General Motors committed to Africa market

General Motors Sub-Saharan Africa (GMSSA) is striving to ensure that all its customers, based on the continent receive the same perfect service that sets the company apart from its competitors.

This requires a comprehensive approach through liaising with its entire Dealer Network, which covers countries from Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Senegal, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Zimbabwe, Cape Verde, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Madagascar, Ethiopia and Mauritius.

Daniel Gitau, Service Operations Manager for GMSSA, and a team of technical support experts take responsibility for a wide range of after sales processes.  

These processes include the global warranty management and warranty coordination processes, technical support, after-sales launch readiness processes and technical training with the GM South Africa training centre in Johannesburg, for SSA markets.  

“Technical support is one of the central pillars for ensuring customer expectations are met, especially in cases where products have technical concerns that must be attended to in a much faster manner.

“We provide technical support for our products freely and timeously.  We offer support to our dealers either over the telephone, by e-mail or by directing them to a website. 

“The goal is to get back to the dealer within eight hours of receiving the email or request.  If the issue is still not resolved, the dealer fills out a technical problem escalation form that we send to General Motors South Africa (GMSAf),” says Gitau.

GMSA has a fully established technical support team that GMSSA can ask for assistance in certain cases where they have more experience.  If GMSAf cannot resolve the issue, they involve the source-plant.

Gitau added: “We also offer training to all our dealers. Before the launch of a new product, any dealer approved to access that product must have his technicians trained. The training is based on new model information and diagnosis, which incorporates training on diagnostic equipment and unit overhauls. Training is a prerequisite for sending a new product to a dealer.” 

Gitau is also responsible for following up with other stakeholders regarding the GM Difference and Customer Satisfaction Index implementation in identified markets.

“The GM difference is founded on the notion of creating customers for life. To create customers for life, value creation and delivery is important. Customers determine value, which is at times subjective. We must do everything to ensure we have happy customers through exceeding their expectations.

“Customers buy products for certain purposes. When these products develop technical defects and can no longer operate as intended, the utility is lost. In such a scenario, the customer will require the product be repaired as quickly as possible.”  

General Motors has vehicle assembly operations in South Africa, Egypt and Kenya, and has over 310 dealer and distributor outlets located across the continent. 

Last year, the company sold over 180,000 vehicles in Africa through its Chevrolet, Isuzu, and Opel brands.