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Dealix Dealer Newsletter recently spoke with Richard Lucy, one of two people at Courtesy to go by the title Internet Director. (His job is more focused on marketing, while colleague George Salman is more focused on developing customer relationships and closing deals). We were impressed by what we had read about the dealership's approach, but we found we had questions of our own.

Dealix Dealer Newsletter (DDN): Rich, thanks for taking the time to talk with us. The first thing we're wondering is this: what are the conditions that make it possible for Courtesy Chevrolet to do this amazing thing? We believe all dealers would do well to put less money into traditional media and more into e-commerce, but you guys have taken this a lot further. Is it something special about your market?

Richard Lucy (RL): I'd say that the intense competition in the Phoenix area has a lot to do with it. There are a lot of big players playing hard, and this means that for any approach to work, you have to do it very, very well. We got an early start with Internet marketing, enjoyed good success from the beginning, and we were relentless in developing it because we felt we had to be if we wanted it to be our special advantage.

DDN: What role has the Courtesy Chevrolet brand played?

RL: We came into this with a really strong brand, and that definitely worked to our advantage. At the same time, the Internet has obviously allowed us to strengthen our brand beyond anything that could be achieved with just radio or TV or print. Those are all ways to get your name out there, but the Internet is a way to present yourself in very specific and very valuable contexts.

DDN: Do you still rely on third-party leads?

RL: You bet. We're like most dealerships in that we'd love to generate all our leads on our own, but the reality is that we have to go where the customers are. There are plenty of customers who rely on third-party sites, and the best lead providers have developed some great skills and great relationships that allow them to deliver good leads at a cost that makes sense for us.

DDN: Your Internet department is really big - 28 people, at last count. Does that make it hard to keep everyone on the same page, and to be sure that procedures are being followed?

RL: Well, it's certainly different from a situation where you have two salespeople and a manager, and everyone knows what everyone else is doing. We rely on a fair amount of mystery shopping to keep tabs on our team's consistency and attention to detail. This lets us catch problems before they get out of hand. It also provides a lot of great material for training. Basically, when George and I mystery shop, we're hoping to get an email that we'd be willing to sign ourselves. That doesn't mean that our salespeople can't be individuals; we encourage that, and in fact that's the only way they can make a real connection with a customers. But they have to follow our process.

DDN: What kind of leeway do you give your salespeople in working with customers?

RL: As long as we know that they're communicating properly with customers, we trust them to find the right way to move customers towards a sale. This is really important, and too many dealerships lay down all sorts of rules - against quoting price, say, or doing it too early - that actually hinder performance. A lot of the time, the same dealerships give the floor sales team complete discretion over how they work with customers. That's a double-standard that is guaranteed to cause your Internet department to under-perform.

DDN: Finally, we're curious if you ever feel you've moved beyond the basic issues that dominate the attention of dealers with less experience in e-commerce. Response time, for example.

RL: The basics aren't "basic" in the sense that you master them and never think about them again. They're basic in the sense that they're things you can never afford to lose sight of. For all our success, we are constantly reminding our team of the importance of response time. The more advanced you become as a department, the more tasks you take on. They're all important tasks, but some are much more important than others - and it takes constant effort to remember this and keep your priorities straight. Getting a response out to a new lead should always come first. We all know this already, we've been told it a million times. But it always bears repeating.

DDN: Rich, great talking with you. Congratulations on an amazing achievement!