Dealer Spotlight: Lee Motors
From humble beginnings to grand ambitions, Lee Motors is on track to becoming Volkswagen's key dealer partner in the northern region. Established in the heart of Alor Setar in the mid-1950s, the company has certainly come a long way from its start as a motorcycle repair shop. Today, the Lee Motors Group carries several automotive and motorcycle sales and aftersales businesses and is involved in motorcycle parts manufacturing and distribution. We speak to its Director, Eugene Lee to gain some insight into its Volkswagen operations.
The Group has several brands under its umbrella, how does Volkswagen stand out?
Volkswagen was the latest edition to our authorised dealership business - we became an official dealer in 2014 and opened our Alor Setar 3S Centre. This was followed by the Sungai Petani 3S Centre in 2016. The business has been very promising, and we still see plenty of areas where we can grow. At the core of it is our trustworthy and passionate team that has consistently delivered good results over the years, and this culminated with Lee Motors awarded as best Volkswagen dealership in Malaysia in 2019 and best in customer service.
Digital retail has been a key focus for car brands, more so in the past year. How has this affected you as a dealer and how has this changed the car buying experience?
Digitalisation has certainly changed the automotive retail landscape, and this process was accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic. We were able to quickly adapt as we had already shifted our focus to the digital trend since 2018. We set specific goals and aligned our company direction with our digital strategy, which was to increase our digital retail platforms, digital advertising and strengthen our social media presence. By doing this we were able to widen our overall market opportunities with digital retail, fully aware that buyers' trends have changed - first contact no longer begins at dealerships, but through platforms such as Facebook and Youtube. A buyer's research into car purchasing now begins online.
Lee Motors has embraced digitalisation from early on, what are some of your sales and aftersales initiatives?
As mentioned before, we have really worked at strengthening our presence on digital platforms, and our content focuses on our sales and aftersales initiatives beyond the ongoing campaigns. This includes working with Youtubers on reviews and engagements and producing our own video content to share online.
"We stand by our mission to stay focused and to always remain passionate and never lose the trust of our business stakeholders."
Left: Volkswagen Alor Setar