Beijing, January 6, 2010 – Recently, Mercedes-Benz (China) Ltd. marked the successful completion of its first Star Service Technical Mentor Program, in which the automaker invited six senior specialists from its headquarters in Germany to visit 16 authorized sales and service centers in China's eastern, northern, and southern regions, where they provided comprehensive on-site training to local staff in a real-time, hands-on format. Not only was this two-month "teach by doing" program the first of its kind for Mercedes-Benz in China, it also marked an innovative step forward for the auto industry, thus reaffirming the three-pointed star's dedication to the China market, as well as demonstrating its unwavering commitment to continuously enhancing the overall service quality of its dealerships.
"As Mercedes-Benz enjoys a growing dealership network in China that introduces an average of 20 new dealerships each year, we constantly need to ensure that the local staff at all of our sales and services centers are able to provide customers with outstanding service that meets our global standards," said Daniel Whitehead, General Manager of After-Sales for Mercedes-Benz (China) Ltd. "We initiated the Star Service Technical Mentor Program in order to provide dealership staff in China with hands-on technical and service support from the most qualified German experts, which has allowed our staff to efficiently and instantly improve their overall service quality and thus further ensure the highest level of customer satisfaction."
During this program, six experienced specialists from the GSP/SOS (Global Service and Parts, Service Operations and Service Sales) department of Mercedes-Benz's German headquarters visited 16 selected dealers all over China, where they provided on-site training and support to front-line staff. The specialists brought with them invaluable insight from various areas of expertise, including body & paint and repair services. Focused on tailor-made training, specialists spent the first day or two observing and analyzing the performance of dealership staff and identifying key areas in need of improvement, following which they then developed and executed customized programs alongside local management. This thorough and carefully personalized training concentrated on service points related to technical aspects, after-sales service process, and customer interactions.
By allowing staff to work side-by-side with global specialists, this unique tailor-made program allowed dealers to quickly target specific service areas, and immediately provide guidance and practical training on-site. Thus, this "teach-by-doing" concept ultimately helps ensure that services among all dealerships in China are able to maintain a standardized and efficient level.
Customer satisfaction has always been at the core of Mercedes-Benz, which has offered an extensive range of training programs in China for years. Up to now, five comprehensive training centers have been established nationwide under its unitive global standard, and provide all dealership employees with the most exclusive internationally certified training. With approximately 35,000 individuals trained annually, China has become the second largest market for Mercedes-Benz globally in training participants. Moreover, dealership staffs in China advancing to the levels of diagnosis technician, systems technician and maintenance technician experienced impressive three-digit growth this year.
