For lucky Proton owner, Azrul Firdaus Bin Ramli, bringing his Iriz for routine maintenance at the national carmaker’s Centre of Service Excellence in Subang Jaya, and snapping a picture, was all that was required for him take home the grand prize of a brand-new Saga Premium AT in the Proton Service & Win contest.

Designed to reward Proton customers for regularly servicing their cars and to promote the company’s authorised service centres, the contest (co-branded with Petronas) was held from August 15 to November 15 last year.

During the contest period, over 125,000 owners sent their vehicles for servicing, with eligible participants required to upload a picture of their car on Facebook together with a creative caption. The winner was decided by Proton’s management based on the creativity of their posting.

Over the past two years, Proton has actively sought to recruit new partners to increase the number of 3S/4S outlets in its dealer network. As of now, the carmaker has 121 such outlets, and it is targeting to have 150 outlets up and running by the end of the year. Additionally, it is continuously investing in staff training programmes and benchmarking itself against other brands.

“Selling a car is the beginning of a relationship between an automotive brand and its customers. During a five-year ownership cycle, there will be many occasions when a customer returns to service their car and this is an opportunity for Proton to showcase a premium brand experience,” said Li Chunrong, CEO of Proton.

“This is the strategy driving us towards investing in a comprehensive network of 3S/4S outlets and also helps to ensure our cars are maintained by trained technicians, which will help long-term residual values,” he added.