Mr McGinnity called in and Nick took the call. The client needed to go out in his Portofino which would not start, it was very late in the day on a Friday and Ferrari assist were not going to get to the client in time.  The client called to see if we could help speed up the recovery process. Nick knew that this was not possible so offered to go out to the client himself, even though Nick would not return to work before the business closed.

Nick managed to get the clients Portofino running and make sure that everything was ok after a test drive before leaving the client, Mr McGinnity was over the moon as this meant he was able to use his Portofino that evening and it didn’t even have to come into workshop taking it off the road in the nice weather

I just wanted to drop you a quick email to say what a real asset you have in Nick Antoniou.

I called with a problem on my Portofino late on a Friday afternoon – not only did he have it sorted within 2 hours, he did it by coming out himself, to my home. Absolutely outstanding.

I can’t speak highly enough of the service he gave that day – an absolute role model.

If you have employee of the month he should definitely be given it.

Look after him, he’s the future of Ferrari.

Hi Stuart, I just wanted to drop you a quick email to say what a real asset you have in Nick Antoniou. I called with a problem on my Portofino late on a Friday afternoon – not only did he have it sorted within 2 hours, he did it by coming out himself, to my home. Absolutely outstanding. I can’t speak highly enough of the service he gave that day – an absolute role model. If you have an employee of the month he should definitely be given it. Look after him, he’s the future of Ferrari.
–

A male customer approached Graypaul Birmingham and said that he was interested in buying a car for his girlfriend. Francesca phoned them and discussed their wants in a Ferrari and they decided to drive one of our Ferrari Approved Portofinos! The girlfriend and her sister came in to drive the car and absolutely fell in love. The male customer was the main decision maker so he called up Francesca and said that he wanted to purchase the car, but for it to be a SURPRISE! He then told his girlfriend that someone else had purchased the car and said they needed to look into other options. Francesca spoke to the girlfriend every day for 10 days discussing other car options and essentially was ‘selling’ her other cars that she was never going to buy just to help keep the secret!! Francesca then set up a date for the male customer, girlfriend and all her family to come back in so she could test drive other models. Francesca also spent time giving recommendations for local places to eat at, as the customer was from Monaco and wanted somewhere nice to go before coming to the dealership. When they arrived, Francesca had decorated the handover bay with flowers and roses and had also purchased non-alcohol champagne and multiple bouquet of flowers, one for the girlfriend’s twin sister (so she didn’t feel left out!).

Please use this link to download photos and videos: https://we.tl/t-IyKKu30QeF

The girlfriend was completely taken aback by the surprise and cried with joy! Overall, everyone in the dealership and other customers that we have told the story said how lovely it was and we know that we have created an amazing memory for this couple.
–

We received a call asking for our help. A lady called Melissa asked if she could bring her son to the dealership. He has HFA (Hi Functioning Autism). She explained he is besotted by Ferrari.

Amrit offered to host Ollie and his family.
They had a great time.
Melissa wrote a lovely post on Instagram as below:

“A huge thank you to Ellie and Amarit today. This is Ollie who has HFA. He is besotted with Ferrari and it was teacher training day. My husband took him to your garage. My husband and Ollie were made to feel welcome the second they walked through the door.

Ellie noticed there was something special about our boy and went above and beyond to make this a really special day. Amrit took him to get some sweets. He came back with a presenter pack given by Ellie and he has not put it down.

My Husband called and he was nearly in tears at just how lovely they both were. From one mum to another I will be eternally grateful for how you made Ollie’s day today after a hard week. Keep doing what you are doing because you really are making a difference more than you know.”

Our hosts, Amarit and Ellie saw a Dad and his lad outside the showroom this morning and invited them in… Below is what his mum Melissa Butler put on our Instagram account

A huge thank you to Ellie and Amarit today. This is Ollie who has HFA. He is besotted with Ferrari and as it was a teacher's training day my husband took him to your garage. My husband and Ollie were made to feel welcome and the second they walked through the door Ellie noticed there was something special about our boy and went above and beyond to make this a really special day. Amarit took him to get some sweets. He came back with a present and a presenter pack given by Ellie and he has not put it down. My husband called and he was nearly in tears at just how lovely you both were. From one mum to another I will be eternally grateful for how you made Ollie's day today after a hard week. Keep doing what you are doing because you are really making a difference more than you know xxx
–

We have been down to  oneValeter at Ferrari. Angus comes in really early every morning and leaves well after his finish time. He has ensured our standards have been maintained as well as ensuring the cars in the showroom are still valeted.
He has given up his weekends to ensure no car is left.

