Accolades all around

Hino has honoured its best and brightest at an award ceremony held in conjunction with other Toyota South Africa Motor divisions, Toyota and Lexus, at the Cape Town International Convention Centre – with the evening delivering a few pleasant surprises.

Hino East Rand took top honours as the Hino Dealer of the Year in recognition for being the top performing Hino dealership in South Africa. Dealer principal, Frans Cloete, accepted the award on behalf of the dealership.

Dr Casper Kruger, vice president of Hino, comments: “East Rand Hino excelled in all four key metrics namely sales, customer service, business management and customer experience. This all-round achievement outperformed the competition and pushed this dealership to the top. Under Frans’ leadership, the team has illustrated cohesion and understanding of customers’ needs and has proved that they are the team to beat.”

The dealership achieved 113 percent of its sales target and purchased parts worth more than R32 million. “With a customer experience score of 96,4 percent, it is evident that Frans and his team ensure that customers’ needs are met and that they understand the importance of customers receiving the right vehicle, parts and service at the right time,” adds Kruger.

A pleasant surprise arose when Imperial Toyota Kempton Park was awarded the coveted Toyota Dealer of the Year award, which was accepted by dealer principal Desiree Wiseman.

Dr Johan van Zyl, president and CEO of Toyota South Africa Motors, says: “Imperial Toyota Kempton Park’s performance is proof that strong leadership and the right people make all the difference. Staying true to the Toyota values of respect for others and continuous improvement, ensure that staff treat each other and their customers well, which ultimately leaves customers with a smile each time.”

The dealership took two additional awards at the gala event; namely the Vice President’s Award for Vehicle Marketing and the President’s Award for the best performing dealership in the large category.

“We solute Desiree as she proved that hard work, dedication and consistently motivating staff are what gets a company to the top. In an extremely competitive industry, she has risen to the top to become the first female dealer principal to win the Dealer of the Year award,” says Van Zyl.

Back to the commercial side of things, Hino Lydenburg was recognised for its performance and received the Vice President’s Award for Hino Dealer of the Year as Runner-up, which was accepted by dealer principal Fanie Erasmus Junior.

Hino Parow and dealer principal, Wouter Nel, won the Hino Customer Service Experience Award. Kruger says: “This award emphasises the importance of customer service in overall customer satisfaction and I commend Hino Parow for outperforming its peers.

“This dealership performed consistently well with an average customer experience score of 98,4 percent. It topped the very important service category with a near-perfect score of 99,3 percent, it was second in the sales category with 97,5 percent and third in the parts category with 98,4 percent – a truly significant performance,” concludes Kruger.