Ray Ciccolo’s Village Automotive Group: Be Valued By Our Family

For close to 50 years, Ray Ciccolo has watched the automotive industry change.  When he acquired his first dealership in the early 1960’s, General Motors dominated the landscape, Volvos were curiosities, and advertising decisions consisted of whether you wanted to be in the phonebook, the newspaper, or both.  The car buying process took months instead of hours, dealerships were closed on Sundays, and all cars ran on gas.

Fast forward to our present challenging times and change is not only still constant, but it has picked up the pace.  Yet if you ask Ray why he has succeeded despite the ever-evolving landscape, his reason is one you won’t read about in some arcane case study or in the latest business guru’s tome.  It instead is a simple tenet that defines Ray’s life: family.

“I know that the whole ‘family’ theme can sound pretty contrived in these jaded times,” explains Ray, “with seemingly every dealership telling you how warm and fuzzy they are and how they’ll treat you like you just arrived for Thanksgiving dinner.  But when you look at our Group, family IS the main reason why we have achieved so much.  When I scraped up enough money to buy Gene Brown Rambler/Volvo when I was 25 (before cars I put myself through college by working as a bottle-breaker at the Ritz , which I followed up by buying and selling Laundromats), I didn’t know very much.  But what I did know is that I needed to create an environment where people enjoyed coming to work.  If I could create a workplace in which the culture was one of respect and camaraderie – where individuals were treated as you would treat a member of your family - then my staff would pass that on to the customer, and we would have a good shot at success.”

It turns out that Ray’s was onto something with his unadorned yet powerful idea.  Today the Village Automotive Group is a leader in the Greater Boston automotive community, comprised of 7 locations selling 9 brands.  The flagship store - Boston Volvo - is regarded as one of the nation’s preeminent Volvo dealers, with the largest Sales volume in New England, as well as the largest Volvo Service & Parts Departments in America.  Cadillac Village of Norwood in the largest Cadillac dealer in New England, and Charles River Saab of Watertown is the largest Saab dealer in New England (as well as the oldest in America!).  Honda Village in Newton Corner is the fastest growing Honda dealer in New England.  And the newest locations – Nissan Village of North Attleboro, Hyundai Village of Danvers, Volvo Village of Norwell – are fast becoming the largest dealerships in their trading areas.  All of the locations are renown for their customer service skills and each has top notch Service and Parts Departments.  The Village has received numerous industry awards, including such prestigious honors as the Cadillac Master Dealer Award, Volvo’s Presidents Club, GM’s Mark of Excellence, and Honda’s President’s Award. 

Spend a day with Ray – if you can keep up – and you can see he practices what he preaches.  He is constantly on the move, visiting with his employees, many of whom measure their tenure with The Village in decades, not months (as is the norm in automobile retailing).  And unlike a lot of owners, Ray loves to be out on the sales floor, talking to his customers, making them feel welcome, addressing any problems that arise.  “For me, I still get a rush being on the sales floor during a big sale, with the hustle and bustle, the popcorn popping, all that activity,” says Ray.  “I grew up on a side street in Cambridge, with family and friends and neighbors coming and going at all hours of the day.  For me, being with people in a festive, friendly showroom is like being home.”

Beyond creating a family-atmosphere, family also holds another meaning for the Group.  You’ll find the next generation of family involved in the business, with Ray’s daughter Christine running the Honda Village store, and sons-in-law Tony and Phil running the Sales and the Marketing Departments respectively. 

But with all of the success and accolades, it all circles back to the recurring theme of family, according to Ray.  “Sure we have a great reputation and people know that our stores are leaders, so they come and see us.  But people ultimately didn’t start choosing to do business with us because we are the largest this, or the least expensive that.  They come to us because of the culture we’ve created, an atmosphere where our staff treats customers like they themselves are treated.  Sure we say or do some dumb things sometimes – after all this is a people-intensive business and we’re all fallible - but accountability has a face here.  You have a complaint, you can come to me and it gets solved.  That is something you’ll never experience at any of those giant, impersonal dealerships.  I take great pride in the fact that while much has changed in this business, we haven’t lost sight of the fact that treating people with respect defines us.”

Village Automotive Group Mission Statement

The mission of the Village Automotive Group is to profit from the sale of automobiles, parts and service. We will achieve this by creating an environment for our customers of comfort, trust and respect.  This environment will be created through the continued emphasis on employee satisfaction, which leads to greater efficiency and productivity through employee retention.

We will strive to teach our employees to establish a daily goal of anticipating and satisfying our customers needs in order to establish a relationship-based business, which cultivates an ever-growing customer base.