He has not compromised on standards. Angus is always looking to ensure cars are ready on time.

Angus really is demonstrating a one-team ethos and we wanted to recognise his hard work and commitment.

I would like to nominate Russell and Aran for the making it special award.

They spent the weekend at Donnington supporting the challenge series, however on the way home about 25 mins into their journey home they passed an F8 on the side of the road with a distressed-looking client standing next to it. Aran and Russell pulled in to see if they could help.

The client said the wheel had come loose, (this is a Dick Lovett client) the client saw many people drive past him including other techs which he had seen that day. Aran and Russ drove back to Donnington to get some tools and then headed back to help the client, fix his car and get him on his way. They then had to go back to drop the tools back and then head back home.

The client called today to thank Russ and Aran and wanted to know how grateful he was that they made the effort to stop and help when no one else did.
–

Neil has been nominated by the Sales team for going above and beyond.

We had a loyal customer call us last week in a panic as he had hit something on the motorway and it had scratched the front bumper of his Maserati and marked the side of the car. The client had promised to take a friend of the family to her wedding in it at the weekend and wanted the car to look its best. I explained to him to come past on the Friday afternoon before the wedding and we would try to rectify the car as best we could.

He came in late on the Friday afternoon. It was month-end  – we were having a really busy day with handovers on the Friday and on the Saturday, which Neil was getting ready. I was tied up with a handover and Neil took it upon himself to go and see the client and got him to show him the marks on the car. Neil then went and basically did a full valet and mopped and polished the damaged areas. The client was blown away by how much work Neil did and how good the car looked.

The wedding lift went ahead as planned and everyone loved her wedding car. Neil came in early Saturday morning to catch up on the cars going out that day.

I cant believe that Neil went above and beyond to get my car ready for the wedding. I was gutted when the accident happened and worried about letting people down.This really shows what a great team you guys have, thank you so much to Neil.
–

Last month we had a customer in the showroom for a tailor-made session and to make it special I made the meeting room for him with some nice flowers and a breakfast. We also arranged for the Little Car Company to have the new Testa Rossa J to be here on display as he had ordered one but not seen it.

Mr Bhandal had purchased some artwork by Paul Oz who displayed some art at our 296 launch on the previous weekend. We thought it would be great if Paul would come and present the artwork and statues to Mr Bhandal personally, which he agreed to do.

Whilst Mr Bhandal was completing his Tailormade meeting, we displayed all the artwork and statues.

Mr Bhandal couldn’t believe that we had gone to so much trouble. He was overjoyed at meeting Paul Oz. So much so he ended up spending over £45,000 on his artwork!

“I cant believe that you have arranged all this just for me, thank you so much to the team for doing this”.

Francesca has been with us for a short period of time and is new to selling Ferrari products. We have had some amazing feedback from clients and feel she deserves to be recognised.

Hi Stuart I trust you’ve had a good weekend. I just wanted to say a huge thank you to your team for the experience I’ve had over the last few weeks purchasing an F430 from Graypaul Birmingham.

From start to finish the process was exceptional with some of the best customer service I’ve experienced, certainly setting a bar for others. Frankie Dearing was my sales executive and she’s an absolute asset to your dealership, she kept in touch throughout and I genuinely felt she went above and beyond to make the purchase of my first Ferrari a memorable one, overseeing every last detail. I appreciate there were many others involved in making this happen; your reception staff were always fantastic, the mechanics that serviced and MOT’d the car, bodyshop that did an amazing job on the bodywork and sorted out the bits I’d pointed out (Frankie assured me they’d already been spotted anyway on pre-inspection), valeting guys making it look like it did when I collected and I’m sure there were others I wasn’t even aware of. Could you please pass on my thanks to everyone in those departments for what feels like a very personal service.

If I’m aware of anybody looking to purchase a car in this category I would pass them Frankie’s number without hesitation.

