GEORGE NEWS - Toyota Motor Corporation and Toyota South Africa have over the years introduced many initiatives to promote high levels of customer service, with the yearly National Skills Olympiad competition one of the longest-running.
The National Skills Olympiad is an opportunity to recognise and reward the skills of the Toyota dealership staff. It encourages growth and career development by challenging employees' knowledge, skill and attitude.
Toyota South Africa's business objectives are supported by the vision of delivering supreme customer service. The National Skills Olympiad is a fair and credible competition. Participants are given the opportunity to compete against each other, in various categories, under the same conditions. The competition consists of two online questionnaires and a practical assessment for the top finalists.
Best Service Advisor
Elwina Mentoor won the category "Best Service Advisor". Her job is to liaise between clients, dealers and technicians. Mentoor accommodates all client needs and ensures that vehicles are delivered on time.
From left: Frans de Winnaar (Monitor Dealer Award), Elwina Mentoor (Best Service Advisor) and Jacques du Plessis (Lexus Sales Skills winner).
Top Monitor Dealer
Frans de Winnaar won the category "Monitor Dealer". His job is to send all the key performance indicators and market reports through to Toyota, as well as to report faults. This helps Toyota to sort out problems in vehicles quickly and efficiently.
Lexus Sales Skills Award
For the second year running, Jacques de Plessis has come out tops to scoop the Lexus Sales Skills Award.
Tough competition
The way to the top is by no means an easy one. First the contestants have to fill in an online questionnaire. The best candidates then go on to compete in the regional competition in Cape Town. The winners of this stage then go to Sandton Toyota Academy for the finals, which include a 30-minute product knowledge test, a 45-point test and face-to-face interaction. The competition also includes a dealership visit from a mystery shopper.
Jacques du Plessis (right) writing a skills exam in the finals.
TMC introduced the Skills Olympiad in 1967, involving only technical staff. The programme has expanded considerably since then and today Toyota dealership staff in 83 countries compete in a wide range of disciplines.
The first Skills Olympiad in South Africa took place in 1987 with 285 participants from 181 dealers and was limited to technicians.
The parts division joined the competition in 1988 and in 1990 the service advisor and truck (Hino) divisions were added.
The next big step was in 1995 when the sales division joined the olympiad. Followed by this was the addition of the Automark category in 2009.
2011 marks the year that Lexus Vehicle Sales joined the competition.
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