The latest in a flurry of managing director arrivals and departures, Audi Australia has a new head.

Uwe Hagen has joined Audi Australia Pty Ltd as Managing Director.

Hagen, 52, brings a very strong background in premium vehicle sales to the company, previously holding the position of Head of Audi Sales for the Western German region. During his six year tenure, Audi took over the number one premium position in the Western German markets.

Multinational car dealer Inchcape has again noted Australia as a positive factor when it posted a smaller-than-expected fall in 2009 profit, helped by cost cutting and market share gains, but said it did not see a recovery in its markets until late this year.

The British firm, which sells and distributes cars for manufacturers including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Honda and Toyota in 26 countries, said on Wednesday profit before tax and one-off items fell 19% to 155.1 million pounds (AU$255 million) last year on an 11% fall in sales.

Supercheap Auto customers were more satisfied than any other auto-accessories shoppers according to a new survey.

According to the Roy Morgan Retail Customer Satisfaction report for the 12 months to December 2009, Supercheap Auto customers were the most satisfied in the car accessories and car care products stores category, and showed the greatest improvement in the latest 12 months.

Overall, the average satisfaction rating of the auto stores surveyed was 83.8%, which was 2.4% points below the average satisfaction recorded by all non food stores (86.2%).

Written by Mark Greenfield of New Zealand-based warranty supplier Autosure

Isn’t it ironic that very few of us, have ever had any training that provides us with the skills to listen, so that we really understand our customers from their own perspective?

Yet this is such a critical part of sales, customer service and communication that we all partake in day to day.

We have all spent many of our early years learning how to speak, how to read and write. When were we taught about listening?