Sytner JLRS Division

Jaguar Land Rover South West London

Matt Chipper (left), Head of Aftersales, congratulating Kuram (Sunny) Balkhu.

Kuram (Sunny) Balkhu

Service Advisor

Award Nominee,

Great Client reviews on Google and he has gone above and beyond to step up to support his colleagues who are new to the Service Advisor role.

Paolo Bragalone (left), Sales Manager, congratulating Alfy Farook.

Alfy Farook

Sales Executive

Award Nominee,

Alfy received a nomination as he stayed late one evening to support Zain handing over a Range Rover Sport SV and even drove to Central London with the client and continued the handover at theirs as they had a small child with them who was very tired and need to go home.

Himaakshi Songra

Himaakshi Songra

Service Administrator

Award Nominee,

Himaakshi joined the service admin team in September thinking it would be all about job card prep and diary production and filing and learning invoicing…….how wrong this would be!

We closed the Contact Centre and before she knew it she was immersed in phone calls and bookings!    Then two of her colleagues were out of the business and Himaakshi was flying solo!

She stayed positive, kept calm and carried on!   Bookings continued and she was able to make many customers make plans.

She really did step up and now her colleague is back, she is ready to continue her learning with the team.

Natalie Walker (left), Senior Host, congratulating Lucy Forde.

Lucy Forde

Brand Specialist

Award Nominee,

Lucy receives untold amounts of positive reviews from clients!
She is always going above and beyond for clients in the lounge and going the extra mile for them.
The most recent event Lucy had an elderly client that had just bought a new car from us and needed assistance in getting their InControl/ MAPs downloaded. The client did not have a USB stick or know how to use one so Lucy drove home, bought him a USB stick, downloaded the MAPs and then came back into the office and downloaded these onto the clients for him, the client was delighted!
She also never fails to support any department in business and has a very can do attitude.

Andrew Potgieter (left), Head of Sales, congratulating Claudiu Todoca.

Claudiu Todoca

Used Car Prep Team

Award Nominee,

Claudiu has always gone above and beyond for not only clients but the team here too. He recently received two emails into the business from clients praising how professional he was and how much they appreciated him going out of his way to deliver there car back to them. Nothing is ever too much for Claudiu and he enjoys looking after out clients and making them feel special always. He has in the past travelled several hours in his own time to suit the clients needs.

'Thank you for sorting the car and I really appreciate Claude replacing the diesel too!' 'Thanks for the update. Claude was very professional, a credit to your business. '
–

Paul Moutarde (right), Head of Used Cars , congratulating Zaman Malik.

Zaman Malik

Sales Executive

Award Nominee,

Zaman has received countless amounts of fabulous online reviews – See below some examples. Daily Zaman gets some form of positive feedback from his clients. He has not been with us long but showing very quickly how good he is at going above and beyond for our clients.
Recently I have seem Zaman complete CITNOWs for his clients in such detail, making them very personal and delighting them before they have even met him or seen the car in question.
We also received a wonderful email from a complaint client who came in to collect their used Velar and ending up not being very happy with the car/ experience so Zaman stepped in to take over. Zaman spent 5 hours with this client, who was originally a different  Sales Executive’s client, the clients then placed an order for a Range Rover V8 and collected recently and were delighted.

'I have had a brilliant experience buying my F Pace from this dealership. Zaman went over and above to help secure the car I wanted, get it in for a test drive within a very narrow window and at short notice, and then delivered to me in time for a planned road trip. The post purchase care has been brilliant too and Zaman has helped me secure additional parts that I wanted. I would say that he has been incredibly proactive. Outside of my experience with Zaman, each visit to the showroom (I went 4 times) was brilliant, the team are incredibly hospitable and happy to help. Even fresh water out of a Jaguar bowl for my dog. Thanks guys, I am a very happy customer.''Second time I've purchased a car here and the service is always perfect. Zaman Malik was super efficient and helpful. I will definitely be back.''Sytner's Team, specifically Zaman Malik, but also Harry Marchbank and Ryan Bower-Moores could not have been more helpful, and made the process of finding and buying my ideal Jaguar F-Type straightforward, cost effective and pleasant. Zaman Malik was courteous and meticulous throughout the handover process, dealing with every requirement and the many questions I had, introducing me to the car in great detail, and ensuring that I had everything I needed.''From the day I walked into the showroom at South West London, Zaman Malik has been professional, enthusiastic, knowledgeable and efficient. I’m extremely pleased with the car and the thorough handover this afternoon. Nothing has been too much trouble for Zaman - I would happily recommend any friends to seek him out should they be looking at the Landrover/Jaguar range.',Team, I have to congratulate Harry and Zaman for yet another superb piece of work today. I cant remember too any occasions where I have been as impressed as this. Ramis client came today to collect a velar that we got from Stockport. Sadly they were not too happy with the overall condition of the car and had gone a little cold on the spec they had chosen and refused to proceed. After 5 hours, the funding being paid out and then ROA, and some outstanding work and perseverance from Zaman and Harry they have not only saved the a full house deal but they switched them to a RRS 4.4 V8 diesel which is going now and has generated more finance income. I literally fell off my chair when I finished my meeting with AP and saw they were having a v8 sport. In terms of going above and beyond and the extra mile this certainly falls into those categories. Guys thank you and very very well done. Just goes to show what can be achieved with positive mindsets, teamwork and determination. Superb.
–

Andrew Potgieter (left), Head of Sales, congratulating Lucy Forde.

Lucy Forde

Brand Specialist

Award Nominee,

Lucy has gone above and beyond both with our clients and staff, she received endless amounts of nominations for how helpful she is. She is always a pleasure to work with and has such a bubbly personality which is joy to be around. Lucy received countless amounts of online review’s from clients who cannot sing her praises enough!
She goes the extra mile always and spends time with her clients building report and ensuring they are comfortable while waiting for a service or collecting their new car, our clients go out of their way to tell us how amazing she is.
Below are just a few of the online reviews however these drop into us daily. She is an asset to the company and we cannot wait to watch and support Lucy in career.

'Just wanted to thank the RR team for all the help. Great service. Lucy Forde was incredible with the handover of the car explaining all the various elements. Never experienced that level of detail before. 10/10! Thank you all.' 'We have had many new cars over the years and more recently the hand overs have been a brief affair with no real time given to us to ask questions and familiarise ourselves with the new vehicle. This was not the case at Jaguar Sytner in Sunbury. Lucy Forde and the team were brilliant and looked after us all, including the hungry Labrador which she managed to find treats for!! She was attentive and could not be more helpful and we drove away very happy with the new car. We would definitely buy from Jaguar Sytner in the future. Thanks again.''The hand over of my new iPace was fantastic. Lucy Forde was very helpful, friendly, communicative and efficient. Really pleased with my new car and felt well look after by the dealership from the start.' 'I have dealt with many car dealerships in my time as a company car driver, and generally with not great experiences, however, I can say with a high degree of thanks that Lucy Forde at the Sytner Jaguar Land Rover team South West London has changed that view, she was extremely helpful and knowledgeable, and made my experience first class. Thank you Lucy for your understanding and making the whole experience a very enjoyable one .''I went into Land Rover today and a lady named Lucy Forde helped me to reset my In Control Land Rover app she was great and fantastic customer service. Would definitely go back to the Sytner branch again great staff and very friendly. Thanks'
– Several

Tony Cordona (left), Parts Manager, congratulating Zak Ugas.

Zak Ugas

Parts Advisor

Award Nominee,

Zak is very flexible and often steps in to cover the twilight shift for the team, he often volunteers to come in early, check, organise and put the parts away into the correct locations so the team do not have to which helps with efficiency.
He has a very can do and help attitude and promotes productivity by taking parts out to the Technicians.
The main event was in March he visited a friend who lives in Manchester and as he was close to Knutsford he went out of his way in his own time to collect a back ordered part for VIP client and delivered this directly to the client.

Andrew Potgieter (right), Head of Sales, congratulating Alexandra Pechi.

Alexandra Pechi

Brand Specialist

Award Nominee,

Alex was nominated by the team for being an overall amazing team player. He is always the first to offer support to Aftersales and Sales for our clients. Most recently Alex waited in the workshop for our clients car to be completed then delivered the car back to the client’s house in Kent after hours and was delightful to our client in the process.
He has received multiple google reviews throughout the time he has been here and never fails to go the extra mile.
He genuinely enjoys client interaction and our clients enjoy their interaction with him. He is a credit to us!

Natalie Walker (left), Senior Host, congratulating Angela Briant.

Angela Briant

Host

Award Nominee,

Angela Briant constantly receives untold amounts of Google reviews mentioning her personally, one Client even came back to drop Angela off a bottle of wine and thank you card for how well she looked after him in the lounge while he waited for his car to be completed.
She is personal with our clients and remembers names and small details about them so when they next visit she greets them personally.
She always goes above and beyond to support her team along with the Aftersales team with post visit follow ups when they need support. She is an asset to the team!

