For 25 years, Club Auto, based in Thornhill, Ontario, has provided exceptional customer experience management service to many of the world’s largest and most prestigious automotive brands.
New Brunswick has long been recognized as a North American leader in the customer service industry. Opportunities NB (ONB) continues to build on that success by creating a more robust business services sector offering New Brunswickers career opportunities with innovative technology companies like Club Auto.
ONB spoke to Sean Grasby, President and CEO, to learn more about Club Auto and why they chose New Brunswick to expand their growing business.
ONB: How exactly does Club Auto support automotive brands?
Grasby: We support auto manufacturers’ roadside assistance programs, in-vehicle telematics, and broader customer experience management during the warranty period for new vehicles. In addition, we also partner with our clients to provide additional customer experience services for recall programs, incentive programs, and general customer service support. We now count many of the top automotive manufacturers as clients, providing best-in-class customer experience for their customers. So we really operate as a B2B2C company across both Canada and the U.S.
Why choose New Brunswick for this growth?
We wanted to establish roots in a market which provided an appropriate depth of expertise and a well-educated workforce. Since we provide our services to all of Canada, gaining access to bilingual talent is crucial to our success. Just as importantly, we wanted a location that aligned with our company culture, which is near and dear to our hearts.
Beyond winning four of Contact Centre World’s Gold Awards this year, we were also nominated for Canada’s Most Admired Corporate Cultures. Our culture is based on five corporate values: pursue excellence, drive change, earn trust, know more, and have fun. It’s these values that have made us successful and allowed us to grow so rapidly over the past three years. We knew we wanted a Canadian city that aligned with those values. Ultimately, Moncton was the right spot. It’s a city full of genuine, intelligent individuals that want to be a part of a winning team.
Having sites in different time zones and a little distance away from each other is helpful as well given our sector. Canadians know that winter can be quite demanding, and a big part of our business is providing roadside assistance, so we need to have people ready to answer our customer requests quickly while providing an exceptional experience. By having separate locations we are not only able to meet the needs of our clients but are also able to provide a better work-life balance to our team members, as the time difference provides better flexibility for scheduling.
Your Moncton office is now up and running, how is that going?
Great! We went live in Moncton on October 1. In addition, we also launched another large auto manufacturer. This client sells three well-known brands in Canada and we launched them along with our existing clients in Moncton. The next major launch is this month, which is for a well-known European automaker, and will be exclusively supported in our Moncton location. That location will be critical in supporting our continued organizational growth.
Can you comment on the relationship with ONB?
The initial meeting with ONB was the first point at which New Brunswick felt like it would be the right home for us. We looked at several regions but after meeting with ONB you could tell they were prepared to bring jobs to market. They had all the answers for us and thoughtful support ready for each step of the process. That made it very easy to select New Brunswick.
Then we had the difficult decision of which city to go with. ONB very thoughtfully and pragmatically managed to understand our needs and helped align us with the cities that would best meet them. ONB knew their province well and knew the advantages of each city.
You’re also working with our Workforce Strategists, correct?
Yes, when you’re a growing business you need more people, sometimes very quickly. One of the challenges for us is that we are growing faster than planned. We’ve had to regroup and re-strategize our recruiting to meet our accelerated needs. ONB helped us on that strategy right out of the gate. We’re well ahead of where we expected to be in terms of bringing jobs to the Moncton office. ONB’s help with this has not been a one-time effort; they continue to support us as plans change and headcount grows.
What would you like to tell New Brunswickers about Club Auto as a place to work?
It’s a great time to be at Club Auto. The automotive sector is in the midst of disruption and our innovative approach puts us at the centre of that. Whether it’s shared, autonomous or electrified vehicles, we continue to create great solutions for the people building and using those vehicles. These are exciting market shifts to navigate and the team is enjoying tackling them.
Our team members are well taken care of between pension and company paid benefits, and we have built ourselves to be a place where people see career opportunities and professional growth. We prefer to promote internally and are able to give people a chance to grow a great career at Club Auto. Everyone on our team has the opportunity to work with their manager to build their own personal development. That’s an expectation we have across the company; everyone knows where they want to be and the team is dedicated to developing them to get there.
We believe one of the unique opportunities we bring to the young workforce in Moncton is the opportunity to start with us in a well-paid position very early in their careers. We have many examples in our Corporate Headquarters of individuals that started with us in high school and have progressed quickly into management roles.
It comes down to being an interesting industry to work in coupled with being able to work in an environment where you can grow your career and be appreciated for your work.
We encourage anyone interested in working for an organization that provides competitive compensation, company paid benefits, paid training, professional development, but most importantly a fun place to work to apply on our website. We are currently recruiting for both full-time and part-time opportunities.
Visit Club Auto’s Careers Page
Written by Jason Boies