Service Providers

Is your dealership closed when customers want to buy?

Earlier this year, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill into law allowing Sunday motorcycle sales. While pushing for the change in law, New Jersey motorcycle dealerships observed that many of their customers had been crossing over the state line into Delaware to shop on Sundays.

How many motorcycle dealerships nationwide are open on Sundays? For that matter, how many have extended hours on Saturdays, instead of closing early to allow dealership employees to head-off early to enjoy the weekend?

Granted, there are all kinds of practical issues any dealer principal must take into account when determining hours of operation: not just local “blue laws” limiting Sunday sales, but also how to staff weekends with 40-hour-work-week employees, whether requiring weekend work will scare away good managers, whether the dealer principal him or herself is willing to work weekends and so on.

But do your customers really care about all of those issues? For many customers, the weekend is when they focus on their motorcycle, escaping from a week of work. Why shouldn’t your dealership play a major role in your customers’ plans for the weekend? Yes, it is a tradeoff, but have you revisited the pros and cons of that tradeoff lately?

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