Lee's Summit, Mo.--After 32 years in the automotive industry, Bruce McWilliams, general manager of Lee's Summit Honda and Lee's Summit Subaru, got his first opportunity to build a dealership from the ground up. His finished project, Lee's Summit Subaru, opened in April. 
The 18,000-square-foot building features a spacious service area with 12 bays, eight in-ground lifts, an alignment rack, five detail bays, a parts department with $30,000 in inventory, and an outdoor car wash free for customers who service or purchase their vehicle at Lee's Summit Subaru, McWilliams said. The lot showcases 70 new vehicles and 50 used vehicles.
The dealership is located at the intersection of 291 and 470 highways in Lee's Summit, about a fourth of a mile northeast of the company's Honda dealership.
"When we bought the dealership, we wanted to put it right next to the Honda store, but we couldn't get the land bought," McWilliams said. "This was our second choice, and as it turned out, with the visibility from the highway, this is really a great spot, even better than the Honda store."
McWilliams said he designed Lee's Summit Subaru and that his experience in the automotive industry helped in the layout of the dealership, which Subaru recently said was the nicest facility in its market area.
"I tried to really use all those mistakes that we made plus the things that we did that we really liked in all those other situations to make this turn out good," he said. McWilliams said the design of the new building focuses on the customer. The parts counter, cashier, service writing area, and the waiting room, which features a 36-inch flat-screen television, are all close together and within view of one another. The layout creates an environment where employees can communicate and respond to customers quickly, he said.
McWilliams, whose background comes from the parts, service, and body segments of the automotive business, said the focus has to be on customer satisfaction. "I have learned that service is the most important part of the business. Everybody has cars to sell, but the difference is the service. The better the experience for the customer, the more likely they are to return here to purchase a car," he said.
Although Lee's Summit Subaru is smaller than its Honda store, and opened without a customer base, McWilliams said he made it a point to purchase the latest technology in the industry.
"A lot of the smaller dealerships don't have full service, and we tried to make sure we provided that with the front-end equipment and tire machines," he said. "We decided to spend the money and start off day one with being able to offer all of those services." 
McWilliams said he sees each customer as an opportunity for a long-term relationship and uses the Honda store as a business model for customer relations.
"We want to make sure it is a pleasant experience for the customer, and we want to make sure that the car is fixed right the first time," he said. "We want to make sure that they are greeted promptly. At a small dealership, sometimes if you get a rush, it is hard to do, so we have tried to make sure we cross-train our employees so they can do many jobs."
Lee's Summit Subaru keeps a small staff with three technicians, three detailers, two service writers, one parts person, a cashier, four salespeople and a sales manager, most of whom had worked at Lee's Summit Honda McWilliams said.
"If business was to get too busy, we can always bring employees over from the Honda store, and if the phones go unanswered at the Subaru store, they go directly to the Honda store," he said.
More important, he said, the design of the building puts employees in a position where everyone can see what is going on and has access to communicate with one another and with the customers.Considering Lee's Summit Subaru started with zero customers on the first day, McWilliams said business has been pretty good. "We kind of gain on it every week and it gets a little better," he said. "The service numbers have actually exceeded what we had thought."
Robert Rodriguez, service manager at Lee's Summit Subaru, said he is not worried about generating customers at the new store. "It is not difficult to build up a business when you treat people the way they want to be treated," he said.
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