Bryan Honda Takes Customers, Staff on Football Field Trip as a Thank You

FAYETTEVILLE, North Carolina – Football fever hit the customers and employees at Bryan Honda, which shut down the dealership for a day recently to attend a home game of the NFL’s now 15-1 Carolina Panthers.

General Manager Tim Roussell rented a couple of charter buses to drive 80 people more than two hours to see the team win in a sold-out game in Charlotte, he told Edmunds.

He used the $6,000 outing to reward the dealership’s social-media audience who came in for a test-drive, or declared publicly that they are the biggest Panthers fan.

“The Facebook engagement on this Panthers ticket giveaway was 2,900 and, overall, we reached 59,000 people with this giveaway,” Roussell said. “We use social media these days as part of our advertising.”

The trip was also a thank you to the sales team and their significant others who helped the dealership have a record-breaking year, selling 132 percent more cars than any other year in the dealership’s 42-year history.

“I don’t think closing the dealership for a day and any sales we lost for that day could come close to how much employee morale we built,” Roussell said.

“When we treat them well, they treat the customers well, so everyone gets to celebrate,” he added.

Edmunds says: A dealership finds a way to score a touchdown with consumers and employees alike.