Lexus now have a competitive customer proposition which is aligned to the needs of motorists with Lexus vehicles of all ages. The proposition offers a structured, consistent service offering and provides a sound launch pad for attracting a broader range of Lexus vehicles and owners. It realises the ambition of Lexus to continue offering their legendary customer service and increasing service department profitability through a win, retain and grow strategy.
NMC was engaged with Fiat Group Automobiles to help with development of a solution to separate Alfa Romeo from the Fiat brand and establish two individual retail networks in the UK, each focusing on their own unique brand strengths.
which would provide Alfa Romeo with an accurate benchmark result and, in addition, include competitors who had recently gone through their own brand separation.ie, Audi and Lexus, and a further competitor in BMW.
that would compensate for the uniqueness of each brand’s sales process and enable us to reliably plot the results on a comparative scale. Results ranged from a customer centric sales approach (lifestyle requirements) through to a product focused approach (features and benefits). This information paved the way for a large review and ultimately, a redesign of the standard processes for customer sales across the brand.
Through the use of our bespoke web based management communications solution, Alfa Romeo’s field management team were able to effectively and efficiently communicate training needs analysis, field team information and aid network self-help. In addition, this objective measurement process has been written into the franchise operating standards for which all Alfa Romeo dealers are measured.
NMC were commissioned to work with Toyota GB to evolve their business by creating further opportunities to improve customer retention and service delivery, by creating the Toyota Maintenance Reminder System.
Toyota GB (TGB)’s current operations gave them the opportunity to have many additional services available for customers: maintenance packages, extended warranty, insurance and breakdown cover. Despite the extra services offered, the system of reminding customers for MOTs, services and annual renewal of products was deemed as being variable across the TGB network – highlighting an area for improvement. As a result, the need arose to design and implement a first-class, industry-leading support programme to standardise, correct and improve the reminding system.
the entire TGB network was provided with the extensive support package
, which was now evidenced to add business value, profitability and customer retention.
“NMC Consultants are incisive in understanding business improvement issues and have offered practical solutions to enable continuous improvement to be implemented by Toyota GB – in fact to call them a consultancy is a disservice.”
BUSINESS APPROACH – AFTERSALES SELLING SKILLS
After a particular weakness was exposed as part of a nationwide series of mystery shops regarding Vauxhall’s Masterfit programme, NMC provided ‘emergency’ support to provide training for service and parts advisors.
Whilst we had not been involved in the mystery shop activity, Vauxhall had results indicating that some dealers in their network, and specifically one region, required support. The area in question was the dealers’ ability to handle customer telephone enquiries – whether through parts or service departments as the mystery shop exercise clearly demonstrated a lack of constructive approach. The request placed with us was to develop a one day training module that would standardise the approach for both parts and service. Additionally, to resource the training activity and coordinate the venues – the window provided was just
Given that our core resource is fully utilised, the opportunity to free up resource was never going to be easy. However, in certain areas of our business we operate in such a way that allows a degree of flexibility to ‘expand and collapse’ our family tree. Training is just one of those areas.
In October 2006, Mercedes-Benz World opened to the public on the historic Brooklands racing site. The opening provided a live Mercedes-Benz experience to be enjoyed by everyone of all ages (some 300,000 people per year). This unique brand experience centre has continued to excite and touch the senses with an array of attractions and pulse-racing driving experiences available every day.
In support of this activity we undertook physical and telephone benchmarking exercises against best in class providers of similar service offerings – fine dining restaurants, premium brand vehicle manufacturers, and designer boutique and track days/executive experiences. The first six months of this programme was extremely critical as it included an intensive focus on ensuring that the people, processes and systems were fit for purpose and stress tested to minimise any impact on customer satisfaction.
FIAT GROUP AUTOMOBILE BUSINESS PROCESS
With a requirement to increase the business performance of an ailing franchise dealership, NMC worked with Fiat Group Automobiles to implement a number of change programmes which would provide a sustainable uplift in dealer profitability.
The avoidance and reduction of business waste.ie, budget, time and resource, is critical to organisations in our industry but through the correct application and use of effective, efficient, processes and standard operating procedures (SOPs), the impacts can be reduced – in fact we can enhance business profit.
Developed through our work with some of the top 10 vehicle manufacturers recognised by JD Power, our process programmes help organisation better understand how the mapping, re-engineering and implementation of SOPs and business processes, underpin and improve business performance.