[14] Bmw San Antonio Tx Becomes Daily Picture

Smith "was always challenging us at Lexus to do things better -- in the right way," Chitty said.

Smith is still prodding. Take Principle's first new store, Infiniti of Boerne, about 30 miles northwest of Principle's headquarters, which is scheduled to open next month.

Infiniti wanted the service advisers stationed alongside the customer waiting room. Smith argued that they should be on the shop side.

Why? Service advisers "need to be where they can see their tech and can communicate," Smith explains. "To help their efficiency and help drive customer satisfaction and speed and information back and forth to the customer, they need to be close to the technicians. It's wonderful."

Smith adds: "That is one of the few construction changes that I won the argument on."

He also has worked through some rough patches with BMW.

Within weeks of taking control of the San Antonio store, Smith says, Principle got a letter from BMW of North America. It said that the dealership had been underperforming, and that BMW planned to put another store in San Antonio. Such a move would have effectively ended Principle's BMW monopoly in the seventh-largest U.S. city, and one of the fastest-growing ones at that.

But in the span of 60 days, BMW of San Antonio went from selling 100 new cars a month to 200. Within 90 days, it was selling 200 used cars, up from 40.

"Six months later," Smith recalls, "we got another letter that says: "You are outperforming the market. You are fastest-growing BMW dealership in the country. We would like you to move to the [population] center of San Antonio and be our only dealer [there].'''

BMW spokesman Kenn Sparks, while not commenting directly on the details of the exchange, wrote in an email: "Mark is doing a great job in San Antonio and is one of our fastest-growing dealerships."

When the $35 million relocated store opens in 2017, it will hold 96 service bays. The technicians' locker rooms, Smith says, "will be as nice as any country club locker room you've ever been in."

The LinkedIn ad seeking a parts director for Principle's Infiniti store opened with this line: "Do you want to work with a company that is changing the auto industry?"

If Principle fails to at least nudge some change, it won't be for lack of trying.

Finalists for the parts director job and other positions are screened through an extensive test, administered by Dallas Ph.D. Ron Trego, at a cost of $200 each. Top executives are coached by Christine Comaford, a neuroscientist and author of Smart Tribes.

Corporate headquarters two miles south of the BMW store double as the main campus of "Principle University." The company holds nearly 30 classes for its staff. About a third are devoted to fixed ops topics, ranging from "Service consultant basics" to "Elements of high-speed service teams."

Principle's annual tab for training is close to $500,000, "an enormous amount for a startup," Smith says.

The bill will likely grow. Principle now employs 400 workers. Smith and Kampmann say they're shooting for at least 1,000 to gain cost-saving scale in buying insurance and other benefits.

In the meantime, Smith -- a self-described "rare bird" dealer with a rich background in fixed ops -- will continue to preach his views on "unparalleled service."

For example, he says the needs of a gearhead BMW owner differ from those of someone who inherited a 10-year-old BMW from a cherished grandmother and wants the dealership to help make that car last forever. So those owners should be treated accordingly, not the same.

And if that flies in the face of some factory scorecard that requires every customer be processed in a certain amount of time, so be it. Smith will deal with his lower scores.