Alastair Shephard

Content Writer

We’re incredibly pleased to announce the winner of the Dealership of the Month for September 2023 is Rybrook BMW and MINI Wolverhampton. 

The BMW and MINI team have won the award following their strongest ever month since joining the Bumper network - 49 customers drove away with their bills split into manageable monthly payments in September alone. This record month solidified the site as the top performer in the Rybrook BMW network. 

Trustpilot reviews from mutual Rybrook-Bumper customers applauded the partnership with one customer describing the application process as a ‘very good experience’. Another celebrated the Bumper system, stating, ‘Very easy to set up and a nice surprise when BMW told me I could pay for my service interest-free over 4 months. Great service from Bumper!’ 

In addition to improved customer satisfaction, the implementation of Bumper’s PayLater product into their aftersales process has seen an increase in their red work conversion, labour rate and recovery rate. 

Bumper’s Islay Horton visited the site to hand over the award. ‘I’m really pleased to see Rybrook BMW and MINI Wolverhampton recognised for their fantastic achievement’, said Islay. ‘After implementing PayLater into their everyday conversations with customers the site has seen a huge increase in positive customer feedback and a strong improvement in their KPIs.’ 

Congratulations to Mohammed, Sureena, Kelly, Simon and the whole team at BMW and MINI Wolverhampton!

Rybrook BMW and MINI Wolverhampton Win Dealership of the Month 

This month's Dealership of the Month award goes to Chiswick Honda & MG, part of the Norton Way Group. 

Having recently gone live with Bumper’s PayLater and PayNow solutions, the Chiswick team have won the award for their instant adoption of these payment methods into their process across the business. 

Regional Account Manager Jack McHale said, “I’m delighted to hand the award to the dealership. Their win is a recognition of a shared performance with both the sales and aftersales departments utilising Bumper to benefit their customers with a choice of payment options. 

“The teams have integrated Bumper into their daily conversations with customers following their training and recent launch. The feedback from the customers, service advisors, and sales execs has been great; with them all stating the ease of use as a key reason for its rapid uptake and success”. 

Congratulations to William, Tracy, Elliott and the whole team at Chiswick Honda & MG. 

Chiswick Honda & MG Take Home Dealership of the Month Award 

We're pleased to announce the Dealership of the Month Award for July 2023 goes to Stratstone BMW & MINI Hull. 

Having joined the Bumper network last July, the Hull team has started with a strong first 12 months, helping hundreds of motorists drive away safer with their invoices split into interest-free monthly payments.

The team has fully utilised the Bumper-Pinewood integration, incorporating Buy Now Pay Later as a fundamental component of their aftersales process.

Mutual Bumper and Stratstone customers praised the partnership on Trustpilot. One reviewer said, ‘Really easy to set up a payment plan, literally took a few minutes.’ Another praised the team’s excellent support, ‘Customer service is good. Flexible payment arrangement is a good idea.’ 

Mark Flintoff, Aftersales Development Leader at Stratstone BMW & Mini, said, ‘Bumper has made a massive impact across the Stratstone BMW/MINI service teams. It offers multiple payment options which helps to support our valued customers when keeping their cars safe and roadworthy during these challenging times. Congratulations to the team at Stratstone BMW/MINI Hull on a great month, and we look forward to many more awards across the Division in the future.’

Well done to Mike, Chloe, Kirsty, Rui and the whole team at Stratstone BMW and MINI Hull! 

Dealership of the Month: Stratstone BMW & MINI Hull 

Today is World Entrepreneurs’ Day, and in aid of this, we are celebrating our very own co-founders, James Jackson and Jack Allman!

I spent some time with James and Jack and picked their brains about how Bumper came to be, what they think makes a successful business, and the key traits someone would need to be a strong entrepreneur.

The idea for what is now Bumper, was first thought up by James when speaking with a contact in the industry who had crunched some numbers on repair costs, and had identified that Peugeot-Citroën were losing around £1 billion a year from identified repair work that wasn’t being sold. This led to James developing a Buy Now Pay Later solution for this type of work in the automotive industry, then called Auto Service Finance. 

