September 2019

shares his knowledge with others and tries to bring them on. We have a young apprentice here at the moment, Neil spends time helping him along, which is tremendous. It's all good." The company is certainly not passing up on a brilliant marketing opportunity either: "He is all over our Facebook as the winner of Top Technician. We are very proud of what we have got here. We have helped Neil along ourselves. Over the last few years we have put him onto various courses and things and is always eager to learn and progress which is very important. We have supported him in that. We do that with all the staff here as well. We have that philosophy; 'let's be the best there is' and we are all striving to achieve that. Not just in the workshop – generally. We are going great guns here at the moment, and Neil's achievement is fantastic." As we said, investment is planned and ongoing: "Among our recent investments in the workshop. is the latest Ford interface, which allows us to deal with all the latest cars. The old computers did not read the brand new cars, so we have now got that. On Friday both Neil and Jamie are going for their Class 5 MOT. We are licensed for 4,5 and 7 anyway, but on Friday those two are getting their certificates. Our fleet of Peugeot 2008 courtesy cars is one of the most fantastic investments we ever made. That has been a huge success for us. We are delighted we did that. On the sales side, we are getting up to 20 cars on the forecourt which is a lot for a small garage like us. The quality is also improving as well. " David added: "We are really pleased with where we are at the moment. It is great stuff. " Moving forward In that he is the star of the hour and the reason we came back to Robertson Gemini twice in a year, we thought we would give Neil the last word. We asked him what he will be doing in the weeks and months ahead at Robertson Gemini. Neil replied: "I will continue to improve to become the best mechanic I can be. Overall just want to keep moving forward. The motor trade is evolving at a rapid pace, so there should be plenty to keep me busy and to try and keep up with." www.aftermarketonline.net SEPTEMBER 2019 AFTERMARKET 57 www.aftermarketonline.net on a day-in-day-out basis is important for broadening his knowledge and keeping it fresh: "You could be getting an air conditioning fault, an alignment fault, diagnostics – it is not just purely diagnostic and electrical. Having that rounded environment helps, particularly with Top Technician. In the final this year there was only one, possibly two things that could be seen as diagnostic challenges. The rest were mechanical, measuring and alignment. My knowledge from that in the workshop environment, and exposure to all the work here definitely helped me to win it this year. Without that I don't think I would have won it." Toolbox Sessions When we were last up at Robertson Gemini, we were told about their 'Toolbox Sessions'. Neil told us more about what he gets from this informal knowledge sharing: "We take some time out of the diary at the end of a certain day and then we will all gather round and we will talk about a certain subject. I just did a session on basic electrics, just going through what you would need to understand and what you would need to do. We also just did one on alignment. One of the lads went and did a wheel alignment course. He came back and went through what he had learned on the course." This all helps with keeping yourself on track said Neil: "We all pick up niggly little bad habits along the way, so it is good to remind you how you are taught to do it on the training courses. It's not just for that though. If one person goes off on a course, then we have a gathering of everybody, and try to pass the knowledge on and a few tips and tricks. It helps to improve everybody's skillset. It also means it is not just one person doing everything.” The discipline of taking training you have had and needing to present it to someone else also helped with Top Technician: "It always reaffirms it in your own head if you have got to show it to somebody else," observed Neil, “because you have got to tell them the correct thing and you are able to recall and are able to show them the practical things as well. It definitely helps. If anything, it plants the seed further in your brain so you know exactly what you are talking about. "Mostly, that's what training courses are about. You learn bits and pieces over a few days, but then you have got to come home and put in some hard work to really nail it, so you can remember it so you don't have to refer to a book all the time. That is where that side of things helps." Asset On the success of their staff member in the competition, we asked David Butler, who is Director at Robertson Gemini, how proud and delighted they are that Neil has won and is the best in the UK? "All of that – all of that," replied David, with a smile. "He is a great asset to the company, he really is. One thing I would say about Neil – first he is a first-class worker, he just gets on, there is no messing around with Neil. He is very competent, and he has a brilliant approach to learning. He always wants to learn new stuff, not just here at the garage, but at home as well. He spends a lot of time researching and developing, which is fantastic. He is certainly a great asset to us. What I particularly like is that he Below: Inside the large workshop