General Motors Employees Spend Time in Toms River Listening to Customers

Customers drive the Chevrolet Cruze at Lester Glenn Chevrolet

More than 60 General Motors employees spent three days in Toms River, N.J., last weekend learning more about the business by listening to what dealers and customers had to say about GM’s products and processes. Known as Project Outreach, this program was designed to break down walls that exist between customers and those that design, build and sell vehicles.

After an extensive market tour on day one, the group spent the next day visiting Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC dealerships. Employees also added visits to dealerships of competing brands to identify process improvements and best practices.

On day three, Lester Glenn Chevrolet, Pine Belt Cadillac and Lester Glenn Buick-GMC hosted open houses where GM representatives spent the entire day talking to customers and showing off brand-new products like the Chevrolet Sonic and Chevrolet Volt, Buick LaCrosse eAssist and Buick Verano, as well as popular products such as the Cadillac CTS V-Coupe and Cadillac SRX.

Customers were excited to hop into cars with engineers, designers and product experts. More than 300 customers visited the three dealerships hosting Project Outreach and nearly 100 of them spent time doing in-depth interviews.

There were a lot of happy endings at the conclusion of the program: A couple who walked in to buy a Cadillac Escalade drove off with two; a father who was undecided about the best car for his daughter ended up buying her a Chevrolet Camaro and a small car buyer who was all set on buying a competing brand decided on the Chevrolet Sonic after driving it and learning about its safety, fuel efficiency and connectivity features.

GM employees speak to service technicians at Toms River dealerships