At Bozard Ford Lincoln, the concept of family and building community connections never strays far from Letti Bozard’s mind. As the Vice President of Community Involvement and Customer Strategy, she spends her days juggling the demands of the family-owned and operated car dealership.
Located near the St. Augustine Premium Outlets, the dealership has been in the Bozard family for over 60 years, since Letti’s grandparents first opened shop in 1949. Her father later took over the business and Letti came on board around 15 years ago, gaining experience in the service department, sales and finance, community relations and eventually in the role she manages today. These days, she works to find new ways to integrate the family business into the community, by cultivating strong employee engagement and creating a loyal customer base, all while having fun.
For Letti, that last part is key. “I work side by side with Jeff King, our Vice President and Operating General Manager, on both traditional marketing (which we do very little of) and marketing through community outreach, our main focus,” she explained. “I’m very big picture, always asking, how can we better get involved with the community and have fun at the same time?”
It took a few years of trial and error before Letti was finally able to see the returns on the company’s new approach to a more grass-roots type of marketing. The commitment to the community, employees and their customers has paid off and has allowed Letti to look for new ways to add fun into the mix.
MORNING BUZZ
Letti launches into her busy days the same way every morning, grabbing a jolt of caffeine courtesy of the Kookaburra Coffee Shop on her way to the dealership. She then hits the ground running, touching base with various managers, checking emails and answering the endless flood of phone calls that pour into her office everyday. She keeps an open door policy for the 145 employees who work at Bozard Ford Lincoln and makes sure to take a timeout every now and then to hit up the company ping-pong table, located in the center of the dealership showroom.
“There are times we’ve had meetings and worked on problem-solving all while having ping-pong paddles in our hands,” Letti said, laughing. “It’s how we do things around here. Having fun allows the creativity to flow.”
CUSTOMER FOCUS
One of Letti’s main focuses is working on the strategy behind providing a quality customer experience every time.
“My job doesn’t necessarily entail a sit-down, lets look at the report approach. It’s taking the time to really listen to employee feedback and hearing what the customer needs. I’ll take a call from any customer at any time. My hope is that my managers have been empowered to handle it just as well as I could, but if it helps in any way for me to be there, I’m there one hundred percent.”
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
As a result of taking a less traditional approach to marketing, the majority of the company’s advertising dollars are directed towards community events, initiatives, and partnerships around St. Augustine.
“Our community- where we work, live and play- is what we’ve been focusing on these past five years,” Letti explained. “We started by supporting local schools, sports teams and organizations. We wanted to find ways to give back and build a trusting relationship out in the community and overcome the stereotype of a typical car dealership.”
Letti quickly discovered this town was overflowing with great event opportunities and ways to get involved. Bozard Ford Lincoln stepped up as the title sponsor for the Rhythm and Ribs Festival for the past couple of years as well as sponsoring the Celtic Festival, various gala fundraising events, 5K runs and more. Letti also serves on a number of Boards on her own personal time, including INK (Investing In Kids, formerly the St. Johns County Education Foundation) and the local Boys and Girls Club.
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
The community-focused culture that Letti has helped build has continued to inspire her company’s employees to seek out new opportunities and ways to get involved and make a difference locally. “I love when they pitch me new ideas or they are excited about an opportunity that presents itself,” she said. “We want our employees to feel proud of where they work. We want them to feel engaged. And we want them to be part of things that we do in the community. I want them to understand what our vision is and what our goals are and that we’re all rowing the boat in the same direction.”
With so many positive avenues already in motion, it opens up more time for Letti to turn her attention to employee engagement and fostering the best customer experience possible. Whether a vendor, a customer, an employee or supplier, her goal is to make sure every interaction that takes place at the dealership is fun and light. “You’re going to come here because you’re looking to buy a car or need to get your car serviced,” she said. “That’s the transaction, but the experience you have while you’re here doing that is what we get to dictate. Let’s focus on quality, but have fun while we’re at it.”
540 Outlet Mall Blvd, www.bozardfood.com
Images by Rob Futrell Photography
