Mr Witherington had his car in for a service and a vibration noise, he needed the car ready for a wedding on a Thursday, the service was carried out and we diagnosed the engine mounts needed replacing.

We agreed to cover the cost of these. Due to the very short timescale we had to work to, Harish drove to Nottingham to collect the parts but unfortunately got stuck in unexpected traffic that made the 2-hour journey 4 hours. Garry stayed late to make sure the car was all complete, but by this time Terry could not take the car back due to his driving hours, so Warren took the car back to the client after hours, got a taxi home and then got a lift to work the day after.

A great team effort to ‘Make it Special’ for our customer.

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We had a call from a local lady asking if she could bring her son into the dealership as it was his 11th Birthday and he loves Ferrari! We, of course, said yes and established what time they would be here so we could get some goodies ready for his arrival.

The birthday boy arrived at the dealership with his mum and grandparents where they enjoyed a drink and a wander around some of our cars.

Sally had the idea to speak to our Marketing Manager Nelli to see if we might have some spare complimentary tickets to a Ferrari day at Silverstone. We did, so Sally passed these tickets onto the little boy along with the Ferrari goodie bag. Needless to say, he was thrilled!

Sam recently looked after a customer delivery for Mr Wood who had purchased his first Ferrari from Sytner and Graypaul Birmingham. The Ferrari FF was Mr Wood’s treat to himself to celebrate his 50th Birthday and Sam was meeting our delivery driver at the customer’s address in London.

Discussing Mr Wood’s car collection, Sam learned that his favourite car was a Ferrari 355 in red that was his first Ferrari purchase some 20+ years previous. In order to make the delivery of the FF extra special – and to help celebrate Mr Wood’s birthday in style – Sam had placed a specially sculpted Ferrari 355 birthday cake in the boot so whilst carrying out the handover and explaining the controls, Mr Wood opened his boot lid to find a bright red Ferrari 355 with 50 (unlit) candles!

Needless to say, Mr Wood was delighted and phoned in to the showroom to explain how delighted he was with the experience.

A very big Ferrari enthusiast and habitual buyer of each new Ferrari model recently visited the showroom with his 12 year old daughter who was blown away by the colour combination of a brand new Ferrari that was been delivered to a customer from the showroom.

The customer allowed his daughter to ‘spec up’ a car for him to her own personal preference and she carried out all of the specification process with John Willis and the sales team – under the watchful eye of her father.

Given how many cars the family have bought from us, making things special has become harder and harder with each transaction so John and our Host Gemma got together to try something a little bit different.

When the car finally arrived and the car was prepared for handover, John had arranged for all of the signage and thank you paperwork to be made up in the daughter’s name – Chelsea – and then Gemma presented Chelsea with her handover gift, a £100 voucher for her favourite burger bar – Five Guys. The father and daughter were so touched by the personalised service that the young lady had received and she duly took all of her friends for burger and fries courtesy of Graypaul Birmingham.

True to form, the same customer has since placed his next Ferrari on order but has decided to choose his own colour and trim!

Mr & Mrs Mousley had purchased a Ferrari in 1978 and collected it from the factory so when they ordered a California T they once again wanted to collect it. At this point in time, Ferrari were really busy and were struggling to accommodate our request, but we kept pushing and when they heard that the clients had previously collected a car, even if it was so long ago, they helped us setting it up.

John flew out with the customers and completed the handover as well as a VIP trip around the factory. Our Head of Business was at the factory the next day and bumped into the customers at the hotel. They were over the moon that we could accommodate them and were full of praise for John for making it happen.

We get lots of email requests to bring children of all disabilities to the business to look at the cars. Gemma had a request to see if a Dad could bring his 4 year old into the showroom to show him around. He explained that he’s not a customer of ours. She responded straight away and said we’d be delighted to have them here. They came in and looked round. Gemma and Grace gave Ben a cap and a Teddy which they called ‘Enzo’. They also posted a photo of Ben next to a Ferrari which he loved.

Just wanted to thank you both for your kindness and generosity yesterday. Both myself and my wife were absolutely speechless! Ben barely let go of Enzo for the rest of the day, and then insisted that he take him to bed with him, too. He also told us again about how he “liked Gemma’s shoes!” This morning, it was the first thing he went round telling everybody at nursery! Never mind the holiday he’s just come back from, it was Enzo the Bear and Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari he wanted to tell people about! I think it’s safe to say you’ve both really made an impression on him.

Our nomination this month comes from David Harrington, Inside Track Director for the Group.

“For the past five years I have organised trips to the Geneva Motor Show for some of our best customers which, apart from getting them there, involves arranging VIP hospitality on the stands for most of the brands we represent. What started off as single trip in 2012 for forty six customers, has in 2017 developed into 171 people traveling on five separate dates during a two week period and this obviously requires the help and support of lots of people within the various dealerships to make it happen, but in particular the marketing teams who liaise directly with the manufacturers to organise the stand passes.

Whilst it’s always difficult to single an individual out, Nelima Khanum at Graypaul Birmingham was so helpful to me this year that I felt it entirely appropriate to do so. As well as organising VIP stand passes for 132 of the 171 guests for both Ferrari & Maserati (an immensely time consuming operation involving two entirely different systems to input into), Nelli responded instantly to every last minute change of date and/or name (and there were more than several!) with a brilliant ‘can do’ attitude and a great sense of humour during one of the busiest months of the year for her and the dealership.

Without a doubt, Nelli’s help and support ‘Made it Special’ for so many of our great customers at the Geneva Motor Show in 2017.

