Automotive News -- June 13, 2011 - 12:01 am ET
Located near the mouth of the Lincoln Tunnel, Mercedes-Benz Manhattan was always a hard place to get to.
Blair Creed, general manager of the factory-owned dealership, says angry customers trying to pick up service vehicles would call to complain about being stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. By the time they arrived at the store, next to the tunnel that each day swallows up thousands of commuters heading back to New Jersey, they were positively fuming.
But the dealership has moved to a more convenient location, and at the same time it has become massive. Mercedes-Benz Manhattan now occupies a glittering new half-block-long store that opened May 2. It is still on 11th Avenue but is 12 blocks farther uptown, between 53rd and 54th streets, away from the tunnel congestion.
Now when service customers arrive at the store, they are greeted by service personnel wearing headsets.
The $220 million, five-story, 330,000-square-foot dealership -- a third larger than the previous facility -- was constructed in Mercedes' open and modern Autohaus design style. It is the only store Mercedes-Benz USA owns and operates and is the third largest Mercedes outlet among the 355 Mercedes outlets in this country.
Test bed
A stairway and escalator link the five levels of the new factory-owned dealership.
Alan McLaren, Mercedes-Benz USA vice president of customer service, says the new facility will be a laboratory for "evolutionary rather than revolutionary ideas.
"It's a place for us to test and prove some theories about the whole customer interface with the service operation, moving away from a one-fits-all to a tailored approach," says McLaren, who is also president of Mercedes-Benz Manhattan
McLaren says it's too early to offer details about the programs Mercedes will test at the store. But the dealership is already doing things differently, Creed says, because "we knew that expectations were going to be raised."
"Our clients stay in great hotels. They eat in great restaurants," he says. "They have an expectation, and we wanted to make sure their automotive experience is consistent with their daily routine. That is not always the case."
At the new store, a service greeter knows the name of each customer who arrives. The greeter then sends the service department an e-mail or text message alerting it that the customer has arrived at the store.
If service customers can't figure out whom to see about their cars, they need only look at a flat screen TV above the service reception area. The screen shows a picture of the employee assigned to work on each vehicle.
Each vehicle being serviced is given a radio-frequency identification tag that tracks its whereabouts in the massive new dealership. An owner can choose to keep the tag in the vehicle for future visits.
Seven concierge staffers attend to customers' needs in both the service and new-vehicle lounges, setting up transportation, loaner vehicles and refreshments.
"We are trying to bring an approach which is Ritz-Carlton in its feel," McLaren says. "We are escorting customers through the dealership, announcing their arrival in the next point of the dealership so that the customer in this multi- level dealership is never lost in the system. The concierges are empowered to do whatever they need to do to deliver an experience."
Indeed, the concierge staff is trained by the same company that tutors employees of the luxurious Ritz-Carlton Hotel chain.
In a glass-enclosed section in the service reception area, a certified technician works on a customer's car. McLaren calls it the terrarium. Only one car can be viewed in the enclosure, but video cameras show other service bays "so that we send a message of total transparency," he says.
Other innovations include:
-- Automated parts storage, including vertical racks similar to those used in industrial warehouses. The system brings out the parts when they are needed by service staff.
-- Underground parking that accommodates about 460 vehicles.
-- Two showrooms for pre-owned vehicles.
-- Each service technician operates in his own racing pit-like service bay. The technician's name and qualifications are posted on an overhead sign.
-- Two high-speed industrial car washes.
-- Two cafe areas.
The dealership services an average of 145 vehicles a day. Creed says it has handled up to 200.
"We're seeing a lot more weekend traffic," he says. "We are seeing our local clients come here by bicycle -- they come to look."
Because of the better location, Creed says Mercedes-Benz Manhattan expects new-car sales to increase about 12 percent this year from 3,254 vehicles last year. The dealership also sells about 100 certified pre-owned vehicles monthly.
Mercedes-Benz owns the dealership because of the high cost of operating a store in Manhattan. BMW of North America also owns its New York BMW and Mini dealerships.
But McLaren says the store doesn't get preferential treatment or better vehicle allocation.
"It is a stand-alone dealership," he says. "Only the shareholders are different."
