Dealer Magazine had the privilege of talking with Rita Case, who was named the 2024 TIME Dealer of the Year at the 2024 National Automotive Dealers Association (NADA) Show in Las Vegas in February.
Case is president and chief executive officer of Rick Case Automotive Group, which operates 12 dealerships in South Florida and Atlanta. The auto group employs more than 1,400 associates and has sales of $2 billion annually. The company is the nation’s largest auto retailer owned and operated by a woman.
In this interview, Case reflects on the current state of the automotive industry, being a role model in a male-dominated industry, the challenges dealerships are facing in selling electric vehicles and her recipe for success in running a dealership.
DEALER MAGAZINE: What are the current strategic priorities for Rick Case Automotive Group?
Rita Case: Our current strategy and my priority is to maintain our company’s great reputation. We’ve been in business for 60 years and in Fort Lauderdale and Atlanta for 38 years. With the consolidation of dealerships both public and private in South Florida and Atlanta market, I have focused on leading our reputation as a respected family-owned and operated dealership group.
This continues to be my top strategy to compete against these larger organizations that have more marketing resources, dealerships and dollars for research and development. Building on our current reputation, which is excellent, is the best strategy to compete in these changing market conditions.
A second priority is to have a strategy that maintains a positive, stable and career focused associates. We enjoy having stable, career-oriented associates and being family-owned and operated is an advantage for that goal. While these big groups buying dealerships in our markets are looking for the best people, we have them. Our staff is a target to be recruited, but fortunately, our associates are loyal and appreciate their career opportunity.
DEALER MAGAZINE: How have they evolved in the past few years?
Case: I have always been a very involved owner, in the stores for monthly kick-off lunches, knowing all the associates from lot staff to leadership, being very visible with my appreciation for their career with us. A strategy of training for a career path, great benefits, excellent facilities with a focus on associate satisfaction, team building for a positive, fun environment are key to associate commitment.
When COVID hit in March 2020, we didn’t hesitate to calm our associates—from day one, everyone was paid even though business stopped, and no one was asked to go on unemployment. We all stayed together as a team and worked out a successful plan that would support all the different associate challenges to find a solution.
Decisions like this build’s loyalty and career commitment. I believe our associates truly feel that I and the company support them as family as they are the most important assets in our business and strategies that support their loyalty will always be my top priority.
Weathering the Past Three Years
DEALER MAGAZINE: Could you share some recent operational challenges the group has faced and how you have managed to overcome them?
Case: The operational challenges coming off this three-year roller coaster from COVID, inventory shortage, shipping interruptions, inflation, record interest rate increases, part issues and more have been a perfect storm of every possible business challenge for us. Fortunately, like most, we weathered the storm and the winds have calmed down.
Currently, our number one operational challenge is finding and training enough technicians for the increase demand in our service departments. Our service departments’ capacity, for the most part, are adequate—it is simply needing more technicians for the available business opportunity. We support the local technical schools, develop on-the-job training, and have modern, well-equipped service departments.
The issue seems to be that the interest in this profession has been slowing while the demand for this skilled work is increasing. The increased service demand was created by people keeping their cars over the past few years while car prices were elevated and lease payments substantially higher. Simply put: people kept their cars instead of replacing which created a need for customer service. We have developed a unique and lucrative technician retention program over the past two years, and we have experienced very positive reports from our service staff for this creative benefit for longevity.
DEALER MAGAZINE: What were your strategies in handling the inventory shortage the industry recently faced?
Case: The inventory shortage created a new challenge for sales training that we have made a priority since last summer. For two years, the salespeople basically took orders, a waiting list for most vehicles, which was the first-time salespeople experienced such a sales environment. Our long-term salespeople know how to sell but didn’t have to; they took orders, and cars were arriving pre-sold.
As inventory came back with full stock, they needed to change their process back to making appointments, working leads and customer communication for referrals. We have that group of new hire salespeople—about 15 percent like most dealerships—for cars sales that only knew “taking order.”
So, in the last three years, these new salespeople that have joined didn’t know the traditional sales skills of setting appointments, keeping in touch with their sold customers to get referrals, the importance of customer retention through communication. Retraining our salespeople on basic selling skills has been one of the operational priorities to maintain our national top volume results.
