Sytner JLRS Division
Paul Curtis (left), Head of Aftersales, congratulating Paul Trotter.
Award Nominee, January 2025
A client had come in to the dealership on New Years Eve with a fault on his car. The fault was quickly identified, but the part wasn’t in stock. The client advised he lived in Anglesey, 120 miles away, so was offered a loan car to get him home.
Rather than asking the client to bring the loan car back, Paul Trotter took the time to drive to Anglesey on the Saturday morning to return the client’s car and bring the loan car back to the dealership.
Outstanding personal service by all involved
– Mr Hywell Ellis
Charles Crossley (left), Head of Sales, congratulating Jordan Passade.
Award Nominee, August 2024
Our customer, Adam Rasul, had purchased a surprise new car for his older brother. The two brothers had recently lost their Dad and been through a tough time so this was a gift to say thank you to his older brother for all the hard work he had put into the family business.
The older brother was told to pop in to the dealership to look at a car for Adam in his absence. He had no idea there was a car waiting for him.
Jordan Passade set up the vehicle in the handover bay and took the customer to look at it. The car was covered and alongside it was a message from Adam saying “To the world’s best big brother. Thanks for always being there for me. Dad would have been so proud of this moment. This one’s for him.”
Both brothers were blown away by the handover and the work Jordan put in to it to Make It Special.
Charles Crossley (left), Head of Sales, congratulating Vicky Sweetman.
Award Nominee, July 2024
Vicky has Made It Special for two clients this month.
In the first instance Mr John Egerton was due to take delivery of his Range Rover Sport SV ONE just one week after his first baby was born. Vicky prepared a new-born baby bundle handover gift for the client and this was in the boot when he picked up the car. Safe to say the customer was blown away with the gifts!
The second instance was for the client Mr Goodwin. Vicky knew that Mr Goodwin was a huge Manchester City fan so did a handover gift which was a bottle of Man City themed Vodka.
Glenn Cunnington (right), Head of Business, congratulating Fran Fergusson / Stacey Higham.
Award Winner, May 2024
One evening in early May, Stacey Higham, our Service Supervisor was driving home and passed a vehicle on the hard shoulder. Recognising it to be one of our customers, she called Fran Ferguson, one of our Master Technicians whilst turning round.
Stacey came to a stop near the customer, to discover that they had not only broken down, but had no phone battery. Stacey called JLR Assist whilst Fran left his house with a number of tools, and also attended to the customer by the side of the road.
Fran got the vehicle driveable, bought it back to the Retailer, Stacey opened the business back up, secured a loan car for the customer, and left them to drive home.
Fran returned to his (now very cold) evening meal.
Charles Crossley (left), Head of Sales, congratulating Vicky Sweetman.
Award Nominee, April 2024
Vicky had a handover for a couple who had just had a new baby.
Vicky made the effort to purchase a baby blanket for the couple and had the baby’s name embodied in to it.
When they came in to do the handover, Vicky had positioned the blanket on the back seat of the car, ready for them and the clients were delighted.
Glenn Cunnington (right), Head of Business, congratulating Kailum Bolton Wright.
Award Nominee, March 2024
A customer brought his car in for a theft mitigation recall which had only been released the week before.
Whilst the vehicle was on site, Kailum ensured a rear light was also fixed at the same time, rather than needing to return at a future date.
Kailum provided regular updates to the customer whilst he waited in the showroom and the work was completely promptly.
You are a credit to Sytner Stockport, for the professionalism and customer service you provided to me in sorting the rear light out for me. Take a bow for a fantastic job and a very happy service customer. I am sure some do not appreciate the challenges you have but I just wanted to say thank you from me.
–
Paul Curtis (left), Head of Aftersales, congratulating Jeremy Lane.
Award Nominee, February 2024
We had a car in the workshop for repair and the client was in a courtesy car.
Jeremy had to call the client to advise the work would take longer than expected and he would need to stay in the courtesy car.
The client advised he had important work documents in his car that he needed to access so he would need to come back in the dealership to collect them.
