Renault UK Expands Its Premier Centre Nerwork For Its Top-Of-The-Range Customers
Published: 22nd October 2002
First Contact With A Renault Premier Centre
When the customer arrives at the Renault Premier Centre, they
are shown to a dedicated area of the showroom, which has a
number of features. The Premier Centre customer area is constructed
of bespoke materials and in addition to housing top-of-the-range
models - Vel Satis, Avantime, and New Espace and New Clio
Renaultsport V6 255 in 2003 - there is an interactive datacentre
for product information, plus a consultation area where customers
can discuss their needs.
Focal point of every Premier Centre is the dedicated Relationship
Manager who is the customer’s first contact with Renault
when purchasing a top-of-the-range model. The comprehensiveness
of these ranges driven by the options and choices the executive
customer expects necessitates a dedicated expert who can bring
an experience, skill, knowledge and a personal touch to the
purchasing process.
A Premier Centre Relationship Manager’s role is to assist
the customer in choosing the top-of-the-range car by explaining
the whole range of choices available, using a wide variety
of materials including upholstery swatches, trim samples,
colour charts and online imaging.
Premier Centre Staff
The Relationship Manager is supported by specific dealership
staff trained to Renault Premier Centre standards involving
residential training courses on meeting the needs of the executive
customer and in-depth product training. They include the Dealer
Principal, Sales Manager, Deputy Relationship Manager, Service
Manager, Service Receptionist and Renault Technical Expert
who will service the cars.
This training ensures executive customers can expect the same
level of service from all key staff.
Time For A Very Long Test Drive
The next stage in this new relationship is the test drive.
Every Premier Centre will offer potential customers a 24-hour
test drive ensuring they have sufficient time to evaluate
the vehicle. Customers can have the car delivered to their
home or business address or simply collect it from their nominated
Renault Premier Centre.
Each Premier Centre has one Vel Satis for showroom display
and one for test drive. In April two Avantimes will arrive
at each Premier Centre - one of each as a static showroom
display vehicle and the remainder as test-drive car. If demand
for 24-hour test-drives is particularly great, or the dealer
demo is not the desired engine choice then a central pool
of demonstration vehicles is available from Renault UK.
All these cars remain registered to Renault UK and are leased
to the dealer. RUK will then control the disposal of them
through the Renault-to-Go used car programme.
The Handover
As the choice of version, interior trims etc. is huge, stock
cars will not be held in the UK. All cars will be built to
customer order within six weeks.
When the vehicle arrives the customer is contacted in order
to arrange a suitable handover date. When the customer visits
to collect the car, the Relationship Manager conducts a familiarisation
with the car so the customer appreciates all the features
of their new vehicle, such as the automatic parking brake,
rain sensor or front seat settings for example. In addition
to the familiarisation, the customer is provided with a CD-Rom
for an in-depth understanding of the innovations and technology
involved in their car. This also serves as an aide memoir
once the customer gets their new vehicle home.
Each customer also receives a Renault Customer Card with a
dedicated customer service number for any additional services
they might require. On delivery of their car the customer
is requested to call the dedicated number to activate their
account.
Owning A Renault Top-Of-The-Range Car
Philippe Talou-Derible, Managing Director, Renault UK said
“Owning a top-of-the-range car from Renault is a real
pleasure. And in order to ensure that it continues to be a
pleasure the cars journey with its owner is overseen by Renault
under its Premier Centre programme. Premier Centre programme
standards apply to every aspect of the cars life with the
executive customer ensuring that the customer will experience
no inconvenience.”
For servicing all RPCs will offer customers collection from
their home or business address providing a courtesy car for
the time the owners own car is with the dealer. Each RPC has
a Laguna Sport Tourer exclusively for the use of these customers.
If the customer does not know their local dealer then they
can simply call the dedicated customer service number on the
Renault Customer Card who will book the vehicle in with the
local Premier Centre.
In the unfortunate event of the car being off the road the
same customer service number connects the customer with Renault
Assistance, run by the AA. If the fault cannot be rectified
at the roadside, the customer will be placed in a courtesy
car while their own car is at the Renault dealer. This roadside
assistance includes European cover as standard.
The priority for Renault is to get the customer mobile in
their own car again. To this end Renault UK has put in place
systems to achieve this including:
- A dedicated technical consultant to respond to all dealership technical issues within one hour
- A courtesy car provided if any warranty work is expected to take over two hours
- A dedicated internal phoneline for priority order of spare parts from parts centre including an urgent order service
