We recently connected with Matthew Johnson and have shared our conversation below.

Matthew, appreciate you joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

It is often easy to have confidence in the products you are receiving regarding a new car purchase; yes there are different models to choose from but you have consumer protections such as lemon laws and manufacturer coverage for a set period of time after you purchase.

What about if someone wants a used car? There are many people who have experienced or have heard a horror story about a used car dealer. Oftentimes you hear stories where customers have been taken advantage of, lied to, or were sold a bad product. What we often hear the most though is that the used car industry as a whole lacks a superior customer buying experience built off of honesty and respect for the customers.

Nowadays there are used car dealerships everywhere and private sellers all over Facebook market place that are trying to push cars on consumers. Some states (such as Ohio, where we are located) even have laws such as “Buyer Beware” where a customer is fully liable for whatever happens to a vehicle the minute it is driven off the lot. Even service garages have grown drastically over the last several years just due to the decline in quality of used cars being sold.

I have made it my goal to really hone in on these complaints/feedback from my years of working in the car industry as well as now owning my own dealership. My goal has been to focus my business on delivering products as described and priced aggressively to the market all while being delivered with amazing customer service. We have decided to be the boutique dealership that focuses on going above and beyond for our customers; from the pre-sale inspections to building a healthy customer post-sale relationship.

We first do this by diligently sourcing our inventory from private sellers, local new car dealerships, various reputable auctions and focusing on trying to purchase high quality vehicles. We use resources like Carfax, Manhiem, JD Power, online data and historical sales to really determine that we are making the best purchase.

Secondly, we choose to do our vehicle detailing in-house to manage product control or send to only selected partners that also prioritize a superior level of service. Detailing and cleaning cars is something I have seen really go downhill in this industry. There are many dealers who will not detail their cars and don’t care to provide this level of service to the customer. We do a full interior sanitization with a high heat cleaning procedure followed by exterior paint correction on each unit. We finish all of cars with a finishing wax before getting it ready for photos to ensure it is looking its best and fully ready for customers to view.

When it comes to photos we work hard to show the whole car and to be as clear as we can so customers have confidence in what to expect when they see the car in person. We want anyone looking at our cars to fully know what that are getting with our product and to know that we are being transparent so they feel comfortable with the buying experience.

We finish with service, which is something we brought in house to make sure we can offer more to our customers. By having service in-house we can make extra repairs and go above and beyond compared to our competitors.

Now that you know what we are offering let’s talk about our customer experience. Walking in you will find a full staff that knows the importance of customer experience. We have two waiting rooms for the comfort of our customers, we have an amazing coffee bar that has coffee, tea, hot coco and an assortment of snacks along with entertainment for even the smallest of customers (tv and coloring books). We focus on creating a comfortable and enjoyable experience so that customers can feel relaxed and not rushed.

When I bought this company on May 1, 2022 we had one of the lowest google ratings in our area. In the last year and a half we have moved from a 3.1 to a 4.2 rating. This has spoken volumes to my teams dedication to creating a superior customer service, especially when there are so many options of where you can buy a vehicle.

Oftentimes used car salesmen have been the punchline to jokes and that is because there are so many that only care about themselves. We strive to set ourselves apart by focusing on the long term investment in our community and creating a reputable business that cares about the customer and gives back.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

The journey to where I am today has been a humbling ride of success and failures. I started my career in the new car business as a porter cleaning cars. I moved up quickly to sales, trained hard and put in many hours to get to the point of being a top producer. After some time I was promoted to a management position. It was short lived as the dealership I worked for replaced all of its upper management and I was moved back to sales. I stayed focused on being a top producer and learning more about the industry I wanted to become known in. Then the market took its first hit of my life, the mortgage bubble recession of 2009. The dealership I worked for lost its franchise rights and was closed down. I was lost, jumping around from school and dealerships trying to find a place to call home. I even left the industry for a short period but just could not get it out of my blood. This was my first taste of the challenges that sometimes come with the auto industry.

From there, I worked for a small lot in southern Ohio where I learned a whole different side of the industry. No longer was I showing a customer a new car or a lightly used one with a certification, but now it was a 100,000 mile car that had some scratches, damaged interior, used tires, and other minor service needs or cosmetic blemishes.

I started paving my own style at this point, taking the new car experience and standards with applying them to the used car market. Feed back was great, customers liked the experience. I got recruited to another dealership to take over running the operation. We started off small but grew quickly from 10 cars a month to 35. This was my first opportunity as an actual partner and thought I had finally made it. We acquired a second location and even a bodyshop off the success we were having with the dealership. We grew over the next couple of years and I figured life was made. I had a great job, owned multiple properties, and had lots of freedom. This is when I got my first lesson in ownership of a business.

About 3 years ago I had a disagreement with my then partner. We had an employee that was no longer delivering the experience we had built our business on. I informed my partner that I was going to terminate that individual and they felt strongly otherwise. This eventually lead to the dissolution of that partnership as it was clear that our values around the business and the level of service provided were not aligned.

I had just got married, purchased a new home, and found out that I was having a baby all within a few weeks of our partnership failing; as you could imagine I was scared. Not just one life changing event had happened but multiple in the course of a short period of time. I had to make a real choice on what I was going to do. I decided I wanted to do something on my own and be the change.

I rented a small office and stocked 7-15 cars and started all over again. The cards were stacked agents me. Lenders and vendors I had done business with for years acted like they did not know me. Why would they want to stand with a start up when they had other large independent dealerships pushing them business. So minus a few great people who stood with me I started all over. Now that I was getting traction and growing my new dealership, I got a phone call to help a dealer that was on hard times. After some back and forth we came to an agreement to partner.

This is where we have taken a dealership selling about 7 cars a month to doing on average 20 plus a month over the last year. We still have not hit my goal of 30 plus a month but we are looking forward to what 2024 brings us as a business and a family.

Outside of work I like to spend time with my wife, Christina and my 2 year old son Oliver.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Personally it has been my ability to be straight forward with my customers and vendors that I have done business with over the years. I have always believed you need to deliver on what you say you’re going to do and hold others accountable for what they say they will do. If a vender or customer can not uphold their end of the agreement it is okay to look for other options and many times over the years I have found that the customer or the vendor may be upset at that moment but does understand that you did what was right.

An example I had is a customer who wanted me to hold a car for them till they could take it to their mechanic on Monday from looking at it over the weekend. We agreed that on Monday they will have inspected and will give us a yes or no answer on purchasing the car. After they had the car inspected they said they liked it but one other came up for sale that they wanted to see on Tuesday, not a problem, but our car is still for sale now on the open market. Wednesday comes and someone walks in and purchases the car. As always the customer from the weekend calls and now wants the car. I kindly inform them it has been sold. We do get upset customers sometimes and we always explain to them that we did everything as agreed.

Lots of times they will send in referrals even though they did not buy a car but because our car checked out well and we did what we said we would do.

In simple treat people fairly and honest. they way you would like to be treated.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

Social media has been such a great impact on our dealership. Seeing customer reviews, positive feedback, and more detailed information online helps the buyer make an educated choice. We also do discounted service for all of our customers so they don’t have to pay retail like at other service garages. We also have a program on all of our cars that a customer has with our license plate or sticker we will do free fluid top offs all year round. We strive to be the only business you need for automotive needs. In regards to brand loyalty, it is earned and not just given. That is built thought having clear company policies, strong communication and environment focused on customer service. The company/ brand has to have everyone on board at all times. I tell my guys it’s like an amusement park. keep all hands and feet inside the ride at all times and enjoy your day at Cleveland Auto Wholesale.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://clevelandautocars.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clevelandauto