'Arrived at Sytner Landrover to collect my new defender, on arrival i was immediately welcomed by Angela who’s attention to detail and manners were impeccable''Very attentive staff especially Angela who checked on me several times in the waiting area.''I want to mention both Angela and Dhillon who went the extra mile''Angela was extremely helpful and such a delight … she looked after me with tea and coffee whilst I was waiting and made the experience brilliant'
–

Mark Bridger (left), Head of Aftersales, congratulating Katie McClean.

Katie McClean

Senior Service Advisor

Award Nominee,

Katie McLean is our Making It Special nomination for February for taking on the breakdown role with many distressed clients and receiving 10 gold stars in her first month, as well as many other positive comments. Well done Katie!

Richard Vieyra (right), Workshop Controller, congratulating David Pearce.

David Pearce

Technician

Award Nominee,

Mr Payne bought his car into us for battery concerns and after a tricky journey with his car since new, we had his car here for over a month trying to resolve the problems and awaiting parts. The Client requested a rejection and his money back but thanks to David Pearce meeting him in the lounge and taking time to go through the repairs and all technical details with Mr Payne, he is now happy to take and keep his I-Pace.
David went above and beyond for Mr Payne even offering his personal email for Mr Payne to use if he had any further questions or queries. Mr Payne was thrilled and has emailed me to say his I-Pace is working as it should and wishes to stay in the car.

In addition to this David has also arranged to assist a long standing client of ours, by completing the theft mitigation update at the clients house. This was David’s idea and the customer is over the moon.

David Edwards (right), Managing Director, congratulating Deon Pienaar.

Deon Pienaar

Workshop Foreman

Award Nominee,

Making it special in December
The fabulous Deon Pienaar is our worthy winner of the Making it special award for December 2023. There are many times this month that Deon has stepped out of the workshop to come and talk things through with our clients. The clients absolutely love to speak to Deon as he is able to explain things to them in a way that shows empathy for the situation they have found themselves in and in a knowledgeable way that develops trust and shows openness and transparency.
You are an absolute star Deon and last week you pulled out all the stops to support the New Car Team and to save the day. A huge Well Done and Thank you for all you do and bring.

Andrew Potgieter (right), Head of Sales, congratulating Jonathan Cooper.

Jonathan Cooper

Sales Executive

Award Nominee,

Making it special in November
Our wonderful winner for November is Jonathan Cooper. Not only has he been awarded the Making it special award he has also been with the Group 10 years so supper efforts Jon.
The reason for the nomination is that Jon took a call from a very distraught client. The client thought they had misfueled their Range Rover Evoque. She needed a special tool that Jon knew where to locate one. The car was stuck on a forecourt so Jon went to the rescue and saved the day. The client bought Jon a box of chocolates to say thank you. Thank you from us Jon for Making it special in November

Ellie Bridgman (right), Front of House Manager, congratulating Jim Panayides.

Jim Panayides

Host

Award Nominee,

Making it Special in October
Our wonderful Jim Panayides has been nominated and been awarded Making it Special in October for our clients. There is not just one event that has made Jim a worthy recipient. He regularly is mentioned in online reviews either Google or Trust Pilot. Some of the words used to describe him include ‘Jim couldn’t do enough to help me and my family, excellent, kind, Jim finds a solution – he is amazing and kind, always a warm welcome from Jimmy, Jimmy is exceptional.’
Fabulous words of encouragement for your level of supporting our clients Jimmy. Jimmy has many clients that come in year after year to see him and will make a point to spend time catching up with them and also catching up with their families. He will always find a way to help clients and does love a chat as soon as he finds out if people have any allegiance with Scotland or Cyprus …
Enjoy your vouchers and parking on site for the month of November.

Andrew Potgieter (left), Head of Sales, congratulating Keith Dadds.

Keith Dadds

Mobile Technician

Award Nominee,

Making it special in September
Our worthy winner of Making it special goes to Keith Dadds. Keith only joined us recently, into the SWL family, in his role as a Mobile Technician. He has fully embraced this role and since he has joined there has only been raving reviews flying in. Feedback has come through Google and Trust Pilot and also helping support the Service Voice of Customer Scores.
Words that have been used to describe him include friendly, polite, very knowledgeable, professional, punctual, helpful, offers first class service.
Thank you Keith for your commitment to delivering excellence and making it really easy for clients to do business with us. Keep those reviews flying in ..

Andrew Potgieter (left), Head of Sales, congratulating James Burton-Smith.

James Burton-Smith

Sales Executive

Award Nominee,

James Burton-Smith is our worthy recipient for Making it special in August. One of his long standing clients was attending her daughter’s wedding. They are all massive Defender fans and James organised for one of our Defenders to join the Wedding weekend.
Izzy who is the daughter of James’ client sent in the most wonderful card to say thank you . She felt it was very special to have our vehicle parked outside the church and the venue for the big day.
Thank you so much James, as this was definitely a beautiful example of how our Brands mean so much to our clients and to make someone’s wedding weekend is absolutely perfect—thank you …

Not applicable (right), Not applicable, congratulating Hayley Palmer.

Hayley Palmer

Corporate Administrator

Award Nominee,

Making it special in July
This month our wonderful recipient of our Making it special award goes to Hayley Palmer—Corporate Administrator. Normally I would dissect the feedback and put together a lovely paragraph on how special Hayley is and what she brings to the business. This time I will let the wonderful client Mesa Kitaya’s words do the talking as I couldn’t say it better myself:

I just wanted to write to you to give some feedback on the staff member I dealt with regarding my new car through Leaseplan.
I have dealt with Hayley since the very beginning and she has been nothing but extremely helpful to me. The car order was initially placed back in February and after placing the order I wanted to change the colour of the vehicle and Hayley very kindly explained what I needed to do. Once that was all done I come into branch to have a look at the vehicle and every question I asked was answered well.
I finally got a date to pick the car up which was the 14th July, however after going in to speak to both Hayley and Simon I made it known that I would need to collect the day before Hayley then went above and beyond to contact Leaseplan to get the collection date moved forward which she easily managed to do.
I must not forget how thorough Simon was when explaining everything to myself and my partner upon collection of the car.
I just want to reiterate how brilliant Hayley was, her customer service skills were excellent and she really did go above and beyond for me. I really hope that you share this feedback with Hayley as she is a credit to your company.
Many Thanks
Mesa Kitaya

Thank you Hayley for all you do and please do not forget to park your car onsite in the allocated bay as part of your prize

I just wanted to write to you to give some feedback on the staff member I dealt with regarding my new car through Leaseplan.I have dealt with Hayley since the very beginning and she has been nothing but extremely helpful to me. The car order was initially placed back in February and after placing the order I wanted to change the colour of the vehicle and Hayley very kindly explained what I needed to do. Once that was all done I come into branch to have a look at the vehicle and every question I asked was answered well.I finally got a date to pick the car up which was the 14th July, however after going in to speak to both Hayley and Simon I made it known that I would need to collect the day before Hayley then went above and beyond to contact Leaseplan to get the collection date moved forward which she easily managed to do.I must not forget how thorough Simon was when explaining everything to myself and my partner upon collection of the car.I just want to reiterate how brilliant Hayley was, her customer service skills were excellent and she really did go above and beyond for me. I really hope that you share this feedback with Hayley as she is a credit to your company.Many Thanks
– Misa Kitaya

Rob Gicquel (left), Front of House Manager, congratulating Katie McLean.

Katie McLean

Senior Service Advisor

Award Nominee,

Our wonderful Senior Service Advisor Katie McLean has been nominated and won our Making it Special in June. She has had so many Gold Stars from clients that in one week alone nine reviews came flying in one after another. A follow-up email is now sent daily to our service clients that left the day before and the wonderful words coming in for Katie run from friendly, helpful, an asset to Sytner and the Brand, organised, fantastic at communication to tailoring each client journey to each specific client.
Really well done Katie—you are a shining light in our wonderful team and showing the way to driving in our positive scores.
Thank you for your commitment to our Modern Luxury dress code and for finding the way to deliver the Modern Luxury concept of Excellent service

Wendy Beatty (right), Head of Customer Service, congratulating Lisa Richards.

Lisa Richards

Accounts Assistant

Award Nominee,

Our worthy recipient for May 2023 is part of our Accounts team – the wonderful Lisa Richards. As a Service Team we would not be able to be as effective without her guidance and support. She will make sure the minute an invoice has been raised the team have a client on their way to pick up and pay. She is ferocious in chasing unpaid invoices and always has the business in the forefront of her mind to drive as much money into our bank. If there is a receipt missing she is as quick as a whippet to challenge the team and to support looking for the elusive receipt and also finding a way to make sure we learn any new processes that might help us all. Not only does she look after the Service teams she can also be known to step in to support any department and also supports the Bracknell team when required. Thank you Lisa you are a supportive superstar.

