We have a very demanding customer and a great customer for Group who only had one window of opportunity to have a demo on a Sunday when we are closed. Ellie then did the 200 mile drive to drop a car off to the customer on the Sunday. Customer all happy and then proceeded to order the car. The car arrived at the dealership one day before the customer was due to collect with a manufacturing fault and a mark on the interior trim that needed a replacement trim to be fitted.

Ellie took all this in her stride and still made the customer’s handover memorable, organised the order of the replacement trim which takes 6 weeks to arrive and arranged to collect the customer’s car for its 1000 mile check and replace the damaged trim at the same time. This customer would have normally hit the roof and probably cancelled his order and I think the real reason for him not reacting this way is the fact Ellie went out of her way outside of working hours to satisfy his demanding schedule. He has also requested Ellie to sort out a deal on a Bentayga.

So what could have been a disaster, shows that if handled in the right way can still be a memorable occasion and not damage any future orders or relationships.

Birthdays are a special time for many and this month Nigel went the ‘Extra Mile’ to ensure his customer had a birthday to remember!

Mr Tardif purchased a pre-owned Aston Martin from Nigel, which was being collected on his birthday. The customer was thrilled to find that upon arrival ‘Happy Birthday’ was playing in the showroom and he was later presented with a personalised Aston Martin birthday cake and a card from the Bentley Leicester team.

The customer was delighted with the effort Nigel had made and was overwhelmed with the cake and service provided. He was so happy that he sent a card shortly after delivery explaining that Nigel had made a “good experience, great.”

Well Done Nigel!

Tony consistently receives fantastic feedback from our customers, here are two recent examples:

I have now bought 4 new Bentleys from Bentley Manchester and I must say the salesman Tony Witley who I deal with is one of the best sales people I have dealt with buying a new car, he is one in a million and always sorts everything out for me. That is why I will always buy my cars from Bentley Manchester and also recommend to my friends and tell them that Tony is the man and Manchester is the dealership.

– Mr Fairhurst.

It was the best car handover I have ever had. I have bought a number of cars and the best two have been with Tony Witley. We were made to feel very welcome each time we visited the dealership and generally the service level was on another planet.

– Mr Tysell

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.

After Mr Varley had purchased his first ever Maserati, a new Levante, Sumit wanted to get him a special gift that he would remember his first Italian car with.

During the sales process, Sumit had established that Mr Varley was an ex Boxing Champion and had recently taken over a Gym in Derby. After some thought, Sumit ordered a set of Boxing Gloves and went around the dealership getting every member of the Graypaul Team to sign them. Mr Varley was taken aback by the gesture and they are now mounted in his office in the Gym.

Congratulations to Sumit for knowing his customers, and doing something that does not cost the earth, but makes the purchase for the client forever memorable.

Maranello Service have been dealing with one of their long standing clients Mr Claessens. He is a prolific buyer of cars and has an extensive collection of vehicles including Ferraris. He contacted Chris Knight recently and told him about a 365 GTC that he was purchasing and importing from Switzerland. The car has an interesting story in as much that it was formerly owned by Lord Brocket, the car had also been converted from a hardtop into a convertible and Mr Claessens had also owned the car some thirty years ago. The car was apparently in concourse condition and had only covered very low mileage since the original sale.

The car was transported over by truck and Mr Claessens was there to meet the vehicle as it was unloaded. The car was then taken into the workshop and give to Carlo Defaveri to work on. Carlo is one of our most experienced and senior Ferrari technicians having joined Maranello in 1977. Carlo began to work through the car to provide a report and from this it became clear that the car was not as ‘concourse’ as originally thought.

The car was due to be shipped to the client’s home at the end of March so the pressure was on. Given the age of the car and the inevitable challenge of sourcing components, work got underway and the client insisted on coming in weekly to check on the progress. Carlo faced many challenges throughout the repair but the skill and care applied throughout resulted in the car being ready ahead of the deadline some 250 man hours later and the car was collected with Mr Claessens settling a large bill.

He drove away last week in brilliant sunshine and was delighted with the car and the work carried out by Carlo.

