How to enter

To nominate someone for the AM/Shell Helix Service Receptionist of the Year Award, you will need to supply the following:

  • Name and workplace of the nominee

  • What qualities does your service receptionist bring to the job?

  • One example of outstanding service from your nominee when he/she has gone above and beyond the call of duty

  • How important is the role of the service receptionist to your customers’ loyalty and how do they drive repeat business?

  • Full contact details for your business

    This can be emailed to: AM@emap.com (please make the subject of your email ‘competition’).

    All entries to be received by July 18, 2006

    Successful service receptionists need the same selling ability as staff in the car sales department, says Mahinder Gill, managing director of Denkale, which operates solus Chevrolet dealerships in Reading and Southampton.

    “The best service receptionists are people who have moved over from the sales department into aftersales, and are well skilled with a selling base,” he says.

    Denkale has shuffled sales staff into service advisor roles several times. Providing they are given targets and incentives, says Gill, they are extremely effective at driving repeat business, building the customer relationship and up-selling aftersales work.

    He says good service receptionists promote extra services such as engine-flushes, additives and injection system cleaning, and can make the customer feel they are getting added value. Key traits are a good product knowledge, a positive manner and understanding, and sympathetic nature for dealing with customers.

    “Good sales people, when incentivized, do up-sell effectively,” he adds.

    The Judges
    Stephen Briers AM magazine
    Caroline Missen Shell Lubricants
    Sue Robinson franchised dealer director at the RMIF
    Roger Putnam president of SMMT
    Patricia Richards chief executive of Automotive Skills