SuperMiniUK: Winner of the Customer Care Award (Independent)

The strength of customer reviews helped clinch this award for Nottingham-based SuperMiniUK, which specialises in selling Mini and other small cars priced from £2,000 to £20,000.

Co-directors and life partners Mat Clarke and Stephenie Lawrence met while working for a Lexus dealership and strive to deliver a premium standard of customer care in this business, which they set up after Clarke lost his job in September 2015. A technician has since joined them, undertaking most of the preparation on the stock, and servicing local customers’ cars.

It operates from industrial premises with no passing traffic and has built up nationwide sales by harnessing the power of the internet and social media. As one of our judging panel observed, “Their customers just love them.”

There is a simple division of roles between the partners. She sources and buys the cars, while he sells them. They are prepared to mould their lives, and the hours of the business, around the needs of their customers.

“Our experience has taught us that customers are the lifeblood of the business,” said Clarke.“We actively seek referrals and reward our customer advocacy with referral cheques of £100 if they recommend someone to us who buys a car.

“Our reviews speak for themselves, and we expect each of our customers to leave our dealership happy not only with the car and the deal, but the service they have received too.”

That advocacy has come from being prepared to go, quite literally,

to great lengths to satisfy a car buyer’s requirements. A striking example of this was when Clarke left home at 04.00 to drive a newly purchased Mini to Plymouth by 07.45 so that the new owner could take it on that morning’s school run.

“Essentially we love what we do, we love our customers and we love delivering an excellent experience. We like to do all the things that our competitors don’t, and have received the plaudits for this with our review status in such a short space of time.”

Winning the award has thrilled the pair. “For Steph and me, this was probably one of the proudest moments in our lives. At the beginning of the evening I said to Steph, why are we actually here, amongst all the glitz and glamour of the evening, sat with some of the industry’s biggest hitters, me and Steph of little old SuperMiniUK. To be honest, just being shortlisted for us was a big win. To actually scoop the award was incredible.

“We have already splashed this all over our social media and the response from our followers, friends and family has been brilliant.

We really do love our customers and for us this is our second customer service award we’ve won this year. It makes all the hard work, long hours and sacrifice really worth it.

“We’ve come from a strong customer focused background and people are still shocked at some of the lengths we go to for our customers, however it’s in our DNA. We are people people, and that will never change. Our reviews are insane. We follow up each and every one to ensure they are happy and this proves again to us that we are getting

it right.”

The win also confirms the pair’s belief that they are building a sustainable business. Turnover and unit sales are both up, and crucially SuperMiniUK has increased year-on-year on chassis profit and finance and insurance. The opening of the service department has created an additional profit centre.

“With the support of our customers and our continued growth, and we are expecting to outgrow our premises and are already looking for our next move.”