Hey Frankie/Neil, I just opened the bonnet to find the gifts that you had put in. Thank you so much for taking the time to do it, the kids adore the Lego and I mean adore it, (thanks for tying up my Friday night building it), equally thank you for the umbrella, hats and the candle, it really means so much for that personal touch, thinking about the kids and what part they play etc. It means more to me than the car or the experience when I come and see it and that’s what a ‘true quality brand’ looks like, the car sells itself but there’s so much more to it than that. Fair play, you properly knocked it out of the park on this one, not to mention that the car is simply exceptional!

Have a great weekend and thank you for some pretty exceptional service, I’ll be sure to reflect it with Stuart and any remedial survey from Ferrari.

Terry has done an amazing job during Covid. He has had some fantastic comments from clients that have been nervous regarding the collection and delivery of their cars. He is always willing to go above and beyond to ensure clients are extremely satisfied.

My writing to you in praise of your people. I wanted to briefly express my appreciation of your man Terry and how he helped me out today. A bit of background. Your transporter truck would not fit through my drive entrance, so when Terry comes to collect my Ferrari we have a routine where he parks the transporter on a nearby stretch of straight road, I drive my California the half-mile or so to where he is parked and then walk back to my house. It works well and we employ the reverse procedure when he brings the car back. Now, of course, you have the covered trailer, but we’ve kept to the same routine because it’s quite wide and it would be difficult to manoeuvre through the entrance as the country lane on which I live is tight at that point. Today Terry delivered back my car after service/MOT/pre warranty inspection – he called me on the phone to say he had arrived at the rendezvous point. I mentioned that today we have people viewing our house, and though the estate agent is handling it, I need to bring the dogs with me, as they need to be out of the house during the visit – so I would be a few minutes getting their stuff together. Quick as a flash Terry volunteered to unload the car, drive it to my house, and then walk back to save me the bother….which frankly helped me out a lot. During these COVID times, I guess Terry is the face of Graypaul for many customers. That’s certainly true for me, as I haven’t seen any of your team face to face since bumping into Richard in Maranello in October 2019.

As you can read from the customers amazing email, Richard Thompson and Libby Simmons deserve a special mention for their outstanding customer service with this client. They have both gone above and beyond.

The car pretty much sold itself, but Richard went above and beyond to ensure that the car was absolutely blemish-free on collection, something that was very important to me. He kept me informed of all stages of the purchase process. The day of collection is something that I will never forget, accompanied by my son, Richard looked after every request, from the red cloth, the key box, the champagne and a congratulations note on the lectern. Richard even acted as a photographer capturing pictures of my son and me and even gave us a sneak peek at the amazing array of cars in the rear compound (mouthwatering).

The handover process was smooth and faultless, Richard paired my phone and set up the Sat Nav to get me home, I will never forget his description of the top two modes on the Manettino dial – professional but humorous. It’s not every day you collect your first Ferrari – I’m just a normal guy who had worked hard all his life to realise his dream.

Unfortunately, my battery let me down when I was out with a photographer taking shots of the car. But never fear, an RAC transporter and separate technician were at the scene within 45 minutes, great service (perks of a Ferrari I expect), the car started and accompanied home.  This brings me back to what prompted this email, after all the great sales experience, we all know the real test is how you react when things don’t quite go to plan, not only did the RAC do a superb job, my preference was fully accepted for repair and a technician sent to my home address.

This morning technician Libby fitted a new battery and cleared all electronic faults. Being a Mechanical & Production engineer myself I am always inquisitive and ask a lot of questions. Libby explained the process, what she was doing with great competence and answered all my questions. It was great and heart-warming to see a young person who is so passionate about their trade and the products they are working on given a chance, so big credit to Graypaul for giving her an opportunity, especially on such an iconic and prestigious brand, big kudos guys. Not only technically competent, Libby was able to represent your company in a customer-facing way with us discussing our favourite Ferraris old & new and her potential career aspirations. Therefore completing the whole Ferrari experience from Sales to After Sales support, it’s no cliché to say that when you buy from an approved Ferrari dealer you are welcomed into the Ferrari family.

 

 

Mr N was booked in for a service but arrived late due to his battery being flat. Liam managed to find him a replacement car so we could sort the issues out that day.
When Mr N arrived, Liam could see he struggled to get out of the car, so did everything outside whilst swapping stuff over from the cars. We managed to get the car completed the same day and arranged to swap over.