Jeremy made the decision to take the documents to the client himself on his way home from work, adding over an hour to his usual commute time.
James Dixon (left), Used Car Sales Manager, congratulating Sophie Jones.
Award Nominee, May 2023
Our customer was due to pick up her new car on her 40th birthday. Sophie surprised the customer with flowers and balloons when she came in for the handover.
Charles Crossley (right), Head of Sales, congratulating Beth Smith.
Award Nominee, April 2023
Our customer was celebrating her 21st birthday and her parents had bought her a car as a surprise.
When asked if we could cover the car to surprise her, Beth went the extra mile and arranged a gift, card and also arranged for the handover bay to be dressed in balloons including giant EMMA balloons.
Charles Crossley (right), Head of Sales, congratulating Matt White.
Award Nominee, February 2023
Matt’s colleagues describe Matt as a team player who can’t do enough for both colleagues and customers.
Last week, Matt got a special mention in two customer CLP responses for the AFTERSALES DEPARTMENT. Matt puts a lot of time in to customers who have already purchased from us and his references from Aftersales CLP have really brought this extra effort to fruition.
He is the team member most the likely to have the highest retention, due to the rapport he builds with his customers, the relationship from there on it and his willingness to help them through their aftersales journey.
1) Matt White, he was very obliging and nothing was too much trouble2) Matt White... original sales contact. Matt made a point of saying hello… Smart and professional… I would have employed him
– 1) Mr Anthony Pattinson 2) David Lennon
Charles Crossley (right), Head of Sales, congratulating Aiden Phillips.
Award Nominee, June 2022
Aiden received a fantastic piece of unsolicited feedback from a customer, highlighting an above and beyond level of service. The content of the email is below.
Good afternoon Glenn. I hope you don’t mind me contacting you directly like this but I just wanted to let you know how pleased we were with the customer service we received from Aiden. In a world of complaints and bad reviews I think it is only fair to show gratitude and praise where it is deserved. Aiden went above and beyond to make our experience as pleasurable as possible and in a time which makes it difficult for the car market he communicated so well and kept us up to speed at all times. His honest and open approach was refreshing and left us enjoying the process thoroughly. He is an amazing asset to your sales team and I hope his efforts and hard work get recognised working the business. I would consider Aiden a friend after this experience and look forward to dealing with him in three years to get another new car. His attention to detail and answering his phone even on his days off and especially on his birthday half way round a golf course made me feel that he had a vested interest in the sale process and it was nice to have him there. Enough of being soft now. Let’s not tell him and get his ego going. We both know it’s big enough. But I couldn’t let it go unrecognised. Thank you so much for your time Many thanks Phil graham & Kirsty pollard.
– Phil Graham
Not possible as Caroline is away from the business (left), Not possible as Caroline is away from the business, congratulating Caroline Heaney.
Award Nominee, May 2022
The day after us running a coaching session with the Service Advisors around ‘being helpful, Caroline was faced with a customer who came in without a booking reporting low coolant. Rather than send them away, Caroline explained what we could do for them: top it up and give it a quick check, and that this would hopefully resolve the issue.
It did, and the customer left with their problem fixed and them thinking that we had definitely gone Above and Beyond.
Brian Cusick (right), Front of House Manager, congratulating Jeremy Lane.
Award Nominee, March 2021
Jeremy is always prepared to go the extra mile for his customers, he values very highly the relationships that he has built up with them and does not hesitate to take on the customers concerns and make them his own. He frequently delivers customer vehicles back to their home after he finishes work to ensure the customer receives their vehicle back on time and is not unduly inconvenienced.
Customers respond very positively to Jeremy’s outgoing personality and eagerness to help, this in turn develops into long term customer relationships.
I visited Guy Salmon Stockport on the 12th March for an oil change. The service is always impeccable. I was met by Jeremy who went above and beyond. Always a great service. Received impeccable service from start to finish. Jeremy is a credit to the team and was extremely helpful. Great experience!
