Where RRG was run with a “rod of iron” by Michael, Swansway is collaborative; the management is on-site and accessible. Even Michael still spends time in the business, though not full-time.

Everyone in the business has access to the directors, meaning problems are not left to escalate and issues are resolved quickly.

The brothers tell unprintable anecdotes of unscrupulous or dishonest staff and in many cases their point is that staff could have come to them with the problem much quicker than they did to see it resolved.

As a result, Swansway has, for nearly a year, had a free 24-hour phone hotline, operated by a third party, that staff can use, anonymously if they choose, to raise issues and make complaints to the directors. The Smyths don’t want it to take the place of staff being able to talk to them, but it is another avenue of communication.

The communicative approach saw the staff help develop the customer satisfaction charter, or ‘customer delight’, hand in hand with a determination to ensure staff satisfaction.

Swansway took on John Lewis’s former customer services director Andrew McMillan as a consultant to formulate the strategy, finalised in 2011.

The results were three values: caring, honest and proud. So, care for staff and customers and being part of Swansway, being honest and transparent in dealing with customers, suppliers and brand partners, and proud to be part of the group, the team, the “immaculate centres” and Swanway’s performance.

All staff are included in the programme, it’s a part of staff inductions and the words are used on all external communication.

A group customer delight manager, Sue Cook, was appointed in 2011. Her job is to help sales and aftersales teams improve their delivery of the right customer experience, bearing in mind staff are ‘internal customers’.

A demonstration of the ethos was the introduction of ‘customer delight boards’ at all sites. These are a means of communicating positive customer feedback and exchanging best practice, deliberately out of the structured, meeting room environment – “more coffee break and a chat,” say the Smyths – and are much more effective for it.

In the same year as the creation of the customer delight plan, Swansway’s three-site Audi territory came in at number two in the Audi Q Power League with a focus on excellent customer experience. Volkswagen Commercial centres in Preston and Liverpool achieved a one and two ranking in the country.