Oceania’s Best Marine Service Technicians Recognised

Yamaha’s Technical Academy has successfully conducted its fourth Marine Technician Grand Prix. The event is the culmination of two years of YTA training activities designed to raise the proficiency of all Yamaha technicians in the Oceania market ensuring customers receive outstanding after-sales service.

The Marine Tech GP involves gruelling practical tasks and a tough theoretical test undertaken by a select group of marine service staff at YMA’s headquarters in Sydney.

YMA’s Marine Training Administrator Dan Power says: “This event is aimed at recognising the contribution that service technicians make to our industry and acts as an incentive to help raise service standards. Our technicians genuinely appreciated the product orientation and VIP hospitality we arranged for them.”

The nine technicians were selected from over 200 applicants working in Yamaha dealerships across Australia and New Zealand. The finalists arrived at YMA HQ from the Oceania region and underwent a computerised theory examination and nine practical tasks that covered subjects such as fault diagnosis, product knowledge and customer service.

The results were close, but three time Tech GP veteran Jamie Kiddle from Watercraft Marine in Albany, WA scooped the top honours. “I guess it was a case of third time lucky,” explains the 27 year old who served his apprenticeship at Watercraft Marine, where he has worked for eight years. “Yamaha is the only company that supports marine technicians with events like this. We really appreciate the effort made and because of this we are much more likely to present the Yamaha brand in a positive light to our customers,” continued Kiddle, a two-time runner-up at the Tech GP.

Kiddle now embarks on a tour of Yamaha Marine Division’s new factory at Fukuroi in Japan as a reward for his efforts.

Runner up was Kiwi Dealer Principal Ken Watkinson from Matamata Marine. With only three staff at his dealership, Watkinson is at the smaller end of the business spectrum, but his result proves that size doesn’t matter: “It’s been an amazing experience and a big effort getting here but a big thanks to Phil Jarvis and Yamaha for making it happen,” says Ken.

Following the examinations, the technicians were treated to the ‘Yamaha Experience’, which involved sampling the marine products they spend so much time and effort working with. Plus they also had the opportunity to experience motorcycle, all terrain and side-by-side vehicles from Yamaha’s extensive range of lifestyle products on Stockton Beach.

The next Yamaha Marine Technician Grand Prix happens in 2010.

Editor’s note:
The Yamaha Marine Technician GP pits the top Yamaha service technicians in the country against each other to find out who is the best of the best. The aim of the event is to recognise and motivate technicians to achieve the goal of exceeding customers after sales service expectations. Please help us achieve this goal by highlighting this event.

Previous winners are:
2002: Ian Coops, Hunts Marine
2004: Keith Falkenhagen, Sundown Marine
2006: Bob Thompson, In and Out marine

The nine finalists in 2008 were:

Yamaha outboards are available through an Australia-wide network of authorised Yamaha outboard dealers.  All Yamaha 4-stroke outboards are supported with a full 4-year manufacturer’s warranty and all 2-stroke outboards are backed by a 3 year warranty – standard conditions apply.

For further information on this story contact:

Brett Hampson
National Sales & Marketing Manager
Marine Products

Tel (07) 3906 7000
Fax (07) 3906 7099
www.yamaha-motor.com.au

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