Dubai, United Arab Emirates: February 12, 2017:  Nissan Middle East honored its top sales and service employees from across the region at its annual Regional Skills Contest event held yesterday at IMG World in Dubai. The award ceremony comes as part of Nissan’s ongoing strategy to be the leader in providing the best customer service in the region and see over 2,500 Nissan employees participating

The Japanese auto maker invests heavily in customer care and focuses on providing the highest standards of sales and after-sales service.

During the ceremony, Samir Cherfan explained how customer service lies at the very heart of Nissan operations.

“Here in the Middle East, just as in all of Nissan’s global markets, we focus on delivering the highest levels of customer service, giving customers an experience that goes beyond their expectations. In practice, this involves a major commitment to training Nissan staff and making sure that every aspect of our service is monitored and benchmarked. This helps to ensure that we provide an experience that is not only at par with our customer’s expectations, but one that promotes loyalty to the Nissan brand.”

The Nissan Regional Skills Contest, now in its 20th year, rewards employees that have shown exemplary performance over the course of the year. The Regional Skills Contest comprises four competitions for technicians, service advisors, sales and parts, with the objective of realizing their capabilities and advancing their skills. The awards span every aspect of the business - from knowledge of Nissan genuine parts to service advice to sales acumen to technical expertise.

Samir Cherfan was highly appreciative of the contest participants: “I have been greatly impressed and hugely encouraged by the skills and the commitment I have seen from the competition participants. At Nissan, we invest in our own people in order to create a highly skilled and motivated workforce, capable of delivering a superlative experience for our customers. Based on what I have seen this year, I know we are making great progress towards our goal of providing the best customer experience in the automotive industry. I congratulate the category winners and pay tribute to all the participants for their excellence and efforts.” 

The oldest and most coveted category is Nissan Service Technical Excellence Competency Award (NISTEC), now in its 20th year. This year, the accolade was awarded to Ramesh Rajan from A. A. Al Babtain Co in Kuwait.

“What a great thrill and honor to win this award,” said Ramesh. “What’s so gratifying is that it is other Nissan technical personnel who evaluate and judge my work. Naturally I’m pleased for the recognition, but much of the credit goes to Nissan and my team for putting me through such a comprehensive training programme and supporting me everyday” 

The first place under the Nissan Service Advisor Excellency Competency Award (NISAC) category was won by Atif Khan from Arabian Automobiles Co in Dubai and the winner of the Nissan Sales Executive Excellence Competency Award (NISEC) category went to Nergis Oncu from Nissan Otomotiv A.S. in Turkey. In addition, Jethin Alapatt Jose from A. A. Al Babtain Co in Kuwait  was presented with the first place for the Nissan Parts Executive Excellence Competency Award (NIPEC).