Part shortage issues has been another challenge with a ripple effect on the loaner car inventory, customer satisfaction, and lot storage of down vehicles. On top of the parts issues, there were constant recalls with many of the brands.
This resulted in an operational challenge of keeping our customers in transportation while their cars are waiting for parts. We would keep people in their cars if safe and drivable until parts became available, but the whole situation was timing consuming and left customers unhappy. The only solution was customer communication on their car status and showing our empathy for their inconvenience.
These issues are slowing getting behind us and soon back to business as usual.
EV Challenges
DEALER MAGAZINE: As the auto industry continues to transition towards electric vehicles, what steps is Rick Case Automotive Group taking to adapt to this change? What are your thoughts on the current state of electric vehicle technology and its adoption in the markets you serve?
Case: In Georgia and South Florida, there has yet to be a measurable interest to buy an EVs like California or other EV states. We are educating ourselves and preparing our facilities and teams when the market interest materializes.
Our focus is to understand how to support EV vehicles, our customers, and manufacturers. We are training our salespeople to be educated and able to knowledgeably talk about EVs facts, performance and charging with customers is a priority.
We have yet to sell EVs in any volume in our markets, even though we have inventory and a spread of models that offer EVs like Kia, Hyundai, Genesis, Audi, Volkswagen, Acura, and Honda. The interest seems to have reduced substantially as the early adopters are behind us, and the hybrid is where customers are currently more focused.
Our hybrids models are in high demand while the EVs cars are aging in our inventory. That is a clear signal that EV demand is going to take longer than the manufacturers expected. The requirements on the manufactures from current government legislation seems to be driving production while it is not matching the market demands. This is not a good scenario for the auto industry.
DEALER MAGAZINE: What were some of the unknown issues who have had to grapple with the EV sector?
Case: Investing in the required infrastructure for our facility’s charging stations has proved to be more challenging than we thought. Some of our dealership’s locations need more power than is available from the power supply, leading to a long wait time for transformers to be installed to the property site.
It’s going to take time. It’s going to be very expensive to make this infrastructure investment. We clearly know that EVs’ volume is coming though we would like to see more demand ahead of these substantial investments.
The manufacturers are pushing us to have the chargers, the tools, the education, and the safety containers for the batteries. We’re moving in that direction, but it’s a waiting game right now, at least in our markets for volume EV customer demand.
DEALER MAGAZINE: How do you see digital transformation impacting your business, especially in sales and customer service?
Case: Well, it’s exciting and fascinating. We have had so many demonstrations of AI technology for all the digital transformations, whether communication, daily operations, or AI integration. There’s a lot of vendors coming out. It reminds me of 1990 when the internet was first developed as a common tool, and many vendors created solutions to help you use it to be more efficient and successful. It’s the same thing with AI.
I see it all positive in the digital transition; I see the transformation helping us be more efficient in customer communication, associate training, and managing our assets. Seeing the features in communicating with our business development centers (BDCs)—where we have lots of people on the phone—and I have seen some demonstrations with this initial AI which are just amazing. The system answers the phone, talks to the customer, and screens their needs, and 90% of the calls can be handled by AI consistently. The customer gets a consistent, efficient, accurate and professional response to whatever it is, whether it’s making an appointment, status of their car or getting their car picked up.
So, digital transformation is here. And I think those dealers that spend the time educating themselves, taking demonstrations like we are, adopting it, training on it—it will provide a real consistent experience for the customer, which has always been a challenge when you have a lot of different people representing your company on the phone.
I’m especially excited about the digital marketing advancements. We’re still on network TV, advertising on local news and sports even as most viewers watch their entertainment through other applications today. Our majority of marketing dollars are going towards digital marketing, including social media, as well as traditional digital media.
A Proud DEI History
DEALER MAGAZINE: Could you discuss any specific DEI initiatives that Rick Case Automotive Group has implemented recently? What challenges have you faced in implementing these DEI strategies and what successes can you share?
Case: The foundation of diversity, equity, and inclusion is in our family. If you’re a business, that’s a family, and we have always been way ahead of this curve because we’ve always treated our associates as family and our community as friends.
South Florida and Atlanta, which are very diverse populations to start with, prove our commitment to equality, education, inclusion, and diversity.
