Auckland City BMW recently celebrated their 30th anniversary and as part of the commemorations underwent a full redevelopment, in turn becoming the first dealership in the country to feature the new BMW ‘Future Retail’ appearance.
Future Retail is orientated towards an all encompassing customer experience and as part of the enhancements the dealership now features a dedicated BMW Genius as part of their staff.
A BMW Genius is not a salesperson, in fact they are there to educate customers about new features and benefits, as well as help configure a new car on the interactive 3D presentation screen.
BMW E-nthusiast spoke with the country’s very first BMW Genius, Ruwan Siriwardena, about his role at the dealership.
“I’m really proud to be the country’s first BMW Genius and take great pride in the fact I am able to educate and inform people about the many features and benefits of new BMW models,” said Ruwan.
“I started in the role almost 18 months ago and spent ten days at BMW Australia participating in what was essentially a BMW immersion course, covering the marque’s origins and history, to the latest market leading technologies and everything in between.”
When it comes to new developments, Ruwan identifies BMW ConnectedDrive as the single most amazing new feature – and the one which offers the greatest ‘surprise and delight’ for customers as they learn about the width and breadth of services available.
“BMW ConnectedDrive is an impressive interface which offers services and apps and has to be the most engaging, intuitive and seamless way for a driver to interact with a car.
“The availability of Intelligent Emergency Call along with SOS Emergency Request provides enhanced peace of mind, but for premium convenience the new Concierge Service is the absolute icing on the cake. It is especially useful for people travelling on their own as it enables them to book restaurants, search destinations and have navigation instructions sent directly to the car whilst still driving.
Other features to impress Ruwan include the automated self-park available in models such as the X6M, but also the BMW i3.
“In addition to the self-park function, the pure driveability of the i3 is something to behold. It has to rate as one of my favourite cars, not just from a technology standpoint but also the pure fun factor when you drive it.”
BMW enthusiasts can always visit one of their local BMW dealerships to speak to a product expert.
