Sytner BMW Sunningdale - Steer clear! - Sales Executive Sytner Group Employee Review

Unapproachable & Poor Quality Management: One particular manager was extremely difficult to approach, often coming across as cold and unengaged. This persons’ rare interactions with customers felt forced & unnatural. Their mood made the work environment tense and uncomfortable. Comments such as “you’ve deserved your weekend off” only if you managed to sell three cars a week purposefully made employees feel guilty about taking their rightful time off. Backstabbing employees in front of others is not a good look either, regardless of your personal relationship with them. I will never understand how this person has managed to climb the Sytner ladder, perhaps once you’re at a certain level, those above you turn a blind eye or you change your demeanour for the right people. Colleagues would raise this persons’ behaviour in private discussions and I’m sure they will continue to do so as long as this individual is employed there. In addition, I found some of the promotional decisions placing some members of staff in to more senior roles particularly poor for a variety of reasons - predominantly the disconnect between them as managers and sales team employees. The manager title seemed to inflate egos here, creating an ‘us’ & ‘them’ environment. Between a team of approximately 12-15 sales people at any one time, there were an additional 7 employees with manager titles. These managers sat off the showroom floor, listened in to phone calls and watched your vehicle presentation videos. You could often hear them playing out the phone calls whilst you are with customers in the showroom, or during day to day work. This created a ‘big brother’ / school environment where you felt like your every move was being watched and monitored with no feedback. The business is too heavy on middle managers who are not final decision makers. Mishandling of Employee Benefits: The company’s car benefit scheme for employees was wholly mishandled. Fortunately, this didn’t affect me personally but many employees were unknowingly driving uninsured for months. When the issue was finally uncovered, they had to give up their cars overnight, leaving most with the only option of switching to the BIK company car scheme, which increased monthly costs by over £200. This sudden change felt like a breach of trust and was poorly handled, with no real apology (please bear in mind that driving uninsured is illegal). Ultimately, a company vehicle is a luxury, but when Sytner prides itself on being “the best company to work for” issues like this are not reflective of the ambitious tag line. (Worth mentioning this is based on a Sunday Times award from 7 years ago…). Long Work Hours, last-minute demands and loss of time off: 10 hour work days. Plus additional time when you inevitably need to catch up on copious amounts of admin (more on that to follow). Management frequently requiring employees to give up their evenings at the last minute to "prospect" for compulsory sales events, often with little to no notice. (One-Two hours of phone calling at the end of the day, resulting in a finish time of between 7pm-8pm). This practice also meant sacrificing a scheduled weekend off, leading to working three weekends in a row with one day off each week. This lack of consideration for employees' personal time was extremely frustrating. There was always a particular ‘salt in the wound’ moment during the pre event teams meetings - Divisional management would dial in on the Friday, working from home, whilst the teams at dealerships are bracing themselves for their third weekend in a row, being told to perform and outsell themselves. Taking time back in lieu of working on top of regular hours was a sensitive subject and wasn’t encouraged. The same goes for taking a full one hour, unquestioned lunch break. Invasive Sales Process & No Sales Autonomy: The Sytner sales process is far too rigid and invasive, e.g. pushing employees to constantly force finance products on customers at a woeful 13.9% APR along with a valueless paint protection product. Regardless of APR, even after repeated refusals from customers, you are still required to push these add-ons. This approach falls far short of the premium experience customers expect and undermines BMWs’ reputation as a premium brand. As a Sytner Sales Executive, you end up feeling like a glorified receptionist and information gatherer rather than a sales person. You have absolutely no control over pricing, part exchange figures, checking yourself if funds have been received, seeing the profit in a car or even signing the customer up to their chosen deal. You are essentially a gofer for the ‘business managers’ to do the actual sales work and close the sale. It felt like it was all about top down control. There is no autonomy to make significant (or insignificant) decisions. Every last detail must be authorised by a manager, even ordering a £5 replacement part for a customer must be signed off. Empowerment is hard to come by. Disengaged Aftersales Team: The aftersales staff seemed completely disconnected from the reality that there is a customer at the end of every process. When preparing vehicles for delivery, it felt like a constant battle to chase and push the department, who often appeared not to care at all. It may be that they are simply overstretched, but the lack of engagement and accountability is frustrating and impacts the overall customer experience. This was especially challenging as dealing with used cars, there were often a few hurdles to overcome in terms of vehicle condition that needed to be put right. Bureaucracy, Red tape & Inefficient Processes: Sytners’ admin and day to day processes are bogged down by excessive red tape and administrative tasks. With up to 10 systems required to complete a vehicle sale, much of the work felt repetitive or inefficient, detracting from the core job of selling vehicles. The admin involved in selling one vehicle was a lot of work. If you feel all of the repeat admin & excessive use of systems is genuinely necessary, let sales people be sales people and consider hiring extra members of administration staff. The order take will increase. Lack of Employee Support: The overall atmosphere lacked genuine care or support for employees. The management style felt disconnected from the realities of the sales floor, and there was little to no effort to foster a positive working environment. Additional Insights: I have met several people who have experience with Sytner Sunningdale and Sytner Group. Not a single one has a positive thing to say about their time there, even over a span of 10 years worth of experience individually and more between them. The reputation from former employees speaks for itself and I struggle to see legitimacy in the 5 star reviews left on here, particularly for the Sunningdale dealership. One of the Glassdoor sections mentions the CEO approval rating, I never met Darren Edwards in person so don’t have much to go on other than what I experienced at the dealership. Despite leaving the company months ago, I have received an email from HR Admin stating “we are sorry to hear that you are leaving”, asking for feedback, I find this amusing in the context of this review (you’re a bit late for that!) I am elated that my tenure ended and would not recommend Sytner (in particular Sytner Sunningdale) to anyone as it currently operates.