The maitre d' of parts and service at Lexus in Fort Myers

EVAN WILLIAMS / FLORIDA WEEKLY Scanlon Lexus Service and Parts Director Robert Gonnelli. Robert Gonnelli, the service and parts director at Scanlon Lexus in Fort Myers, is as gracious as the maitre d' at a fine restaurant. The 57-year-old Long Island, N.Y. native, who moved to Florida 14 years ago and retains a softened but still distinctive accent, touts the dealership's honesty, integrity and customer service with unflappable passion.

"It was like the pure of the pure," he said. "I know that sounds like I'm trying to blow smoke — but that's why I've been here so many years…

"Lexus changed my view of the manufacturer and client. They don't call a customer a customer, they call them a 'guest.' That's like their bible. Treat each customer as if they were a guest in your home."

While Gonnelli is at his post there (he's worked for Scanlon 14 years), he practices the job with a single-minded dedication. And it appears to be working, he reported, with humble, yet glowing pride — the dealership has been awarded the No. 1 Lexus dealership for customer service, out of eight district stores, for the last 10 years.

"Our process, our consultants, our follow up — all that goes in to those figures," he said.

Each year, the distinction affords Gonnelli a trip to some exotic locale — Hawaii, Japan, France — and he has the pictures in his office to prove it. But the success comes after a lot of hard work; after all, everyone is there because something is wrong with their car.

"When you run a parts and service department, it's extremely rewarding and it's also pretty stressful," he said. "Time is of the essence. Your time is of the essence. We know that whatever you do for a living, you don't need to be doing this."

He works 12-hour days overseeing 35 employees and receives about 100 customers a day in season and 50 per day during the summer. He schedules appointments to meet guests' needs, has them picked up if necessary, lends them a Lexus to drive while the work is done, and offers them beverages in the lobby.

All repairs come with a mini-detailing of the upholstery and free car wash. (Scanlon's customers get free washes for life). And Gonnelli makes his total concern with each customer's needs clear, with strict equality.

"It doesn't matter if it's you or the president of the bank," he said.

After describing his customer service dedication, Gonnelli shares something else about himself.

He slides into the brown leather seats of his own Lexus, slips a CD into the machine and it's his own suave, baritone voice singing "Just the way you look tonight." Gonnelli is a vocalist and entertainer at nightclubs, parties, weddings and special occasions when he's not helping repair cars.

"I do everything," he said. "I can do the Eagles, Elvis…

"That's like my outlet — when you argue with someone over a flat tire during the day, and the same person wants to give you a tip at night."

He also sings at parades and would like to perform the national anthem at a baseball game.

"I'm a patriot," he said. "I like to do all that kind of stuff."

That comes partly from his service in the military. Gonnelli was drafted during the Vietnam War, although he had a son (now he has three children and two grandchildren) and was recently married.

"When they handed out my orders it said 'Germany,'" he said. "My guardian angel was looking after me."

His wife and son lived about 10 miles from the base in Germany where he was stationed, and Gonnelli made the rank of sergeant in less than a year.

"I figured, if I'm gonna do anything, I'll do it right," he said.

After the war, he returned to Long Island and took over a neighborhood glass installation business in Smithtown, installing storefront windows, car windshields, shower doors — the kinds of repairs most people are used to going to places like Home Depot for now.

"Whenever I did a job, I wanted to say I could sign my name to it, like it was my mom's car," he said. "From that philosophy, our business did flourish."

Gonnelli opened four glass repair shops in the Long Island suburbs and also bought a tile and marble store, which he helped his wife run. The economy started to go south there, he said, in the early 1990s and he sold the businesses and moved to Florida.

His mother, brother and children have followed him to Florida since then.

"This was really like my first job, because you're so used to running things by yourself," Gonnelli said of the parts and services directorship.

His real first job was at a gas station on Long Island, but he didn't let it distract him too much from the focus: his guests.

"(Some) are five- or six-time buyers," he said. "The old saying in the car business, that sales sell the first car and service sells the rest is, I think, really true."