Mr Raithatha suffered the second breakdown in a month on his recently purchased Ferrari California T. Mr Raithatha had the breakdown near Nottingham. Despite not buying the car from us or being local we took the car in and repaired it. Mr Raithatha had promised his nephew a day out in his new Ferrari on a Saturday and due to the short notice breakdown we had no way of getting it back to him in London. Ed from Service and Andy from Parts worked together to deliver the car back to London on a busy Friday night to a delighted client who could enjoy the car with his nephew that weekend, to top it off they took a couple of Ferrari caps one for Mr Raithatha and one for his nephew.

The customer was delighted and sent us a picture of his nephew wearing his new cap!
–

I had a Provenance handover to my customer Mr Enda Woods. He was collecting his Dawn (777 MAK).
It had been a difficult process leading up to the handover due to some issues with how the car was acquired into the business. So I was keen for the handover to be a positive experience for the customer.

Being new myself I am still lacking knowledge in certain areas so when Mr Woods asked to lift the bonnet I asked Mike for some assistance. Without any fuss, he immediately agreed to help me and came over and answered all of the customer’s questions. Which not only reassured the customer but helped me gain some valuable knowledge too!

I wanted to make you aware as it was so helpful to me, but I have no doubt the customer went away feeling positive about his handover experience . Rhys Evans, Sales

***MANAGERS COMMENT** Rhys is a fairly new member of the team and was carrying out a handover in our workshop ( due to the showroom refurbishment) and was struggling as below Mike has only been with us since March this year from Audi, so no RR experience, but was happy to help and give his guidance from a technical background. In addition to this, Mike has also put two candidates forward for vacant roles we have had here in the last two months, leading to the successful recruitment of another technician and a Service Advisor
–

One of our customer’s little boy is a massive car lover and gets really excited visiting Ferrari. Our customer said it would be great if there were a way to recognise children when they come in to collect cars etc. So Safia organised a model car, a colouring book and some stickers but more importantly, took the time to  hand deliver it to him on her lunch break.

Firstly, thank you for taking my feedback on board. It is much appreciated and the gesture of dropping over the gift was pure class. (In fact, I have told a few people about it as I was very impressed). My son loved the car and the colouring book. I think children coming in would be delighted to receive something like this and I think it will go a long way with your existing Ferrari owners and any prospective owners.
–

This customer is rarely a smiler, not much interaction and can be rather dour, definitely not a hugger if you know what I mean? Returns every year, but whilst never reluctantly, rarely seems to be happy about it; I don’t think it’s this business, you get the impression with some people that this is just their chemical make-up.

Anyway, Ashley remembered last year that Stuart (fiercely Scottish) came in on St Patricks day, which also happened to be his Birthday. It genuinely couldn’t be any worse patronage for a Scot! He complained, a lot, about it. He also remembered the only thing Stuart got excited about was his love of a whisky tipple.

Returning this year Ashley vividly remembered the conversation and his demeanour. So, rather tongue in cheek bought a Happy St Patricks day card, but on the message inside, added…

“and also, Wishing you a very Happy Birthday, thank you for your years of custom and loyalty, Ash and the team @ Aston Martin Nottingham..

…I thought you’d appreciate the card as I recall how delighted you were to share your special day with the Irish ;-)”

He also included a very nice Single Malt Scottish whisky to dull the pain.

Stuart sent a lovely e-mail with smiley faces – -which you never get from him!!! He also referred to ‘himself’ as Boomerang which he had commented on given a few mechanical problems his car had experienced resulting in some more frequent visits than would be ideal.

Gentlemen, Just a quick note to say a massive thank you for your very kind gift! It was a total surprise and definitely put a smile on my face. (For once) 😂Thanks again, it meant a lot to me. Love, Boomerang 🪃 😂
–

Jake had collected our customer’s vehicle from home on his way to work in the morning. During the conversation, the customer had outlined their plans for the day as it was his wife’s Birthday. They had planned a champagne breakfast at a nice restaurant in Derbyshire. This customer had spent circa £4k with us in the last two years.

