George Matick Chevrolet

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Salute to Entrepreneurs 2014
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George Matick Chevrolet
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20140608/AWARDS07/306089998/george-matick-chevrolet
George Matick Chevrolet
crainsdetroit.com
It's not the 100-car showroom, high-volume Corvettes or massive
new collision shop that have made George Matick Chevrolet one of
the top 1 percent of U.S. Chevy dealers based on sales volume.
Rather, it is employees' obsessive approach to customer service,
owner Karl Zimmermann said of the Redford Township dealership.
LARRY PEPLIN Karl Zimmermann wanted to
renovate George Matick Chevrolet back in
2008. But his GMAC representative told him to
save his cash for a recession that was just
around the corner.
For starters, Matick Chevrolet works on greetings. Walk in the front
door and head to the counter in the back corner. You'll pass several
employees who make eye contact and greet you, but they wait for
you to initiate further conversation. That's the norm throughout the
building.
"Our rule of thumb is to greet anybody within 10 feet of you," General
Manager Molly Williams said. "We're big on training."
Top to bottom, employees recognize that a good customer experience is the dealership's edge, she said.
George Matick Jr. founded the company in 1967 when he purchased and renamed Paul McGlone
Chevrolet on Joy and Evergreen roads in Detroit. In 1977, he converted a department store and a
connected Farmer Jack grocery store at I-96 and Telegraph Road into a rambling dealership with 107,500
square feet under one roof — and a massive showroom as his centerpiece and competitive advantage.
New-car sales have almost tripled since 2009. Last year, the dealership sold 2,022 new
vehicles and generated revenue of $99 million. Sales Manager Paul Zimmermann, Karl's
younger brother, credits his experienced 19-member sales staff.
"One's been here 34 years, another 20, and we have eight to 10 with at least eight years,"
he said.
Paul Zimmermann
The Zimmermanns will improvise to gain an edge. A decade ago, a survey found that
customers considered the dealership's service expertise ordinary. So the store made Corvettes a priority,
betting the required investment in service equipment and certification would boost the dealership's
technology cred.
It did. And as 'Vette sales jumped from single digits annually to triple digits, the specialization also boosted
overall volume and helped make Matick Chevy a buyer's destination.
Since last summer, the original building has been stripped to the bones, reconfigured and rebuilt to the
latest green standards. It culminates a plan first drawn up in 1997. One that almost didn't happen.
When he sat down in George Matick's spacious, wood-paneled office in 1992, Karl Zimmermann was a
frequent-flying young executive for Andersen Consulting.
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20140608/AWARDS07/306089998/george-matick-chevrolet
"I came to ask for his daughter Sarah's hand in marriage," said Karl, now 49. Matick was 65 and looking to
sell his dealership.
"He was old school," Zimmermann recalled. "I was young and a little full of myself."
Matick saw enough to offer his prospective son-in-law a job and a shot at becoming a dealer.
"The lure was a chance to own something," said Zimmermann, who started in 1993 as a car-ordering
planner.
The two often bumped heads. Four years later, as general manager, he wasn't certain his father-in-law
would sell to him. But late that year, after Karl's team completed the dealership update plan, Matick sold
him 15 percent, with a 10-year buyout plan. With three daughters, Matick wanted to create a liquid estate.
Matick died in February this year.
"I thought I knew a lot when I got here," Zimmermann said. "Now I realize how much he taught me."
The next challenge was timing. Zimmermann took full ownership in January 2008 as the recession was
brewing.
"In August, my GMAC guy called to raise my floor plan (interest) rate 50 basis points and warn me to
conserve cash," Zimmermann recalled. "He said, 'If your roof leaks, don't fix it.' "
The makeover plan went back in the drawer.
But this year, Zimmermann has covered every horizontal surface in Matick's former elegant office with
construction blueprints, both for the dealership makeover and a new 38,000-square-foot body shop about
a mile southwest.
The biggest change is the showroom.
"It's still Michigan's largest showroom," Zimmermann said. "But instead of cramming 162 cars in there,
we're adding other features like a seven-car new-vehicle delivery area that lets customers drive straight
out the front. We can still get 100 cars on the floor if we need to."