Mr Skilton was experiencing charging issues with his Taycan, Andy dealt with the customer from start to finish and worked with the customer to identify the issues. This involved visiting the exact chargers the customer uses in Maidstone and Cobham to identify if it was an issue with the car or chargers. None of these chargers were local and Andy offered to do this in his own time during the evenings. Going above and beyond is an understatement.

Mr Martin after collecting his 911 GTS had a number of issues within the first few days of ownership. Having part exchanged a Panamera Turbo which had plenty of issues he wasn’t expecting any problems with his new car! Unfortunately, this lead to Mr Martin putting in a complaint to Porsche.

Andy Baker took it upon himself to contact the customer and talk through the options, and attempt to get the vehicle back into the workshop. Due to a busy diary, Mr Martin was unable to book the vehicle in for more than a day during the week. Andy offered to meet the customer at his house to attempt to repair the vehicle so the customer was not inconvenienced further. Unfortunately, the vehicle needed to come back into our workshop, Andy then agreed to meet with the customer on his Saturday off to fix the issues. Mr Martin left extremely happy with how Andy had handled the situation and how quick the issues were fixed.

As I start writing this I have a pang of guilt that I haven’t nominated Andy before as the reasons behind my nomination are not just one-off or recent behaviours; but qualities that Andy has consistently displayed throughout his employment here and those qualities I believe embody this award – going above and beyond, rallying the team, leading by example and putting customer delight first and foremost each and every day.

Andy is always the first to put his hand up to help without complaint, to put himself out and push personal plans aside for the sake of the business. Andy will always happily help to resolve last minute issues with very little (or occasionally no) notice.

As we all know, working with the unpredictability of component supply issues and the resulting delays to the delivery of customers’ cars, time is of the essence once a car does arrive on site. A rapid turnaround ready for handover is hugely important both to the business and the customer. Andy is wholeheartedly on the same page when it comes to looking after our customers and will go above and beyond in order to get the customer into their car as soon as possible. Andy will stay on, working after hours without complaint, occasionally meaning that he won’t head home until 11pm and yet he will still arrive on time the next morning with the same positive hardworking attitude. Andy has naturally become a leader and role model for the team, effectively encouraging them to follow his example.

For me, Andy is a great team player, who will always ensure that the needs of the business and the delight of the customer are first and foremost in everything that he does. His hard work, attitude, flexibility, leadership and commitment are a huge asset to myself, the Sales department and to Porsche Centre Mid Sussex.

Dear Divisional Team

I would like to nominate Andy Baker for the Quarter 3 winner of “Going Beyond” for always being extremely helpful. Going out of his way to discuss ongoing issues with customers. Stepping in to run the workshop when Steve is off and rallying the Technician to work late into the evening or on Saturdays to get internal work done outside working hours.

Particular customer example of going beyond :

Mrs Fiedosiuk’s 911 broke down one Friday just as the technicians were leaving for their well-earned Friday Beer after work. Michael Elliott went with another technician to try to recover the car as it was local. Unfortunately, they were unable to help as it appeared to be a VTS tracking issue. Upon hearing the situation Andy Baker immediately offered to assist and miss Friday beers. Unfortunately, the AA was unable to recover the car until later that evening. Andy went above and beyond to complete a VTS hard reset on the side of the road and managed to get the car started. Andy’s selfless nature resulted in him missing Friday beers and was also late to a friend’s BBQ that night. Mrs Fiedosiuk was amazed at the response from our team and could not be more appreciative of the effort made.

This is just one of many examples of why Andy deserves to be recognised. I hope he is, he deserves it

Thank you

Mrs Fiedosiuk was amazed at the response from our team and could not be more appreciative of the effort made.
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I was made aware by Jane Parry of the following:

Hi Andy,

Just wanted to let you know I had a gentleman come in the week before last looking for a Salesman called Paul.

After a bit of investigative work after the gentleman had gone, I found out it was Paul Lewis.

The gentleman said it was 6:30 pm one evening, very dark and his motorbike would not start in the car park.

Paul had just locked up the Dealership and saw the chap in the car and asked if he needed any help.

Paul reopened the Dealership to get the equipment he needed to help the gentleman get his motorbike started.

