How a proud WA dealership grew from humble origins to industry leading, without losing its proud local links and heritage.
Everyone remembers their first car, their first road trip or their first school run as a growing family. For thousands in Perth and across Western Australia, they’ll also remember the service they received from Westside Auto Wholesale.
From humble beginnings to establishing itself as the biggest independent single-location dealership in Australia, Westside Auto Wholesale has always been proudly local. It wears its West Australian heritage as a badge of honour on its logo, and there’s perhaps no better example of how a business can scale without losing the spark and soul that made it a Perth-favourite.
“We take a lot of pride in being a West Australian business and enjoy communicating it,” said CEO CJ Jayasinghe. “Our brand and logo intentionally uses the yellow and black of Western Australian and prominently features the state map. Others have recommended using different branding and dropping the ‘Westside’ name and state map. We’ve never entertained that idea.”
After all, it’s who they are. The business recognises that West Australians are proud, parochial and strong supporters of local. Its ethos is built around tailoring its service to suit the needs of each unique customer, rather than vice versa. The business, everything it stands for and everything it does, is with the local population in mind.
When they say they want to make it the easiest, most convenient place in the world to buy a car, they’re not wrong. The dealership has established a Client Contact Center that covers all customer enquiries STUDYfrom 7am to 10pm, seven days a week. It has a centralised technology stack through Podium that allows it to communicate with customers, facilitate payments, request reviews and oversee the entire process from start to finish.
It’s an ethos that has made its popularity unrivalled and its success unparallelled.
As CJ says: “Customers find our ethos and service refreshing and pleasant, which is evidenced by the large amount of return or referred customers we receive. If we continue to put the customers’ needs first in everything we do, we’re confident that we will be able to maintain a significant gap between our service, and that of our competitors.”
The business isn’t just big on its customers and local community; it’s big on the bigger picture too. The environment and sustainability have become one of the defining issues of this generation. And because it’s an important topic in Western Australia, it’s an important topic for the business too.
Westside Auto Wholesale, winner of the MTAWA Used Car Dealership of the Year in May, is currently embarking on ‘project paperless’, an initiative that aims to turn it into a paper free dealership by 2023. Its green targets don’t stop there. By the end of the next Financial Year, the business also has big plans to adopt solar and reduce its electricity consumption by half.
It’s a local business with its eyes on the future. And for other local businesses, it’s message is quite simple: “Be innovative and don’t be scared to change your tried and tested business habits. There are fantastic tools out there to help make life easier for you and your customers, so don’t be afraid to jump into the future.”
Read more about local businesses using podium at podium.com.au