‘We love what we do – and you’ll love what we do, too’
New Medina Auto Mall GM Chuck Steward looks to continue and build community relationships
What keeps Medina Auto Mall among the best anywhere is hiring quality, community-minded people, according to new General Manager Chuck Steward. Photo courtesy of MEDINA AUTO MALL
Medina Auto Mall sells and services seven brands – Cadillac, Buick, GMC, Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, and Ram – plus used cars and trucks. Photo courtesy of MEDINA AUTO MALL
New General Manager Chuck Steward, a veteran of the car business, looks to continue Medina Auto Mall’s success and positive reputation. Steward succeeds Lou Kaltenstein, who retired last year. Photos by KEVIN MCMANUS
Medina Auto Mall’s waiting room makes doing business very comfortable, whether you’re just there for an oil change or more serious repairs.
Service Advisor Mary Looks has been a friendly face at Medina Auto Mall for 16 years, helping customers with all of their vehicle’s service needs.
Having your vehicle serviced regularly at Medina Auto Mall means you will deal with the same technicians every time to ensure quality work and relationships.
Medina Auto Mall also includes a state-of-the-art collision and body center, which works with all insurance carriers for any make, model and year.
Service experts, like Chad Paul (left), make it easy for customers to keep coming back to Medina Auto Mall.
Whether you’re looking for a high-end Cadillac or a used car to get you from A to B and everything in between, Medina Auto Mall has you covered.
There is good reason Medina Auto Mall continually ranks among the top of the pack in regional and national rankings month in and month out.
It’s personalized customer service and community-rooted relationships. That’s the bottom line.
It’s a culture that was greatly fostered under Lou Kaltenstein, who retired from Medina Auto Mall as general manager last year. Kaltenstein worked in the car business for 50 years, starting as a porter at just age 15.
Succeeding Kaltenstein in continuing Medina Auto Mall’s success and positive reputation is Chuck Steward. Steward has been with Medina Auto Mall for a little under a decade and in the car business for close to 30 years.
“I want to grow what Lou started. The store has historically done better each year since he started,” Steward said. “Our goal is to take it to the next level. Once we’re there, we’ll climb a few more thousand feet and keep going.”
The right people
Quite frankly, Medina Auto Mall’s recipe for success is simple: hiring the right people and instilling the importance of repeat and referral business.
“That’s our philosophy, our foundation,” Steward said. “We know where our business comes from, and for the most part, an extremely large portion comes from Medina. We think of it as a two-way street. A lot of the people who are employed here live in Medina and grew up in Medina. It’s familiar faces when you walk in.”
Steward says there’s a motto around Medina Auto Mall – “We love what we do and you’ll love what we do, too” – and they stick to it.
“A lot of our personnel have been here a long time. (Service Technician) Ron Rubino has been here for 38 years. There are a lot of Ron’s here,” Steward said. “(Service Advisor) Mary Looks has been here 16 years. We call her ‘mother hen.’ We’ve got Mark Waggaman in the back, who is a world-class certified Cadillac technician. He’s one of 1,400 in the nation.”
New hires go through a “rigorous process” and Medina Auto Mall often won’t hire salespeople from other stores. Most Medina Auto Mall sales associates are either “home grown” at Medina Auto Mall or have come from an entirely different industry. Occasionally, paid high school interns are brought in to get early experience on the service side.
For service personnel, the need is constant for up-to-date training and certification, as Medina Auto Mall sells and services seven brands – Cadillac, Buick, GMC, Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, and Ram – plus used cars and trucks.
“My favorite part of this business is the people. You meet a ton of people, working with people and helping them fulfill their automotive needs,” Steward said. “And with the employees, too, helping them progress in their career and personal lives, as well. There is a little bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy that comes with doing the job.”
Personalized service
One of the main reasons Steward instills the importance of repeat and referral customers relies heavily on the service side of the operation. Quite a bit of money is spent on training technicians and making sure they are certified in the brands they service.
“People think they can go to a quick lube and save money,” Steward said, adding that quality service can be sacrificed at these types of places.
But more importantly, much like a doctor’s office, a level of comfort for the customer is a must. At Medina Auto Mall, it all comes back to the familiar faces. If you bring your vehicle in for service once, you will deal with the same technician from that point on for the rest of the vehicle’s life to ensure accountability and responsibility on behalf of the technician, as well as ease of mind for the customers.
Among of the guiding principals in the service department are friendliness and familiarity, keeping an open, candid dialogue and giving the customer the confidence that “they won’t be sold something they don’t need,” according to Steward.
“Our techs have that personalized knowledge and keep good records. They know what’s been done and what needs to be done through rigorous, multi-point inspections,” Steward said. “In today’s world, not very many people work on their own car anymore. Our customers really rely on our techs.”
Medina Auto Mall also includes a state-of-the-art collision and body center, which works with all insurance carriers for any make, model and year.
As no one who pulls up to the body shop is necessarily happy, the personal relationships are just as important in dealing with a damaged vehicle, acknowledging the emotional and financial investments involved.
“The idea of Medina Auto Mall, from sales to service to the body shop, we will not only sell you a vehicle, we will take care of every facet of ownership, from maintenance to repair and beyond,” Steward said. “It’s amazing.”
Committed to community
Steward said because Medina Auto Mall’s employees are so rooted in the Medina community, it behooves the business to maintain a positive foothold in the community, beyond just doing business the right way.