Jake called the restaurant and agreed for the account to be settled by our accountant (circa £70.00). When the customer asked for the bill when they had finished, the waitress announced it had already been taken care of by Aston Martin Nottingham. Both the customer and his wife were overwhelmed and called from the car park to say that nothing like this had ever happened to them before! Absolutely delighted.

Overwhelmed, delighted and made a special day even more special.
–

I would like to recognise the hard work Ashley Carey puts into his everyday job. I am often in charge of following customers up on their service bookings and on most occasions, there is a positive compliment regarding Ashley’s customer service. He goes above and beyond to a standard where a customer goes out of his way to thank him. A G-tech was recently carried out on a customer’s vehicle and Ashley took it upon himself to then apply a coating to the tyre to blend in with the rest of the vehicle.

An example of feedback emails from customers are as follows:Dear RebeccaThe service I received was excellent and Ashley Carey is a credit to your organisation. Kind regardsMel Barrett07976 081010Hi Rebecca As always, the service at Aston Martin Nottingham is first rate and something that I do recommend to friends and colleagues, at every opportunity. Kind regards Simon Lawrence
–

Our sales team recently sold a McLaren GT in early October. It is the customer’s first McLaren and after a few days of ownership, he rang Aftersales concerned about why the car would not start and a few other questions.

Sam ran through the procedure for the key with the customer but could sense that customer had lots of technical questions rather than operational ones. On hearing the call Andy offered to visit the customer in Darwen (approx. 2 hours from the dealership) and run through the systems. Andy did this the next day and spent over 2 hours with the customer.

The customer rang me on 31/10/22 to say thank you for sending Andy. The customer said he answered all his questions in a professional and knowledgeable manner and couldn’t have been more helpful. He didn’t rush and spent as much time as was necessary. The customer said this was beyond any service he had received before and was now confident with his McLaren and was enjoying his ownership experience.

Nigel had a good client Mrs G who brought her 458 in for the first service since she took ownership last year. Whilst talking to her and her young daughter over a coffee, Nigel found out that it was her husbands birthday. He quickly got a Ferrari Coffee table book that he had wrapped up and before the car went back he put it in the passenger seat along with some Ferrari Lithographs and a poster for her daughter. Mrs G was delighted and sent a lovely email in to say thank you:

Hello,

I just wanted to drop you a quick line to say thank you for the book and picture packs you left in the car for us. My daughter was very pleased with them. I have put the book aside for Rob’s birthday – he will love it. I also wanted to let you know how pleased we were with the service too – it’s not often you are quoted a price and the final bill is the same!

It was lovely to catch up with you both and we look forward to catching up again at one of your events this year 🙂

A customer dropped in his McLaren for service and we noticed some extensive rodent damage which meant the car would be with us for an extra week. When Sam contacted the customer to discuss the customer mentioned it was his son’s birthday at the weekend. Sam decided to put together a goody bag and ask a driver to deliver it to the customer’s house whilst on the way to another job. Please see the below email from the customer:

Hi Sam,

I just wanted to say thank you for the surprise that just arrived for my son’s Birthday. Please thank the driver that dropped it off too, we were just eating lunch so I hardly spoke to him. He’s been sick overnight so I’m at home with him today but as soon as I opened the envelope he opened the hot wheels and raced it around.

All the best

Phil

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.

Porsche Centre Glasgow received an email from Mr Taylor with a delightful message regarding the excellent customer experience provided by our Service Advisor Toni Allan. As a waiting appointment, Toni ensured Mr Taylor was kept up to date with the status of his car and made sure he had refreshments throughout his wait. As a Porsche Classic fan, Toni organised a tour of our Classic corner with our Parts Manager and gave Mr Taylor a copy of the Porsche Original magazine, Porsche Classic pen and a Porsche Classic grill badge. Toni ensured Mr Taylor felt welcomed and made his visit as pleasant as possible whilst waiting.