A big thanks to Liam for his help in getting my Maserati serviced this week. Due to a flat battery, I was late, yet Liam managed to magic me a loan car. I am not very mobile following a fall, and Liam came out to me, did the admin outside so that I did not have to move far. The car was completed on time and the service was excellent. Thank you, Liam!

One of our top clients, Mr S, broke down in his 812 in Birmingham. Ferrari assistance were going to take 3 hours to arrive. Liam, off his own back, got a jump pack and drove to Birmingham to get the customer started. However, the one jump pack was not powerful enough to start the car. On the way to assist Mr S, Liam passed an AA assistance patrolman. He found the AA man and asked him for help. Between Liam and the AA, he managed to get the car started so he could get on his way after his lunch in Birmingham.

The customer was very grateful that Liam had come out and sorted the car as otherwise he’d have been stranded for hours.

Louise went above and beyond for one of our customers whose partner, unfortunately, passed away. After her partner’s death, Ms T has dealt with a lot of paperwork/admin jobs that her husband usually takes care of and Ms T has found this to be quite difficult. Sensing that the customer was struggling with the paperwork, Louise took it upon herself to relieve the customer of the stress and fill in some forms, explaining the processes of what will happen moving forward with the car.

Louise sat with Ms T to comfort her and find out how she was coping with the loss of her husband.

Both Satpal and Liam are in the business from 7.30am every morning.

It’s been noted by all the team the way they ensure the loan cars are ready and the car park is clear and ready for our clients. They both have only been in the business for a few months. They both demonstrate a real commitment to ensuring our clients receive a great first impression and a first-class service.

They are also regularly mentioned in emails by customers for their positive and can-do attitude.

Mr W sent an email enquiry regarding a used Ferrari hed seen on our car of the week email. He contacted Andy as he wanted to get the car ASAP but worked in London, so could only come after work. Andy ensured the car was ready to be in a sold position in the showroom. Andy suggested collecting him from the train station at 7pm. He came to the business, agreed a deal and drove the car away at 8.30pm!

This is a first-class example of going above and beyond clients expectations.

I would like to say a massive thank you to Andy for going above and beyond. I could only come outside work time. The car was perfect, we agreed a deal and I drove the car back to London! First class service.
– Mr W

We took a call late on a Friday evening from Mr W. His Pista wouldn’t start and he was due to go to an event at Silverstone the following day.

John spoke to Mr W and suggested he come out and see if he could get the car going for him. He attended the client’s house, checked the car and got it going. He left the car on charge overnight and the following morning returned to ensure the car would start and was ok to drive.

I just wanted to thank John for his assistance late on Friday. I appreciated the time he gave up to sort my car, going above and beyond my expectations.
– Mr W

We have a real litter issue in our road leading to the 3 businesses. People use it as a litter station after visiting McDonald’s. A number of colleagues have commented on a particular member of staff who always ensures the front is clean before our clients visit the site.

I would just like to nominate James Smith for going the Extra Mile. I have noticed in the morning a couple of times there has been a bin left by the front door which was filled with rubbish and this morning I realised why. At 7.30 this morning, I was walking towards the dealership and noticed James doing what he does every morning; rearranging the car park creating space for our customers. At the same time, he is picking up litter not just from our car park, but also the road outside our dealership. I feel James deserves some recognition for the pride and passion he shows in and around our dealership and it probably goes without people knowing as it is so early in the morning.

Steve has been commended many times over his dealings with new clients to the business. We receive many compliments for Steve and felt he should be put forward for recognition.

I wanted to drop you a line to let you know the excellent service that I received from the Solihull Maserati team when buying my GranTurismo. The salesman, Steve Dadds, in particular, deserves praise for going above and beyond in everything he did and being the perfect blend of attentive but not pushy and informative. The 2 ladies on your front desk were also excellent, both contributing to my decision to buy from you.
– Mr H

Daniel took a call from a Mr A who needed to leave his car here for service. He wanted to leave it here at 5 am as he was flying out and had no way of getting it to us. Daniel offered to come into the business at 5 am to meet the client to ensure his car was safe and not left outside the business. Mr A couldn’t believe that someone was prepared to put themselves out to the extent Daniel did.