We’ve been talking a lot about the Road to Loyalty, lately. For the most part, we’ve been focusing on the customer side of the equation. But, the Road to Loyalty isn’t just limited to clients. In fact, its foundation is rooted with loyal employees. Let’s take a quick detour to think about this.

Over the years, I’ve seen plenty of loyal employees walk away over, what seemed to be, the smallest things. Upon further analysis, it was actually an accumulation of small things that added up over time. The straw that broke the camel’s back or death by a thousand cuts, if you will.

The same scenario we outlined in Part 1, holds true for employees, as well. Management gets so caught up in making a single transaction that the bad decisions reverberate throughout the future. Decisions like posting stock photos of wholesale vehicles on the dealership’s website, adding in accessories after-the-fact (what I refer to as ghost packs), and usurping deals from Internet agents all add up. These singular acts, look benign at face value. However, it can easily rob a dealership of its best, brightest, and most loyal employees.

Sometimes the acts are so egregiously ignored by ownership, that it’s a wonder they have employees at all. Instances where deals pile up on desks, sales managers not listening to voicemails, and middle managers having the moral fiber as tight as window screens can cost the dealership its future. It’s a slow death that’s painful to witness.

The Road to Loyalty is a holistic approach. The dealership’s ability to retain clients is inexorably linked to its ability to retain employees. If you want to create loyal customers, start with creating loyal employees.