Evening folks! I'm back following a couple of blog-free days. It's been a busy weekend, starting Friday evening with Billy Joel in concert (hands down one of the best gigs I've ever attended!) and followed by the annual bonfire and fireworks display on Saturday night (also good, so I'm told, but as I was busy working serving hot dogs I didn't get to see much of it myself). Yesterday was more of a day of catching up, rather than a day of rest, and today we're back to it!
Today's card has a story behind it; I haven't done one of these for a while, but this is one I want to share. So firstly, here is the card:
Classically simple; I made the card to say thank you to the salesman who sold us our new car - any guesses as to which brand? So here is the story! We were looking to trade in our Land Rover, having owned two and deciding that even a change in ownership of Hartwell, our local dealer, hadn't improved the shocking after sales service provided there so buying a third one was definitely not an option. Buying a car should be a pleasurable experience, right? I have to say, after trudging round our local showrooms one Saturday recently, I was seriously beginning to wonder. I was genuinely amazed at the number of car salesmen, and women, who either ignore the potential customers walking into their store or were frankly just not interested in assisting with specific requests for brochures or more information. We visited Volkswagen, Mercedes and Ford dealerships amongst others and we were utterly underwhelmed in each. There were two garages who offered exceptional assistance and service: one was Nissan. Whilst they didn't have a car that met our main car requirements, they were very helpful, so much so that when our second car reaches its anniversary we are now seriously considering trading it in for the new Nissan Leaf all-electric vehicle - and I never thought I'd hear myself say that!
The second one was Audi. We almost didn't visit, given the reception received elsewhere that day, as we had no real designs on owing an Audi and we rather fed up with the whole thing. yet the minute we walked through the door and were greeted by Seb, all that changed. We were introduced to Douglas, one of the sales managers and from there on in the experience was just how I imagined it should be. He worked with us to identify the vehicle most suited to our requirements and arranged a variety of test drives. We eventually purchased a car feeling as if we had done something special and very much that we had been helped to buy the right car for us rather than being sold a car - a subtle, but important, difference. I'm told that sales at the Audi Northampton dealership are outperforming those of rival dealers in the area; based on the service we experienced, it's not difficult to see why. As a thank you to Douglas, I designed the above card, completely with interlocking Audi rings on a brushed silver and Pacific Point blue background, to echo the colours of our new purchase.
We are quick to share the stories of poor service and sales experiences (go back to the start of this post for some of mine!) yet we do not always go to the same lengths to share the good news stories. Well, this card is as a result of one of mine, so if you're reading this and in the market for a new car, now or in the future, what can I say - you could do a lot worse than visit Northampton Audi - in case you couldn't already tell, I'm their newest fan!
Back tomorrow with a Christmas card for this week's Paper Craft Crew sketch challenge; until then, happy stampin'!
Stampin' Up Supplies Used: