Lexington Park, MD – With a new philosophy, Lexington Park Ford and Lincoln will be able to focus on customer satisfaction at their new location on Three Notch Road.
The car company is moving within the next two years, said Shane Taylor, general manager.
“We’re literally busting out of the seams here right now, with selling volume and personnel that we have here. We have purchased property and have almost everything approved to break ground on the new facility just to the right of San Souci Plaza, if you’re facing it,” said Taylor. “With the new location on Three Notch Road, we think we can help twice as many people with selecting a new or pre-owned certified vehicle. It’s going to be a really big facility, with state of the art equipment and a bigger paring area.”
The car company is distancing itself from the old school mentality of what a car company should offer its customers, said Taylor.
“Focusing on closing a sale is more of an old school philosophy we are trying to get away from. That mentality gives a lot of car companies a bad name, and we have changed our philosophy,” said Taylor. “We rarely say no to our customers, before or after the sale within reason. We don’t care about making a lot of profit off of each sale. With that mentality, we try to educate the customer with pricing and the vehicle they are interested in.”
The car company focuses on giving a non-pressured environment to work in with the sales team, and people don’t shop around as much because of their updated philosophy, said Taylor.
“Because we focus on customer satisfaction, our number of sales has jumped in the last few years. We used to sell 30 to 40 vehicles an month, and now we sell anywhere from 110 to 115 a month,” said Taylor. “20 percent of the car company’s business is done off site, and we’ll deliver the car to the customer. Sometimes they never have to step foot in the dealership to be taken care of. We accommodate our customers the best way that we can, and work with our sister stores in the area with providing services and vehicles.”
Lexington Park Ford and Lincoln is one of the fastest-growing car organizations in the Southern Maryland area and has been rated one of the highest car companies in the region for customer satisfaction, said Taylor.
“Tom Cody bought the store about five years ago, and I started working here at the same time. We are currently, in our sales department, the highest rating in our region, with a score of 98 percent and those are pretty strong numbers and not easy to achieve,” said Taylor. “Most car manufacturers emphasize customer satisfaction, and rate you on a scale of zero to 100. It’s very difficult to get that 100, but we go above and beyond to make sure we take care of you.”
The car company offers multiple ways to make an expensive car affordable, said Taylor.
“We do have some sales that are going on right now, mostly around the F-150 line, and the compact sport utility line, the Escape. They have .9 percent financing for 48 months on the Escape, which is huge. You can get a lot of car for that payment,” said Taylor. “There are a lot of ways we can make an expensive car more affordable. Rates are great and super strong, terms have gotten longer to accommodate some budgets.”
Lexington Park Ford and Lincoln also offers pre-owned certified vehicles, said Taylor. “We don’t offer vehicles that are cosmetically or operationally damaged. We also shy away from offering older models, or vehicles that don’t have clean CARFAX records or have too many miles on them,” said Taylor. “Our pre-owned certified vehicles are two to three years-old, with less than 60,000 miles on them, and we feel that it is better to do that for customers in the long-run because we are focused on customer satisfaction.”
There may be other car companies that will go to no end to get a sale, but that isn’t a part of the company’s philosophy, said Taylor.
“It doesn’t benefit the customer in the long run,” said Taylor.
Not only do they sell new and used vehicles, they also offer quality service and parts, said Taylor.
“Our service department has tripled in volume, and we service customers with all makes and models of vehicles, not just Ford and Lincoln. If a customer comes in and likes their experience with the service crew, and they have a second vehicle in the home that may not be a Ford or a Lincoln, they’ll bring that car to be maintained as well. It’s helped us grow our parts sales as well,” said Taylor.
The dealership also posted their new and used selection of vehicles online, said Taylor. “Up to 40 percent of our business is online,” he added.
While Lexington Park Ford and Lincoln is focused on individual customer satisfaction, they also give back to the community regularly, said Taylor.
“We try to give to two local charities every quarter that we donate either money or a service,” said Taylor. “We were a major sponsor last month for the United Way fundraiser, and we donate to Christmas in April.”
Being able to offer customer satisfaction to the individual and the community didn’t happen overnight, said Taylor.
“We try to do what is best for the customer, no matter what the cost. It’s important to me to take care of the community,” said Taylor. “I grew up in St. Mary’s County, and I always wanted to be able to work here in the county. Being from Southern Maryland is a big piece of who I am and what I am about. I’m doing something that I love and in an area that I love. I feel like I can give something back to the community by taking care of them here.”
Jacqui Atkielski can be contacted via email at j.atkielski@thebaynet.com.