– Annonymous
Paul Curtis (left), After Sales Manager, congratulating Lee Collins.
Award Nominee, December 2019
Our December Making it Special nomination goes to Lee for the impressive lengths he went to for a customer.
A customers car had been recovered into us where it needed various bits of work completed. The customer was very unhappy as he needed the car back that day for a trip to London he’d planned with his wife the following morning.
He requested his car to be delivered back to him at an address over 2 hours way, with no drivers available Lee stepped in and offered to deliver the vehicle that evening and get the train back home. This was completed in Lee’s own time, Mr Saunders was over the moon with the efficient service he received:
I am extremely impressed with the lengths Lee had gone to, ensuring that the trip to London happened and reassuring them of the high level of service at Guy Salmon Stockport…
Charles Crossley (left), New Car Sales Manager, congratulating Vicky Sweetman.
Award Nominee, December 2019
Our December Making it Special award goes to Vicky Sweetman, who delivered a car to a customer on Christmas Eve. They had spoken about a number of sweets and snacks that they enjoyed eating in many conversations during the purchase experience and Vicky remembered them all. She went and bought all of the sweets and created a personalised Christmas Hamper for the customer as a handover gift.
The customer was absolutely blown away that she had remembered the conversation and couldn’t have been more complimentary of Vicky’s level of service throughout. One very happy customer!
Paul Curtis (left), After Sales Manager, congratulating Martin Cassie.
Award Nominee, August 2019
Martin collected a customer vehicle from her home address to bring the vehicle in for service and left a chase vehicle at the customer house. Later on when the vehicle was ready the service advisor spoke to the customer and the customer indicated that she would like the vehicle delivered to her hair dressing salon that was 2 miles away from the chase car. We explained that the chase vehicle was at the house and that the vehicle needed to be delivered there and the customer agreed. However, Martin knowing that the customer was heavily pregnant took it upon himself to deliver the vehicle to the customers Salon and walked 2 miles back to the chase car.
James Dixon (left), Used Car Sales Manager, congratulating Kat Caddick.
Award Nominee, July 2019
Our nomination for the Making It Special award goes to our newest member of the Sales team, Kat Caddick. Kat joined us at the beginning of June and has truly embraced the “making it special” initiative. Her most recent example was for customers with two young children. Kat managed to settle the family into the dealership, built up some trust and figured out that the best way to enhance the customers experience would be to make a fuss of their children. She recalled that the little boy was a huge Captain America fan and his little sister was a huge Disney Princess fan. Upon vehicle handover Kat presented them with a Rapunzal doll & a Captain America action figure.
The customers had explained that they had a couple of difficult experiences when buying cars and had little or no trust in dealerships, however were complimentary of Kat and their experience at Guy Salmon Stockport. Kat has managed to restore their faith and hopefully secured a future customer for life!
John Horsey
Award Nominee, June 2019
Our June Making it Special award goes to John Horsey whose contribution to the business sometimes goes unnoticed and at 62 years old he progressed to the final of the Sytner Elite Technicians competition. John today is still the first person to put his hand up and take on engine and major unit repairs. He is now passing on his knowledge by mentoring one our four first year apprentices, which will be invaluable to the business in the future. If there is a customer problem at 5pm he again would be the first to volunteer and stay in an attempt to get the problem solved.
Well done John.
Glenn Cunnington (left), Head of Business, congratulating David Howell.
Award Nominee, February 2019
Dave Howell is our February nominee for making it special for a customer who bought a car from him recently. Unfortunately on collection, the customer noticed a very small scratch on his new car. David tried to arrange corrective action straight away, however, the customer advised he was going out of the country on holiday.
Immediately, David offered to pick the customer up on the day of his holiday, drop him at the airport and then arrange for the bodywork repair to be completed whilst they were on their family holiday. He then organised to pick the customer up again from the airport on his arrival back into the UK and took the customer home in his “new car”.
I am delighted with the way Dave has looked after me and would not buy a car from anywhere else, and he also saved me a significant amount in airport parking! Thank you.
