Volkswagen presents awards to the champions of the Retail Qualification World Championship

Under the motto 'One brand, one team, one challenge', the finals of this year's Volkswagen Retail Qualification World Championship (RQWC) took place in Wolfsburg.Christian Klingler, Member of the Board of Management of the Volkswagen Group and of Volkswagen Passenger
Cars, presented awards to the champions. Around 300 participants from a total of 80 countries took part in the finals. In the country category, the team from Austria came first ahead of Denmark and Belarus. Bernhard Rudolf from Austria won in the sales person category. The champion among the service advisors is Martin Kadner from the Czech Republic; while Kosuke Endo from Japan won the contest for master technicians. Among the parts advisors, Oliver Bayer from Germany became the new champion.

"We at Volkswagen do everything we can to inspire our customers around the world - with fascinating cars and outstanding service. This is because satisfied customers are the key to making Volkswagen the number one volume brand by 2018. Our retail world championship sets us firmly on that path," said Klingler at the awards ceremony. It is the fifth time that Volkswagen has held an international competition for the employees of its partners. The aim of this competition is continually to improve sales and service quality in all markets and to therefore also further increase customer satisfaction with the Volkswagen brand.

This year the award for the best country team was presented for the first time. The new category is designed to further strengthen networking within the areas of Sales and After Sales at Volkswagen's partners. In addition to the world champions from the four different fields, this year prizes were once again awarded to the best employees from the four different world regions. Yet another important aspect of the RQWC is to determine the current state of knowledge in the Volkswagen dealership and service organisations in the participating countries. With the aid of this information, country-specific training programmes can then be devised and implemented. The World Championship therefore has a key role to play in a targeted improvement in the level of training among Volkswagen sales and service employees around the world.

Team Competition World Championship
1st Place: Austria
2nd Place: Denmark
3rd Place: Belarus

Sales Person World Championship
1st Place: Bernhard Rudolf, Austria
2nd Place: Wierd Jan Visch, Netherlands
3rd Place: Damijan Plut, Slovenia

Service Advisor World Championship
1st Place: Martin Kadner, Czech Republic
2nd Place: Roberto Ortiz Baquedano, Spain
3rd Place: Thomas Zimmermann, Germany

Master Technician World Championship
1st Place: Kosuke Endo, Japan
2nd Place: Jouni Gustafsson, Finland
3rd Place: Hendrik Barnard, South Africa

Parts Advisor World Championship
1st Place: Oliver Bayer, Germany
2nd Place: Bartosz Cichocki, Poland
3rd Place: Toni Walden, Switzerland

Posted in: Award,Bernhard Rudolf,Christian Klingler,International,Kosuke Endo,Martin Kadner,Oliver Bayer,One Brand,One Challenge,One Team,Retail Qualification World Championship,RQWC,Volkswagen,Wolfsburg