James has been nominated for always trying to go the ‘Extra Mile’ and do something personal for his customers.

Just this morning, I found him gift wrapping a present for a customer and asked about the story behind it. The customer, Mr B, is a helicopter pilot who has travelled the world in a variety of different helicopters over his career, but the one model he has never had the opportunity to fly is the Black Hawk. He is a huge fan of this helicopter and collects anything to do with them, so, James purchased him a fabulous book all about the Black Hawk as a handover/Christmas present.

A really thoughtful and personal touch.

One of our customers recently purchased a Ferrari F40 which we had in for some repairs here at Graypaul Nottingham. Rachel overheard the customer say he thinks the car used to be raced in a Ferrari race series. After hearing this, Rachel went away and researched the car and managed to trace an old picture where the car was in pole position. She then sent the picture to a printing company and had a copy made.

When Rachel handed this over to the customer he was blown away by the gesture and couldn’t believe that Rachel had gone to the trouble of finding the picture. He said he has never had anything like this done before by a service centre and said he thought this was truly exceptional service.

We had a customer, Mr H, collect his 458 from us one Friday afternoon who was in a hurry to get home as he had a party to attend that evening. He collected the car and all was well until about an hour later a very distressed Mr H called in to say he had got a little lost on his way home and had run out of fuel – as he was new to us he wasn’t familiar with the area. His car was stuck in the road and there was lots of traffic being a Friday afternoon.

Jonathan was just leaving so had come into the office but overheard the phone call and offered to go to the customer. Jonathan went to the fuel station local to us, got 20 litres of fuel then headed off to find the customer. He drove for around an hour and a half to get there, put the fuel in the customer’s car and got him going again. I asked Jonathan if he wanted me to pay him overtime as we were helping a customer and he replied he was happy to help and didn’t want to be paid. Great attitude.

Mr Harris was over the moon with us as the RAC had said it would take 3-4 hours for them to get to him.

Having explained to Sean how important celebrating handovers is, he saw this as the perfect opportunity to do exactly that.

Having sold a Maserati to Mr & Mrs K, he found out it was Mr K`s 50th Birthday on the day of collecting his new car. With this knowledge, Sean sprang into action. A cake was ordered with blue icing and a trident on it, a bottle of Champagne was signed by the entire dealership and of course a card for the special occasion. All staff in the showroom were briefed so that numerous people wished Mr K Many Happy Returns.

The birthday celebration took place and the handover of the new Maserati was completed but not before a photo was taken and sent a later in a frame. Mr K commented it was the best experience he has ever had in a car dealership.

Mr D booked in for a service on his Maserati with us and whilst talking to Rachel, mentioned he had been to watch Derby Football Club last week. The conversation followed on that he had been going to see Derby play since he was a child and was a big fan.

Rachel made contact with the club who agreed to sign a shirt for him. She then collected the shirt from the football club on her way home which was some miles out of her way. When Mr D collected his car Rachel presented it to the customer who was absolutely blown away by what she had done for him and the service she had provided.

We had a Maserati, owned by Mr N, in for service and repair work. The customer took our loan car and we had started the work on his car. Later that day, Mr N came back and was very distressed as his mother had fallen seriously ill in Iraq and he was very worried about her. He had booked a flight that afternoon and needed to get to Heathrow, but didn’t want to leave our loan car at the airport as he was unsure of how long he would be there. However, his car was in bits and couldn’t be driven.

Our delivery driver, Phil, overheard the conversation and offered to drive the customer to the airport. The customer was over the moon with the offer, and we dropped him off at the airport. Further to this, Phil then offered to collect the customer when he returned to the UK. The trip added some eight hours more to Phil’s day and shows his dedication to our customers. Mr N was blown away by the service offered and was so grateful for the help in his difficult situation.

Rob has been with us for less than 12 months, but in this time has proved to be a real rock of the department. He tackles head on, anything that is thrown at him and is prepared to go above and beyond in order to get the job done so as not to disappoint his internal customers.

During the month of May, Rob also covered the Assistant Accountant role at Aston Martin Nottingham in addition to his current workload. This has meant early starts and late finishes on almost a daily basis – all without question and without fuss. As a result, a very busy month in the sales departments has passed without incident and all customer handovers took place when they were supposed to!

Rob is a class act and a huge asset to the dealership – thank you for all you do and many
congratulations on this very well deserved nomination!

Mr S had always wanted a Maserati and seemed very excited. James had regularly kept in touch with the family and in doing so had discovered from Mrs S that her husband was apprehensive about the car as he’d had a bad experience with another dealer previously.

