Honda News homepage

20/04/2004 - Honda quiz nails biggest training exercise yet

The launch of Honda’s highly praised Accord Diesel has created the company’s largest training challenge to date educating the entire network about a new product that Honda has not made before. It’s easy when you know how.

Getting all the key technical and commercial information about a new car to your entire dealer network and ensuring that everyone understands it, is always a challenge. Not to mention when the new product is something that you have never made before. To ensure that the Honda car network was ready for the new car and eager new customers all over the UK, The Honda Institute, Europe’s benchmark for technical training and people development created its most comprehensive launch programme to date.

In only two weeks, the Honda Institute trained every one of the 195 dealerships in the car network about Accord Diesel. A total of 1,367 dealer staff attended a Product Familiarisation Seminar (PFS) and 242 Honda technicians achieved the required level of training for the new technical aspects of Accord Diesel.

The goal of our ambitious programme has been to conquer the hearts and minds of everyone who deals with the Honda brand, explains Andre Bozon of The Honda Institute. Historically not the most glamorous segment in the market, the D-sector remains one of the most important throughout Europe and this new model puts Honda right at the cutting edge of Diesel technology for economy, performance, refinement and weight, not to mention the cars comparatively plush levels of standard equipment.

The key element of the PFS was an on-line quiz to test the attendees’ recall of key facts and figures from the launch presentations. To ensure a keen response to the quiz, teams of four from all the dealerships have been competing head to head with each other to get the best scores on an on-line regional league table. The teams with the highest scores in each region in the UK progressed to a set of regional finals. From here, winners and runners-up won their place at the Grand Final at the Honda Institute.

The first stage of the competition kicked-off in December and January with dealer staff using interactive CD-ROMs specially developed by the Honda Institute. Questions were designed to test the recall of technical, after-sales and sales aspects of the new Accord Diesel, making it a team competition and promoting cross-department communication and learning within all the dealerships.

Scores were based on correct answers and the speed of the answering, with the teams’ results automatically logged on the dealer extranet. The different rounds of questions were based around well know TV quiz formats including, Countdown, The Price is Right and A Question of Sport with picture rounds and quick-fire deciders. Although an exceptionally effective training tool, the quiz also proved to be big on laughs too, showing the benefit of entertainment on learning.

From the original 195 hopefuls three dealerships made it to the final at The Honda Institute near Heathrow. The Terminators of Dan Davidson Ltd from Ballymena in Northern Ireland along with The Speedwell New Boys from Paignton in Devon and Ruislip Honda’s Smokie and the Bandits battled it out with The Speedwell New Boys proving too hot for the competition.

Each member of the winning team from the final was presented with £750 worth of travel vouchers.