Maybe this is a Welsh thing, or maybe it’s just us: we find the whole self-promotion thing a bit embarrassing. To be honest, we would much rather get on with our jobs than go on about how good our service is.
But as a business, you have to get your message out there. If you’re doing a great job, you have to let people know. So, just for once, that’s what we’re doing with this post . We’re going to do a spot of grandstanding, patting ourselves on the back, and blowing our own trumpets. Or rather, we’re going to let our customers do it for us.
The following reviews are taken from Google reviews (and you can find more on our Facebook page). We’ll leave the names out, simply because it’s irritating when someone googles your name and gets a review that you’ve left, but it’s easy enough to find the originals. We’ve also used some excerpts from reviews (but we’ve not taken anything out of context) and organised them into themes.
Let’s see what our customers say.
Expertise and professionalism
When you take your pride-and-joy to a garage, you want to be confident that the people there know what they’re doing. You definitely want them to show an all-round professionalism in their work. So it’s gratifying to see that this comes up a lot in our feedback. Here’s a typical example praising our expertise:
I’d highly recommend Welsh VW Specialists [Now WVS] as a garage that knows their stuff and bring the quality you’d expect from a specialist, with a genuine interest in what is best for the customer.
A nice long review explains more:
Really pleased with my experience with these guys. They had previously serviced my VW Scirocco and no issues. Now I had recently purchased a Transporter and experienced a blowing sound from the engine. Took it there and they diagnosed the issue and I took it back in the following week to be looked at. Fault identified (Blown EGR pipe), part ordered and fixed following day. I’m aware this part and replacement would have cost a lot more in the vw dealership.
Most customers are more succinct though, with comments including, “Good workmanship”, “Good service and quality of work” and “Even in these times [posted at the height of the pandemic], superlative service.”
Customer Service
Next up is customer service. Most of us know at least one business that does a good job but seems to have had customer service training from Basil Fawlty. At WVS, we do strive to be polite, communicative and helpful. And judging from our feedback, we’re doing pretty well. For example:
Staff were great, really friendly and helpful.
And also:
Very friendly, helpful and knowledgeable staff.
We’re proud that this customer thinks we are:
Nice staff
And on a good day, we’re even:
Lovely staff.
Customers also appreciate that we keep them informed about the car:
When I went to collect my car, all was explained to me & I couldn’t wish for a better Service.
When it comes to customer service, we do try to go the extra mile for our customers, and it’s great when they leave a comment about it:
I have been taking my car to these guys for several years now and the service I receive is always outstanding. They are approachable, trustworthy and wont rip you off. Matt, Spike and Louie are simply nice, honest guys and have often gone out of their way to help me.
One more for good measure:
Welsh VW [now WVS] always go above and beyond when I drop my Golf down for servicing, the staff are very friendly and if I need to be dropped off to work after taking my car down this is never an issue! Their prices are extremely fair and Matt will always make sure I am kept up to date when the car is in the workshop, I wont take my car anywhere else!
Prices
We believe in charging a really fair rate for high-quality work. Here are how our customers describe our prices:
- “highly competitive price”
- “good value for money”
- “very competitive price”
- “reasonable pricing”
- “reasonably priced”
- “Excellent value for money”
- “great prices”
- “keen prices”
- “fair price”
- “Best prices”
- “half the price of a main dealer”
- “given a great quote that was nearly half the price of main dealer !”
- “value for money was second to none”
And we’re not out to make a quick buck out of customers if there’s a reasonable alternative:
The car to my shame actually needed the sway bar links (I’d not looked at it) and the garage were happy to advise me with the most efficient way to do this myself.
And again:
Very helpful staff who were able to answer some other queries I had about my car and even provided some information for me to carry out a job myself.
A true main dealer alternative?
As a business, we are very confident that we offer services that are at the same level you’d expect from a main dealership. That includes the same expertise and manufacturer-approved parts. But as this is about our customers’ viewpoint, let’s see what they have to say:
Always looked after here, nothing is ever too much trouble, did a full service and MOT for me and finally fixed my brake issue after the main dealer failed to find the problem, can’t thank Matt, Tom and the boys enough at Welsh VW [Now WVS]!
The pricing is far superior to a dealership, and the the guys there are far superior in my opinion. If you have a VW don’t waste time with anyone else.
Friendly garage crew that will give you an honest answer to any question asked. Better than any main dealership I’ve dealt with.
And finally, we especially like the directness of this customer:
Don’t go to main dealers, go here.
Wait…did we cherry pick the best reviews?
The short answer is no. We do get the occasional customer who isn’t happy with our service, and lets us know via Google. That’s to be expected: in fact, show us a busy, long-established garage with no negative reviews and we’ll show you a forest elf riding a unicorn. But as our average scores shows, it’s pretty rare, so we think these reviews are pretty representative. And where there’s a genuine problem, of course we’re open to ways of putting things right.
Thank you
A great big thanks — Diolch yn Fawr! — to all those people who took the time to review our services. Please keep spreading the word and we’ll be back to something less self-promoting next time.
The WVS blog covers a wide range of automotive topics, from the contentious to the light-hearted. We are an independent garage specialising in all the VW group marques, including Audi, Volkswagen, Skoda and SEAT. WVS provides services, repairs and MOTs, delivering a main dealer level of care at affordable prices. To book your vehicle in, or for any enquiries, get in touch.