Ten of our 12 general managers are minorities. The general manager of the largest volume of Honda dealership in the America, Rick Case Honda, is a woman who opened that store with us 22 years ago. We gave her the opportunity with training, promotions, and through her talented passion and work ethic she is running the largest volume dealership in the country. Everyone has the opportunity for growth in our company equally, it’s matter of passion to learn and work ethic to perform in the position assigned.
DEALER MAGAZINE: Are there any in-house programs that complement your DEI initiatives?
Case: For 43 years we have published a monthly company newsletter. It’s just for our associates, focused on recognizing top performance, customer letters of appreciation, current community events we support, lots of photos of our teams celebrating company ring and diamond presentation as well as anniversary and birthdates. A monthly celebration to share with their family making everyone feel a part of the company’s success and everyone feeling equal and included.
We’ve had a company ring program since 1981. Every associate with the company for five years gets a company ring and we add diamonds every five years of service. The ring is a tangible symbol of their career success and commitment with the company.
DEALER MAGAZINE: As a leader, how do you foster an inclusive culture within such a large and diverse organization?
Case: The diversity within our leadership supports diversity and inclusion within their associates. We have developed programs that specifically reenforce the fact that everyone is equal in the company. We create a feeling of family in our company.
We have a monthly meeting with a non-management, that includes a technician, an office staff, a parts person, a salesperson, and no management in the room. It’s led by our HR department to be sure everyone in the meeting feels they can speak their mind. We asked them for their ideas if they were running the store or their department, what would they change? What are the problems in the store? What do they see that they would like us to investigate and that indeed promotes equality and inclusion. These associates change every two months and they come away from the experience feeling “I am just as important as the General Manager or my service manager.”
One initiative is a partnership with Kia Motors America, developing a program allowing us to hire retired or discharged veterans to become master-certified technicians. The industry understands the need for more technicians. Kia shares their applications and Kia helps us train and we’ve had great success with this program. It’s great that the manufacturers help us recruit veterans of the military into the dealerships as their second career.
DEALER MAGAZINE: How do you identify employees who want to grow in the company?
Case: Career pathing is a key tool we use to promote DEI. We have an HR department, and every associate around their fifth anniversary has a career path interview with our human resource professional. How do you like sales? How do you like being a title clerk? Well, I want to be an office manager, or I’d like to work in billing, or you talk to the technician, who wants a path to be an advisor, or I don’t see myself doing anything but being a great technician.
Making sure that every associate feels we care about their career and support their personal and professional goals, not just the job the dealership may have for them. People stay when they feel valued, appreciated, and see growth in their future.
With a career path they see that we are a company they can trust to have longevity and security. When you ask how we show equality, we have a strategy to always have people on our bench. Our bench is an associate sitting behind a management position who has raised their hand through career path communication and is being mentored for the position.
Besides exposure at the store, we include some in our corporate conferences and provide outside industry training as well. I feel confident that we have respect and an effective process in place to be an excellent organization supporting the goals of DEI.
Dealership Trends
DEALER MAGAZINE: Looking at the current trends, where do you see the biggest opportunities for growth in the automotive sector?
Case: Fixed operations, by far, is the most significant opportunity today in the retail dealership. The cars last longer while the vehicles are getting more expensive. That formula means customers will keep their cars longer and will require more customer service. There are price increases on new cars as the manufacturers need to cover the EV expenses incurred in their EV development. I believe fixed operations is the most significant opportunity for all dealerships. I believe the alternative “mom and pop” repair shops will be reduced as the cars require more OEM expensive equipment for repairs and are more complicated with software driving systems.
Growing the work force in the service department is key through in-house career training, mentorship, and apprentices working alongside a master tech to accelerate the training process. We’re involved in the vocational schools and are on the board of the different technical schools in Atlanta and Fort Lauderdale. We are on these boards to help design the curriculum and expose high school age to the auto repair industry.
DEALER MAGAZINE: What advice would you give to women who aspire a leadership role in a traditionally male-dominated industries like automotive?
Case: There are still very few women in retail automotive dealerships and even fewer in an ownership role. I would say this is because family-owned and operated dealerships usually got passed on to the guys in the family, but not because the women weren’t qualified.
There are factors I have seen in my experience—hours of operation, being involved in negotiations, commission pay plans— that aren’t necessarily attractive, motivating and encouraging as a career for women.
