Following General Motors Co.’s plans to spend $12 billion on vehicle development at Cadillac in the coming years, the luxury brand today announced it would pair the investment with upgrades to its dealerships.
“A strong, financially healthy dealer organization is an essential element of Cadillac’s expansion plans,” says Johan de Nysschen, president of Cadillac. “The stronger our dealers are, the better our service quality will be. Cadillac is on a journey back to the pinnacle of premium brands, and dealers will contribute every step of the way.”
Cadillac’s U.S. network consists of more than 900 stores, giving the brand a substantial advantage in geographic coverage against its import luxury competitors, de Nysschen says. “Our comprehensive market coverage supports customer convenience, especially in access to service. Our task is to take further advantage of our network.”
Moving forward, Cadillac would like to complement its core of approximately 200 flagship dealerships, with 700 smaller, boutique locations. The boutique concept would feature exclusive Cadillac consumer touch points, a highly trained sales and service staff, and luxury amenities, de Nysschen says.
Plans call for bringing emerging technology into the locations, including virtual showroom systems that enable shoppers to configure model, color, and interior choices using interactive digital displays or — potentially — holograms.
Cadillac will also develop new systems to incentivize and support customer satisfaction performance and dealer compensation. New standards for compensation, meanwhile, will include more precise alignment of local sales and market potential for each dealer.
Growth in dealer profitability will be supported by financial incentives to reward dealer investments of their facilities, along with achieving higher customer satisfaction scores.
The company has no plans to reduce the number of U.S. dealers, de Nysschen says.
