Orwell Truck & Van sells and supports Sprinter, Vito and Citan van models bearing the three-pointed star from five locations in Norfolk, Suffolk and north Essex, while S & B Commercials operates from three sites in Essex and Hertfordshire.
The two Dealers have kept all of their workshops open throughout the pandemic. Members of the new contact centre team have also relieved branch-based colleagues of some of the burdens of basic administrative work, freeing them to focus on service quality and the provision of regular, timely progress updates to customers.
While the usual glamorous celebration was
clearly a non-starter, Mercedes-Benz Vans was determined that lockdown
restrictions would not prevent it from highlighting the achievements of those
who went ‘the extra mile’ for their customers and communities last year.
Broadcast live from a studio in Salford, the
event was brilliantly hosted for the fourth year running by sport and music
radio and TV presenter Colin Murray. Sharing the stage with him – but
appropriately distanced – was Mercedes-Benz Vans Managing Director Steve Bridge.
Motus Mercedes-Benz Division Head of Marketing Tom Sunderland said while the contact centre went ‘live’ shortly before the first lockdown – causing “quite a few challenges” – it had been fully up and running since the beginning of June.
Since then contact centre operatives had made
more than 7,000 workshop bookings and allocated over 3,000 sales enquiries to
sales colleagues. The two Dealers’ Mercedes-Benz Vans ‘mystery shop’ scores had
also shot up, and both were well ahead of target in terms of the numbers of
customers electing to fix their maintenance costs by signing up to
Mercedes-Benz ServiceCare plans.
“We have seen a real transformation in performance across the various areas of influence the team has on our business,” revealed Tom. “Not only do the numbers look great, but the team are also building some great relationships with our customers, working directly with larger fleets to schedule their vehicles in advance for services, MOTs and recalls. Their hard work means we are now retaining more of our customers, and they are receiving a first class booking service.
Accepting the Team of the Year award by video link, Contact
Centre Manager Astra Sinclair, a former Senior Service Advisor, was quick to
praise the contributions of her colleagues Kerry Chatten,
Amy Claxton, Emma Clennell, Will Higgins, Marcus
Killett and Joel Windsor.
“It was a really challenging year for us, as for so many others, but they’ve all done an incredible job. We’re now really looking forward to a return to some kind of normality in 2021.”
The Motus Group (UK) acquired Orwell Truck & Van in 2013 and S & B Commercials the following year, and continues to invest heavily in their branch infrastructure, with more exciting developments due to be completed over the coming year.