Paul Curtis (left), Aftersales Maanger, congratulating Katie Gore.
Award Nominee, January 2019
Our January Making it Special nomination goes to Katie Gore, who recently called one of our customers to advise that that their car was ready for collection after being in the service department for repairs. The customer explained that they would be unable to collect as his partner was in hospital having a baby.
The following day the customer came to collect his car and Katie presented him with a Jo Malone Gift bag for his partner and well wishes from the team congratulating them on the Birth of their daughter. The customer was delighted with Katie’s thoughtfulness and even had time to post on our social channels
Hi Katie and team at Guy Salmon Stockport, thank you so much for the generous gift on the arrival of our baby girl.
Well done Katie
Charles Crossley (left), New Car Sales Manager, congratulating Paul Arnold.
Award Nominee, December 2018
Our December Making it Special award goes to Paul Arnold who stepped in to help a colleague recently.
A long-standing Sytner Group customer who had bought many cars was experiencing a few concerns with one of them. After restoring his faith in the Group, Hannah Baker sold him a Hybrid Range Rover as a surprise Christmas present for his son. Although Hannah was on annual leave and to avoid any delays, Paul offered to help to make sure that it all went perfectly. He arranged to pick the customer and his son from their home in Liverpool and upon arrival the surprise present was magnificently displayed in the handover bay, with a personal message to Roy and Neil from Paul thanking them. At the point of realising the car was for him, Neil was truly overwhelmed and they couldn’t have been anymore complimentary of Paul. Roy is now collecting another Range Rover on March 1st for himself and Neil is also in the process of ordering a New Evoque for his wife!
Good morning Charles,A massive thanks to Paul and you for last Thursday. It couldn’t have gone any better as Neil genuinely didn’t have a clue about his car. Totally surprised and overwhelmed. He absolutely loves the car.
Well done Paul. Fantastic team work.
Stephen Otley (right), Managing Director, congratulating Nicola Crook.
Award Nominee, April 2018
Never have we had a new team member come into our business and make such an impact in such a short space of time!
Nicola has received a tremendous amount of positive feedback from both customers and colleagues that it would be difficult to select one particular quotation that captures all of her amazing attributes sufficiently. She always remains super calm when dealing with difficult situations. She is an absolute joy to be around and she always has a super warm smile for everyone. She has a resolution for every occasion and she radiates infectious positive energy.
She truly is a superb asset to our business and Makes It Special for everyone, every day!
Jon Moses
Award Nominee, January 2018
We would like to nominate Jon Moses for the “Making It Special” award for this month. We often overhear exchanges with Jon and our customers and are constantly impressed with his professionalism, positivity and when required empathy during his every day role. Recently Jon was overheard having a conversation with one of our customers. Mr Jameel had been experiencing issues with his vehicle which were only presenting themselves on an intermittent basis but were leaving his car in a none drivable state. He had become quite emotional as the problems were causing him a great deal of stress. With only one vehicle the customer could not accommodate his young family. Jon went out of his way to accommodate the customer and eventually settled on a plan which involved Jon delivering the vehicle back to the customer and he was personally 100 % confident the vehicle was fully repaired. Mr Jameel was concerned that this would mean that Jon would not be able to return to work until 9pm in the evening but Jon insisted and reassured the customer this was not an issue. As the problems were intermittent Jon has since repeated this journey on another two occasions.
Jon is an incredibly committed, determined and valued member of the aftersales department and we feel privileged to have him on our team!
Stephen Otley (right), Head of Business, congratulating David Wong.
Award Nominee, November 2017
Our nomination for the ‘making it special’ award is David Wong. David has a loyal customer who has driven everything from Toyota’s to BMW’s and has always dealt with David. He was unfortunately diagnosed with Cancer, but thankfully he underwent a successful treatment and was cleared of Cancer shortly after.