After receiving some funding from friends and family, James was introduced to the Allmans – he pitched the business idea to them and they developed a deal to launch the product to their dealers. 

Guy Allman suggested Jack’s involvement, and then, in James’ words, he ‘realised how brilliant and energetic Jack was’, which was when Jack went from 1-2 days a week to being an integral part of Auto Service Finance.

James’ key piece of advice for being a budding entrepreneur would be to first work in a business that does the thing they want to create before setting up the business. This is when you meet key stakeholders in the industry and start to understand all the elements that you need to launch that kind of startup. James had previously worked at 3 tech startups before launching this product and Jack had been at an automotive tech startup. This is where they both gained key contacts in the industry, and the know-how on what to do, and what not to do. 

James said this is key when it comes to gaining funding. Investors are not only investing in an idea, but they are also investing in the people who are driving it. In the early days, James and Jack put together a team of people who they knew were credible and had been successful in working with previously. It seems there is some truth in the adage ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know’.

When discussing the key to getting a new business off the ground, James cites a Ted Talk that he recently sent to Jack. It was centred around 5 reasons startups succeed or fail – the idea, the team, funding, the business model, and timing. By far the biggest factor in the research was timing. Both Uber and Airbnb launched at the height of the financial crash in 2008; a time when people were more inclined to rent their rooms out for extra money or to drive strangers around in their cars when they had lost their job. 

James points out that the launch of Auto Service Finance was well-timed as the automotive sector was becoming more digital and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) was about to boom, just before Klarna gained traction. In fact, early funding rounds for Auto Service Finance happened at the same time as Klarna and BNPL were expanding. The Covid Pandemic, and subsequently dealers having to rely on digital solutions, was also a big help when pitching the product to dealers. 

It seems Bumper has managed to tick all boxes – it’s a sterling idea, we have a great team, it’s well-funded, it has a strong business model, and the launch was perfectly timed. (James also made sure to get in there that it would never have happened without its inspirational founders…). Jack adds that a huge amount of luck also helps, as well as the characteristics of the team you put in place. Persistence and tenacity are key – he says there were some pretty dark times in the early days of Bumper, where the team needed to band together and help each other get through it.

This leads us to talk about traits that best help a person become a successful entrepreneur. James reiterates Jack’s point – tenacity is needed on every level. He says that when it came to fundraising, there were so many knockbacks, and the same is true from a sales perspective too. He goes on to say that really they have spent their careers being rejected by everyone. James credits Jack for supporting him and being the person to cheer him up in those dark times. James says he would’ve hated to have done this alone and would’ve given up a long time ago. 

To that point, Jack says optimism is important too; even when certain markets don’t go as well as you’d hoped, you have to find the positives where you can. He says that he’d like to think that optimism is felt throughout the company, where we all have a glass-half-full attitude, nothing is impossible, and no matter how bad things get we find a way around it and persevere. This requires a level of adaptability too. Jack expresses that as much as you think this is how the business will run, or these are the markets you’ll launch in, or these are the products you’ll launch, it never works out that way. Bumper have had so many curve balls thrown at them, and being adaptable and flexible is essential.

James states that you also need to love every aspect of the job – James and Jack are clearly dedicated and are always thinking about the business in some form, and that’s because they love it and are energised by it. The money is not what drives them – it’s the joy of building the product and the company, having amazing customers, and building something that could be here and still be being used in 30 years’ time.

The final trait that Jack thinks is key to being successful, is the ability to get others to come along with you on the journey. Being able to inspire others to be as optimistic, energised, and excited by the product and the company as you are is important. Similarly to James’ earlier point, Jack says that one wouldn’t be able to do this alone and therefore you have to be able to get along with people and build a strong team around you. Being a good storyteller helps to get buy-in from others into your brand, both internally and externally. It is felt across Bumper that when a new starter joins the team, they are immediately bought into the product, the culture, and the company as a whole.

I was interested to see if either of them had glimmers of entrepreneurial traits when they were younger and asked what they both wanted to be when they were kids. After some thinking, Jack settled on either a professional sportsman or an architect. Interestingly, James also said an architect, before admitting that when he was 13 years old he wanted to be an investment banker, which frankly Jack and I could hardly believe.

