Revealed: how to be a winning dealership

April 11, 2022

Additional training and even more attention to improving the customer experience are the major factors that propelled Hino Shelly Beach to its third Hino Dealer of the Year Award. This according to Gansen Chetty, team leader of the South Coast dealership from the Halfway Group.

“We are very proud to have been able to add a third Hino Dealer of the Year Award to our list of achievements, having won this prestigious title in 2017 and 2018 before our latest success,” says Chetty. “It was very much a team effort, and I am thankful to have such a loyal, willing, and hard-working group of people working with me at the Shelly Beach facility.

“We also have the benefit of a group of committed service providers and dedicated people working on our various supply chains, particularly the teams at Hino head office in Sandton and the factory in Prospecton, as well as supportive and motivating senior management in the Halfway Group.

“We are exceptionally proud to be part of the Halfway Group with full support of the chairman, George Baikie Jnr, whose father, George Snr, established the original Halfway Service Station in Park Rynie. We are also grateful for the backing we receive from our CEO, Shane Grant, as well as from Rob Newton and Brian Jones. All of them play a significant role in our ability to provide an outstanding and memorable customer experience in an increasingly complex and demanding business environment,” he adds.

Chetty, who joined Hino Shelly Beach as dealer principal in March 2014, has a history with Hino trucks going back to 1997, when he was employed as a salesperson by Hino Pinetown.

“I regularly sold 100 or more trucks a year and was several times a winner of Hino South Africa’s national skills competition for salespeople. I realised that to be an achiever, one must be an active participant in whatever one tackles. You cannot wait for things to come to you,” he explains.

Last year was particularly successful for Hino Shelly Beach in all aspects of the business, with additional awards from Hino SA for parts marketing, service marketing, sales marketing, Toyota Financial Services support, and, ultimately, customer experience, where it achieved a score of 99,5%.

The team has the advantage of a comparatively new facility; Hino Shelly Beach was built in 2007 with future growth very much in mind. Since then, it has been upgraded to include an accredited roadworthy test centre in 2019, while environmental aspects of the facility have been improved to meet the Hino benchmark of ECO-3 Advanced, bringing it in line with revisions to the international ISO 14001 standard. This has placed even more focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting a recycling culture that minimises landfills and optimises water usage.

Hino Shelly Beach has also been judged the best commercial vehicle dealership on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast by PMR.Africa, and has been awarded Diamond Arrows status for four consecutive years from 2017 to 2020. These accolades acknowledge a company’s vision, integrity, values, competence, and ‘empathy’ that together contribute to ethical and sustainable business practices.

“We are certainly not going to sit back and rest on our laurels,” says Chetty. “In fact, our third Hino Dealer of the Year award will be used to galvanise the team to do even better in 2022.”