Mr Taylor wrote:‘I took my Cayman into Porsche Glasgow.After leaving the garage with my freshly valeted car, I instantly noticed that the car was more responsive, precise and most importantly of all, more fun. I am more in love with the car than ever. Christopher is obviously highly skilled, naturally talented and perhaps a yet undiscovered genus on Porsche cars.However, I must speak of the real star in this story, and that is Toni Allan.As soon as Toni greets you, she is energetic, focused and uncannily seems to know what you will ask before the words are uttered. She is extremely intuitive, making her highly efficient, managing to deal with unexpected customers with ease and all with a smile.She moves quicker than a cheetah, but with considerably more elegant and graceful.Her customer interactive skills are unsurpassed, and she would be ideal for any Porsche promotional film clip on how to ensure the company's high ethos is delivered, not occasionally but every time.So, to sum up, as you may tire of reading this, I wish to thank Porsche Glasgow, Christopher Gilchrist and that bright star Toni Allan.’
–

Our Service Advisor Allan Robertson dealt with a customer who had experienced problems with his car and was not happy with the experience he had at another dealership. After listening to the concerns Mr Armstrong had, Allan wanted to make sure he left Porsche Centre Glasgow with trust in our service and a positive experience. On the handover from our Service Department, Mr Armstrong was delighted that his car had been fixed to the Porsche standard he had hoped for and to his surprise, Allan had placed a Porsche goodie bag in the car. Mr Armstrong was delighted with his Porsche flash and keyring with a personalised note from Allan.

Mr. Armstrong wrote a google review to thank Allan for his service.‘New to Porsche since August 2020, poor experience dealing with another Centre and with ongoing concerns about the car enquired with Glasgow. Got immediate call back from Ian putting me in hands of Allan Robertson who has been superb throughout. Car was given a very thorough review finding several issues not previously picked up and resolving the ones I was concerned about. Despite some unexpected delays Allan was in control throughout, attention to detail, thorough, great communication and clearly doing everything he can to look after the customer. Now feel in very safe hands going forwards with both the dealership and Allan.’
–

At the end of June, one of our customers took delivery of a brand new McLaren GT. The customer contacted the service team on 29th July to report a rattle from the engine cover. The customer lives in Chippenham, Wiltshire so Andy volunteered to drive to the customer to address the rattle. He left his house at 4.30am to meet the customer’s time requirements and then proceeded to not only fix the rattle but also complete a secondary/technical handover with the customer answering all the questions he now had since he had been driving the car for a few months. Andy returned home that evening close to 8pm and the customer was delighted with the service and level of details Andy provided.

Andy was exceptional, a credit to your business.

 

Dear Sir,

I am writing to you to say how positive my experience was in having my McLaren 720S serviced by your company in Knutsford although there were problems.

Whilst I had to return to the garage when a warning light came on less than 10 miles after picking the car up and then again the following day when the front lift would not work things were handled quickly, efficiently and superbly.

Although I wish things had not gone wrong, on both occasions the car was taken off me, put into the service area within 5 minutes of me arriving back there and I was kept informed of progress, including asking if I had time to wait for a full software reset on the second occasion which Sam recommended and fully cured the problems.

Not only was the booking handled very well by Emma in advance, but when I arrived from the Isle of Man the evening before the service the courtesy car was ready and I was fully informed of likely timings for the pick up of my car.

All your staff at the service centre were totally customer focussed, polite and well presented as well as being extremely helpful.

In particular, I would like to sing the praises of Sam who I believe looks after the McLaren side – I could not speak highly enough of his actions, explanations and speed at all times. He is very knowledgeable, sympathetic to the difficulties of coming from an island with timescales dictated by ferries and went out of his way to rectify the unexpected problems.

It was only the second service my car has required and the first at Grange McLaren Hatfield (where I bought it) was nowhere near the same level of professionalism and experience even though nothing was wrong with the car.

