Zeigler Auto Group’s work-life balance focuses on growth, customer satisfaction

This decision about 15 years ago, when his eldest son was about 5, was the start of Zeigler Auto’s regard for work-life balance. It has helped foster both employee retention and customer satisfaction, according to Zeigler, who added that he thought it helped improve productivity as well.

Customer satisfaction improved once the company started to accommodate work-life balance, Zeigler said. Now, those consumer scores are so consistently good Zeigler Auto doesn’t even watch that variable closely, he said.

“It became something we didn’t have to focus on,” he said. “It was just kind of there.”

In terms of retention, Zeigler Auto’s average company leader at the sales and service manager level or higher today has been with the company for14 years, according to Zeigler.

“It seems like business got better … turnover went down, and then we were able to start growing the organization,” Zeigler said.

It’s helped the company expand to $2.5 billion today from $1 billion in sales in 2016, he said.

“I felt like the only way that you can really grow an organization is to be really stable with your team and have a team that’s happy,” said Zeigler, who leads a 2,700-employee company.

Zeigler Auto, of Kalamazoo, Mich., ranks No. 44 on Automotive News’ list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., with retail sales of 20,698 new vehicles in 2021. It sold 29,604 used vehicles that year. Zeigler estimated the 35-location group was on pace to sell about 20,000 new and 30,000 used models in 2022.

Zeigler Auto was the sixth best company for work-life balance in the nation according to a Glassdoor Economic Research review of businesses with more than 1,000 employees and 50 work-life balance reviews on the platform. Zeigler held a 4.74 out of 5 for work-life balance at the time of the study; the No. 1 business scored 4.83.

Seventy-one percent of U.S. employees call work-life balance an important consideration when searching for a job, a September Glassdoor survey found.