My advice to women thinking of getting into the retail auto industry is to be sure that the core responsibilities are ones that you’re passionate and motivated to execute and lead. If you are passionate about the car business, and those three facts don’t bother you at all, go for it. It is the most fun business you will ever know.
DEALER MAGAZINE: What characteristics do you look for in a salesperson?
Case: You can train a salesperson if they have positive energy, a great attitude, and like to talk to people. I always say hire for personality, and you can train selling skills. That’s true when it comes to people-oriented sales positions.
You need specific technical training for being a technician, especially with the computers today for complicated repairs.
It is the dealer’s responsibility, not the manufacturer’s, to promote careers in the automotive retail business. It’s the manufacturer’s responsibility, once we can engage the associate into the career, to give us the tools such as the portals on training, the service updates, tech lines, with classes supported online.
Digital training locally, as compared to sending technicians to an offsite center for training is very efficient and a growing trend.
Community Keystone
DEALER MAGAZINE: What sets the Rick Case Auto group apart from other dealerships?
Case: We set ourselves apart with our customer benefits, community support and family owned. Just some of our customer benefits—for example, we double the manufacture warranty with every car.
The Hyundai warranty is 10 years, 100,000 miles, Rick Case Hyundai doubles it to 20 years and 200,000 miles with each one we sell at no extra cost. We have a Rick Case rewards card for a lifetime of free car washes, the gas station where we offer gas at cost to our customers and provides discounts for purchases.
DEALER MAGAZINE: I know you are proud of the work you do in the community. Can you tell us about some of those projects?
Case: Our community support and recognition is unmatched by any other dealer in the market. We just completed a seven-year project to build the largest affordable housing community, 76 homes, in Broward County, named the Rick Case Habitat Community.
I have been on the board of the Boys and Girls Club for 37 years, proving the leadership to expand from three Boys Clubs to 13 Boys and Girls Clubs providing 12,000 at risk youth with educational and after school support. Most of the major hospitals in South Florida have our name recognition in their facility.
I could go on, but the point is Rick Case is clearly set apart by their dedication for 38 years of consistent, impactful support and community commitment.
DEALER MAGAZINE: How has this commitment to the community carried over to showroom?
Case: Absolutely—customer satisfaction has always been our guiding path. During the supply shortage we didn’t take advantage of our customers by charging over MSRP when the market was. I explained to our sales management team that the greedy thinking would be short lived and long remembered by our customers. Of course, we didn’t sell those short supply, high demand cars outside of our market. We are already seeing the loyal, appreciative customers whose neighbors overpaid, thanking us for our fair treatment.
These are some of the reasons we are performing at the nation’s top sales volume. Our Honda and VW stores are number one nationally while our Hyundai, Maserati, and Alfa rank in the top three, Kia in the top seven. Volume performance in these highly competitive markets reinforces our excellence in business operations.
The bottom line is, take care of your community and your customers and you will be a market leader.
Leadership Approach
DEALER MAGAZINE: Can you share your approach to leadership and decision-making in such a dynamic industry?
Case: Rick and I got married in 1980—I came from a small town, a small dealership. My dad was the first Honda car dealer in the U.S., because he was a Honda motorcycle dealer and those were the first auto franchise dealerships and I sold Hondas in high school.
Meeting Rick in 1977 at a Honda event and moving to his large market in Cleveland was truly my training ground to be a positive and effective leader. Forty years of marriage with Rick as my mentor, truly was my foundation for leadership success. We wrote a book, our customers, our friends, and that has been our culture for 43 years. It’s the foundation of our leadership strategy and decision-making.
We lead by example, and we train the culture that our customers are our friends. Our leadership and decision making follows this same thought process. If it makes good business sense, we want to do it, if it doesn’t, we don’t. If we don’t know what to do, we educate ourselves till we agree on what to do. Not too complicated.
Our leadership style is one of a team approach. Respect all points of view, ask for input, share ideas before making a big decision. Through open communication you create “buy in” from the team to any major decisions so your team supports the task ahead.
DEALER MAGAZINE: How do you mentor others at Rick Case Automotive Group?
