2018 Garage of the Year winner reveals benefits of prestigious title

HillClimb Garage reveals how the accolade has supported continued business growth ahead of 2019 comp deadline

2018 Garage of the Year winner reveals benefits of prestigious title
Garage of the Year 2018 winner: Hillclimb Garage, High Wycombe.

The owners of Hillclimb Garage in High Wycombe have revealed how it’s benefited from its Garage of the Year accolade since it received the award at Automechanika Birmingham last year.

With just days before entries for Automechanika Birmingham’s Garage of the Year competition closes, director at Hillclimb Garage, Nicola Wakeling has told GW: “The Garage of the Year endorsement has been great for us, we’ve even had people travel in from further afield because of this accolade.

“The announcement at last year’s Automechanika Birmingham was a big surprise but I think the award reflects all of our efforts to ensure we truly put our customers first.”

Since handed the award, the family-run business has advertised its prestigious title online and on-site with Google listings and roadside signage, highlighting the business as the Garage of the Year 2018.

The owners have put their success down to offering a level of customer service which they say is not traditionally associated with the motor industry.

“Building trust within a community that had lost faith”

“We’ve been building trust within a community that had lost faith in the previous company in our premises,” Nicola explained.

“There’s lots of different ways to be successful but, for us, it’s about understanding our customers.

“We’ve built our processes around our customers and ensure they get the very best garage experience.

“It’s an on-going challenge though because you have to continually adapt to ensure you can cater to their needs and to get the very best out of our team.”

The business, which is now in its third year, has continued to make workshop investments and has reported huge success since it recently launched video servicing reports for customers.

Owners of Hillclimb Garage, Nicola and Gary Wakeling receiving their £1,000 prize at Automechanika Birmingham.

As overall winner for Garage of the Year, HillClimb Garage received a £1,000 cash prize which it said it used to “give something back” to the local community.

Nicola explained: “We sponsored the soapbox challenge event at Kophill Climb, which saw teams of youths build crazy soapboxes before racing them down a really complicated track.

“It was great fun to be involved in this and it offered us exposure to 16,000 people at the event.”

Garage of the Year 2019

Sponsored by the Independent Garage Association (IGA) and run in partnership with Garage Wire, the deadline for Automechanika Birmingham’s Garage of the Year 2019 entries is on Sunday 5th May.

The competition is open to garages from across the UK and Ireland.

It takes just a few minutes to enter as many of the nine sub-categories as entrants wish, with the overall winner once again set to receive £1,000.

All garages shortlisted in one or more categories will get two free tickets for the awards evening which is to be held at the National Motor Cycle Museum on 5 June 2019, with drinks available from 7pm after the second day of Automechanika Birmingham.

For a chance to win the 2019 Garage of the Year competition, select ‘more details’ below.

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