Mannai Trading Co. bags GM Award for CRM

The award was the highest prize at GM's first ever CRM Guild Awards for the region, which was organized on Monday, 16th Feb at The Palace Dubai Hotel in the UAE.

"Naturally we're thrilled to have received this honor from GM," said Ivor D'Cunha, Deputy General Manager, Mannai Automotive. "For the last couple of years we have been putting in a lot of time and effort into developing a cutting edge CRM program, and it has been producing real world results for us." He added: "It's good to see that our efforts are being recognized at an international level, and we are wholly committed to continuing and expanding our CRM program in the years to come."

The CRM Guild is a GM initiative introduced in July 2008 that aims to reward exemplary CRM execution in the region and to encourage further improvement among regional dealers. The guild keeps track of how effectively each dealership is implementing its CRM program and how many of the 133 established GM standards have been met by each of them. Points are awarded for CRM adoption as well as performance, and the highest scoring dealership wins the coveted 'Best of the Best' award for the year.

Mannai Trading Co. formally enrolled for GM's CRM dealer Health Check program earlier in the year, allowing the franchisee to demonstrate its achievements in the CRM arena alongside 17 other dealers in the GCC and Levant regions.

"The system grades each dealer on three counts - Intention, Reality and Effect. Each dealer is fairly rewarded with points for any steps taken in the right direction, and the best performer is eventually declared the winner."

explains D'Cunha.

For the year 2008, Mannai Trading Co. met all the CRM Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) laid down by GM to measure the CRM performance of dealerships in areas such as customer satisfaction, loyalty and data management. Along the way, the company managed to beat all average CRM scores usually recorded by similar companies in the region.

It's not just about the prize either. "Our sustained CRM program has helped the company tremendously in terms of profitability and repeat business by increasing our efficiency in servicing customers and enhancing the overall customer experience," shares D'Cunha.

"Any organization that hopes to achieve lasting success needs to take its customers and its CRM program very seriously indeed," D'Cunha insists.

"Customer Relationship Management needs to be integrated into the very core of the company so that it drives all other functions, and that's exactly what we have succeeded in achieving at Mannai Trading Co. through strong teamwork and constant support from the top management"