The Mercedes-Benz Aftersales 'world championship' took place in Stuttgart from November 18-20 – a few days
25 Nov 2014 | 6024 Views | By Autocar Professional Bureau
The Mercedes-Benz Aftersales 'world championship' took place in Stuttgart from November 18-20 – a few days before the two Mercedes AMG Petronas drivers Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton competed to decide the 2014 Formula 1 world championship and Hamilton took the crown.
The Mercedes-Benz Global TechMasters is an international ...
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The Mercedes-Benz Aftersales 'world championship' took place in Stuttgart from November 18-20 – a few days before the two Mercedes AMG Petronas drivers Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton competed to decide the 2014 Formula 1 world championship and Hamilton took the crown.
The Mercedes-Benz Global TechMasters is an international competition for Mercedes-Benz workshop employees and service staff, and this is the ninth time it has been held. In the run-up to the Global TechMasters this year, more than 12,000 employees from around the world took part in national prequalifying rounds with 90 national champions from 15 countries qualifying for the finals. In Stuttgart, the participants demonstrated their skills in practical tests and theory.
Dr. Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, and Nico Rosberg praised the performance of Mercedes-Benz workshop employees and service staff in their video messages at the Global TechMasters awards ceremony. They stressed the importance of outstanding service and teamwork for customer satisfaction. "Good products can gain us customers, but it takes great service to keep them," said Dr. Dieter Zetsche. Toto Wolff highlighted the similarities between Mercedes-Benz service staff and the members of the Formula 1 team: "Each team member with his or her individual role is of crucial importance. At the end we are only successful if the whole team perfectly fits together like pieces of a puzzle.”
At the ceremony in the final evening of the Global TechMasters competition prizes were awarded to the winners of each individual category as well as the best workshop team. The strongest overall performance in 2014 was achieved by the team from Germany.
The winners of the individual categories were as follows:
- 1st place “Certified Service Advisor”: Spain
- 1st place “Certified Diagnostic Technician”: Germany
- 1st place “System Technician – Powertrain”: Argentina
- 1st place “System Technician – Driving Stability”: Germany
- 1st place “Accessories Salesperson”: Japan
- 1st place “Maintenance Technician”: China
The awards were presented by Christian Vietoris, the German Touring Car Championship (DTM) racing driver, and Dr. Martin Zimmermann, Head of Global Service & Parts Mercedes-Benz Passenger Cars and smart. "We aspire to provide our customers with the best possible service," commented Dr. Zimmermann. "The Global TechMasters competition helps us to continuously improve the quality of our service operations and parts business. The success of our efforts here is confirmed year after year by numerous independent surveys in which we are awarded top marks for the Mercedes-Benz service."
Mercedes-Benz Global TechMasters
Mercedes-Benz Global TechMasters is an international competition designed to enhance the motivation and skills of Mercedes-Benz service employees in more than 20 countries. The various countries applied centrally to take part in this competition, and the entrants from each country were then decided in qualifying rounds. This year's finalists came from Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, China, Germany, Spain, India, Ireland, Japan, Portugal, Canada, Switzerland, South Africa, South Korea and Russia.
The objective of the Mercedes-Benz Global TechMasters competition is to discover the 'best' candidate within each job profile and the best team performance. The competition tests the entrants' practical skills, their technical expertise and their abilities as team players viewed over the entire process from the initial receipt of a customer's vehicle and the customer interview to the prediagnosis and repair stages and, finally, the handover of the vehicle to the customer. The test is supplemented by general questions on tools, products and processes in service operations and the parts business and on service advisors' culturally sensitive and country-specific behaviour.
This competition is very important for ensuring outstanding customer care in day-to-day business and for providing high-quality and long-term training and development for employees. The Mercedes-Benz Global TechMasters competition impressively demonstrates how the members of a highly diverse team interact with each other. The optimum use of each team member's individual capabilities nurtures and brings to life a culture of excellence.