Member Article

Yorkshire franchisee motors to the top

Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire Mercedes-Benz franchisee, Northside Truck and Van, which has dealerships in Leeds, Doncaster, Immingham, Hull, Sheffield, York and Bradford, has scooped three awards at the national Mercedes-Benz Truck Awards, including the prestigious Truck Dealer of the Year title.

Northside Truck and Van, which is headquartered in Doncaster, also won the Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Truck Team trophy, while truck sales director, Ben Sowersby, took the honours on behalf of his team when he was named Truck Sales Manager of the Year at the awards ceremony which took place on 13 February in London.

Underlining its all-round strength, the company additionally made the final three in the Truck Sales Team and the Truck Customer Service Dealer categories, the latter focusing on after-sales back-up. Truck sales executive, Tony Birtwistle, was also a runner-up in the Truck Sales Masters Member of the Year class and one of only four sales executives nationally to win a Diamond Club award in recognition for his tally of rigid vehicle registrations.

The above awards have cemented significant growth for Northside Truck and Van in 2014. “It was certainly a great year, thanks to another magnificent effort by the company team,” recalled dealer principal Tim Ward. “We’ve made fantastic progress across all parts of our business and it’s gratifying that our achievements have been recognised by the manufacturer.”

Van victory

Northside’s awards success has not been restricted to its truck offering either. At the Mercedes-Benz Van Academy Awards ceremony, held previously, a strong performance by its light commercial vehicle sales team earned van sales director, Leigh Margel, the new title of Van Sales Leader of the Year.

Key to the company’s success in registering nearly 1,000 more new vans last year than it did the previous year, was its accreditation in 2014 as one of the country’s first Mercedes-Benz Van ProCenters. This international programme puts customer care at the very top of the agenda.

Northside continues to make investments in people and facilities across all of its seven branches. Having opened its new Immingham dealership and invested an additional £1.5 million in the business last year, the company is now pumping another £2 million into its branch network in 2015. Topping the agenda is a major refurbishment and extension of its Sheffield facility which is just getting underway.

Training is key

“We firmly believe that if you invest in your infrastructure and in training, then your staff will be more motivated and engaged, with the result that they also become more productive and, crucially, customer satisfaction improves,” added Tim Ward.

More than half of its 440 employees have now been through Northside’s ‘Ten steps to good customer service’ programme. This stipulates, for example, that incoming telephone calls must be answered within 10 seconds, that vehicles will be ready for collection within 10 minutes of the agreed time and that unscheduled repairs must be started within 10 hours. “This isn’t just a cosmetic exercise,” insisted Tim. “We have systems in place to ensure these things actually happen.”

Northside Truck & Van sells and supports the award-winning Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicle and FUSO Canter light truck ranges from a network of Yorkshire branches in Bradford, Doncaster, Hull, Immingham, Leeds, Sheffield and York.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Approach PR .