Thankfully, James didn’t become an investment banker and instead created this amazing company we’re all working for - here’s to the entrepreneurs!

Bumper Co-Founders: How to Be a Great Entrepreneur

Co-fundadores de Bumper: Cómo ser un gran empresario

We’re pleased to name Hawkins Motors Blackwater as the Dealership of the Month for June 2023.

The win follows a recent Bumper refresher training session that saw the number of customers using Bumper’s payment options to spread the cost of their service or repair bill increase tenfold. 

Making use of all the options available on their Bumper account, the team at Hawkins, have implemented PayLater into their everyday aftersales process. Completing applications on their own desktops, using the send-to-customer link or via the eDynamix integration, the team have started to see a boost in revenue and customer satisfaction.

Customers have already begun to express how easy using Bumper at Hawkins is, with one reviewer saying of the experience, “Thanks to Zak at Hawkins Motors for arranging a quick solution for an unexpected but vital repair to my vehicle.” Others described the process as “straightforward” and “quick and easy.”

Bumper’s Islay Horton, pictured above, said, “I’m so pleased to have presented another Dealership of the Month award to a site in my area. The team at Hawkins have clearly demonstrated everything it takes to be a top-performing Bumper partner.

“From the initial offering and discussion with the customer to processing the applications on their Bumper accounts, Zak, Nick, Lucy and the rest of the team have displayed a real understanding of the benefits of Bumper to the customer and what an incredible tool it can be for any aftersales team”.

Congratulations to the whole team at Hawkins on your win!

Hawkins Motors Blackwater named Dealership of the Month

For 3 days in mid-June, team Bumper came together for our second annual Bumper Retreat. This time around, we all met at the glorious Platja d’Aro in Costa Brava, Spain for all things good for the soul – great company, great food, and some vitamin D in the form of gorgeous sunshine.

With activities planned throughout the week, including a surprise event at the end of the trip, this was a fantastic opportunity for the whole company to come together since it has more than doubled since the inaugural retreat in 2022. More importantly, it allowed for teams who solely work remotely to be together in person and strengthen their working relationships.

After coming together from different corners of the world throughout Sunday, Monday morning brought our twice-yearly in-person Company Update – a chance for each department head to present what they’ve achieved in the previous 6 months, and what they have planned for the following 6 months. 

Going into this, we were told we would be starting with an ice-breaker… No one enjoys a cheesy ice-breaker. Enter Robbie (COO) and Dan (Head of Sales), who put together a super engaging and funny ice-breaking session, including a Rock, Paper, Scissors championship, a round of Bumper Bingo, and a Whodunnit quiz about our co-founders Jack & James. 

The rest of the update featured presentations from all teams across the company, detailing their roadmaps for the year, what they had already achieved, and even some special mentions for colleagues who had gone above and beyond so far this year.

The retreat also was the opportunity for the People team to officially launch our new Guiding Principles – an evolution of the company values that were developed by colleagues. These Guiding Principles are there to provide a framework to colleagues for aligning their actions and behaviours with our company Mission and Vision. They are there to act as a map and compass for all decision-making at Bumper, and will help to define and shape our company culture. Everyone at Bumper is encouraged to think critically about how they align with these Guiding Principles, and how we can use these behaviours to all work The Bumper Way. 

On Monday afternoon, we split into groups and went on some planned team building activities; kayaking in the sea, cycling through the old town, and wine tasting in a valley with a scenic view (they required an equal amount of energy…). The kayaking featured a run in with a school of jellyfish and our CEO being chauffeured around. 

The cycling group got to explore the cool shaded woodland and cobbled medieval streets, all accompanied by Ingo’s Bumper cycling shirt; and the wine tasting group had an insightful tour around the winery and then sat on a shaded terrace and sampled the delicious wines made at Clos D’Agon Bodega.

