There are two key ingredients to our road map; firstly we will continue to optimise our portfolio to ensure we have the right brands in the right locations. If we can achieve this fundamental part of our strategy, it will have a direct impact on our financial success.
Secondly, we want to become known for the retail experience we offer to our customers. The key is to be noticeably and meaningfully different to increase brand recognition and customer loyalty. To support this vision we will continue
to invest in our people, to attract, retain and nurture the best talent; invest in our technology and engage our colleagues and customers in a seamless and effortless experience. This will all help to strengthen our brand as we work to become a partner of choice for customers, colleagues, brand partners and investors. Of course all of this has to be underpinned by operational excellence in our every day delivery.
Our near term focus will be on optimising our cost base, making roles in our dealerships simpler and providing more focus on key measurements. There are also some ‘sacred cows’ in our industry that need addressing: we want to attract more women to develop their careers with us, we need to optimise our service capacity and we will consider changed consumer expectations with regards to opening hours and omni-channel integration.
We don’t believe in ‘a one size ts all’ approach to further optimise our business for both brand partners and customers. Instead we aim to share best practices and develop blueprints for success so we can lighten the load and accept that shared services are often a more effective way of running a business of our size and complexity. Many of these shared resources will be within the nine divisions and some will be based at head office.
We aim to create and maintain a stable, engaged high quality workforce that will ensure we continue to succeed. We have highlighted future focused roles to offer specialist support including Group Quali cations to manage the incoming Apprenticeship levy and Group Diversity to ensure that the best talent from all backgrounds can access and succeed at Lookers.
We have also introduced market leading new bene ts for staff including extra holiday, critical illness cover for all and 12 months full maternity pay.
Technology will play a key role in the development of the Lookers business in the coming years. We recognise the importance of the omni-channel experience that our customers now expect. We have a brand new website in development which will embody our aim to put information at our customers’ ngertips and give them more control over of how they interact with us. To make sure the process is as seamless as possible, we are updating how we manage the customer journey, have a new retail experience using Citnow and are constantly upgrading our network to keep the business moving.
As a modern motor retailer, we understand the importance of a strong brand. We are creating a compelling ‘Why Lookers’ proposition for customers, colleagues, suppliers and investors through engaging, creative and relevant content to increase retention, brand recognition and sentiment. We are creating a customer-centric engagement strategy across all channels and touch points with unique, content-rich proof points that allows us to become best known for an added-value retail experience, and embracing next generation digital capabilities.
One of the key differentiators of our retail proposition is the service and experience we offer our customers across all channels and touch points. We strive to provide the highest level of customer engagement and experience in our retail sector through relevant, personal, meaningful and memorable expert advice that allows our customers to make the right choices.
In addition, we are committed to a signi cant capital investment plan to further improve our dealership estate over the next three years to make it best in class in a modern and contemporary multi-channel motor retail environment.
In order to be recognised as providing the best customer experience we are investing into new technologies, a new and enhanced website, our Lookers retail brand proposition, new training and development plans for our people, our dealership portfolio, customer research and our operational capabilities to make the customer journey more seamless and rewarding.
We are developing a brand new industry leading website that will offer the customer an improved retail experience that will mirror our instore offer. The platform will be centred on the individual customer, providing intuitive search facilities and a personalised area for storing information.
Retail brands differ from product brands. Our customers choose a retailer based on choice, expert advice, accessibility, convenience and trust. We are bringing all these to life in our retail environments, from drive-in service areas with barista bars, to kids zones and interactive information touchscreens.
We are currently working on 80 projects to deliver technology that is faster, better, easier and richer for the business. These include the new website and introducing Microsoft Office 365, with includes applications like OneDrive, Yamma and Skype – all designed to increase efficiency.
In order to be the retailer of choice we understand that we need to create a compelling brand proposition, with distinct benefits that make our offer meaningfully and demonstrably different from our competitors. Our recently adopted strapline ‘For you, for life’ will ensure we stand out from the competition and give customers a real reason to choose Lookers.
We are going to invest in our people and work to create an empowered team who know how to put customers first on every occasion. We aim to be the very best for customer experience, not just in automotive but across every sector.
At Lookers we are proud to call ourselves a ‘people business’. This doesn’t just mean a personal service to our customers, it extends to the communities we work within and, of course, the people all across the UK who make us who we are. We are always exploring ways to make people’s experience of Lookers noticeably and meaningfully different both within the business and to the customers we serve.
If there’s one thing we can all be proud of here at Lookers it’s the tireless work that our people do for charity. Whether it’s volunteering out in the local community or making complete fools of ourselves for Red Nose Day, our people love to get involved.
As well as encouraging our people to support causes in their local area, we have identified group wide objectives for CSR. This is split into four key areas; consumer, employee, industry and community. In each area we will support charitable organisations including MacMillan, Children in Need, Duke of Edinburgh Award, Cash for Kids, 353, BEN and Lord Taverners.
Over the past 12 months we have been involved with and organised a number of corporate fundraising events. The year began with the annual BEN Automotive Challenge Event held on the waves around the Solent. This was followed by our track day at Croft Racing Circuit to raise money for the military charity 353.
Later in the year we were joined by Alan Shearer and Jonathon Edwards at our annual golf day for The Prince’s Trust at Close House in Northumberland. We are also committed to helping raise £21m for the Prince and Princess of Wales’ Glasgow Hospice redevelopment.
We invest in our people and work to create an empowered team who know how to put customers first on every occasion. We aim to be the very best for customer experience, not just in automotive but across every sector. We also want to deliver a “genuine” service to our customers, a one where we put them at the heart of what we do rather than allow processes to drive what happens.
We will start with more investment in training. The VESPA Philosophy is our new agship workshop designed to help improve skills and be even more focused on our customers. In time we will invite everyone to join the workshop.
We will provide Leadership Development workshops to help people work together more effectively. The NICER Index will also evolve to be more engaging. It will be designed to measure customer experience in a simple to understand way that is easier to take action from.
It’s vitally important we attract the best people to Lookers. To help with this we are setting up a central resourcing team who will replace the use of recruitment agencies, reducing cost and providing a constant ow of great people.
We are focusing more than ever on diversity and have appointed a Group Diversity Manager. To support our people both at home and at work, we will now be offering one year’s full maternity pay for those who have been with us for over a year and who return to work.
We want to look after our people with new industry leading benefits. We understand 9 to 5 isn’t for everyone so we support flexible working and provide 2 years critical illness cover for the times of greatest need. We also provide increased holidays that rapidly accelerate with length of service.
The Lookers Guild of Excellence Awards ceremony gives us the opportunity to show employees that their commitment to Lookers, and our customers, does not go unnoticed. The scheme is open to all Lookers employees.
A dedicated Guild website allows all staff members to see how they are performing in their respective leagues, which introduces a healthy element of competitive spirit. In addition to the performance related awards throughout the year, staff who are nominated by their colleagues for going beyond the call of duty, receive monthly awards in recognition of their contribution.
The Guild Awards are our way of recognising some of our wonderful people for making a difference over the past 12 months, whether it’s raising money for charity or giving time back to the local community. The winners are chosen based on their performance levels, customer satisfaction ratings and the overall contribution they have made to Lookers. There are a total of 19 categories ranging from aftersales to charity work.
