Published: July 20, 2008 01:47 am      

Retirement short-lived as ‘Zump’ re-enters automotive field at Queen City Motors

Former salesman now serving as customer retention and training consultant for dealer

Gene Zumpano has joined Queen City Motors as customer retention and training consultant.

“Zump,” as he is known throughout the Cumberland and Frostburg areas, has many years in the automotive business and also enjoyed a teaching career for 11 years. He began teaching in Prince George’s County and then came to Allegany County’s Braddock Middle School.

While teaching, Zumpano had two restaurants, Hill Top and Zump’s at the lake and a farm.

He entered the automotive field in 1985 at Gateway Motors and then moved to Timbrook Pontiac-Cadillac in 1987 and stayed there until 2000 when he retired. Zumpano started in the sales department and was always one of the top three salesmen. He held a similar position the last three years at Timbrook and has completed many industry standard training courses on customer retention and service. His tutoring took place under Fred Timbrook Sr., giving him “a chance at a second career,” said Zumpano.

But Zumpano’s retirement didn’t last long when Greg Uhl discovered his wealth of customer service knowledge. His major goal is to exceed the customers’ expectations.

Zumpano completed training of the sales department at Queen City Motors, which took about a year, during time he also filled in as part-time salesman. He is now in the process of conducting training for the service advisers at Queen City Tire & Auto, as well as different points throughout the Uhl Enterprise system.

He has developed his own tranining program for customer service.

Zumpano is married and has two sons and a grandson.