Andrew Potgieter (right), Head of Sales, congratulating Mirza Rasheed.

Mirza Rasheed

Sales Executive

Award Nominee,

Our worthy winner of Making it Special in April is the marvellous Mirza. He makes his customer experience the main focus of the sales process. You can see that he thoroughly enjoys the interaction with the clients and can see many of our wonderful clients enjoying the handover experience in our handover bays.
Mirza uses social media, especially Linked-in, to spread the news of his fantastic handovers and how excited his customers are to collect their new cars.
As Mirza has looked after the customers so well he feels confident in asking for the Survey and this you can see in his re-turns and scores. He currently has 16 returns with a NPS of 94. This is a fantastic score and sits above the JLR New Car Sales expectation of 92.
As well as a thank you with some vouchers, Mirza also gets to park on site in a coveted space as a big thank you for making our customer experiences so wonderful.
Have a look below at some of the wonderful photographs of Mirza and his customers.
Thank you Mirza keep the wonderful reviews flying in!

Andrew Potgieter (left), Head of Sales, congratulating Kelwyn Colaco and Harry Marchbank.

Kelwyn Colaco and Harry Marchbank

Sales Executive and Business Manager

Award Nominee,

We have a celebration of two colleagues for March.
Kelwyn set a new record of handovers in March as well as maintaining a Voice of Customer score of 90 with the most returns – apparently more in this month than all of last year! . He also managed to secure new orders. He could not have done this alone and was ably assisted by Harry Marchbank for the finance, Digi file and customer interactions.
Well done to the both of them and here is to many months ahead of this focus – thank you. Please share the bay in the holding area for the month to park your car inside

Andrew Potgieter (left), Head of Sales, congratulating Richard Vieyra.

Richard Vieyra

Workshop Controller

Award Nominee,

Richard only joined our business recently and has made an impact very early on. Thank you to Richard for his positive attitude in what is an ever-changing world at the moment. He is tenacious to get customer cars through the process, staying late to make sure all is finished off correctly and to plan for the next day. He is dedicated to making our workshop efficient and for being aware that there is a customer waiting to get mobile again at the end of the day. Thank you to Richard for such a positive start and we are really all excited to see where your journey with Sytner takes you.

Andrew Potgieter (right), Head of Sales, congratulating Claudiu Todoca.

Claudiu Todoca

Driver

Award Nominee,

Well we have a FIRST. Our Above and Beyond Winner for Quarter 4 2022 is also the recipient for the Making it special award in January 2023. A huge congratulations and thank you to Claude Todoca. Not only was he nominated by colleagues on site he was recognised by Becci Langdon—JLR Divisional HR Manager.
“I would like to nominate Claudiu, he constantly displays the values of the company, and is one of the few that sees when people need help and provides it without having to be asked. We were onsite at South West London and had been to collect lunch for some guests, and were carrying it back to the retailer. As we were walking across the car park, Claudiu must have seen us through the showroom window and immediately came out to us and immediately carried the box that we had with us. He made sure that it was taken upstairs where we wanted it. Later, the same day a new colleague had been blocked in, as soon as he was asked Claudiu knew who we needed to talk to, but again without any prompting went himself to find the colleague to ensure that our new colleague could leave. I often witness how helpful he is to colleagues and customers, and he always greets you with a smile and asks how you are. I genuinely feel that he demonstrates our values on a daily basis and consistently sees where help is needed and provides it without being asked.”
A big thank you to Becci for nominating Claude and a big thank you to Claude for all you do.

Alberto Conde (left), Workshop Manager, congratulating Lee Newell.

Lee Newell

Technician

Award Nominee,

Making it Special in December:
I would like to say a big well done and thank you to our worthy Making it Special December winner—Lee Newell. Lee is one of our experienced Technicians and was nominated by his peers for the hard work he provides to the business not just in December, but month on month throughout the year. He aids other Technicians when requested and provides solutions when needed especially to his Apprentices. He is an amazing asset to the team along with his knowledge and experience.
Thank you Lee for all you do and bring to the business.

Paul Moutarde (left), GSM Used Car Sales, congratulating Jon Cooper.

Jon Cooper

Sales Executive

Award Nominee,

Our worthy recipient for November is Jon Cooper. Jon regularly receives super feedback through his personal attention he gives to his customers, but this month he simply excelled. One of our customers purchased a New Range Rover and wanted to take delivery in Coventry. Jon went out of his way to deliver the car, making the Handover Experience extra special. There was no part exchange to bring back and so Jon simply made his own back to his inconvenience not the customers.
Another customer Jon made happy was Mrs Patel. The car unfortunately showed some issues shorty after purchase. Jon made sure the work went through the workshop seamlessly and then, along with Paul Mourtarde, arranged to deliver the car personally back to the customer and to start the handover again as if it is the first time and she was thrilled.
We regularly receive fab feedback for Jon and a customer recently commented: “Jonathan was fantastic from our initial meeting right up to handover. He kept in constant contact and was very well informed.” Thank you so much for all of your customer focus Jon you are super …

Ellie Bridgman (right), Front of House Manager, congratulating Amy Harwood.

Amy Harwood

Service Administrator

Award Nominee,

Please let me celebrate with you our winner of Making it special for October—Amy Harwood, our Service Administrator.
Amy has not been with us for very long but in the short time has really stepped in and supported the team beautifully.
Many customers have called in, written in and sent in 5 star reviews and VOC scores. Amy is an absolute pleasure to be around and is always quick to jump into any situation. She embodies the JLR Customer First Principles and uses these every day to make sure she is driving Excellence in the Customer Journey.

Wendy Beatty (left), Head of Customer Service, congratulating Natalie Walker.

Natalie Walker

Brand Ambassador

Award Nominee,

This month I am delighted to share that Natalie Walker has been awarded our Making it Special award. As you are aware Natalie is instrumental in leading the Host team—making sure we have enough of the team where they need to be to drive the excellent customer service that our customers are expecting as they walk into or call into our beautiful dealership.

Every month she runs an hour session where she brings the team up to speed on any changes and makes sure the team are all delivering to a high standard. The feel and ambience of the lounge needs to be calm and swan-like and Natalie is a massive part of this.

She is very committed to the team welfare and makes sure everything runs smoothly. She goes the extra mile to make sure customers are welcomed and leave with a big smile on their faces. Thank you Natalie for all that you do …

Ellie Bridgman (right), Service Reception Manager, congratulating Bethany Jenner.

Bethany Jenner

Service Advisor

Award Nominee,

Bethany has had so many positive responses from customers in August that really shows how she has been following Customer First Principles.
Two customers made their views known which consequently led to her Making it Special nomination – Mr Doyle and Mr Holmyard. Mr Holmyard was absolutely thrilled with the extra support that Bethany offered. Two parts were on back order and Bethany did all she could to ask the Parts department to escalate the issue and parts were found at a different Sytner dealership. She kept Mr Holmyard updated throughout and then once the car was ready to go back she made sure the boot was full of branded treats.
Thank you Bethany for going surprising and delighting these customers.

I have had recent visits to JLR SWL, despite the fact I just showed up with a breakdown issue – Bethany was helpful, explained everything clearly and made sure I felt important to both them and Sytner. I’ll be back – I couldn’t be happier
– Mr Doyle

Ellie Bridgman (left), Reception Manager, congratulating Luke Buckingham.

Luke Buckingham

Technician

Award Nominee,

Luke has spent a week recently working with the Service Advisor team. He was supportive and approachable and added value to the team talking through technical queries. If a customer needed some more information he was more than happy to jump out to support the customer and the team.
Luke offers technical knowledge in a way that can be understood—clear, succinct and without jargon, indeed in layman’s terms.
He has recently offered to assist with the workshop control team which has supported the business, but also has assisted in Luke learning new skills.
Luke always looks to see what he can do to support and make a difference every day in the business. Thank you so much Luke.

Andrew Potgieter (left), Head of Sales, congratulating Shyraz Faisal.

Shyraz Faisal

Business Manager

Award Nominee,

This month we would like to celebrate Shyraz Faisal, one of our Business Managers that is responsible for retention of business.
He has grabbed this role with both hands and is liaising beautifully with the service team to understand who is coming in and what customers make sense to catch up with to see what he can do to support them into a newer car. He finds a loan car for the customer to test drive whilst the car is in being serviced and spends as long as is needed discussing the customer’s options and requirements.
Indeed with a Mr Parabaran, Shyraz spent hours working out a solution that would work for his growing family.
With a Mr Shay he understood that he was unhappy with his current I-Pace and did all he could to ensure we kept him in brand despite having a torrid time with his I-Pace and the problems it was giving him. He worked so hard to actually persuade Mr Shay back into another I-Pace.
Really well done and thank you Shyraz.

