Toyota Technician From Hartwell Wolverhampton Achieves 2nd Place In European Champion Of The Champions Contest

Toyota technician Steve Smith from Hartwell Wolverhampton, has achieved second place representing the United Kingdom in the Toyota European Technician Skills Grand Prix 2001, held yesterday at Toyota’s European headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. The Technicians Skills Grand Prix is a contest in which the national champions of 20 European countries are judged on their theoretical and practical skills.

This year’s Champion of the Champions is Markus Nesensohn from Austria. As a further recognition of their performance, all the finalists are invited to the Toyota headquarters in Japan for the International Technician Champions’ Assembly, to meet their fellow Champions from all over the world.

Steve Smith, who secured second place out of the 20 contestants proudly commented: “It was a real honour to compete with my Europe colleagues in Brussels. I have been training hard for the past few weeks to ensure I could represent Toyota Great Britain to the best of my ability. I am delighted to have achieved second place.”

Mike Mead, After Sales Director for Toyota (GB) PLC praised Steve’s achievement: “The technician in today’s dealerships is a fundamental part of providing customer satisfaction beyond the customers’ expectations. The skill and knowledge demonstrated by Steve will ensure that Hartwell Wolverhampton’s customers continue to be delighted by the service experience.”

Steve Settle, Director Customer Services Group, summarises the purpose of the event: “The main objective of the Technician Skills Grand Prix is to provide a platform for Toyota’s
best technicians to demonstrate their skills. After all, these people and their colleagues largely contribute to Toyota’s leadership in customer satisfaction, which results in customer loyalty.

“In the current business environment of rapid change and intense competition, having knowledgeable and motivated technical and service staff is crucial for realising Toyota’s growth in Europe.”

The Technician Skills Grand Prix can be seen as the pinnacle of Toyota’s technical human resources development programmes in Europe. These programmes go from providing the most modern technical material to technical schools (T-TEP: Toyota Technical Education Programme), to structured learning programmes and advanced training for technicians and service advisors (TEAM: Toyota Education for Automotive Mastery; TSA-programme: Toyota Service Advisor programme).

ENDS