Wisconsin's Weekend Morning News
Sunday Sip: Holiday Automotive
The following is a paid presentation. Advice and opinions expressed during the Sunday SIP are solely that of the hosts or guests at NotWTMJ Radio or Good Karma Brands Milwaukee LLC. Welcome into the Sunday SIP on WTMJ. Greg Mastic happy to be joined by Holiday Automotive Chief Operating Officer. It's Willie Byer. Such a great place. Holiday Automotive. I've been a spokesperson for about a decade now and it's with good reason. They do it different. They do it the right way at Holiday. And Willie as I scroll through Holiday's Facebook page, I am constantly reminded of how you do business with the amount of five year and 10 year anniversaries I see from some of your employees, you yourself. 25 years as a working adult, 20 of those have been at Holiday Automotive. Why is that? Well Greg, I think it starts with ownership with Mike Shannon Senior and Michael Shannon Junior. You know, we're really lucky to have a great culture at Holiday Automotive. That's been cultivated over 65 years of business here in Fond du Lac. And you know, it's not only the great culture, but it's the push to continue to grow and serve people. We're very fortunate. You know, it's our mission to be the best car dealership, giving the best experience with the best team. And all starts with having the best team. And it makes it really, really easy to work for a place when you do have the best team. And the message is the same from the top down. So we're really fortunate with our leadership. We're really fortunate with the longevity of our staff. And it's a testament to the people in Fond du Lac that have patronized our dealership for 65 years and have supported our growth over that time. You know, it's amazing, as I have a good friend of mine who is constantly traveling for work and he was in the market for a new vehicle. The person he worked with that holiday took him on a video tour of a beautiful vehicle, took him inside and out of the vehicle. So when he went up to Holiday and made the decision to purchase the vehicle, he was in and out in 45 minutes. Our process is very transparent. And we make great efforts to make sure it's very transparent just so we can get folks in and out in a quick manner of fashion. You know, folks do most of their research online. They know what they want. They know the colors in the accoutrements and all the things on the vehicle that they want to have. So once they settle in on that and they're targeted on the vehicle that they want to have, we want to make their buying experience pleasurable, efficient, and friendly, for the most part, in order to get them in and out in a quick manner of fashion. Willie Byer joining us chief operating officer at Holiday Automotive in Fond du Lac. You really can't go through an event summer in Fond du Lac without Holiday getting behind something. I saw this cops and kids run that you did a fun run. Of course, minor league baseball is prevalent in the Fond du Lac area. You're behind that as well. And so many other things. Why is it so important to have that level of community involvement? Greg, we have seven core values in our company. And one of our core values is give where you live. And we want to support our town and local communities through any kind of charity organizations that we can. You know, being in business for 65 years in Fond du Lac and the greater Fond du Lac area, it's important to us to pay back to the folks that have patronized our dealership for so long. So that community involvement, I think, helps us have a partnership with the town, the people, the community, and helps us become, you know, a staple of the community, so to speak. And for everybody here, it's really important to give back to the people that have given us so much in our lives as well. You know, a couple of years ago, you engaged in a partnership with Wisconsin running back, Braille and Allen. He has now moved on to the NFL doing good things. I don't know that I'll be able to cheer for the New York Jets here, Willie, specifically, but cheering for a Fond du Lac kid who is off to great things in the NFL. And Brother and I spoke about the partnership as well. It's great to see one of your own go on and do great things. Yeah, Greg, that's super exciting. Braille and was a stud football player here at our local high school. It was exciting to see him and Cardinal Red play for the Badgers and just rack up a ton of yards. And then, you know, he made a decision to, with his first contract in the NFL, purchase his mother a new vehicle. And he brought her here to make that purchase and have that buying experience. And we were very, very humbled by that. We're excited to continue our relationship with Braille and he's going to be on a jet squad that's looking to kind of get back in the hunt, so to speak, out there in the AFC East. And we're excited to see what he can do on the field this year in jet screen as well. You know, Willie, I spent some time up at Holiday about a month ago. My wife needed her Buick Enclave fixed. Just had a couple of dings. A couple of things stood out to me. Number one, driving in the inventory on campus where there was the Mazda dealership, the Ford dealership, Buick GMC. There were vehicles and plenty of them. So the inventory was fantastic. That really stood out. But also with the body and glass, the Collision Center, that was my first experience working with that division of the company. And it was fantastic. I had a loaner car that I was able to use that helped us in a situation we've got a big family. So getting kids to one practice to the next, that's a challenge. We needed that good sized vehicle. Holiday was able to help timely fix. And it was meticulous. The vehicle looks brand new. And this is another great service element from Holiday. We opened our Collision Center, standalone Collision Center in 2021 after having two different campuses with the mission of just taking great care of people in final act and the greater final act area when they do have those unfortunate incidents. And at the time we grew our offerings to glass and certain PDR dent repairs, things of that nature, just so we can make sure we're taking care of the folks who purchased vehicles from us all the way through the process and make it a one stop shop and make it very easy and simple and make sure they have alternate transportation options. The biggest thing or our charge in life there is it's important that people have transportation. If you think about it, transportation gets you to your kid soccer games, gets you to your guitar lessons, gets you to dance in ballet, all those different things. And those things are important life moments. And we want to be able to afford safe, reliable transportation, whether you have a new car, a used car you're purchasing from us, or you're in for service or bodywork. We want to get you to life moments so you don't have any interruption. Willie Byers, the Chief Operating Officer at Holiday Automotive. Willie, I can't thank you enough for the partnership that we've had over the last decade or so. It's meant the world to us and our family. We are repeat customers for a reason. If you're in the market for a vehicle, whether it's new or used, you want the process to be transparent and hassle-free, I cannot say enough great things about the team at Holiday Automotive. Congrats on doing business the right way Willie. Really appreciate your time today. I appreciate you Greg and the partnership we've had with you and all the kind words you folks have been great.