SYDNEY CITY LEXUS
INSIGHT
From left, John Roca, John Alagha and Enzo Alessi.
NEW BRANDING: YOUR HOME OF LEXUS It’s 30 years since Lexus made its debut in Australia and we’re proud to say Sydney City Lexus was the very first dealer in NSW, and in the intake of the first five nationally. That’s why, to celebrate our anniversary, we’ve tried to put into words the feeling we have for the marque and also our guests. We’ve decided, simply, that Sydney City Lexus is ‘Your home of Lexus’. Honestly, buying a new car should be an exceptional experience. To make that the case, we’ve created a special position at Lexus – our very own Kikubari. In Japanese culture, Kikubari is the fine art of anticipation – of listening and acting, almost intuitively, to the needs of others. We decided to turn the verb into a noun, and we appointed a person to be our Kikubari. It’s never been done before. But since we appointed John Alagha as our Lexus Guest Kikubari, there’s been an astonishing change in the culture of our business and a marked increase in our already strong relationship with our guests. I’ll let him tell the story: JA: “I belong to a very close family. When we all get together at our holiday home up at Umina, there’s 38 of us spanning three generations. We care for each other; we get along and I love it.
JA: “That’s what I bring to Sydney City Lexus – a sense of real pride in seeing other people happy. “I tell my guests ‘I’m not a salesman,’ I don’t do numbers or contracts and I don’t negotiate. “But the ebb and flow of the showroom floor and of our guest’s experience is something that I can help enhance.” John joined me from his own franchise business which he ran very successfully for 22 years. His ethic was always customer satisfaction. JA: “I love the wedding day – when our guests come in to pick up their new car. Everyone should have the feeling, at least once, of buying a new car. I love the theatre of it, when we reveal their new Lexus from under a black cloth. JA: “And when they drive away, they know they can always call me. Let’s say they just want to confirm a feature or an operation, I tell them I have all the time in the world to talk them through it. They feel at ease talking to someone of my generation. In my world there’s no such thing as a silly question.” John makes it his business to be the fountain of all knowledge on all our Lexus models. He studies them and knows what he’s talking about. He also has no fewer than eight blends of coffee available for a sit-down conversation with our guests. Our Kikubari innovation has been a success. I invite you to come and meet John at our ‘Home of Lexus.’