Mr Ashraf was collecting his car on the 1st of March. Whilst chatting and organising his collection, Neil found out that it was Mr Ashraf’s birthday on the same day. Before Mr Ashraf arrived on the 1st of March, Neil put birthday banners and a balloon on his car. When he arrived, Neil had Happy Birthday playing on our sound bar and even had a Birthday cake with candles for him. Mr and Mrs Ashraf were absolutely delighted by this gesture so much so that they handed in some cupcakes to say thanks and gave us some lovely comments on Porsche Passion.

Well done Neil!

The experience has been excellent. Staff at welcome desk were exceptional and arranging a birthday cake for me when picking up the car was a nice touch. Neil Ross has always been great with myself and family members over the years and made my first Porsche buying experience one to remember. He helped throughout the time I had been looking for a used Porsche and kept me informed through the process of the car’s whereabouts, prep, cherished plate transfer etc. The car looked new when I came to pick it up and has been a joy since.
– Mr Ashraf

Becky is relatively new to Porsche Centre Leicester, however, she is already settling into her Service role very efficiently, creating a great impression and building a fantastic rapport with customers.

On one particular day the weather was horrendous and to save the customer and her baby having to go out in the pouring rain Becky transferred all of the shopping bags from one car to another. Becky also looked after the customer’s new born baby to give her some extra time to look over the paperwork.

She has already had some amazing feedback:

Becky was excellent and very knowledgeable about technical aspects of the service work. The loan car Macan S was superb.

Becky Hill on the service desk was very good and is a credit to your centre.

I would like to nominate Bumper (David Brown).

He has taken really well to his new role and in one day alone checked in 27 new cars on site and still managed to get 100% on both the Sales facilities audit and 100% on the Aftersales facilities audit this month.

In addition he runs customers home and helps on collection and deliveries, early collections and helps the valeting when they are hard pressed.

He really deserves a mention for helping behind the  scenes to ensure the customer gets great service.

Amber had booked in a Mrs Kershaw for her annual service, with one of the drivers collecting the Porsche from her work address. However, the day before we were due to collect her car the customer called to say we would need to collect it from her home address instead as she was too ill to go to work. Amber made the appropriate arrangements for the customer but also went one step beyond her day job!

Amber put together a “Get Well Soon” package for the customer – including a card from the team, orange juice, grapes, magazines, a puzzle book and (of course!) some chocolate.

She arranged for the driver to give this very thoughtful package to Mrs Kershaw when he collected her keys, and she was delighted at the gesture. Well done Amber for making this customer’s day much better!

We have experienced serious delays from the manufacturer due to additional quality inspections and then a delay due to the changes in VED. During the last 2 weeks of March this meant we had a significant amount of cars to prepare and deliver.

Daniel’s commitment and customer focus is beyond expectations, he worked exceptionally long hours to ensure no customer was disappointed with the presentation of their new car, ensuring every car was ready for the customer handover at the agreed times. Without doubt if it wasn’t for Daniel’s work ethic and customer focus we certainly would have struggled to ‘Make it Special’ for many of our customers and he is a very worthy nominee for this award.

Mr Skelchy called Lamborghini Edinburgh on Tuesday 28th March to inform them that he’d had an ‘altercation‘ with a low flying seagull, this resulted in the destruction of his off-side wing mirror which had been left hanging off his car. Mr Skelchy was in an upset state as he was scheduled to drive to Gleneagles Friday evening for a surprise wedding anniversary weekend trip with their Huracán. Sam Kelly, our Product Specialist, immediately took control and recorded all the relevant details and also contacted Lamborghini Assist on his behalf, to arrange the Huracán’s collection and also arrange a replacement mode of transport.

He thereafter arranged with our parts dept. to have a new mirror assembly ordered, and on receipt drove to our coachwork sub-contractors in order to have the mirror cluster repainted to sample. Once painted he collected the mirror and arranged with a technician to work late on the Thursday evening and also the valeters to ensure the vehicle was presented to its former glory. Sam also worked late that evening and positioned the gleaming Huracan in the showroom, in the same condition as it was when it was collected 12 months prior.

An “overwhelmed” Mr Skelchy collected his vehicle the Friday morning at 9.30am all set for the day ahead as planned prior to the incident. Mr Skelchy added that “for an 18 year old boy to act in such a professional and mature way has truly demonstrated the kind of professional business that we are.” In addition, Sam also presented our client with a Lamborghini boxed bottle of champagne to help them celebrate their wonderful occasion.