Last week I visited a family-owned car dealership in the South West, BMW main dealer Dick Lovett, which I have been using for nearly 10 years and something struck me following the service I received, which was, and always has been absolutely excellent.

During the recession, customer service levels have, generally speaking, improved dramatically in my opinion and perhaps that is because some of the people working in restaurants, cafe’s, call-centres and car dealerships have realised the importance of keeping a job, and that customer service is extremely important to the success of any business, and the ability for employees to remain employed.

Restaurants such as Browns, Zizzi, Cafe Rouge and Jamie’s Italian have all gained reputations as having excellent customer service and this has only improved during straightened times.

Dick Lovett BMW and Mini have always gone that extra mile, if you’ll excuse the pun, to help me and other people in our organisation with service requirements and warranty issues and always been courteous and informative.

A while ago they replaced a part in a complicated gearbox in a BMW M3 which was not under warranty and was not normally supported by BMW UK, but still carried out the work at their expense at a cost of over £2,500 as a gesture of goodwill as it was a slightly grey area as to whether the part was in need of replacement due to general wear and tear or whether it had failed prematurely. This is just one example of the excellent service Dick Lovett BMW provide and shows the lengths at which some business go to protect customer loyalty and brand integrity.

Let’s hope this continues and the policies of goodwill and customer satisfaction stay high on the lists of the businesses I’ve mentioned as the economy begins to improve, and others such as electrical retailer Currys, who in my opinion and from my personal experience lack in the customer-care area by some margin over competitors such as John Lewis, follow suit.