Ellie Bridgman (right), Front of House Manager, congratulating Bhavan Patel.

Bhavan Patel

Technician

Award Nominee,

This month we would like to celebrate one of our super technicians Bav Patel. He has been stepping into a Workshop Controller role as well as supporting the Service Advisor team with some difficult customer conversations.
As the Service Advisor team are growing their knowledge, he is willing to guide them through cases, but also able to step in and have direct conversations when necessary. Only the other day he spent time with Mr Parabaran after his shift had finished to reassure him and go through what his concerns were with his vehicle, he also talked through what our plans were for the fix. He even handed over direct contact details so if customer had further questions he would be able to support him further. Perfect example of making it special—thank you

Ellie Bridgman (right), Service Reception Manager, congratulating Adam Smith.

Adam Smith

Technician

Award Nominee,

Our Making it Special nomination for April goes to Adam Smith. He has been an instrumental part of the Work Experience season. Adam has provided mentoring to support the students in over 200 hours of practical experience in our workshop during March and April.
Never once has he said no to a request to take on a new student and sometimes even has two students at a time. He has a positive attitude towards their learning, taking care to show them what he is doing and why it’s being done.
Adam has encouraged the students into stretching their learning and given them valuable information about his journey in the industry. Adam has been an excellent role model for the students he has worked with. Some feedback from the students: “I have loved every minute of my work experience” “I felt like I actually worked here, Adam gave me so much to do” “Working with Adam is so much better than college!” Comment from a parent – “He is loving it, he comes home covered in grease with a huge smile on his face and can’t wait for the next day”

Andrew Potgieter (left), Head of Sales, congratulating Alex Watts.

Alex Watts

JLR Embassy Diplomatic and Military Sales Executive

Award Nominee,

Alex Watts is our worthy recipient for Making it Special in March.
An incident occurred out on the motorway and Alex left the showroom in the pouring rain to help a disabled man in distress, who had a 3 car collision out on the motorway.
He stopped traffic as the passer by reversed back up the A316 to our showroom.
A little shaken up the man came into Reception to ask if anyone saw the accident on Reception, we offered him a coffee made sure he was okay and then went on his way. The host team were blown away by Alex’s kindness—thank you Alex

Ellie Bridgman (left), Service Reception Manager, congratulating Lauren Eacott.

Lauren Eacott

Service Advisor

Award Nominee,

Well what we can say about Lauren Eacott. She has really taken like a duck to water to her role as a Service Advisor—we always knew she would, but it took some persuading!

The volume of positive emails, five star Google reviews and Gold Star survey responses are forever flowing in. Even when a situation does not go to plan:

  • Mr Gray commented: “Lauren is a star and does her utmost to recover the situation.”
  • Mr Byatt commented “Lauren was excellent—fantastic at resolving issues.”

Both customers resulted in FAB Gold Stars.

Thank you so much for the super hard work you put into the role Loren—keep the excellent feedback coming in…….

Ellie Bridgman (right), Service Reception Manager, congratulating Savannah Nicks.

Savannah Nicks

Service Advisor

Award Nominee,

Wow what a start to the Service Advisor role! Well done Savannah, she is our worthy winner of Making it Special for January 2022.

Within the first few weeks she has received two excellent five star reviews:
Mr Joseph “Excellent service from all involved from start to finish.  Savannah was friendly, efficient, informative and complemented the Jaguar brand”

Second customer: “I left my car here to get an MOT, I was overjoyed to hear from Savannah in Service that it had passed with flying colours.  I then came back to collect my vehicle and I was in and out in 10 minutes.  I will definitely be coming back and would highly recommend”

Keep them coming Savannah …

Samantha Leighton (left), Host Team, congratulating Claude Todoca.

Claude Todoca

Driver

Award Nominee,

I would like to let you know of an occasion when I feel Claude went above and beyond for one of our customers.

During the Christmas period on the 29th December I took a call from one of our customers, whom had broken down on the A316 MacDonald’s roundabout. She had had Land Rover Assist out to her earlier in the day and they had told her it was her key battery but they did not have one to replace.

She was very stressed as she had two young babies with her and was asking if there was anything we could do to help her. I called Claude to see if he was able to go out to her and try to save the day, which he did. Claude did just that and changed the battery for her and got her back on the road to which she was very grateful.

I feel Claude should be recognised for this, going out of his way to go above and beyond and give one of our customers a 5 star service in a very stressful situation.

Ellie Bridgman (left), Service Reception Manager, congratulating Katie Mclean.

Katie Mclean

Service Advisor

Award Nominee,

Congratulations to our super winner of Making it special for November. Katie is one of our fab Service Advisors that has had so many positive comments from customers that made her such an easy nomination. Customer have shown their appreciation through emails into the business, gold stars, presents and five star reviews. Some words that have been used to describe Katie are generous, nothing too much trouble, very helpful, impressed with level of service, great communication, an asset. Thank you so much Katie for all you do and well done

Wendy Beatty (left), Head of Customer Service, congratulating Jim Panayides.

Jim Panayides

Host

Award Nominee,

Our worthy recipient this month is Jim Panayides.
As you all know Jim has been with the business for a while and he certainly knows how to build rapport and have a conversation that makes the customer feel warm, welcomed and part of our family.
One of our customers Mark Rapley, Director of Ergo Consulting Ltd emailed in to say a big thank you to Jim for the 5* service he offered. Mark and his family were driving to the South Coast and the RAC recovered the car and delivered it to our site. Mark arrived at our retailer to expect all in hand. We were not aware that the car was on its way to us and Jim welcomed the customer at Reception. Jim listened to the customer’s plight, reassured him, sat him down and made him feel comfortable with a hot beverage and that he had come to the right place to be looked after. Jim then liaised with the Service Advisor team who were super in dealing with the paperwork etc, within 10 minutes of the car coming off the low loader and he could get on his way. Jim then made sure that the customer was well looked after and the customer wanted to thank Jim for his ‘ very helpful and reassuring customer service focussed approach.’ Thank you Jim

Ashley Southam (left), Used Car Sales Manager, congratulating Suki Gill.

Suki Gill

Sales Executive

Award Nominee,

This month we would like to celebrate Suki Gill. As a Sales Executive he has been instrumental in driving in excellent reviews into the Sytner website and Five Star Google and Trustpilot ratings.
We have even had customers writing in as they have been so pleased with the level of service offered by Suki. Some of the quotes from customers were: “Suki was a real pleasure to deal with,” “Suki Gill … was very knowledgeable, honest and responsive,” “exceptional level of service,” “friendly, courteous and professional.”
Thank you so much Suki for this Rockstar approach to delivering an excellent level of service that is clearly natural to you. You have been flexible and adaptable to the needs of our ever-changing customer base. Well done Suki and THANK YOU …

Wendy Beatty (left), Head of Customer Service, congratulating Katie Edmonds.

Katie Edmonds

Reception Host

Award Nominee,

Katie Edmonds has been recognised for our Making it special award for August 2021. She was nominated by the Host team. One of our customers came in with her husband partaking in the delight of our ‘while you wait’ service. The lady had recently been having chemotherapy treatment and had commented to Katie that this was why she had no hair. Katie took the time to sit with her and have a long chat, when she carried out a little Miss Marple activity and found out she worked in a local school. As the customer has been vulnerable during the Covid pandemic she had to be away from the school for quite a while. Katie made a point of making a note of the school and that she was returning this week. She has gone out of her way to go and delivered some flowers to the school. We think this is a beautiful gesture and reflects what a compassionate person she is. She carried all of this out in her own time and really went out of her way to make someone’s day and to make them feel so special. Thank you Katie, we are delighted you are part of our team.

Laura Barley (right), Financial Controller, congratulating Lorna Weir.

Lorna Weir

Sales and Corporate Administrator

Award Nominee,

Our worthy respondent of our Making it Special award for the month of July is Lorna Weir. Lorna has been instrumental in learning how to deal with HMRC and the DVLA processes and forms on how to export cars to Europe post-Brexit.
She has been recognised for a car purchased through the Embassy route for a customer called Antonio who was delighted with Lorna’s support. Tim Carter, Manager—Special Programmes for Fleet and Business, contacted into the business to add: “Can I just add my thanks on behalf of the Europe Region for the excellent work done by the Sytner team and particularly to Lorna. A really good job which exemplifies the Above and Beyond value.”
Well done and thank you Lorna.

Alex Scott (right), Franchise Director, congratulating Peter Rozario.

