The 2022 AM Awards winner of Franchised Workshop of the Year is Marshall's Mercedes-Benz South Lakes business.

A laser focus on data, communication and training has helped position Mercedes-Benz South Lakes as a perfect performer within the German brand’s aftersales network.

The business was operating at a loss in 2019, but has since turned this around to a profit in 2021 on the back of a digitalised service booking facility and workshop utilisation of 109.1%.

Mercedes-Benz South Lakes’ aftersales department is a critical contributor for profitability with return on sales of 3%. This has been underpinned by a 100% score in Mercedes’ 2021 CSI rankings, placing it first among 130 other businesses across the UK.

The workshop was already operating at a 95% CSI score in 2019 and that last 5% can be tricky to close down, but the business’ focus on making servicing and MoTs “as painless as possible” for customers has delivered that final push.

Mercedes-Benz South Lakes empowers customers by giving them options to book and interact with the servicing department online without needing to pick up the phone.

Customers can access an online portal through an initial SMS message to book a service, request a loan car, describe specific issues and access bespoke offers with discount codes.

Embracing digitilisation has seen an 85% increase in service bookings done in this way between 2019 and 2021.

The richness of Mercedes-Benz South Lakes’ customer data proved invaluable when the Covid restrictions came into place and MoT and service intervals were increased. The workshop was able to successfully contact all customers to inform them of when they needed to come in and this boosted business throughout 2021.

Customer retention has increased by 5.7% to 55.6%, a particularly impressive feat as a franchised workshop’s bread and butter is 0-3 year-old vehicles, which have seen declining sales across the industry due to supply issues.

The workshop doubled its efforts on improving its retention of three to six year and six years and over vehicles with a 16% and 21% increase respectively.

The team at South Lakes remained engaged and motivated throughout the lockdowns with online training, which has resulted in all five technicians now qualified to carry out high voltage work on electric vehicles (EV). This has set the workshop up for the future of increased sales of EVs and plug-in hybrids.

This is a workshop that is seriously proud of its people and continues to invest in their future for the shared success of all.

Finalists:

• Marshall Peugeot Cambridge
• Marshall Mercedes-Benz South Lakes
• Milcars Mazda
• Ryders of Warrington
• Steven Eagell Toyota Birmingham