Warren Henry Zinn on Future of the Automotive Industry

By Matthew Arrojas  – Reporter, South Florida Business Journal

Nov 3, 2020, 2:10pm EST

Most retail segments have struggled through the pandemic, but car sales have been strong.

That sentiment holds true for North Miami-based Warren Henry Automotive Group.

CEO Warren Henry Zinn said while the company saw a brief sales dip in the months immediately following statewide shutdowns, sales are now higher than they were last year.

Zinn shared insights on how he’s been able to keep the company projecting upward, as well as how the Covid-19 pandemic could continue to impact automotive retail for years to come.

How do sales this year compare to previous years?

We moved into a brand-new facility in North Miami in December, and of course, we all know what happened in March. As we were up and running and starting to see tremendous improvement and new hires, the world changed on us. As it relates to the sales, though, come June and July sales and business picked up and they’ve run at a very strong pace from that space and time up to today. Sales are even stronger than what we saw last year for the months of June, July, August, September, and October.

What has allowed the automotive industry to remain strong while other retail segments struggle?

We had to get innovative on new ways to buy. We are doing an awful lot in digital retail, and we’ve put a much larger emphasis on that than we had prior to this pandemic. Digital retailing was something we had done prior to this, but it wasn’t as big a focus as maybe it should have been.

Is there any reason to believe that sales strength could tail off in the coming months?

I’m most worried about the effect of the election. If we spoke again three or four days from now, I might have a more definitive answer.

What are some of the digital capabilities you have now that weren’t stressed before the pandemic?

Buying online is something that we continue to fine tune, as well as delivery. When sales really started to take off, 80% of the vehicles we sold were delivered to the home or office, and the people that purchased them never came to the dealership. We expressed to the customers that we were using white-glove service, and as far as the delivery goes, we sometimes even did Zoom calls where a sales representative would show buyers the features of a car through Zoom.

How have you adapted how you service vehicles?

We would contact people with open service actions on their vehicles and tell them we’d be able to pick their car up, bring it in, have the necessary service actions done to it and return the car sanitized. This is something that we sought after to make certain that people were still getting their cars serviced, because quite a number of people had not gotten into their cars in months.

How permanent or temporary do you see some of these changes becoming?

I see them becoming permanent. This is what we’re going to continue to improve on as we move forward.

Does this increased focus on digital sales influence your expansion plans for new dealerships?

We certainly don’t think the amount of service bays are going to change. But changes may be coming to the size of the sales facility and how much of that business is done digitally. We may be able to realign [sales facilities] and that space may become more flexible.

Source: Warren Henry Auto Group