The car was due to arrive in 2-3 weeks’ time, but James noticed on Mr S’s driving licence that his birthday was in 6 days. James used his weekend off to ring around all the delivery/collection companies he knew to get the car delivered early, and fast-tracked it through the workshop and prep in order to surprise Mr S with his new pride and joy on his birthday. He then arranged for a cake with candles to be delivered during the handover, as another surprise, and the team to sing ‘Happy Birthday’.

It’s safe to say Mr S was blown away by James’ attention to detail, and the personal touch to the great service provided. A job well done, and a long-term customer gained!

Nigel had arranged for a client, Mr Bridge, and his wife to visit the Factory to spec their new Ferrari with the team in Italy.

Knowing that it was Mr Bridge’s birthday whilst they were away, Nigel spoke to the Factory and arranged for a cake to be presented in the Tailormade room. He also made arrangements for the hotel to put a bottle of champagne and chocolates in the room and for the evening meal, the best table in the house.

It was a fantastic trip, made even more memorable by the extra detail and gifts that Nigel had arranged
– Stuart Bridge

Mr Oliver was using his Ferrari Enzo for a special trip on the 25th January, the car was being loaded ready to be delivered abroad and the rear spoiler came up one side and stuck. Mr Oliver was very distraught and really needed the car fixed but lived over 100 miles away from us.

Simon Mellor heard me on the phone to the customer and offered to go to the customer’s house after work to try and resolve the issue. Simon drove for over 2 hours to the customer’s residence and managed to find the problem and sort it out. The customer was over the moon that this special car could after all be ready for the event he had booked.

A customer was driving home in Derby and ran out of fuel. The customer was advised that Ferrari Assist were two hours away, but the customer was getting upset as they were blocking a main road and telephoned the dealership.

Upon hearing this, Sam offered to drive over and see what he could do. He fuelled the car and then offered to bring it in the next morning and reset everything. Once it came in he then cleaned it and returned the car that evening.

Needless to say the customer was very happy with the level of service provided by Sam.

Mrs Hallam was experiencing some issues with her Maserati Levante that meant it needed to be recovered. Whilst she had been given a loan car, due to the way the car was parked it required a specialised recovery vehicle that was not immediately available. The time was now 5pm and Mrs Hallam needed to leave work as she was out that night. However she could not leave the car until the recovery vehicle arrived and at this stage, we had no idea how long it would take, but potentially it was a number of hours.

So our challenge was to find a member of the team who would be able to get to Worksop to be with the car until the RAC arrived. Remembering that Richard Hill lived ‘that way’, we called him whilst he was driving home to see if he could help. Straight away Richard said, “Yes, no problem.”

He diverted to Worksop knowing that he had no idea when he would get home. He managed to get to Mrs Hallam for 5.30pm and allow her to leave; he then waited for the RAC to arrive. Luckily, the wait was not as long as expected and he got home at a reasonable hour.

We would like to nominate Richard as he was prepared to stay with the car for as long as it took even though it would impact on his own personal time.

Whilst on training with Ferrari down in Slough, Matt offered to go to fit a number plate at a customer’s house in London. This took up three hours of his own time after the course getting round the M25 and through the London traffic.

He did this to help provide the customer with the best service and also to save sending another person down from the dealership during work time and having them spend most of the day on the road. The customer was over the moon that we sent someone to their home to fit the number plate rather than having to organise collection and delivery of the car all the way to the dealership and back.

A customer was on his own when he called the dealership at around 5.30 pm to say that he was stranded on the side of the road as his car had overheated. We established that the customer had no form of roadside assistance and upon hearing this, Matt offered to go and meet the customer on his way home to see if he could help.

Matt found the auxiliary belt had snapped and then subsequently helped the customer nurse his car home stopping every couple of miles to let it cool down. This resulted in Matt not finishing till gone 10 pm. A great example of outstanding customer service, well done Matt!

Having only joined the team at the start of 2017, the year of Ferrari’s 70th Birthday, one of Nic’s first jobs was to organise Graypaul Nottingham’s 70th Anniversary event. Every dealer in the world was asked to organise a celebration of the anniversary, with a brief of a public display, followed by a parade, ending with an evening launch of the new 812 Superfast.

Nic jumped to the challenge and set about organising and promoting the event through numerous media channels, focusing on social media. The event that unfolded was not only the largest event Graypaul has ever hosted, but the largest of all UK dealers, and by all accounts, one of the largest of these events held throughout the world. Starting at the stunning Belvoir Castle, where over 140 Ferrari’s gathered to celebrate.  The news travelled fast through the media channels and TV crews were dispatched to cover the event at the castle making the evening news that day on multiple channels. What was more impressive was the public response to the advertising with over 3000 people coming to the castle to enjoy this amazing spectacle. The cars then left the castle in convoy and headed into the centre of Nottingham to be met by over 2000 people lining the streets, cheering the cavalcade of Italian cars. The night ended with an Italian themed cocktail party and DJ back at Graypaul with all the clients that attended and the incredible new 812 Superfast.

