Key Question:
A: Pamela says she never wants to be comfortable because she has seen comfortable people and they don't get much done. Comfortable people can make good employees but they will not be the ones who are creative and who take initiative. They are the ones who just do what they are told to do. To run a business, you have to be stretching and growing because there is a competitor with an eye on your customers. You can't relax and that is good.
Thank you, Pamela! In our mission statement, we say, "If you are not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space."
Think about it
What do you need to learn? What do you need to try? What should be thinking about now so that your business is bigger tomorrow than it is today?
Clip from: Rodgers Chevrolet - Meet Pamela Rodgers!
Woodhaven, Michigan: In a quiet suburb just south of Detroit, we go inside an American icon -- the car dealership -- to witness a "can-do" attitude in action. We meet a woman whose love affair with the car is as real and palpable as any romance going. And at this place where GM is sold, driving people to act upon that passion is her business.
Pamela Rodgers is the owner of Rodgers Chevrolet. We learn that key to her repeat business success is service. From her originally designed, colorful waiting area featuring a speedway theme to a team of highly skilled service advisers, Rodgers Chevrolet is a company that never misfires when it comes to building long-term relationships with customers. This is a team that's as well trained in the mechanics of human dynamics as they are the electronics of today's automobile engine. Keeping that relationship running smoothly is a matter of individualized communications where customer satisfaction is not an optional service.
Pamela's story is all the more unique in that she is one of the few women in the world to own a dealership in her own right. It wasn't passed on to her by her father or a husband, and she took a failing location and turned it around.
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Rodgers Chevrolet
Pamela Rodgers, CEO
23755 Allen Road
Woodhaven, MI 48183
Visit our web site: http://rodgerschevrolet.com
Business Classification:
Automotive
Year Founded: 1991
Keep Growing
HATTIE: Are you comfortable yet? I mean -- do you wake up in the middle of the night going, "Oh my -- how am I going to pay for everything?"
PAMELA: If I am comfortable, shoot me – I never want to be comfortable. I don't want to become complacent. They want to squash you out, they want to make it difficult for you. So what does it take to bounce back and get up the next day and face it again. You have to realize I chose this profession, this was my decision to do this. So, I chose this road – nobody put a gun to my head and said "Pam, become a dealer." I chose this path, so I have to bear those consequences. But, the rewards are great.
HATTIE: You can name the makers of automobiles because they are mostly big companies with hundreds of thousands of employees. However, all of the car-makers depend upon their dealer network, mostly small privately-held companies like Rodgers Chevrolet, to sell and service their products. We don't mind reminding you, the little guys are really the big guys. So, how is Pamela building her business? She has the discipline and knowledge to completely understand her financials and then to focus time and money on the part of the business that will deliver customers over and over and over again. Her philosophy is that service is not the back-end, it is the backbone. We'll see you next time.