The gentleman was very very appreciative of the time and effort Paul made to make sure he wasn’t stuck for what could have been hours in the car park.

Unfortunately, Paul was tied up so was unable to see the gentleman who had bought Paul in some beer.

The gentleman said he was a great fan of the Porsche brand and what Paul did for him would stick in his mind and should he ever wish to purchase a Porsche he would come back here to see Paul.

As you know, we discussed recognising individuals who consistently go beyond the call of duty for customers in our HOB meeting.

I would like to recognise Andy Baker.

One of Andy’s real strengths is that he always like to speak to the customers directly and openly and honestly discuss what he has found and what he proposes to do. He is in most cases always having to deal with customers who are very frustrated with product issues. He manages to get them on side every time.

Tom Gunter runs a computer company and went from :

“Can you also please provide a list of confirmed faults for the history of the vehicle and fixes applied. I can compare this to my list to ensure you have all the facts for the rejection.

A swift response I believe would now be appropriate.

Kind regards

Tom Gunter
Director

To :

Dear Andy

Just a quick note to say thank you for all your help and big thanks to your team for resolving the issues with the car, so far all appears well. Andy Baker demonstrated great communication, ownership and determination in achieving a resolution to the faults even after additional faults presented themselves following the central computer replacement. He clearly went above and beyond. I could hardly ask for a better service following your involvement in reaching the resolution.

Kind regards

Tom
Tom Gunter

In addition :

Today, he went out to a customer, Arthur Maxfield 20 miles from the dealership to do a check on his Taycan battery after he had a failure notice. Two weeks ago Andy did the same thing for the customer when his car’s smaller battery got drained by an alarm issue. (see his emailed comments below)

We had another customer in December who had a number of issues with his Cayenne and the new 911 he bought from us. Andy without being asked offered to go out to the customer at his home in the evening to reset the service lights on the Cayenne and bring the 911 back to sort out a number of frustrating rattles on his doors. Both cars are resolved.

Andy always orchestrates the PDIs so they can be done outside hours by rallying the team together. Last week, having had massive delays on new cars, Andy arranged for him and three Technicians to stay late to PDI 15 customer cars in one night.

He starts early in the morning and stays up to midnight if he needs to to get the new car customer cars out, an absolute team player for all departments

I believe he needs to be recognised for consistently “Going beyond the call of duty”

I hope you agree he should be recognised as a worthy winner

Thank you

Andy

Dear Andy Just a quick note to say thank you for all your help and big thanks to your team for resolving the issues with the car, so far all appears well. Andy Baker demonstrated great communication, ownership and determination in achieving a resolution to the faults even after additional faults presented themselves following the central computer replacement. He clearly went above and beyond. I could hardy ask for a better service following your involvement in reaching the resolution. Kind regards Tom Tom GunterGood morning Andrew, Thank you I appreciate your email. On a more positive note I have the utmost praise and respect for the help and communication shown by Andy Baker, absolutely first class also the same from Micheal in service, Two exemplary employees.I will leave my beloved car in your hands and look forward to its return. Kindest regards, Arthur Maxfield.
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I wanted to nominate Andy Baker one of our Technicians for going beyond the call of duty.

We received a call from David Harrington regarding a very good customer of the Group whose wife’s car had a flat battery.

The customer had bought a 911 from Guildford (because we didn’t have one available at the time) and contacted them to organise Porsche assist to go out to her. They diagnosed that it needed a new battery but the driver wouldn’t recover it and Guildford said they couldn’t do anything for them because they were too busy.

Michael Elliott phoned the customer and Andy Baker volunteered to drive to their house (45 minutes away) after work and fit a new battery and drop off a battery trickle charger for them.

As the battery had not been kept topped up due to lack of use, it wasn’t covered under warranty. We fitted a new battery for them and paid for it as a gift.

Andy deserves recognition as he really helped the customer out when her selling dealer wasn’t willing to help.

Thank you, Andy.

We received the email below from a customer, Stephen gets regular positive feedback from customers just like this.

Well done Stephen!

