Testimonial from Monks Park School

In the words of Mission Impossible, "Your mission, if you choose to accept it (like there was any choice!) -Find a bus and turn it into a mobile ICT classroom"

First port of call was to find suitable coachworks. I found a few and rang a few; most seemed dismissive when I mentioned I was from a school, and then I came across South East Coachworks.

"Craftsmanship and Reliability", now there's a tagline that appealed, so with some trepidation I picked up the phone and gave them a call. I explained roughly what I was after, and to my delight I was greeted with an attitude that seems to be sadly missing these days; genuine customer service with willingness to actually deliver what the customer wants…

I believed I had found a winning combination just from a single phone call, and so a trip to view a bus and check out the standard of workmanship was arranged. In the meanwhile, trips to alternative coachworks were undertaken but the dismissive attitude remained. Upon my arrival at SEC, I was greeted with the same level of warmth and enthusiasm that I had received over the phone, Chris (Bichard) took the time to introduce each SEC team member and explain each speciality.

He took copious notes as we talked to get a genuine feel for what I was trying to achieve within a strict budget. He in turn, made sure that I was not wishing for the Earth for free and made general recommendations as to what could be achieved, and believe me, SEC can achieve almost anything you could possibly want.

On the strength of that visit, I was extremely pleased to place an order with SEC for both a bus (Yes, they even found me a suitable bus) and the refit; the date was 27th July 2005.

Over the course of the following weeks, we each kept in regular phone contact and other site visits were undertaken, on all occasions, the desire to fulfil my requirements remained and I was treated as if I was the only customer, even when I made some design changes and additions at a very late stage of the project lifecycle. As much as I enjoyed each visit to SEC, I was grateful that it wasn't too often due to the distance involved, but the infrequency of my visits was only possible of the total commitment and wonderful vision from the whole of the SEC team.

They managed to take my vision and turn it into reality. Another major bonus was the fact that SEC did not promise to do all this work for nothing and then add on "extra's" to boost the cost, quite simply I knew at all times what the current running total of the project was, I was even more pleased that any cost savings were passed back to me. The fact that the whole project was delivered on time, with a better specification than I had originally hoped for and under budget, is a clear testament to the SEC mantra:- "Craftsmanship and Reliability", to this they should also add "TRUST".

Quite simply, I got what I wanted, when I wanted it and at a balanced cost. The work was carried with the utmost skill and care without quibble. There were no snags, no delays and no discrepancies.

Less than eight weeks from my initial visit to SEC, the bus was complete and driven away on the 20th Sept 2005 and was in use on the 21st.

As people, the team at SEC are peerless.

As a company SEC are driven by excellence and I have no hesitation in commending them to anyone who cares to listen. Craftsmanship and Reliability indeed.

Nick Steadman
Network Manager
Monks Park School