Peter Rozario

Service Advisor

Award Nominee,

Peter is our deserved winner of Making it Special for June.
He alone has received 13 Top Scores for the Voice of the Customer and has taken over the While you Wait Customer role and is delighting each and every customer.
Mr Hicks wrote in to recognise Peter for how he was treated on his recent visit – well done and thank you Peter.

I wanted to share some feedback regarding my experience with Guy Salmon and your colleague Peter. I met Peter a few months ago and he is without doubt one of the most personable and professional people that I have dealt with since I bought my first Range Rover 11 years ago. I have had a few schedule services with my car recently and I have to say, Peter has been brilliant at keeping me informed, always available to speak to and very prompt to any requests. He is an excellent ambassador of your company LR brand - a real asset to your business!
– Mr Hicks

Ellie Bridgman (right), Service Reception Manager, congratulating Lauren Eacott.

Lauren Eacott

Service Administrator

Award Nominee,

This month’s worthy recipient of Making it Special is Lauren Eacott.
Lauren has worked so hard on two particular customer scenarios. Both by coincidence I-Pace customers – Mr Gamble and Mr Cocks.
Lauren has built up such a relationship with Mr and Mrs Gamble that they want to either recruit her into their company or adopt her! Two of their I-Paces have gone wrong and they have rejected both the cars. Only with Lauren’s help to keep them in brand have we ordered the third car – third time lucky!
Mr Cocks wrote in to Ellie and I unexpectedly to offer his feedback on Lauren’s professionalism and how she turned around a really difficult situation: “her conduct, compassion and customer service ethic was so good I had to let you know what a great member of staff you have. I had a very difficult consumer experience with my new I-Pace and a number of unfortunate oversights in trying to arrange a warranty call. Lauren’s help and support was impeccable. She was understanding and empathetic in all occasions and worked tirelessly to ensure the situation was put right”
Great efforts Lauren, thank you.

Paolo Bragalone (left), New Car Sales Manager, congratulating Adele Chapman.

Adele Chapman

Business Manager

Award Nominee,

This month’s Making it Special winner is Adele Chapman. She was absolutely wonderful looking after one of our customers—Geri Winters. Mrs Winters has recently been widowed and her husband and her had been exceptionally loyal Jaguar customers of Thames Ditton.
Adele took the call from Mrs Winters who was beside herself as she never looked after these aspects of life and relied heavily on her husband to understand the ins and outs of buying and owning Jaguar cars.
He had purchased an I-Pace and set up the finance and then unexpectedly passed away. Geri rang in for support and guidance. Adele looked after Geri beautifully and guided her through the journey. Sometimes our job is not about the profit it is about doing something small to recognise when one of our customers is in a lot of pain. Thank you Adele.

Ellie Bridgman (right), Service Reception Manager, congratulating Laurence Stephens.

Laurence Stephens

Service Advisor

Award Nominee,

Laurence has become an exceptionally valued member of the Service Team in a very short period of time.
He is leading the way in perfect 10 scores from customer surveys and his customers regularly find their way to post excellent feedback through Google and Trustpilot. Some of the phrases used to describe Laurence are ‘excellent, professional, friendly, prompt, perfect, engaging, slick.’ A perfect mix for an excellent Service Advisor.
We have a customer that travelled 44 miles to come and be served by Laurence rather than to use his local dealership 4 miles away!
Thank you and well done Laurence!

Glen Smith (left), Service Manager, congratulating Dave Pearce.

Dave Pearce

Technician

Award Nominee,

A member of the public was travelling past our dealership on the A316 and he had broken down in a precarious place.
Dave was leaving work and saw the situation, he stopped and offered to tow the gentleman to a safe place to be able to get the support he needed. The member of the public was so overwhelmed with the support that they felt it appropriate to post a glorious five star review to recognise this effort.

I owe a big thank you to the GS staff member who rescued me today out of a dangerous situation on the A316.
– Mark Marston

Garry Winckley (left), Head of Aftersales, congratulating Ellie Bridgman.

Ellie Bridgman

Senior Service Advisor

Award Nominee,

A customer wrote in via email to Ellie to thank her. Ellie went above and beyond to delight this customer and many others. She definitely has the “own it, solve it” mentality.

Paul Moutarde (right), JLR Used Car General Sales Manager, congratulating Jack Bailey.

Jack Bailey

Sales Executive

Award Nominee,

A huge thank you for Jack for supporting the Sales Department in turning around what were some difficult situations. He ‘Owned and Solved’ an issue resulting in a satisfied customer. This is not the first time that Jack has jumped in to support the team – ‘One Team’ ethos at its best!

Kayleigh Harrop (left), Service Manager, congratulating Bav Patel.

Bav Patel

Technician

Award Nominee,

One of our customers came in recently and was expecting to be able to wait for his appointment. As we could not accommodate this due to the nature of the fix, the customer was understandably upset and due to work commitments would not be able to return to us until nearly Christmas. Bav overheard this conversation between Peter and Kayleigh and as he was off for the next 4 days, offered to go out to the customer home.

In the end, Bav went out to the customer’s house, once to diagnose the issue and secondly to fit the required part. The customer was absolutely delighted and emailed in to the business to express his gratitude and thanks. This was an exceptional level of service. Well done and thank you Bav!

Alberto Conde (left), Workshop Manager, congratulating Dave Pierce.

Dave Pierce

Technician

Award Nominee,

A customer went out for a test drive on a Saturday in one of our Pre-owned Discovery Sport models. The car unfortunately was then to break down.

Dave is one of our Land Rover Service Technicians. Dave just happened to be driving past and saw the car positioned at a busy junction andrecognised that the car was one of ours. He stopped, helped the customer to the side of the road and then called our Roadside Assistance. After waiting for assistance to arrive with the customer, he then brought them back to the retailer in his own car. As he was then at the retailer, Dave waited for the breakdown team to bring the car in, and then facilitated getting the car in to the workshop to have said car fixed.

Dave did all of this on his weekend off so a huge thank you Dave for this exceptional level of commitment to our customers!

Harry Marchbank

Harry Marchbank

Sales Executive

Award Nominee,

Our September Making It Special goes to Harry for his superb customer service. Since moving to the new site, our Google response scores have reset. This resulted in us being in a precarious position, every rating that dropped in had a massive impact on our score.

We pride ourselves on keeping the score above 4.2 and we saw a few poor reviews drop in that cause this to be impacted on dreadfully. Harry nearly single-handled turned this around and gave such an outstanding service to our customers that resulted in our score now sat at 4.4. Fantastic effort Harry thank you.

Chris Foy (right), Prep Supervisor, congratulating Tony Marshall.

Tony Marshall

Technician

Award Nominee,

Tony Marshall is out August Making It Special nomination, for going above and beyond for a customer.

Tony didn’t get back home until 9pm last night after helping sort out a customers car. He went out of his way and took the car to the house, had to come back with it to get a service light out that came on as he arrived to drop it off, he did the cross bars for her and fitted the roof box.

Further to this, Tony helped me hoover the car – put fuel in it for me and generally went out of his way to help both myself and the customer, he certainly deserves the recognition for that.

Garry Winckley (left), Head of Aftersales, congratulating Paul Nash.

Paul Nash

Master Technician

Award Nominee,

Our June Making it Special nomination goes to Paul for his outstanding customer service.

The customer had a  puncture and the spare wheel was the incorrect size. Paul collected the tyre from the customers home, repaired it and returned following day. He then collected vehicle and sorted out other issues. We then got a personal thank you from the customer, who wrote in to advise us of her delight:

I am writing to thank your workshop manager Paul for his incredible support a couple of weeks back…

Laura Barley (left), Financial Controller, congratulating Gillian Murray.

Gillian Murray

Accounts Assistant

Award Nominee,

Our July Making it Special nomination goes to Gilly who has worked flat out since being un-furloughed to support the Accountants and the wide colleague community.

She was nominated for the Award from both within and out of her team. Gilly has taken on the role of sorting out the archiving ready for the move to our new Statement site. This has been an enormous task and with both her diligence and attention to detail has made this task a success.

By Gilly taking on this role, alongside her regular tasks, has allowed the rest of the dealership to maintain their high standards of focusing on our customers. Well done Gilly and a fantastic effort – thank you.

Jerry Howell (right), General Aftersales Manager, congratulating Kayleigh Harrop.

Kayleigh Harrop

Award Nominee,

Kayleigh has become a Warranty wizard, handed over a sales car, cleared down Wip and still looked after the service customers. Her aim has been to get as many cars as she can back to the customers and also to bring in any cars for our NHS and frontline people to keep them mobile during this unsettling time.

Kayleigh has built a great customer relationship with an elderly couple who were worried about being in isolation without their car. She then found out their daughter was a nurse so asked to pass on our thanks and gratitude. Their daughter was exceptionally moved by this.