Our Dealership Host Gemma took a rather panicked phone call from a customer who was due at the dealership that afternoon to take delivery of her new Maserati Levante, her dog Bramble had gone missing and she didn’t know if she would be able to collect her car. Gemma assured the customer it was no problem for us and that the most important thing was for her to find her dog…

Fortunately, after a worrying couple of hours, Bramble was found safe and well and the customer arrived for her handover. Whilst excited to be taking home her new Maserati, she was understandably shaken by the incident. Gemma arranged a little “doggy bag” full of treats and sent it out to the customer along with a card expressing our delight he was safe and well. The customer was thrilled and sent us a photo of her happy hound to say thanks!

Maserati Salesman James recently dealt with a couple who were long time Mercedes customers, but had decided it was time for a change. They began to look at the Maserati Ghibli and after a number of dealership visits they decided to purchase the car.

Upon handover day, they arrived accompanied by their daughter who suffers with learning difficulties.

Linda took her under her wing and looked after her whilst her parents were signing documents and going over the controls of their new car. Linda gave her a tour of the dealership, showed her around our coffee bar and explained about our range of cars. Her parents were absolutely blown away by how wonderful Linda was with their daughter, explaining they often find it difficult to take their daughter out to places because people don’t know how to react to her and that Linda really had made both themselves and their daughter feel completely at ease and made it a thoroughly enjoyable experience for all!

We recently held a customer tour from our showroom. We had over 20 guests arrive at 8am for hot drinks and pastries before setting off on a Ferrari parade to lunch in the Cotswolds. We were only expecting 8 guests but had lots of extra demand for places at the last minute.

Grace was informed and came into work extra early and did an amazing job of not only covering the reception desk and telephones but also hosted all 20 customers, providing drinks and pastries in addition to answering questions and making a fuss of the customers’ children. At lunch all of the customers spoke very highly of grace and what a wonderful welcome she provided but in particular for managing such a large number of people at one time whilst on her own.

A service customer was due to graduate on the morning following dropping her Maserati Ghibli in for its first annual service. Unfortunately she arrived to drop off her car in a blind panic as she had somehow managed to shred her graduation paperwork when clearing out her office the previous evening!

Upon mentioning this to Gemma over a drink at our coffee bar, Gemma stepped into the breach and arranged for a copy of the paperwork to be sent to the dealership and printed, ready for the customer. As an extra special touch, Gemma then arranged a congratulations card to be signed by the team and handed it over with a bottle of champagne upon the lady’s return to collect her car after her graduation. The customer was surprised and delighted by Gemma’s thoughtfulness.

A local father and son came in to have a look around. Ben, who is just 3, is a big Ferrari fan and wanted to come and see the cars. Andy Lilley happened to be passing through the showroom and took time to chat to little Ben explaining about the cars and the models whilst getting Ben to sit in the cars and take some pictures. The following week, we received a really lovely email from Ben’s father who wanted to thank us for the time we gave to Ben and how excited he was. Attached was a photo of Ben in one of our Ferraris! Gemma promptly framed and posted the picture along with a Graypaul cap and card, next day delivery to Ben’s house! Ben and his Dad made yet another trip to Graypaul armed with a lovely thank you card and Gemma made Ben hot chocolate and showed him and his Dad around the dealership, much to their delight!

It’s so refreshing to see an attitude like this, around vehicles of this type (supercars and luxury cars). A lot of dealerships tend to get quite protective over their cars, and discourage any interaction, but yours couldn’t have made us feel more welcome. Should I ever find myself in the market for a Ferrari, it will be from Graypaul Birmingham. Might be a while though, F50’s are quite expensive…

Two local customers have visited the showroom several times whilst putting together their specification on their new Ferrari. During the various visits, the reception team have learned how the gentlemen take their drinks and have spent lots of time hosting them in the showroom.

When discovering from the sales team that the customers were in to collect a car for the weekend, Grace ordered them bacon sandwiches and prepared drinks for their appointed visit. On arrival, Grace led the customers to our Ferrari lounge where she had laid out their refreshments. Needless to say the customers were blown away by their surprise breakfast and were delighted with the personal service, so much so that they contacted Matt to rave about the level of attention and subsequently ordered another 488 upon their return.

Lee sold Mr McCallum a used Ferrari California T and his son, William is a huge Ferrari fan. His father told Lee that he would be bringing his son to the handover as he was so excited to see the various cars in the showroom.

Lee used the opportunity to make the handover extra special by showing William around the facility, presenting him with a gift wrapped remote control California and Ferrari baseball cap and then our Host Gemma took a picture of father and son next to their new car.

Whilst Lee completed the paperwork, Gemma then printed and framed the picture for Lee to present at the final moment of the handover.

William and his father were so pleased that William even recorded a video (in his baseball cap) thanking Lee and Gemma and emailed it into the dealership the following day.

A special thanks to Lee Whyman and team for all their help and making William and myself feel very welcome, Great service!

While on an advanced Pilota driving course, Matt took several pictures of our customers during the event – without their knowledge and in funny poses. He emailed them back to the showroom. Gemma, our Host, came up with a great idea of printing the photos, framing them and then sending them out to the customers. She made sure they all had personalised funny captions and then posted them to the customers so they were waiting for them at home when they returned from the trip.

Each customer contacted us to thank us for the funny memento of the trip and to let us know how pleasantly surprised they were by the thoughtfulness.

Well done Gemma!

Mr Davies received poor service on his last purchase from a different motor dealer so was clearly on the back foot when purchasing his new Maserati. We received an email regarding his experience.

I have recently purchased a new Maserati Ghibli from your dealership, I wanted to take the time to say how thrilled I am with both the car and the service I have received! My salesman was James Smith whose attitude and attention to detail was second to none from start to finish he was a pleasure to deal with and I feel must be a great asset to your team! In my line of business people are very quick to complain and less keen on taking the time to give praise where due. Thank you for making my experience with you a pleasure and looking forward to upgrading in 2-3 years time.
– Chris Davies