Something counterintuitive occurred when sales agents in the business development center at Faulkner Subaru Harrisburg started working from home during the coronavirus pandemic: Communication improved, and productivity increased.
"I never would've guessed that communication would get better with employees working remotely," said Doug Jones, general manager of the Pennsylvania dealership owned by Faulkner Organization. "But we're getting responses [to sales inquiries] faster from salespeople and our sales manager. And we're getting answers back to customers faster, so they're happier, too."
The experiment "has worked out so well" that Jones gave the green light for the dealership's three BDC employees to continue working remotely even after everyone else at the dealership returned to in-person work.