Skoda Ireland has announced a new age diversity initiative called ‘Simply Older, Still Clever’, which is a play on the brand’s Simply Clever tagline. The Czech Republic car brand aims to recruit older individuals who may have previously worked in the motor industry. The initiative is fronted by hotelier and TV personality Francis Brennan, an advocate for the elderly.
Success in the motor industry is reliant on excellent customer service and building and maintaining customer relationships. Skoda believe the older generation possesses unrivalled skills in this area and are taking the first steps to re-introduce retirees into the work place to fufill customer facing duties in showrooms and forecourts across their dealer network.
The motor industry workforce is under resourced in the months of January and February where 43 per cent of annual new car sales are recorded. It is in these peak periods Skoda believe they can utilise the retired skillset to fulfill vehicle test drives, vehicle demonstrations and vehicle customer hand overs – while maintaining high customer satisfaction and service.
With over-65s currently representing around 15 per cent of the Irish population, the demographic is set to reach 23 per cent by 2040. Almost one in five of Skoda customers are over the age of 60. This growing cohort is also proven to be more loyal with 90 per cent of them likely to repurchase, versus 85 per cent of 31-40 year olds.
Skoda expects 75 per cent of their dealers to take part in the recruitment propgramme.
Link to video… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shV5oEZatn0&feature=youtu.be