Today I awoke to find my new 992 dead as a dodo on my drive. Rather than phone for recovery, and because my car had been in your repair garage the week before, I thought I would drop a line to Stephen Barr to see if I was doing something wrong. Stephen talked me through the opening process but, unfortunately, nothing we tried worked, not even manually opening the car. Additionally, I have had an ongoing problem where I couldn’t program the home link system in my car to open the gate even though I had ascertained all the correct receivers were installed. It is worth noting that there is no comprehensive UK version of the programming guide for the 992 as the programming is through the PCM.

Stephen insisted he come over and quickly arrived and began to reawaken my car which, after a bit of work, he did very successfully. Adding to this, I discovered over Xmas Stephen had contacted some colleagues in Australia who had provided a separate guide and approach to program the home link device. Stephen diligently started to try and program the door opener and hey presto after a few failed attempts it worked.

I wanted to write to you to express how impressed and pleased I am with the way Stephen has supported and dealt with the few issues on my car. He is a credit to Porsche and Mid-Sussex Porsche and I certainly will be happy to come back time and time again knowing you have such amazing staff. Please pass on my sincere thanks and appreciation for everything he has done.

Mr S called Kevin and said he had a puncture on his Macan, and wanted to know what the next steps were to get this rectified. Kevin initially asked if the tyre pressure light had come on (which it had) and asked if it was a yellow or red error message to ascertain how much pressure had been lost. The customer made him aware it was red and had lost 1.1 bar. Kevin spoke about Porsche Assist to get the car recovered to us but he wasn’t keen on losing the car for a duration of time. Kevin then passed the details over to Steve Barr who always goes above and beyond to help, but was unsure as to whether the tyre needed was N1 or N0 so ordered both.

Kevin suggested to Steve that he was happy to stop on his way home to see if it just needed inflating or to be recovered in. Kevin then arranged with the customer our intentions and organised a plan. When Kevin got to the customer’s house the tyre was completely flat, only then to find that it had a spare wheel and not an inflation kit. Luckily the Cayenne loan car Kevin took had a compressor so he pumped the tyre up and drove it back to work that evening, leaving Mr & Mrs S with the loan vehicle and all signed out on Coopers.

The new tyre was fitted the next day and returned to the customer that evening. Quick and easy turnaround, and was very much a team effort, but Kevin went beyond the call of duty.

Needless to say, the customer was very happy.

We received the below email from a very happy customer who travelled from Cornwall to collect their 718.

I wanted to thank you so very much for you all your help with our recent purchase of the 718. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed your fabulous handover experience, not something I have experienced before, even with 30 years connected with the car trade! I am aware it’s not always easy dealing with 'ex Porsche' people, but you were professional, engaging and know your stuff!
– Mrs G

During a storm on a Saturday a few weeks ago, a customer broke down in one of our demo’s whilst driving to collect her vehicle from the centre at the halfway point from her house to the centre (which was 42 miles away). Steve liaised with the customer and Porsche Customer Services to recover the vehicle.

Due to the weather conditions, the next available time slot was 3pm, meaning the customer would be stranded by the side of the road with her children for up to 5 hours awaiting recovery. Upon discovering this, Steve quickly jumped into action as it was unacceptable to leave this customer stranded. He arranged for his colleagues to see out the further 4 customers on that day and drove her vehicle to her so she could continue her journey. Steve then stayed with our demonstrator until it was recovered at 4pm.

Steve handled what was a difficult situation very well and the customer was over the moon and very impressed at Steve’s efforts.

Well done Steve!

Callum was dealing with a customer who lived locally to the dealership, he had found a car that he was really interested in but it was located in our Glasgow centre. The customer was nervous about paying a deposit before seeing the car so booked a train to Glasgow and, to his surprise, Callum accompanied him to present the car. The customer was thrilled with how keen Callum was to ensure that he had a great experience. The trip was 900 miles from start to finish! A great example of ‘Making it Special’.

The customer subsequently purchased the car and was delighted with how well it was presented when he came to collect the car!

At a time when we were particularly stretched with staff on holiday and at other events. Jackie organised, at very short notice, the Porsche Owners’ Club event here at the dealership.

Although we had over 80 people attending due to the good weather, Jackie took this all in her stride, including having to cater for significantly more people than we had expected.

