On the heels of a record-breaking 2018, Paragon Automotive has received top honors from both Honda and Acura, earning the 2018 President’s Award Elite (only given to 10 dealers nationally out of over 1,100 dealers) and the Acura Precision Team Award. Both dealerships marked the occasion at an awards ceremony at Classic Car Club Manhattan.

Both honors are the highest awarded by American Honda Motor Co. and recognize dealerships that achieve excellence throughout their sales and service operations while maintaining strong and thriving relationships with their clients. Paragon Acura and Paragon Honda share the distinction of being the No. 1 selling certified pre-owned dealers in the U.S.

Both dealerships received nearly every Honda and Acura award available and maintained an unparalleled sales volume while doing so, said the company.

The ceremony featured several speakers that have come to represent what Paragon is today. The speakers include those from diverse tech companies, professional sports teams, entrepreneurs, and special guest speaker Eric Thomas.

Looking back at the last decade in business, Brian Benstock, general manager and vice president of Paragon Honda and Acura, said, “After the 2008 recession, we knew we had to reinvent, and we started with the customers. We made it about them. We set out to dominate our market and ended up impacting the industry.”

Now a decade later, Paragon has employed the latest in technology, making it easier for customers to purchase and service their vehicles from their mobile devices through Paragon Direct. Regular or reactive car maintenance is an inconvenience that is amplified when it requires visiting a dealership during working hours. Knowing that today’s consumers expect to get things done immediately, Paragon Honda developed an app that lets customers request to have their vehicle picked up, serviced and returned to their home within 24 hours — no dealership visit required. That’s especially convenient in Queens, NY, where Paragon is based. Paragon has seen that customers who use the Paragon Direct app drive twice as many repair orders compared to customers who don’t use it.

“The whole notion of having to visit a dealership is outdated,” says Benstock. “A customer shouldn’t have to set foot into a dealership unless they want to.” To make it even simpler for its customers to schedule service and maintenance, Paragon became the first dealer to build an app for the Google Assistant. Drivers are now able to schedule service — such as routine maintenance, oil changes and tire rotations quickly and easily using just their voices.

With Paragon Direct, customers have access to all of the dealership’s services whenever and wherever they want. “Our customers want to live their lives. They don’t have the time to drive out to the dealership, drop off their car, and wait for it to be serviced,” said Anthony Petito, Paragon’s service director. “Technology has changed their expectations, and we knew we needed to change our approach to service and marketing in order to meet those.”

Links:
Paragon Honda
Paragon Acura