It was also my first experience with the Sytner group and I am highly impressed. I have never actually written to anyone before to praise their staff but on this occasion, I went away from my third visit in two days with a great impression, rather than frustration and a bag with a drink and some snacks for the journey given to us by the lady behind the drinks counter for my wife and myself for the journey. That was completely down to the skill of your staff and I would like to bring that to your attention.

Your full customer-facing team at the Knutsford service centre were superb and a credit to your company. Sam went the extra mile and as a result, has secured my business for the life of the car for your group.

Please let me know if you ever decide Sam is surplus to your requirements as I would be happy to find a role for him in any customer-facing role!

 

There have been numerous customer emails praising the excellent work that Holly has done over the last couple of month especially however this one really stands out.

Hi Chris,

I hope this email finds you well. Please could you pass this email on to someone who gives staff recognition? I am always amazed by Holly when I deal with her as she is just amazing at her job. I brought my car in yesterday for a service and it always feels like visiting family.

Holly saw it was my birthday next week and made sure we had a bag full of treats for the journey home. Holly also made my daughter in law feel special by handing her a wedding card for the big day. Please could you thank her for her total professionalism while adding a personal touch? Holly is a credit to the team. Have a great weekend.

Kate had a customer in for servicing and some repairs and she had been trying to get hold of him for a couple of days without success.

When she finally made contact with him he was in hospital having suffered a minor stroke!
Obviously, he couldn’t take delivery of his car that day but was hoping to be back at home on Friday.

Once Kate confirmed that to be the case and what time he’d be home, she arranged for the drivers to drop his car on his drive prior to him returning home. Kate bought a get well soon card for him and organised a little hamper of Bentley goodies and chocolates that were left on his doorstep ready for his arrival home.

If nothing else it’s a nice surprise for him that will hopefully raise a smile when he gets home.

Tim Campbell tried to book his car in with Porsche centre Silverstone and at the time could not get through to the service team – we were the 3rd centre he had called and due to lock down all centres were busy. He left a 1 star google review and was not happy.

Anna Brown spoke to the customer and booked him in. We then updated the customer daily and exceeded all expectations with his visit. From this visit with his Turbo S he brought in his Cayenne s (spent another £2400) and booked his Cayenne Turbo for a further £3000 worth of work.

The customer has been delighted with experience and now left a 5* google review as well as nominating us as his new dealership.

Tim CampbellTim CampbellLocal Guide·28 reviews·143 photos20 hours agoNewRecently booked in for service and a few other jobs. Very happy with the customer service and work performed.Silverstone is by far the best official Porsche centre I've used, worth the extra trip for me vs local dealers and offers good value for money compared to independents.Friendly staff and hassle free. I can highly recommend you give these guys a call.
–

Sam was looking after Mrs P’s McLaren 570 whih was in for a lengthy corrosion repair.

Sam was in contact with Mrs P every Monday to keep her updated and during these calls, as he got to know her more, Sam discovered Mrs P liked nothing more than spending a Saturday night during lockdown drinking Champagne and eating doughnuts!

When Mrs P’s 570 was ready to be returned. Sam organised for handmade doughnuts and a bottle of Champagne to be put into the vehicle as a surprise.

Mrs P was delighted.

I work closely with David and I’m always touched by the effort he goes to make the customers’ visits here at Graypaul that little bit more special.

We recently had a customer in, Mr D, who informed us his son suffered from severe autism and was fascinated with his dad’s car, so whilst it was in with us we took the time to have a professional photo of his vehicle taken we framed it and alongside other gifts presented them to him.

These things go a long way and Dave always does go the Extra Mile and I want him to be recognised for that.

The customer was booked in for work on his Macan. Marketing Executive Katy Lewis noted the customer was an online Car blogger and informed Peter to use it as an opportunity to supply a loan car which he could review on his YouTube Channel.

The customer came onsite and was hugely impressed with the Facility, the loan car and Peter’s interaction.

The video has had over 50k views on youtube and has increased our followers on Instagram

The video can be seen here: