MAN Awards Top Dealers
MAN Truck & Bus (S.A.) (Pty) Ltd announced the winners of its Dealer of the year Awards 2015 at a gala event held at Kievits Kroon Country Estate on 13 March 2015. The Awards form part of MAN’s ongoing Network Development Programme where strategic engagement with its national dealer networks ensures capacity-building and ongoing improvement in sales and service outputs of individual company-owned and private-capital dealerships.
MAN Dealer of the Year Ermelo Truck & Bus
According to Geoff du Plessis, Managing Director, MAN Truck & Bus (S.A.) (Pty) Ltd, “Our 2015 Dealer of the Year Awards included 27 of our South African dealerships which were all judged according to key Performance Indicators and task-specific benchmarks applicable to respective departments within the dealership including sales, finance, parts and workshop. Performance in each area was measured by MAN internal auditors and IPSOS, a leading independent Customer Satisfaction measurement consultancy.”
Bus Salesman of the Year Paballo Sambo
Dealerships competed on an enterprise level in three categories including: Dealer of the Year; Parts dealer of the year; and Service dealer of the Year. Awards for exemplary performance on an individual level covered six categories including: MAN Truck Salesman of the Year; VW Truck Salesman of the Year; the Chairman’s Customer Service Excellence Award; TopUsed Salesman of the Year; MAN Financial Services Business development Manager of the Year; and Bus Salesman of the Year.
Chairman’s Customer Service Excellence Awards Chris Burger
“All audited metrics in the Awards scoring processed are monitored on a cumulative basis according to specific criteria, with results released quarterly and dealerships ranked according to their achievements in every aspect measured. The rankings are then converted to a total score, the highest determining the individual in each category,” said MAN Truck & Bus SA’s Head of Network Development, Ian Seethal.
The Dealer of the Year Award is judged on the achievement of predefined targets set at the beginning of the year for both vehicle servicing and vehicle parts departments of individual dealerships. Sales personnel are measured according to number of vehicles sold and the number of customers serviced.
“Improving overall dealer productivity and efficiency to elevate customer satisfaction are the key objectives of the MAN Network Development Programme and dealerships are visited by our Network Development team on a regular basis to discuss performance and assist in respective areas and disciplines, be they technical, commercial or administrative. The Awards are not just about meeting or exceeding sales targets but doing so in a way that builds genuine market intelligence through the capturing and processing of accurate data on all business processes in the dealership value chain,” Seethal added.
Scooping the prestigious Dealer of the Year Award was Ermelo Truck & Bus, an independent MAN dealership owned by Lambert and Henriette Roux. “Our entire operation is geared towards customer orientation and our staff at our Ermelo dealership worked together to raise customer satisfaction to new levels last year. Winning the MAN Dealer of the Year Award is an important accolade for our personnel, acknowledging that their efforts are recognised and that what they are doing in their professional capacity is right,” commented Henriette Roux.
The Parts Dealer of the Year Award went to Nelspruit Truck & Bus, an MAN-owned dealership. According to Dicius Mabunda, Branch Manager at the Nelspruit dealership: “Our Parts division deploys external service representatives who visit our customers regularly to promote and sell our parts catalogue. Their proactive efforts have been largely instrumental in our dealership winning this award.”
Parts Dealer of the Year Nelspruit Truck & Bus
MAN’s Service Dealer of the Year was won by Vereeniging Truck & Bus, co-owned by Bertie and Henriette du Plessis. “Achieving optimum customer satisfaction is all about long hours and commitment. The principle we follow to build enterprise success is to start with our own people. By keeping them constantly aware of our business objectives, they are able to make informed decisions and service our customers with maximum efficiency,” said Bertie du Plessis.
Service Dealer of the Year Vereeniging Truck & Bus
Henriette du Plessis added: “Our staff carries our business forward. They are the ones who service our customers directly and are therefore our number-one priority.”
MAN Financial Services BDM of the Year Hester Page
Individual Awards went to Henk Dique (MAN Truck Salesman of the Year); Dennis van Zyl (VW Salesman of the Year); Pabalo Sambo (Bus Salesperson of the Year); Willem Stols (MAN TopUsed Salesman of the Year); Hester Page (MAN Financial Services Business Development Manager of the Year); and Chris Burger (Chairman’s Customer service Excellence Award).
MAN Truck Salesman of the Year Henk Dique
MAN TopUsed Salesman of the Year Willem Stols
Stated Sarah Luthuli (Non-Executive Director, MAN Truck & Bus (S.A.) (Pty) Ltd): “The 2015 Awards were a great success and with the full support of the Executive Board of MAN Truck & Bus SA behind them, we wish all our dealerships every success in achieving their targets for 2016.”
With overall customer satisfaction and productivity metrics surpassing those of 2014, du Plessis concluded that the Network Development Programme and the Dealer of the Year Awards “have proved pivotal to ongoing improvement in MAN’s service to its customers, helping boost sales volumes and improving vehicle uptime, to the benefit of our customers and our dealers.”
