Donnie Crevier was never a privileged heir. Though his father and uncle founded Crevier BMW 36 years ago, he didn’t glide through a life
ripe with undeserving spoils. On the contrary, his adolescence was an exercise in challenge and resolve. The admittedly “rough, little kid”
spent time involved in various youth organizations, where he learned how to feel better about himself and the decisions he was making,
he says. Now decades later, Crevier, president and CEO of Crevier BMW, is all about making others feel better about themselves. He is
actively involved in the Boys and Girls Clubs of Laguna Beach and Santa Ana, as well as Career Beginnings and the Orange County Human
Relations Council. In addition to his own efforts, Crevier encourages his 300 employees to get involved in various organizations and
nonprofits, as well. This participation has not only benefited the community but has also helped drive his dealership to $269 million in
annual revenue and 12th place on the Ward’s Dealer 500, a list of the nation’s 500 largest dealers. Smart Business spoke with Crevier
about how to always stay on the lookout for “happy,” how encouraging community involvement benefits everyone and why the
customer’s perception is everything.
Get involved in the community. For any of
us that have had the good fortune of
financial success, it’s our responsibility
to give back and help support organizations that can strengthen our culture and
young people and inspire people to be
successful themselves.
Some of the most important things in
many companies are character and commitment. I donate a lot of time and
resources and try to demonstrate the
kind of character and commitment in
other areas that we’re hoping to drive in
our team.
We encourage our people to get
involved with nonprofits on their own.
We want them to be on boards. We want
them to help organizations because we
think it helps them feel better about
themselves, and we think it can also help
their careers.
You’re going to meet people in these
organizations. You’re going to be able to
develop business through those meetings. It’s a networking system. It’s a winwin for everybody. The organization
wins. The employee wins. They feel
good about themselves, and they may
also reap some business benefit. It benefits them indirectly because business
might be better because of it.
People relate to people that they think
are being helpful throughout the community. People like that and tend to support businesses that are supporting nonprofits and helping the community. A lot of it we’re doing because we want to do
it, but it does have a positive impact on
business along the way.
Exceed customer expectations. Have customer satisfaction indexes that every
customer is interviewed and followed up
with. We have ways of monitoring that
and making sure that our customers are
being taken care of the way that we want
them to.
We get results from these surveys daily.
If there’s ever any issue with the way a
customer’s been cared for that is not to
the level that they’re entitled, then we
take steps to correct it.
If customers have issues, maybe the
issues are not really our responsibility,
but they’re perceived as our responsibility in the consumers’ eyes. In most cases,
we will make that customer happy as a
result, in spite of our responsibility.
It’s not black and white here. It’s kind
of how the customer perceives the situation. If the customer perceives that they
were mistreated or something wasn’t
done fairly here, we remedy it quickly.
We do everything we can to exceed the
customer’s expectations.
The happier the customers are, the better business grows.
Look for happy people. You constantly
have to be trying to find the right people to
grow. That seems to be the single hardest
objective of all — to find the kind of people that fit in to your culture and are going
to be able to represent you to your clients
the way you want to be represented.
We look in all industries, not just our
own. We look throughout all business
industries for opportunities to find people with the right attitudes, the right character and the right commitment.
I’m after happy. I’m after happy people.
People either see the glass half full or
half empty. You’re happy or unhappy,
and I don’t know that we as employers
can change that.
Look for it on the surface, in people
that just sort of breed or enthuse happy,
and an ability to relate to people.
The initial thing would be just through
your first interaction. Then have them
interviewed by three or four (employees) and make sure everybody sees the
same thing.
We want their input. Plus, we want
them looking for those kinds of people
every day, in every little thing that they
come in contact with in their personal
lives. If they come across someone in a
different industry that has a wonderful
way about them and the character and
the attitude that we’re looking for, then
we might reach out.
Your people are the assets of the whole
operation. Finding the right people is a
constant endeavor, and it’s not easy.
Look at every detail. Don’t assume things
are going to operate smoothly. You’ve
got to constantly keep an eye on everything. I know that sounds microish. To
be very candid, I am a little microish. I
measure and monitor continually. I
watch every detail as close as I can without demonstrating micromanagement.
Have management meetings weekly.
Constantly monitor progress and evaluate ways to improve progress and efficiency and customer relations and
employee relations. Inspect what you
expect continually.
It can be very tedious. That’s not the
Harvard way, but I’m always working to
improve the process.
HOW TO REACH: Crevier BMW, (714) 835-3171 or
www.crevierbmw.com