The feedback we have received from this event from those that attended has been overwhelming, but also the feedback from the general public has been incredible, saying how well organised and memorable the experience was. Congratulations to Nic, not only for ‘Making it Special’ for the clients that attended, but also for the thousands that came and enjoyed this fantastic event with us.

This month we would like to nominate Sumit for thinking outside the box to celebrate the sale of a Maserati Ghibli to Mr Malik.

Mr Malik had been deliberating over a Maserati for some time and during this time Sumit had got to know Mr Malik well. In fact, the two of them shared a passion for cricket. Mr Malik is an avid Pakistan fan whilst Sumit is a fan of India and the two enjoyed friendly batter (sledging).

During this time, Pakistan played India and beat them comprehensively. Sumit was straight on the phone to Mr Malik saying he should now be buying a Maserati to help him get over India`s loss. It must have worked as within a few days he had ordered a Maserati Ghibli. To celebrate the handover and in recognition for the joint passion of cricket Sumit bought Mr Malik a Pakistan Cricket shirt and had it signed by the dealership. Mr Malik was over the moon and told us it was the best experience he had ever had at a car dealership.

Well done Sumit!

Our customer Mr Alan Baldwin was coming in to collect his Ferrari 488 and contacted Amy to say he was stuck in traffic at 3pm and would try his best to be at the dealership for 5.30 pm, however he didn’t make it until around 6.15pm.

Amy stayed to meet him and ensure everything was OK with his car. Additionally, she noted that he had mentioned on the booking he would like a gold valet as he was taking a girl to her prom. The valet was done and Amy got his paperwork ready on the front desk so when he came in the transfer could be done as quickly as possible to allow him to leave in time for his evening event. The customer emailed afterwards to thank Amy for her brilliant help and to tell her that he did make it in time to take the girl to her prom!

How do you ‘Make it Special’ for a long standing customer who is taking delivery of his 14th Ferrari? This was the problem that Nigel faced when Rob Brown was taking delivery of his new Ferrari 488 Spider. Having already celebrated many handovers with Rob how does he make this one stand out?

Having given it a lot of thought Nigel came up with the idea of putting together a mock-up of a newspaper front page with the headline:

Rob Brown Becomes Ferrari`s Number 1

When Rob came in Nigel asked him what he had been doing to get all this press attention? Rob looked baffled and bemused until Nigel gave him the “Newspaper”. Rob loved it and spent the next few minutes reading it and chuckling to himself. When Nigel called him as part of the 48hr follow up he told him he was still laughing at it and had been showing it to anyone he could.

Congratulations Nigel. This type of gift shows the customer we have thought about them and come up with something that is truly unique to them.

Harrison was attending a Ferrari track day as technical support at Donington Park, and he had arrived early in the morning to prepare for the day. A customer turned up who had driven some 160 miles and had his car inspected. When checking his car to make sure it was safe for the track, it was found his front and rear brake pads were worn too low to use on the track. Harrison overheard the customer discussing this as he was distressed and offered to drive back to work in Nottingham and collect some tools and pads for the customer.

After collecting these, Harrison then fitted all the parts for the customer who was then allowed out on track, saving his day. The customer rang in and told us he was over the moon with Harrison and the special service he had received had blown him away. Due to this, the customer has decided to use Graypaul Nottingham for his service needs in the future.

Our customer had his La Ferrari in for repairs, and whilst the car was in it was found the fuel pumps had an issue. We ordered the pumps as normal and started the repair which involved removing the engine and rear section of the car which takes about a week. We were awaiting the arrival of the parts and the customer informed us he needed the car for an event he had booked some 6 months ago. The part failed to arrive due to transport issues in Italy and the customer was getting very distressed as he had friends flying in from Canada and Australia specifically to see his car and have a drive with him on the event.

We tracked the part and managed to find it was near Redditch around 1 hour 30 minutes away, so we sent our parts van to meet the lorry and collect the parts. We got the parts back here around 3pm on Wednesday – the customer needed the car for an event on Thursday morning and we still had the engine out.

Simon, our Master Technician, offered to stay late and rebuild the car as the customer in question owns around 20 Ferrari’s and has lots of other cars within the Group and he knew it was important to the customer. Simon worked through the night until 7am the next morning completing the car which was collected at 7:30am to go to its event. The customer was over the moon and said he had never had service like it in all his years of car ownership and said it really means a lot to him and confirms exactly why he uses Graypaul Nottingham.