Volkswagen Aftersales achieves top honour
Volkswagen Ireland Aftersales has been awarded the prestigious honour of being selected by Volkswagen AG as its Aftersales Best Practice Importer in Europe this year. To mark this accolade Volkswagen AG Management and Heads of Aftersales for all European countries travelled to Dublin for a two-day conference focusing on the Irish strategy that has transported Ireland to the top position of the European table in terms of Aftersales business growth and Customer satisfaction growth.
Pictured is Alan Bateson, Volkswagen Ireland Head of Aftersales presenting a piece of Bog Oak to Peter Berggren, Head of Aftersales for Volkswagen in Europe to mark Ireland’s selection as Aftersales Best Practice Importer in Europe.
Commenting on the award, Alan Bateson, Volkswagen Ireland Head of Aftersales said, “We are truly delighted to receive this award and welcome our European colleagues to Ireland to showcase our strategic results over the last 3 years. In the Celtic Tiger Years many Irish businesses forgot about the customer after they had made the sale, whether that be a new car or any other product,” said Bateson. “In 2009 we sat down and devised a strategy to correct this and this was based on two key pillars, Better Service and Better Value. At the very base of these pillars was the belief that your Customer is for life and should never be forgotten.”
With this strategy in place Volkswagen Ireland Aftersales ensured that the Retailer network was included and over 2009 and early 2010 they set the building blocks that would achieve the Customer First focus they expected from every Volkswagen employee in Ireland.
The result was that during the first 3 years of this strategy that the Aftersales business operations changed immensely with the result that Volkswagen Ireland Aftersales currently occupy the highest turnover growth figures across Europe, with figures of 20% growth year-on-year forecast for 2012, and Customer Satisfaction indicators have moved from the worst in Europe to one of the best. These Customer Satisfaction figures have also been verified by independent surveys completed recently.
The other great news is that with growth there is job creation and the Irish Volkswagen network has seen around 100 additional jobs created in Aftersales so far in 2012.
Also commenting on the award, Peter Berggren, Head of Aftersales for Volkswagen in Europe said, “If you look at Ireland and their management focus they have great clarity in terms of aftersales, they involve the dealerships in the different programmes and things are working by having them on board and also it the implementation behind these programmes which makes the difference to Ireland. Ireland is an example to other markets. They have taken the opportunity of the crisis to get the dealers on board and to improve the Volkswagen brand.”
The Best Practice Conference took place in the Ritz Carlton, Powerscourt, Co. Wicklow and then moved to Frank Keane Volkswagen in Dublin, Volkswagen’s recent addition to their Irish network before finishing in the Guinness Store House in Dublin’s city centre.