The event was seamless and the feedback from the guests was extremely positive.

We had arranged at very short notice to deliver a Panamera to a customer based in Solihull. Although the sales executive had carried out a thorough handover, the customer was pressed for time and was not able to spend the time with the sales executive to fully understand the complexities of his new car.

Without hesitation, and in order to minimise the customer’s inconvenience, Simon made an appointment to meet the customer at Porsche Solihull and spent over two and a half hours running through all the controls and systems on the car.

The customer said that not only was it extremely helpful to have someone to run through the controls, but it was a pleasure to spend time with Simon due to his knowledge and enthusiasm for the brand.

An East London customer was travelling down to the Goodwood Festival of Speed and had an issue with his 911 and popped in on Saturday morning.

The vehicle was not drivable and he was faced with recovering his vehicle back to East London and missing Goodwood.

Michael leant him one of our Audis so he could continue on his journey and enjoy his day.

He arrived this morning and was so elated with the level of service he has opted to allow us to repair the vehicle and some other additional work to the tune of £1000.

Mr A, the owner of a brand new 911, recently broke down on a Friday evening due to a catastrophic coolant leak. This is the second time this customer has broken down in his new 911 since taking delivery and as you can imagine he was not best pleased.

With this in mind, Matt offered to arrive early on Saturday morning to look into the matter, we were able to quickly identify the failed component and order a replacement straight away. The vehicle was completed and back with the customer within a couple of days. Considering the circumstances the customer was deliriously happy with the rapid response.

A new customer to the Porsche brand bought a Cayenne from us. This gentleman was a very loyal BMW customer and, having bought  BMW’s for the last twenty-five years, had decided it was time for a change.

On the day of collection, we, unfortunately, had some issues around his ‘Car Connect services’ which meant the customer had to wait for around two hours whilst we tried to resolve the issues.  He finally went on his way very happy and not too concerned over the delay.

Unfortunately, a couple of weeks later the same issue reappeared and the Cayenne needed to come back to us for repair. The customer lives some forty minutes away from the site and a round trip was proving to be difficult for him to accommodate. When we explained the situation to Harry Funnell, he offered to carry out the repair at the customer’s house irrespective of the fact that this had to be done after hours due to the customer having commitments during the day.

Harry arrived at the customer’s house at 18:45 and carried out the repair to his Cayenne. The customer was really pleased that Harry had taken the time to personally go to his house to carry out the repair, especially as this had taken place after normal working hours.

The following day the customer called me to say that he was really impressed with the service and especially impressed with Harry.  He also wanted to let me know that he is really pleased with his decision to buy a Porsche as he thought the time and effort Harry put into resolving his issues were highly reflective of the brand ethos.

Stephen is a very valued member of the team, nothing is too much trouble and he always finds the time to help and support others.

Due to a delay of cars arriving from Porsche, time constraints were very tight as we approached the end of March and Quarter 1. Stephen worked with his team of technicians to ensure that the new cars were worked on and ready for the customers, whilst always providing excellent customer service.

Russell Bannister helped to make a young autistic Porsche enthusiast’s 14th birthday extra special, with VIP Porsche treatment, and a drive in a Porsche 911 GTS.

Today was our son’s 14th birthday and he got a VIP birthday treatment at Porsche Centre Mid-Sussex, thank you so much for making his day super special! You truly deserve an autism-friendly award for your understanding and time you always give us when we visit.

Thank you so much,

Hannah and Russell.

Simon helped one of his customers pull off a double surprise for his family. The customer had purchased a Ford Fiesta for his son, his first ever car, and a Porsche 718 Cayman for his wife, and neither of them knew about the surprise. Simon covered both cars and managed to keep the surprise for them both up until a grand reveal of the cars, leaving the whole family in tears of joy.

When the customer completed our survey regarding his purchase and his reason for buying, he commented:

Looks, handling, performance… and that’s just Simon Ward. The car’s pretty good too. Hugely impressed with the team, they couldn’t have done more. And Simon went above and beyond to secure the sale and to support my crazy handover plans. I was really not a strong buyer at the start, but now my wife is a delighted owner!