When he found out that David was working at Land Rover, he came in to see him and look at the possibility of owning his first ever Range Rover Sport! After several cups of coffee and a good catch up, he placed his bespoke order from the factory. Around 2 weeks before the car was due to be delivered, his son rang David to inform him that sadly the Cancer had returned. After insisting that we would cancel the order due to his illness, his family decided that he would take delivery of the car and enjoy the vehicle that he had been looking forward to so much.
David was keen to treat Ken to something after everything he was going through so decided to take him out for dinner along with their two wives which was an enjoyable evening for all. Over the dinner table, Ken mentioned that a friend of his had been over to Germany to test newly available stem cell treatment and was advised of the same thing.
I think it is fair to say that Ken is now not only a customer for life for David & Guy Salmon Stockport but also a close friend.
Stephen Otley (right), Head of Business, congratulating David Wong.
Award Nominee, October 2017
David has a loyal customer who has driven everything from Toyota’s to BMW’s and has always dealt with David. He was unfortunately diagnosed with Cancer, but thankfully he underwent a successful treatment and went into remission shortly after.
When he found out that David was working at Land Rover, he came in to see him and look at the possibility of owning his first ever Range Rover Sport! After several cups of coffee and a good catch up, he placed his bespoke order from the factory. Around 2 weeks before the car was due to be delivered, his son rang David to inform him that sadly the Cancer had returned. After insisting that we would cancel the order due to his illness, his family decided that he would take delivery of the car and enjoy the vehicle that he had been looking forward to so much.
David was keen to treat Ken to something after everything he was going through so decided to take him out for dinner along with their two wives which was an enjoyable evening for all. Over the dinner table, Ken mentioned that a friend of his had been over to Germany to test newly available stem cell treatment and was advised to do the same thing.
I think it is fair to say that Ken is now not only a customer for life for David & Guy Salmon Stockport but also a close friend.
Graham Foster
Award Nominee, March 2017
Graham is an absolute treasure, a real gentleman. He greets every customer each morning that arrives in our Drive Through, he is so welcoming and friendly and we regularly receive positive feedback from customers about his pleasant demeanour.
He has an excellent memory, always surprising customers by remembering their names. The level of service he delivers is consistently first class. Graham works part-time, arriving early each morning, leaving to go home around lunchtime and it was during a recent review that he approached his line Manager to offer to come back to the business towards the end of the day as he thought it offered our customers an improved level of consistency, such a brilliant idea! He is always prepared to go above and beyond to ensure the customer is first. He always has a smile for everyone and is an absolute asset to our business.
Graeme Pickup
Award Nominee, February 2017
In the extremely busy period leading up to March, our Workshop Controller, Graeme Pickup, was phenomenal! He was instrumental in motiving and supporting our technicians to come in early, stay late and to work weekends in order to ensure that all vehicles for March deliveries were prepared in plenty of time, without, of course, having a detrimental impact on the day to day running of the workshop. He is a conscientious and a popular member of our team who has worked tirelessly to produce fantastic results. His consistent commitment to our business is unwavering and this was further demonstrated recently when he temporarily stepped into the Aftersales Manager’s shoes whilst he was away on holiday. Graeme’s tremendous effort and leadership ensured that the department exceeded target in February which was a great reflection of his hard work and determination. Graeme is a long-standing member of team Stockport, who is always on hand to look at problems and he is eager to talk to and help both colleagues and customers with the best advice he can give. We are incredibly proud to have him on our team, and we thank him for his continuous hard work and positive attitude. Well done Graeme.
Paul Daw
Award Nominee, January 2017
Paul was on a night out in town had been queuing for quite some time to get into a popular club when he saw his colleague Tia stumble out a little worse for wear. He jumped out of the queue and without making a fuss, he discreetly directed Tia to the foyer of the venue, where he ordered, and paid in advance, for a taxi to take her home (even arranging a pit stop to her local McDonald’s en route, at her request!). He then took the taxi driver’s mobile number and told him that he would call him in half an hour or so, in order for the driver to confirm that Tia had arrived home safely. What a guy! One Team? – You Betcha!