Case: The first thing I do is set an example. I continue to stay very educated in the auto industry, U.S. and world economy. I continue to show them through my actions that knowledge is the key to being respected, valued, and heard. Knowledge is the key to confidence; with confidence you can feel as an equal and be respected in your position.
I often speak at high schools and colleges about women breaking into a male-dominated industry and how I did it, and I always go back to the same mantra. Education equals confidence. If you educate yourself, you will have confidence, and if you have confidence, there are no barriers to success. Discover the passion that you have, whether it’s sales whatever your passion is; if you have confidence, you will excel even if it’s male-dominated, especially now compared to what it was 54 years ago when I was in high school selling cars. No women sold cars. So, I led by example, and that’s the best way to the path to others.
DEALER MAGAZINE: What example did you mom set for you?
Case: My mom proved to me that a woman could do anything, even in a man’s world. As a Honda motorcycle dealer, she decided to race and was the first female Honda motorcycle road racer in the United States in 1961. She was the only female in the race proving that if you’re good at something, go for it, even if you’re the only female. She races dirt bikes as well. She was a pilot, also a nontraditional female role.
She showed me at a very young age that whatever you are passionate about, you can do. I played on the boys’ baseball team, I rode dirt bikes, was a parts and service manager at the dealership, earned my pilot’s license at 16. I tried everything that interested me, never thinking it was not a traditional female activity.
Recipe to Success
DEALER MAGAZINE: How do you balance the demands of maintaining a large, successful dealership group while prioritizing community and philanthropic efforts?
Case: The key is planning your day to achieve that day’s goals. I plan my day the night before in hour increments. Every hour has a plan. When my feet hit the floor, early in the morning, I waste no time getting started on my plan.
Another key is learning to say NO to interruptions and developing a delegation process for the interruptions. If you want to succeed in your day, learn to be a great delegator. Know the skills of your team and delegate interruptions as they surface. One of the chapters in our book is “start early, plan your day, work your plan”. I do not put my head on the pillow even if I return from a charity event at midnight without a plan for the next day.
If you plan your day the day before, you save yourself a good couple of hours. Most people are letting their day run them. I run my day. I know what I’m going to wear the night before. It’s laid out depending on the meetings or events that day. I carry a change of clothes, if required, in the car. I value every hour and it shows in my daily accomplishments. Time is free but it is priceless, once you have lost it, you never get it back.
DEALER MAGAZINE: What is one thing you wish more people knew about the automotive industry today?
Case: If you’re talking about the retail auto industry, I wish more people in the community and nationally understood how important a retail car dealer is in their community.
There is no other industry in any community that’s more philanthropic than the auto dealers. When you look at philanthropic support and community impact, it’s always the car dealer and their associates that donate funds and support community cause for improvement.
Dealers build the Habitat communities, support the Boys and Girls Clubs, have the largest teams at the American Heart Walk, Cancer Rely for Life, food drives, the first to support a disaster relief fund and on and on.
If you look at these different major organizations in either small or big cities, who’s on the board of directors, whose are leaders, who’s the chair of the funding raising events, it’s very often the car dealer or the car dealers’ association.
DEALER MAGAZINE: You feel that the Combating Auto Retail Scams (CARS) Act does enormous damage to the industry, right?
Case: I do! The naming was like a dagger in my heart. How could the government title legislation to sound like we are crooks?
We work successfully to help our communities, make major investments in facilities, provide jobs and training for careers, and offer service and products to support Americans’ mobility. The fact that there are always rotten apples in any group and the fact that there were dealers out there that were taking advantage during the low supply, high demand, is not a reason to assume all dealers are scamming customers. I wish the automotive industry would be celebrated as truly a giving and caring asset to the community.
Education is Key
DEALER MAGAZINE: Any final thoughts you would like to add?
Case: The retail car dealer should be celebrated because what we do is provide the freedom of mobility to America, which makes life a lot easier than riding the bus, train or walking.
I appreciate your asking me to be a part of your magazine. I’ve been reading and learning from your publication for years. I didn’t just wake up and learn this business. I have been dedicated to lifelong learning as my path to business and leadership success. I read all industry publications because that’s how I get ideas, stay current, and find the information to guide decisions. That’s my formula to be the best I can be.
Knowledge builds confidence and confidence is the key to leadership success.
This interview was the cover story for Dealer magazine’s May/June 2024 edition.