After some free time to chill by the pool, explore the town, or head to the beach, we then embarked on our surprise activity – a boat trip on a Catamaran! Featuring a DJ and a stop to swim in the Balearic Sea, this was the perfect way to round off a great trip, though maybe not for the unlucky few suffering from seasickness.

So what about next year? We’re already thinking about where we would like to go next, with suggestions flooding in such as a forest retreat, a wellness spa, or just simply more of the same. Whatever we choose, we look forward to hopefully doubling in size again, and having another chance to connect and bond with our colleagues in person.

Sun, Sea & Strategic Planning

The 2023 cost of living crisis presents significant challenges for UK consumers. It is also a time when the automotive aftermarket can deepen its connection with customers, and engender trust by offering innovative payment options that lift the financial pressure a little.

Customers are looking for ways to reduce spending at the moment, and the emergence of new digital payment systems means that franchise dealerships can capture a greater share of the market. 

Furthermore, consumers are keeping hold of their cars to save money, which in addition to disruption of the new car supply chain, is pushing up used car values. People are also postponing vehicle repairs, or choosing cheaper lower-quality options, offering the opportunity for aftersales businesses to service older vehicles likely to require more repairs on a consistent basis. 

Challenges in the automotive aftersales market 2023

The cost of living crisis is heavily influencing car-buying decisions, with people shying away from larger purchases. So significant is this financial crisis that car repairs and servicing are also being postponed due to a lack of cash. 

Although the growth of electric vehicles (EVs) means fewer service visits for drivers, the repairs can be more expensive. Dealers are also likely to want to retain gas-powered vehicles for as long as possible due to servicing revenues. 

As the cost of living continues to soar, the following statistics reveal the severity of the situation for UK consumers: 

So where does this leave the automotive aftermarket in 2023?

How can dealerships capitalise on rising digital trends?

New digital payment technologies provide flexibility, control, and security to customers. Good communication is key, however, if aftermarket businesses are to capitalise on these advancing payment systems. 

Actively promoting open banking facilities and other innovative payment solutions, such as Buy Now, Pay Later, is vital to attract a new demographic, retain existing custom, and consolidate order books for the future. 

Open Banking provides an opportunity for automotive businesses to stand out from the crowd. It enables customers to make vehicle and aftersales purchases directly from their bank account. This removes the involvement of third-party credit card and debit card companies and saves merchants the considerable cost of using their machinery and service. A further key benefit of Open Banking is the speed of payment, with the merchant receiving funds within seconds. 

Buy Now, Pay Later in particular is a significant payment system in this cost-of-living crisis, which dealerships, independent garages, and service centres, can also benefit from. In fact, Buy Now, Pay Later solves a multitude of problems. 

So what are the benefits of new digital payment systems and BNPL for merchants and consumers? 

Benefits of Buy Now, Pay Later for merchants

The global pandemic has accelerated the move towards digital payment in the automotive industry and aftersales sector. In fact, Bumper expects open banking to be the main method of payment used by car dealerships by 2030. 

To find out more about how Bumper's suite of payment options can help you digitalise your aftersales department, head to the partner sign-up page on our website.

Why is Bumper Relevant in 2023?

We are proud to announce Western Motors Drogheda as the Dealership of the Month for May 2023. This accolade recognises Western Motors' outstanding commitment to customer satisfaction, service quality, and their contribution to the automotive community. 

Bumper's Dealership of the Month award highlights one of Bumper’s top-performing garages in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Each month, one dealership that exemplifies excellence and consistently goes above and beyond for their customers is selected. Western Motors Drogheda has proven to be a shining example of exceptional automotive service, making them the deserving recipient of this prestigious recognition. 

"We are thrilled to recognize Western Motors Drogheda as our Dealership of the Month for May 2023," said Melanie Timmins, Bumper Business Development Consultant for The Republic of Ireland. "Their commitment to exceptional service and their dedication to customer satisfaction align perfectly with our values. We are proud to partner with Western Motors and support their efforts in providing a fantastic automotive experience for all." 

Congratulations to Shauna, Susan, Rianna, Ross and the whole team at Drogheda on your impressive win. 

Western Motors Drogheda Named Bumper's Dealership of the Month for May 2023 

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