Thank you Kayleigh for your great customer relationship skills and taking jobs in your stride.

Jerry Howell (left), General Aftersales Manager, congratulating Paul Nash.

Paul Nash

Master Technician

Award Nominee,

Paul is our February Making It Special nomination, he has been an instrumental factor to the change we are seeing in our Workshop that is then filtering through to our Land Rover CEIP taking a strong step forward. He has a customer centric approach to everything he does.

Paul came out to talk to me about the car I was test driving, I loved hearing the technical knowledge from a Master Technician. He spent time with me and answered all questions I had with confidence…

Paul is a clear leader and even when awarding the prize to him today he mentioned the team he works with as playing a major part in the success. He is full of new ideas to drive forward productivity for his team and coaches them always with the customer at the forefront of all his efforts.

Darren Williscroft (right), Parts Manager, congratulating James Litrell.

James Litrell

Parts Advisor

Award Nominee,

Our January nomination goes James for his attentive customer care.

The customer was booked in for a service. He was offered the best advice on an air con service, brake fluid, coolant change, spare wheel, tyre and sealant kit. He was about to take a long journey to Dorset but had three punctures prior to the visit and so was nervous of doing the journey without a jack and spanner. The customer was really upset that he had paid all of this money for the spare wheel kit did not come with a jack.

As James has been a valuable member of the parts team for a while he remembered we had a spare jack hanging around and so kindly offered this free of charge to this valued customer.

Kayleigh Harrop (left), Service Manager, congratulating Oliver Stevenson.

Oliver Stevenson

Service Advisor

Award Nominee,

Our December nomination is Oliver for his outstanding efforts to make a customers experience seamless and effieicent.

Prior to this the customer had a poor experience at the retailer. The customer was booked in again and Oliver took it upon himself to grab the situation and turned it around so that the customer felt compelled to write in to offer feedback that was great to read.

Just a short note to thank you for fixing Anna’s car so quickly this time. The whole experience this time was 10/10 compared to last time but let’s not go there. But this time – and credit to Ollie – thanks for a very quick response, provision of courtesy vehicle immediately, good diagnosis of the problem, good communication throughout, paperwork, and cleaning/preparation of Anna’s car on return.

Kayleigh Harrop (left), Service Manager, congratulating Poppy Mackintosh.

Poppy Mackintosh

Service Advisor

Award Nominee,

A huge thank you to Poppy Mackintosh, our Service Advisor who has delivered such an excellent experience for our customers that they wrote in to thank her for all her efforts.

A sincere thank you for being so conscientious and incredibly helpful last week when it came to fixing my car. Whilst I was expecting to get a taxi home that evening when we discovered the extra issues with my car, your super thoughtful offer to drop me home was going above and beyond
Really great job and to excel like you have working in conditions under so much pressure is hugely pleasing to see. ‘
Thank you Poppy …..

Darren Williscroft (left), Parts Manager, congratulating Jamie Carpenter.

Jamie Carpenter

Parts Advisor

Award Nominee,

Our October winner is Jamie Carpenter, who always delivers an excellent service for our customers.  Recently, one of our customers was so pleased he wrote a Google review to thank him.

 Jamie in the parts department was extremely helpful. I tried at several other dealerships nearer to me first but Jamie was the only person who was able to solve the problem. He would definitely be more suited to a role such as sales due to his engaging personality and extensive knowledge of the product.

Well done Jamie

Kayleigh Harrop (left), Service Manager, congratulating Jay O’Brien.

Jay O’Brien

Service Administrator

Award Nominee,

Congratulations to our September  Making it special winner Jay O’Brien, who is a member of our Service Team.  She was nominated numerous times for two separate examples of going the extra mile. Early one Saturday morning Jay took a family to Gatwick to save them having to borrow a loan car to then leave it at the airport. She did this in her own time as she was concerned the family may have to take a taxi and with young children this would have been a chore. She made sure their car was ready when they came back from holiday.
The other scenario was an out of date MOT that Jay became aware of, she contacted the customer for them to bring their car in quickly, ensured the MOT was arranged and then delivered car back so the customer who was not inconvenienced any further. Thank you Jay—great examples of delighting our customers

Jerry Howell (right), Aftersales General Manager, congratulating Deon Pienaar.

Deon Pienaar

Master Technician

Award Nominee,

Our Making it special recipient this month is Deon Pienaar. Deon recently looked after one of our Service customers. He went out of his way to support her through her visit, making sure she was kept updated and understood the work that was completed and why. The customer had purchased the car from another Group and JLR Customer Experience team suggested she brought the car into us.

Deon sets a high benchmark and perhaps this should be shared with dealer networks. It should be what service teams aim for.  I would happily drive a long way to have the service we have had from Guy Salmon

Fantastic comments and hopefully a customer for life now. Thank you Deon

Jerry Howell (left), General Aftersales Manager, congratulating Angel Naydenov.

Angel Naydenov

Car Park Assistant

Award Nominee,

Angel Naydenov is our worthy recipient of the Making it special for July.  He is the first point of call for our customers at Kingston House, welcoming them to the site and shows them where to park their cars for their visit. He keeps the flow of the cars moving throughout the day.  This can be a challenging and frustrating environment with Kingston House positioning sandwiched between a paint shop, a hotel and a Honda garage! He does this with a smile on his face, a willing attitude and importantly speed. Since Angel has joined us the negative comments around frustration for our customers to park have diminished. Thank you Angel for all you do

Graham Walker (left), General Sales Manager Land Rover, congratulating Olivier Zilio.

Olivier Zilio

Land Rover Sales Executive

Award Nominee,

MAKING IT SPECIAL FOR OUR CUSTOMERS
Our Making it Special award this month goes to Olivier Zilio. Olivier was all set to handover a surprise birthday present for one of our customers and just before handover the car presented with a problem. The customer was taken on holiday for a week by her husband, which gave our team time to turn this situation around. Great team effort to do this. Olivier then organised to meet the customer at Farnborough airport. He organised to be parked on the runway and was there to surprise the customer. Our customer was delighted and whispered to Olivier that it was even better this way – better than what he had planned! Well done and a huge thank you for delighting this particular customer.

Jerry Howell (left), General Aftersales Manager, congratulating Lauren Eacott.

Lauren Eacott

Service Administrator

Award Nominee,

Our May Making it Special award goes to  Lauren.  We recently received an email from a customer who wanted us to know that she has an ‘absolute focus on customer service.’ The customers were frustrated about the situation they found themselves in with their car that they had brought in as a breakdown and Lauren who happened to be walking by, grabbed hold of the situation. The customer commented that she took complete control of a very emotional situation and lived up to the all of her promises. They felt she had an excellent can-do attitude and shone amongst her peers in the service industry and will be the reason they will return to Guy Salmon.

Lauren is extremely customer focused and this month alone has received two bouquets of flowers from different customers and also a thankful customer went on social media to praise her. Thank you Lauren and well done

Graham Walker (right), General Sales Manager, congratulating Jim Panayides.

Jim Panayides

Sales Executive

Award Nominee,

Jimmy has been recognised by numerous customers over the years. The most beautiful Google review came in recently from one of our longstanding customers.

Since 1982 I have bought every car I have owned from Guy Salmon Thames Ditton. I have bought countless Jaguars and Range Rovers and have always experienced exceptional support from both sales and service. Today I unexpectedly bumped into Jimmy Panayides in the service centre (he works in sales) and we were equally pleased to see one another. Jimmy beats the exceptional classification as not only is he good humoured, efficient etc. (ticking all the boxes on the survey) but he is honest and sincere. Buying a car from Jimmy is more like buying a car with a good friend that has your best interests at heart

This is an excellent example of how we would like all our customers to feel – part of our Guy Salmon family.  Well done Jim

Kayleigh Harrop (left), Land Rover and Jaguar Service Manager, congratulating Jay O’Brien.

Jay O’Brien

Service Administrator

Award Nominee,

Our March Making it Special award goes to Jay O’Brien, who looked after a customer who had  purchased a car from another Retailer Group and were presented with a host of problems within 7 days of purchase. Jay took control of the situation and made the customer feel nothing was too much trouble. Jay kept her constantly updated throughout.

Jay took complete control and immediately made me feel better about my worries but also made me feel a valued Land Rover customer.  Jay is extremely professional, but with a personal approach.  I am so grateful to Jay for making what could have been a stressful time, far easier

Well done Jay.

Kayleigh Harrop (left), Service Manager, congratulating Ellie Bridgman.

