Volkswagen customers across Devon and Somerset are getting a faster and more personalised service when choosing and customising a new vehicle, thanks to a high-speed network from Virgin Media Business. Silver Street Automotive Group, which runs dealerships across the counties, has invested in a new network to make it better equipped to drive sales beyond the Government’s car scrappage scheme.
Silver Street Motors merged with Audi South West last January, and sells Volkswagen cars and commercial vehicles, Audis and SEATs from dealerships in Barnstaple, Bridgwater, Exeter, Newton Abbot, Plymouth and Taunton. As a leading regional dealership it handles orders from thousands of customers for new cars and parts. This can mean anything from ordering a small replacement part to choosing a new vehicle that suits the buyer’s specific tastes and budget.
The new fibre optic network will underpin all customer communications, meaning that staff can confidently manage all customer contact, no matter how great the demand.
“We decided last year to invest in a tougher and faster network for all our dealerships ahead of the Government’s car scrappage scheme ending in March this year,” said Mike Davidson, group IT manager for Silver Street Automotive Group. “It was an important part of us being prepared for when the retail vehicle market started recovering from the low point of the recession. A speedier network helps us provide a quicker and more impressive service to customers who want to receive orders faster, and be more involved in personalising their cars and vans. It gives us the opportunity to get ahead of competitors who can’t process these types of requests as quickly.”
Silver Street Automotive Group’s network had previously spanned Audi dealerships but has now been extended to all premises. It also links to Volkswagen Audi Group headquarters in Germany so that new vehicle orders can be personalised and part delivery times assessed accurately, even while customers are making their choices in the showroom.
The MPLS IPVPN provided by Virgin Media Business delivers high-speed bandwidth between premises across the south west and the company’s twin headquarters, in Plymouth and Taunton. The new network has helped in making a marked improvement to customer satisfaction levels across the dealerships. It has also been designed so that network speeds can be easily increased and further sites added, if necessary.
“Reputation is a major factor when it comes down to choosing a car and the performance of a distributor’s IT systems may well reflect upon the overall performance of the car to customers,” said Paul Lawrence, head of business markets for Virgin Media Business in the south west. It’s therefore fundamental for distributors to have the right systems in place to ensure smooth customer service and delivery of information.”
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About Virgin Media Business
Virgin Media Business is the UK’s only telco with a nationwide fibre optic Next Generation Network. Launched in February 2010, the company aims to bring the Virgin philosophy to the business telecoms market. Providing innovative, high quality solutions built on brilliant customer service.
Virgin Media Business is the largest business-to-business brand in the Virgin group. With a strong product portfolio that includes its market leading Ethernet services. It uses its network asset in order to create bespoke tailored telecoms solutions for its customers. Employees are located at 40 offices across the UK, allowing Virgin Media Business to be closer to its customers in every sense.
Previously known as ntl:Telewest Business, organisations working with Virgin Media Business include London City Airport, Arqiva, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Partnership and South West Water.
About Virgin Media
With almost 10 million customers, Virgin Media is the UK's first quad-play provider of broadband, TV, phone and mobile.
The company is one of the largest residential broadband providers in the UK, using a unique fibre optic cable network to deliver next generation ultrafast internet access of up to 50Mb to just over half of all homes. Combined with a high speed ADSL service and mobile broadband products, Virgin Media is able to offer broadband internet access to virtually the entire country.
Virgin Media has the UK’s most advanced TV on demand service and is the only TV platform to carry BBC iPlayer. It is the second largest provider of pay TV, was the first to launch a high definition TV service and offers a high-specification, HD-ready V+ personal video recorder.
The company operates the most popular virtual mobile network in the UK which, when launched, was the world’s first such mobile phone service. It is also one of the largest fixed-line home phone providers in the country.
Virgin Media also owns Virgin Media Television (VMtv) which runs seven entertainment channels, including Virgin1, LIVING, Bravo and Challenge. VMtv is a 50 per cent joint partner with BBC Worldwide in UKTV, which consists of ten channels including Dave, G.O.L.D., Watch and Alibi.
With operations based entirely in the UK, Virgin Media Inc. is listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market (VMED) and the London Stock Exchange (VMED).
For more information, go to http://www.virginmedia.com/
