When the employee showed Klaus Gondosch the letter, it reminded him exactly why Sunnyside Automotive Inc. conducts regular car seat safety programs.
The woman wrote how a few months earlier, she’d attended one of Sunnyside’s programs at the Middleburg Heights location. There, an employee replaced an old booster seat with a new one and explained its proper installation and use.
The letter continues: “Enclosed is a picture of my daughter and because you took the time to care, she is alive and well today. You see, last week we were rear ended by a drunk driver, which totaled our car, but (my daughter) remained safe and secure in her seat.
“I only wish I could meet you face to face so I could give you a huge hug to thank you for helping save my daughter’s life.”
The company has made a commitment to programs like this in the hopes of becoming a true part of the community, says dealership owner Kirt Frye.
“It’s impossible to measure tangible financial response from something like that, but the letters and the name recognition that’s been out there for these kinds of things, that to me speaks pretty high,” he says. “It’s a long term commitment. We knew going in that we weren’t going to get instantaneous short-term results. It takes years.”
The notion of community involvement is so important to Sunnyside that Frye created a full-time marketing and community events coordinator position, now staffed by Gondosch.
“To think that something that you do can have such an impact on someone, it was incredibly moving,” Frye says. “I can’t even describe how everybody felt about that whole situation.”
Sunnyside conducts safety programs a couple times a year at each of its locations. The company also created a payroll deduction program through which employees can have money taken out of their paychecks and donated to the Achievement Centers for Children. About $360 per pay period has been pledged to ACC by the company’s associates, and the company will match that amount, for a total of $18,720.
“A few years ago, we thought about what our strengths were as a company,” Gondosch says. “One was the orientation that we had toward people. The retail automobile industry certainly has a reputation for eating their young. We felt that our strength was the approach that we took with our guests — an empathetic approach, a consultative approach.
“Our strength was relationships with people, not only with our guests, but also with people in the community. We wanted to let people know that we were not in it just to sell a car, but we were in it to be a strong community member.”
The company also works with the Boy and Girl Scouts of America, teaching members the basics of car maintenance. For Sunnyside, being part of the community is more than simply giving money. And it couldn’t do it without the support of its employees.
“They were all very supportive, very responsive,” Gondosch says. “They gave of their time and energy, as well as their money.”
Sunnyside has worked with the North Olmsted D.A.R.E. program, sponsoring golf outings; the Business Advisory Council of the Berea City School District, participating in a business/teacher partnership program; Polaris Career Center, for a school-to-work career exploration program; the Muscular Dystrophy Association; and WVIZ-TV, among many others.
The company puts its efforts toward those areas where it can have the biggest impact on its community, Frye says. How does he measure the response? With letters like the one above, and in the relationships.
“People to people — that’s how we measure it.”
How to reach: Sunnyside Automotive Inc., (440) 777-8883
Daniel G. Jacobs ([email protected]) is senior editor at SBN.
