How a customer became a friend

The Stephen James vision is to create a company where every employee develops five core values that are lived to their fullest.

They are: unquestionable honesty, people obsession, unrivalled service, outrageous creativity and making a difference.

The company’s ‘Living the values’ booklet adds on the cover “unlocking potential in our staff, our business and beyond”. It states that living the values can be life changing, literally.

Achievements recorded in the booklet include honesty – such as bonuses totalling £1,800 paid to service department staff after two managers admitted missing their turnover target by £800/0.2%.

Once a month staff at the Bromley dealership ‘make a difference’ by making 40 loaves of sandwiches for people sleeping rough.

Stephen James created Beyond Ourselves, a charity to support children and young people in Zambia. Several members of staff have helped build schools in Zambia.

The group also supports Action for Kids, an Enfield-based charity.

One sales executive devotes a day off each week to support disabled children and their families and staff at Ruxley support a local secondary school’s year 11 engineering course.

Early breakdown but 100% response

A customer who bought a new Mini Cooper from Stephen James wrote ‘100%’ on the customer satisfaction survey despite the car breaking down only 10 miles away.

BMW roadside assistance recovered the car and dropped it off at the dealership, but told the customer he would have to make his own way to Heathrow to pick up a courtesy car.

A member of staff offered the use of the Mini Cooper S he was driving for as long as it was needed.

When the car was ready two days later it was handed over with a full fuel tank and a bunch of flowers after a full valet.

Examples of how staff at Stephen James helped customers are part of the group’s ‘Living the values’ booklet.

One is about the owner of a 5 Series who noticed a problem with the air conditioning after it was delivered to their home.

A fitter drove his own car 40 miles to fix the problem. He didn’t get home until 10.30pm but said it was worth it “to earn a friend in a customer”.

Another customer bought a touch-up paint stick from the parts department, but chose the wrong colour.

Attempts to fill and repair minor scratches ended up with a result “that looked like a hedgehog had been dancing on his bonnet”.

The annoyed customer arrived at one of the group’s dealerships.

The car was taken to the bodyshop where a member of staff sanded down the botched areas, applied paint and buffed it down.

The customer was given a pot of filler for deeper scratches down the side and showed how to get a good result. Pleased, he called BMW customer service to say what had happened.