Ellie Bridgman

Senior Service Advisor

Award Nominee,

Our February Making it Special award goes to Ellie Bridgman who swiftly jumped into action to resolve a customer concern recently.  The customer bought a second car from us to add to an Evoque that he bought for his wife last year.   He had the car 1 week and completed just 53 miles when he had a breakdown which was handled poorly until Ellie got involved and won back his confidence by building up a rapport  with the customer.

I just wanted to thank you so much for taking such incredible care of me (and my car) over the past few days. You have been simply wonderful at keeping me up to speed and providing an exemplary and swift service throughout.  As I drove off this morning, I noticed the lovely treats you left on the back seats which, whilst totally unnecessary, were gratefully received. It is greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

Jerry Howell (right), Aftersales General Manager, congratulating Lukas Bentley.

Lukas Bentley

Bodyshop Advisor

Award Nominee,

Our January nomination is Lukas Bentley who recently helped regain the trust of one of our customers who had suffered a previously poor experience.

Lukas now deals with this customer personally irrespective of what the customer is coming in for. She was even that delighted on a recent visit hat she posted a great 5 star Google review.

Brilliant dealership! I didn’t even purchase my Range Rover Evoque from this particular dealership, but any problems I have had over the last year and a half have been dealt with by Thames Ditton. A special mention to Lukas Bentley, who has gone above and beyond to help resolve many problems I have had with my car, even when they are not specifically in his remit – he has been extremely helpful and accommodating and I cannot fault his customer service. I have also dealt with Kayleigh Harrop who has managed to resolve my most recent problem and actually listened to what I had to say.

He often steps in when there is any unfortunate onsite damage. His positive, pleasant demeanour has resulted in good CLP scores.  Well done Lucas.

Alberto Conde (left), Workshop Manager, congratulating Deon Pienaar.

Deon Pienaar

Master Technician

Award Nominee,

Our Making it special award for December is Deon Pienaar, who was able to resolve an on-going customer concern recently.

One of our customers, had been having numerous rattles within his vehicle and he advised that this had been the case for ‘nearly two years’ which he had become increasingly frustrated with.  Deon took on the challenge and was able to identify where the rattle was coming from and was able to replace the boot extension arm.  The customer was so impressed with the result that he sent an email in to express his gratitude and advise that Deon was indeed an asset to our team.

A big thank you Deon for turning this situation around, an excellent outcome

Jerry Howell (right), General Sales Manager, congratulating Christine Edwards.

Christine Edwards

Customer Relations Advisor

Award Nominee,

Our Making it special award for November goes to Christine Edwards. On a day out with her husband on the main road into Brighton they came across an accident. Christine looked over to see that one of the cars involved was one of ours and she recognised who it belonged to Mr Robinson, a long-standing, loyal customer.

Christine made her husband pull over and she went over to see if Mr Robinson was alright. As he is a sprightly 92 year old – he was shaken. She stayed with him until the services arrived.   On return to work a few days later, Christine checked in on him to make sure all was well.

Fantastic Christine – a very worthy recipient of the Making it special award.  Thank you

Jerry Howell (right), General Aftersales Manager, congratulating Sanjiv Panwar.

Sanjiv Panwar

Land Rover Service Advisor

Award Nominee,

Our October nomination goes to Sanjiv, who helped a colleague recently assist one of our corporate customers who had sourced their vehicle through another retailer.  They wanted to reject the vehicle due to a few issues they had been experiencing.

Sanjiv offered to assist Hayley who was unsure of the process to meet the customer where he walked around the car and explained all the service side of the business.  The customer was very happy with this and advised they would use our service department going forwards, as well as look to buy their next car from our site.

This is a great example of us working together as ‘One Team’ and we have gained future business – Well Done Sanjiv and Thank You

Daniel Hutchinson (left), General Sales Manager - Jaguar, congratulating Steve Bretherton.

Steve Bretherton

Jaguar Sales Executive

Award Nominee,

Our September Making it special award goes to Steve Bretherton who has worked tirelessly to encourage his customers to leave Google reviews and has resulted in nine 5 stars reviews.  Steve was the highest nominated person for his commitment to move Jaguar’s Google review target towards 4.0, along with his skill in building relationships with his customers. This has resulted in many long-term and loyal relationships . Thank you Steve

Paolo Bragalone (left), New Car Sales Manager, congratulating Craig Reilly.

Craig Reilly

Sales Executive

Award Nominee,

Our August Making it Special nomination goes to Craig who recently delighted a family when selling them their new car.  He built such a rapport with the family that he knew just the handover gift to give – a branded dog-bowl for their dog Bertie. The family were so touched that Bertie sent Craig a post-card thanking him.

Thank you very much for my smart new dog bowl! I really like it’ and the car is perfect for the family

Well done Craig and thank you for Making it special

Jerry Howell (left), Aftersales General Manager, congratulating Nick Woodward.

Nick Woodward

Land Rover Technician

Award Nominee,

Nick recently went out of his way to solve an ongoing problem for one of our valued customers. Nick thought out of the box to come up with a solution to a problem that had caused the customer a lot of inconvenience and stress.

My thanks to the technician Nick that worked on the car, his attitude was extremely professional and he did fix the problem

Nick turned around a situation that may have led to the customer returning his car, so excellent outcome for the customer and the business

Daniel Hutchinson (right), General Sales Manager, congratulating Ollie Robins.

Ollie Robins

Jaguar Sales Executive

Award Nominee,

Congratulations to Ollie Robins, Jaguar Sales Executive who has been recognised for the month of June for Making it special for our customers. Last month he received numerous wonderful comments through CLP and Google reviews.

Ollie was very patient and helpful.  Very personable and pleasant to deal with Helpful and knowledgeable.  Easy to talk to I feel welcome and valued.  Made the experience really enjoyable

Well done Ollie!

Wendy Beatty (left), Head of Customer Service, congratulating Mark Holman.

Mark Holman

Land Rover Team Leader

Award Nominee,

Our nomination goes to Mark Holman, who was instrumental in making sure one of our customers who had a poor experience on their previous visit had a better one on their recent visit.  He owned their concerns and came up with the right solutions to make sure everything was correct this time around.  Well done Mark, great job.

I think (Mark’s) level of customer service has more than made up for the previous experience and really turned the situation from a negative into a positive, I couldn’t have asked for a better service from him.” Well done Mark and thank you

 

 

Graham Walker (left), General Sales Manager, congratulating Olivier Zilio.

Olivier Zilio

Land Rover Sales Executive

Award Nominee,

We are delighted to announce Olivier Zilio, one of our Land Rover Sales Executives for our April Making it Special Award Winner.

Olivier is a keen photographer and since March has been taking great photos of his customer handovers and also for many of his sales colleagues too! The photo is printed and framed before the customer leaves in their new car.  Olivier has worked hard to do this for so many of our customers and what made this particular occasion so special is that the customers father and mother were also present at the handover and had just arrived from India, so the customer was absolutely ecstatic and this is a photo that they will treasure forever.

Olivier’s thoughtfulness and hard work with his handover gifts has helped our Land Rover Sales team achieve 100% in our customer satisfaction score, resulting in Thames Ditton being number one in the country for April.

Laura Barley (right), Accountant, congratulating Trisha Stevens.

Trisha Stevens

Sales Executive

Award Nominee,

Trisha is always thinking of how to make her customers experience truly memorable and special when buying their Jaguar and this often reflects in the Customer Satisfaction comments.

In March one of her customers whilst purchasing their new Jaguar, had bought their children in with them and they were very excited to take delivery of their new car.  Trisha was thinking of what to get the customers children as a gift and knowing how excited they were she came up with the idea of a Jaguar Cap for the summer and a Pencil Case for school for each of them.  The children were so delighted with their gifts that they drew her pictures of their new car and bought them into the showroom to say  thank you. For a customer and their family to take time out of their day after the handover and the children to make the effort to draw pictures to thank Trisha for their new car means that Trisha really has got it right with making it special with this customer.

Needless to say we received glowing customer feedback about this and also highlighting how we were not the cheapest, but the service was personal and a pleasure.

Jerry Howell (left), Aftersales Manager, congratulating Yiannos Praos.

Yiannos Praos

Service Advisor

Award Nominee,

Yiannos is always consistent in providing our customers with an excellent service, but in particular this month he has gone that extra mile to exceed their expectations and make the customers experience special.

One of his Customers had lost her husband unexpectedly and with a young family to bring up. On a recent visit to have her car looked at, Yiannos identified that she was struggling, so arranged to collect her car another time to make it a little easier for her. He collected the customers vehicle on a weekend in his own time and offered to help her with the children whilst she sorted some bits out. He made sure he followed this up by liaising with her when the vehicle was in the workshop and also delivered her car back to her afterwards.

Yiannos also drove one of his customers to Heathrow airport on a Friday night out of hours to help out a customer whose car had unexpectedly broke down. He went out of his way, changed his plans and committed himself to delivering excellent customer service. His ‘thinking outside the box’ and positive attitude has made both these customers experiences truly special.

