelling the company?s faithful to line up to buy its new products.
That kind of sales environment has been unheard of in auto showrooms, where decades of hard-sell tactics and souk-style haggling have implanted resentment and distrust. Yet some visionary dealers are giving the Apple approach a shot, having concluded that it will take more than TV lounges and free doughnuts to win the business of tech-savvy customers in general and impatient millennials in particular. Brad Miller is president of Miller-Nicholson, which owns Honda of Seattle and Toyota of Seattle, unusual conjoined dealerships that share a new six-story building off Interstate 5 near the city?s sports stadiums. For Miller, the dealerships? move last spring offered an opportunity to blow up the old business model. What he has since created is nothing less than a laboratory to test a new way to sell cars. Miller says he didn?t try to copy the Apple Store, though he is seeking a similarly satisfying customer experience.
The mantra is ?One person, one price, one hour.?...