Whether it is supporting sports at Medina High Schools, involvement in the Greater Medina Chamber of Commerce or taking part in charitable efforts that benefit local kids, like Shop With a Cop and the Healthy Kids Running Series, Medina Auto Mall makes a point to be a gracious member of not only the business community, but the community of people at large.
“We do a lot. As much as we can be involved, we really try to patronize the people that have patronized us. We make that effort,” Steward said. “From the porters on up, we all recognize the importance of keeping a customer. In our business, it’s an everyday strife to make sure we keep our employees, our customers, and our community happy.”
Medina Auto Mall is located at 3205 Medina Road in Medina, just west of Interstate 71, and can be reached by calling 1-888-698-7090. More information can be found online at www.medinaautomall.net.
It’s personalized customer service and community-rooted relationships. That’s the bottom line.
It’s a culture that was greatly fostered under Lou Kaltenstein, who retired from Medina Auto Mall as general manager last year. Kaltenstein worked in the car business for 50 years, starting as a porter at just age 15.
Succeeding Kaltenstein in continuing Medina Auto Mall’s success and positive reputation is Chuck Steward. Steward has been with Medina Auto Mall for a little under a decade and in the car business for close to 30 years.
“I want to grow what Lou started. The store has historically done better each year since he started,” Steward said. “Our goal is to take it to the next level. Once we’re there, we’ll climb a few more thousand feet and keep going.”
The right people
Quite frankly, Medina Auto Mall’s recipe for success is simple: hiring the right people and instilling the importance of repeat and referral business.
“That’s our philosophy, our foundation,” Steward said. “We know where our business comes from, and for the most part, an extremely large portion comes from Medina. We think of it as a two-way street. A lot of the people who are employed here live in Medina and grew up in Medina. It’s familiar faces when you walk in.”
Steward says there’s a motto around Medina Auto Mall – “We love what we do and you’ll love what we do, too” – and they stick to it.
“A lot of our personnel have been here a long time. (Service Technician) Ron Rubino has been here for 38 years. There are a lot of Ron’s here,” Steward said. “(Service Advisor) Mary Looks has been here 16 years. We call her ‘mother hen.’ We’ve got Mark Waggaman in the back, who is a world-class certified Cadillac technician. He’s one of 1,400 in the nation.”
New hires go through a “rigorous process” and Medina Auto Mall often won’t hire salespeople from other stores. Most Medina Auto Mall sales associates are either “home grown” at Medina Auto Mall or have come from an entirely different industry. Occasionally, paid high school interns are brought in to get early experience on the service side.
For service personnel, the need is constant for up-to-date training and certification, as Medina Auto Mall sells and services seven brands – Cadillac, Buick, GMC, Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, and Ram – plus used cars and trucks.
“My favorite part of this business is the people. You meet a ton of people, working with people and helping them fulfill their automotive needs,” Steward said. “And with the employees, too, helping them progress in their career and personal lives, as well. There is a little bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy that comes with doing the job.”
Personalized service
One of the main reasons Steward instills the importance of repeat and referral customers relies heavily on the service side of the operation. Quite a bit of money is spent on training technicians and making sure they are certified in the brands they service.
“People think they can go to a quick lube and save money,” Steward said, adding that quality service can be sacrificed at these types of places.
But more importantly, much like a doctor’s office, a level of comfort for the customer is a must. At Medina Auto Mall, it all comes back to the familiar faces. If you bring your vehicle in for service once, you will deal with the same technician from that point on for the rest of the vehicle’s life to ensure accountability and responsibility on behalf of the technician, as well as ease of mind for the customers.
Among of the guiding principals in the service department are friendliness and familiarity, keeping an open, candid dialogue and giving the customer the confidence that “they won’t be sold something they don’t need,” according to Steward.
“Our techs have that personalized knowledge and keep good records. They know what’s been done and what needs to be done through rigorous, multi-point inspections,” Steward said. “In today’s world, not very many people work on their own car anymore. Our customers really rely on our techs.”
Medina Auto Mall also includes a state-of-the-art collision and body center, which works with all insurance carriers for any make, model and year.
As no one who pulls up to the body shop is necessarily happy, the personal relationships are just as important in dealing with a damaged vehicle, acknowledging the emotional and financial investments involved.
“The idea of Medina Auto Mall, from sales to service to the body shop, we will not only sell you a vehicle, we will take care of every facet of ownership, from maintenance to repair and beyond,” Steward said. “It’s amazing.”
Committed to community
Steward said because Medina Auto Mall’s employees are so rooted in the Medina community, it behooves the business to maintain a positive foothold in the community, beyond just doing business the right way.
Whether it is supporting sports at Medina High Schools, involvement in the Greater Medina Chamber of Commerce or taking part in charitable efforts that benefit local kids, like Shop With a Cop and the Healthy Kids Running Series, Medina Auto Mall makes a point to be a gracious member of not only the business community, but the community of people at large.
“We do a lot. As much as we can be involved, we really try to patronize the people that have patronized us. We make that effort,” Steward said. “From the porters on up, we all recognize the importance of keeping a customer. In our business, it’s an everyday strife to make sure we keep our employees, our customers, and our community happy.”
Medina Auto Mall is located at 3205 Medina Road in Medina, just west of Interstate 71, and can be reached by calling 1-888-698-7090. More information can be found online at www.medinaautomall.net.
PREVIOUS ARTICLEArticle 54 of 54