Berengar Needham

Berengar Needham

Parts Apprentice

Award Nominee,

Congratulations to Berengar Needham from our Parts department, for the great work he has been doing in developing our new parts distribution process.

Berengar has received many nominations from both his colleagues in the department and also from the technician team and sales team.  Berengar has stood out – going out of his way to ‘make it special’, and is a great team player.  He has been improving the service given to the technicians as he is delivering parts to their ramps and assisting them in getting the right parts and avoiding the need for the technicians to wait to be served, allowing them to concentrate on fixing the cars!

This is a new initiative for our business and whilst there have of course been teething problems – Berengar’s positive attitude has really made a great impact!   Well done!

Daniel Hutchinson (left), Sales Manager, congratulating Rachel Case.

Rachel Case

Sales Administrator

Award Nominee,

We are delighted to announce Rachel as our December Making it Special Award. Every month Rachel receives many nominations from her colleagues, in particular from our Jaguar sales team for her continued support, doing the job correctly every time and liaising with customers to get correct documentation to them, helping the Jaguar team to a top quartile CLP YTD.

All year she has done a perfect job to support the Jaguar Sales Exec’s and Sales Management to deliver perfect customer experiences. She ensures not only her job is done perfectly consistently, but also everyone involved to ensure nothing goes wrong with the customer deadlines. She always goes above and beyond and demonstrated this when our Used Car manager left, she has stepped up and done extra work to support the Sales Management and has ensured we are still making it special for our customers. Rachel is always willing to help those around her and is often the go-to person for her team. Without her attention to detail and efficiency, it would be much harder to provide our customers with the best service. Well Done Rachel and thank you!

Daniel Hutchinson (right), General Sales Manager, congratulating Dominic Said.

Dominic Said

Sales Executive

Award Nominee,

Dom is always consistent in delivering outstanding customer service and over the years here, he has developed great, loyal relationships with many of his customers. In October, in particular, he had just delivered a used car to a Mr May, a customer of his who recently had his XF stolen. While waiting for the insurance to be paid out Dom has been assisting Mr May with speeding up the pay-out process by offering advice while keeping the customer calm as he was incredibly shaken up by the whole affair. During the handover, Mr May was trying to tax the car online but was experiencing issues which would not allow payment to be taken, this again caused Mr May some distress, leaving him with his head in his hands.

Dom stepped in and paid for the road tax himself which diffused the situation, putting a huge smile on the face of Mr May and even made the distinguished chap swear with gratitude! Obviously, Mr May has agreed to pay Dom back but that is going above and beyond… well done Dom!

Daniel Hutchinson (right), General Sales Manager, congratulating Dominic Said.

Dominic Said

Sales Executive

Award Nominee,

Dom is always consistent in delivering outstanding customer service and over the years here, he has developed great, loyal relationships with many of his customers. In October, in particular, he had just delivered a used car to a Mr May, a customer of his who recently had his XF stolen. While waiting for the insurance to be paid out Dom has been assisting Mr May with speeding up the pay-out process by offering advice while keeping the customer calm as he was incredibly shaken up by the whole affair. During the handover, Mr May was trying to tax the car online but was experiencing issues which would not allow payment to be taken, this again caused Mr May some distress, leaving him with his head in his hands.

Dom stepped in and paid for the road tax himself which diffused the situation, putting a huge smile on the face of Mr May and even made the distinguished chap swear with gratitude! Obviously, Mr May has agreed to pay Dom back but that is going above and beyond… well done Dom!

David Edwards (right), Head of Business, congratulating Deborah Lancaster.

Deborah Lancaster

Front of House Coordinator

Award Nominee,

Mark Holman

Mark Holman

Service Advisor

Award Nominee,

Mark was nominated by several of his colleagues for his outstanding customer service and care for others. He works extremely hard with his team and is a delight to work with. He is always helpful with customers even those that he has not been dealing with and will go out of his way to help them without any hesitation and always has a smile on his face. Mark has a very positive attitude towards work and is a great support to his team!

Well Done and thank you!

Julie Eacott

Julie Eacott

Receptionist

Award Nominee,

We are delighted to announce Julie Eacott as our winner for July’s ‘Making it Special’ Award. Julie has been nominated by her colleagues for her outstanding work on our service reception area and for dealing with all of our customers so well every day. Julie has been a breath of fresh air here and her contribution to making our customers feel valued at that first point of contact we believe is having a very positive effect on the whole place. We have also received great feedback from our partners at JLR about her hosting skills so if they see it the customers certainly are. Not only is she amazing with our customers – she is amazing with the team. She gets stuck in – has spent this last week washing all the cups etc. with her bare hands as we have had no dishwasher, she is always happy with a smile and our customers love her! She has received numerous mentions in CLP as well as direct emails about her welcome manner and how lovely and efficient she is. First impressions make a difference and we can’t thank Julie enough for the impact she has had on our business and our customers. Well Done Julie!

Kayleigh Harrop

Kayleigh Harrop

Customer Service Manager

Award Nominee,

We are delighted to announce Kayleigh as the winner of June’s Making it special award. Kayleigh always gives her best every day and has grown as a Manager in our business and continually puts our customers and her team’s needs before her own, a shining example of getting it right and making it special. She consistently goes out of her way to make customers feel special whether it’s taking their dog for a walk while they are having their car serviced or sending flowers and getting a customer’s car delivered to the hospital because his wife has gone into labour. Kayleigh’s kindness is not just in the workplace, when she was on her way to a course, whilst driving on the motorway she saw in her rearview mirror a car behind her swerve and crash into the barrier and off into the verge. Kayleigh pulled off immediately and ran back down the hard shoulder to see if he was ok, she then stayed with him for over an hour to offer comfort and to ensure he was alright until the ambulance arrived, out of the kindness of her heart.

Well done Kayleigh, very well deserved.

Darren Jones

Darren Jones

Parts Advisor

Award Nominee,

Darren has been nominated by his colleagues every month so far as he gets fully involved in helping others in his team and will go out of his way to do so. Darren is consistent in his job, providing great advice regarding parts and accessories and continues to go above and beyond for his customers both internally and externally. He has been recognised by his colleagues and management, but most importantly customers who often give feedback for his cheerful and positive attitude towards his work and where nothing is too much trouble.

Well done Darren and thank you.

Deon Pienaar

Deon Pienaar

Master Technician

Award Nominee,

We are delighted to announce Deon as our winner for April’s Making it Special Award. Recognised by his colleagues and management, but most importantly customers who have been grateful for his careful and methodical work in diagnosing and repairing their troublesome cars. Deon is a Master Technician and is called on for advice by customers and colleagues and he gives of his time and knowledge willingly, assisting in both thoughts and physically to achieve a breakthrough in repairs.  He is also a man who focusses on selling hours and despite his assistance to others, he was again over 100% efficient in April.

Well done Deon and thank you.

Clem Porter

Clem Porter

Award Nominee,

Our winner for March is Clem Porter. Clem was nominated by 5 members of our team for her exceptional efforts in assisting the whole team to deliver a successful, record-breaking month. Clem has worked tirelessly throughout March, putting in many extra hours and organising her driving team to ensure all vehicles’ are prepped and ready for handover stage. She is a real team player and no job is too much hassle. A real asset to Guy Salmon TD! Thank you, Clem!

These are some of the reasons her colleagues supported her nomination – “Her devotion and ‘Carry On’ spirit is what drives our Department, she makes all of our jobs that much easier”. “She has worked tirelessly for the whole of March (well since she started at Guy Salmon actually) She makes sure the job is done properly, and she does it all with a smile on her face. So Clem has made March special.” “Her hard work, tolerance and organisation skills in getting all the cars through the PDI Centre and where they needed to be at the right time. She and her team worked tirelessly over March and will, I expect, continue to do so for the rest of the year.”

Graham Walker (left), Sales Manager, congratulating James Dawson.

James Dawson

Sales Executive

Award Nominee,

James has been nominated by his fellow colleagues, for his all-around support within the dealership. James has been recognised for his internal effort and also the five gold stars he has achieved, which demonstrates his effort towards his customers as well. James has helped our new team members with their learning of product and systems, he has a big order bank himself and he continues to demonstrate great accuracy and diligence in his admin which has been noted by the team for making their life easier.

Jerry Howell (right), Aftersales Manager, congratulating Ellie Bridgman.

Ellie Bridgman

Service Administrator

Award Nominee,

I am delighted to announce Ellie Bridgman as our January award winner. Ellie was nominated by colleagues for the job she does both to support them internally and with customer visits. The feedback is always about her positive attitude, willingness to help all colleagues and her hard-working approach to getting the job done.

Well Done Ellie.

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