At this time when the news is dominated by Coronavirus (COVID-19), we wanted to personally reach out and let you know that we are vigilantly implementing enhanced protocols to ensure your safety when visiting our businesses. Every day, we closely monitor and analyze developments and statements from local, national and international health agencies, and we are taking actions to comply with their directives which are based on facts and medical science. There is nothing more important to us than making sure we manage this situation as effectively as possible, so you continue to feel confident visiting our business. Our senior management team meets daily and will continue to make decisions on how we can further improve our programs and actions to help protect guests and employees. The health authorities tell us that, to prevent the spread of Coronavirus, we must: wash hands frequently, heighten cleaning practices, avoid contact with sick people and stay away from work when ill. All our actions are focused in these areas. Here’s where we are at this time: We have implemented several new policies and procedures across our dealership, which will follow recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC), the World Health Organization ( WHO), and the Alabama Department of Health ( ADPH). We are in constant communication with our employees to reinforce our sanitization safety procedures. In addition, we are sanitizing high-traffic public areas at an increased frequency. We have provided additional literature and are providing additional hand sanitizer dispensers to employees. For guests, we are providing more hand sanitizer dispensers across our businesses in high visibility and high traffic areas. We are also increasing our reserves of hand sanitizers for use by our guests and employees over an extended period. We have bought more cleaning and disinfectant supplies to utilize throughout this health concern. We are increasing the frequency of cleaning high-touch surfaces in public areas. We are reinforcing training procedures to ensure cleaning processes are implemented properly by our employees. While we have had no employees infected by the Coronavirus at this time, we have instituted a policy that if an employee appears to be suffering from flu-like symptoms, they will be asked to promptly seek medical attention and to remain at home until they are free of symptoms. Their area will then be quarantined until properly cleaned so that we can ensure the safety of all of our guests and staff. We are encouraging guests who are ill to seek medical attention and to avoid public exposure as much as possible. Please avoid our businesses if you are experiencing flu-like symptoms and call to cancel any existing appointments. We will be happy to reschedule for a future date. Additional measures we have implemented to assist our Service, Parts, and Rental customers: Out of an abundance of caution, our Ford Service, Parts, and Rental customers will find that we as a dealership have instituted a disinfection process that enhances our standard pickup and delivery service for all vehicles involved. These additional steps will create a singular and safer experience for both our clients and our dealership employees. These new steps are intended to build trust that we as a dealership are doing everything possible to provide the best service in all situations. At high level, we have implemented the following disinfecting process which include: Using recommended disinfecting wipes to clean high-touch driver areas of both the loaner and client vehicles. Our staff will be wearing new/fresh form fitting nitrile or latex gloves when driving and delivering vehicles. We have asked staff to avoid shaking hands and other physical contact during pickup and delivery with a client. We will deliver loaner and client vehicle key fobs in an envelope after disinfecting the key fob with a disinfectant wipe. We will be placing a leave behind note on the passenger seat in both the loaner and the client’s vehicle upon re-delivery stating what actions we have taken to ensure both our client’s and our staff’s safety. Our Service customers will have curbside service and a guaranteed loaner vehicle that has been sanitized available to them simply by calling us at (256) 891-3000 and setting an appointment time for drop-off. If curbside service isn’t an option, then call us and we may arrange to pick up your vehicle from your home or workplace so that we may perform service on your vehicle. If we do so, we will provide you with a sanitized loaner vehicle to utilize while service is being performed at our dealership. Whether a customer has been a client of our Service department previously or not, we will work with you to ensure that you can have the services you require completed. We will work with anyone driving any vehicle so long as it is not considered a “luxury brand” vehicle (i.e. BMW, Mercedes, etc.). For those vehicles we recommend that you contact an OEM dealership. We are continuously reevaluating the public health situation and will be adapting these processes as advised by public health authorities. Additional measures we have implemented to ensure the safety of our Sales customers: We offer at home test drives. These can be taken advantage of in one of two ways; 1) a client can request that we deliver a sanitized vehicle of their choosing to their home or place of work so that they may test drive the vehicle firsthand while limiting their exposure to others or 2) our Sales staff has been trained on methods of offering virtual test drives to our clients where they will utilize video chat methods to demonstrate the vehicle of choice to our prospective clients. During a virtual test drive a sales team member will show the interior and exterior of the vehicle and they will demonstrate functionality of the vehicle as desired by the client. We encourage customers to utilize our virtual showroom at gilbertbaughford.com to find and narrow their vehicle interests down to a specific unit. We have implemented tools to assist customers in working their entire deal online which includes getting bank approval, choosing extended warranties, GAP insurances, and other vehicle care products. If a customer utilizes our online deal structuring methods, once they have selected their vehicle of choice, we will arrange for vehicle delivery of a sanitized vehicle to a place of the client’s choosing where they can inspect the vehicle, do a final test drive if necessary, and complete the remaining paperwork with the delivery driver. Our sales team has been trained to assist customers as they are working through their deal online and are readied to answer any questions a prospective client has remotely. Our dealership offers a chat service on our website where shoppers can get some questions answered by our chat attendants. Our sales staff oversees the chat attendants and if available can take over the chat to assist if they are not tied up with another client at that time. If they are unavailable, we encourage each customer to give the chat attendant their contact information and a member of our staff will be in contact as soon as the business allows for them to do so. Our Finance Department is working closely with our banks to ensure that we are taking full advantage of the lowered interest rates issued by the Federal Reserve. Our Finance Department has negotiated terms with one or more of our banks to offer clients with approved credit the option to delay their first payment for 90 days. We appreciate your business and loyalty to Gilbert & Baugh Ford. We are committed to implementing recommendations from the health authorities to give you peace of mind as you visit us now and in the future. The health and safety of our guests and employees will always be our most important consideration, especially in these challenging circumstances. We will continue to monitor this and all public health situations and abide to the recommendations of authorities. We are committed to work swiftly to change processes as needed to best ensure both our client’s and employee’s safety. Best Regards, Gilbert & Baugh Ford
