Tuesday, July 27, 2004

World Auto View

Toyota finally is taking steps to improve its customer service


By Christine Tierney / The Detroit News


Imagine what a daunting rival Toyota Motor Corp. would be if its dealers performed as well as its world-class engineers and factories.

But in an unusual blot on the Japanese automaker’s record, customer satisfaction with service at Toyota’s U.S. dealers ranks well below average, year after year, according to J.D. Power and Associates.

“Toyota dealers are like Maytag repairmen because Toyota is among the best when it comes to quality,” says Joe Ivers, J.D. Power’s executive director of quality. “You’d expect that to translate into higher customer satisfaction.”

But it hasn’t. Customers taking cars in mainly for maintenance work complain about confusing charges, drab waiting rooms and long delays.

There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that Toyota loses potential customers, driven away by high-handed and occasionally insensitive salespeople.

Cristin Mandaville, a mother of two in Renton, Wash., once owned a Toyota minivan but has dropped the brand from her shopping list, although the vehicle was reliable.

“I don’t want to tango again with the Japanese dealerships’ staff,” she says. “Toyota’s the worst.”

By contrast, Toyota’s premium Lexus dealers score well in J.D. Power’s poll, earning a fifth-place rating, compared with the Toyota brand’s 28th place.

That kind of poor service could hobble Toyota’s efforts to eventually capture 20 percent of the lucrative U.S. market, up from 12 percent.

“Unless consumers are happy with the service they’ve gotten, the chances that they will buy another vehicle at that dealership fall to single-digits,” says Ivers.

In Toyota parlance, weaknesses are merely disguised opportunities — and Toyota officials have studied the shortcomings of their sales network.

Of the 1,207 U.S. Toyota dealers, “the bottom 15 to 20 percent need to improve. That’s where we’re having problems,” says Dave Camden, Toyota’s vice president of dealer operations in Torrance, Calif.

Now, in its trademark methodical way, Toyota is taking action. It has stepped up sales training. This year, roughly 156,000 sales staffers will go through training courses, up from 47,764 in 1999.

Toyota has set minimum standards for waiting area amenities. In addition, dealers have agreed to invest $1.2 billion over the next two years to spruce up outlets and expand their parking lots to cope with a growing clientele.

Toyota has also devised a new customer survey to help company officials zero in on deficiencies at individual stores.

“Toyota’s definitely focusing on moving the needle, bringing it closer to Lexus,” said Tom Rudnai, owner of Longo Toyota in El Monte, Calif., one of the most successful Toyota outlets.

Dealers who languish in the bottom 10 percent of their peers will be excluded from Toyota’s national recognition programs, including annual junkets to exotic locales.

In May, Toyota installed as the new head of sales for the Toyota division Bob Carter, a former manager for the Lexus eastern U.S. region.

While Toyota officials don’t expect big results to show up for three or four years, the company has a way of meeting objectives it sets for itself.

With an ironclad reputation for quality and reliability, if Toyota succeeds in bolstering customer service, its rivals will be facing an even more formidable competitor.




Link HERE

 

I never had any problems with my local Toyota when taking my car in for service appts, but their waiting room could use a big improvement: outdated magazines, TV with poor reception, coffee blender (no instant coffee/cappuccino machine like in Lexus), and restrooms located IN the waiting room (talk about lack of privacy!)

 

As their market share continue to rapidly grow, I fail to see how they're going to keep the same level of customer satisfaction without increasing the number of dealerships and capacity.

Toyota prides themselves in the sales-per-dealership ratio, but sometimes quantity does translates to quality when the ratio is out of hand.

 

Our local Toyota shop here in my neighborhood is going even one step further....it is putting in a brand-new automatic car wash for all the cars serviced. Let's hope that it doesn't cause paint and trim scratches...a common problem with car washes.

 

If it's the no touch type, it usually won't cause problems.

 

Perhaps this Toyota is aiming to speed up the time of servicing their cars, so I guess that'd be a viable reason.

In any case, I too would be extremely wary of the automatic car-wash service provided by Toyota since most of the Lexus/Toyota 'ships hand-wash all serviced cars. IMO hand-washing is the only proper and efficient way to wash a car. The touchless wash is a nice alternative, but even with the auto dry hook-up, water is still left along the lines of the car's roof, body, panels, bumpers, etc.

 

I won't let the dealership hand-wash my car, they'll never be as careful & you have to question how clean their towels/mitts are & how often they switch them. I use 4 different mitts at the same time when I wash my car & rinse them often between wipes. They will never be as careful as that. Touchless wash from the dealer would be more acceptable for me even if the drying part isn't perfect.

 

I do my own car, too.....by hand......but the average customer is not like us. They want everything done for convienence and don't care about an occasional scratch or chip.

Make SURE in the winter that you get ALL of the sand off BEFORE you hand-wash after driving on roads with sand and abrasives on them. This is one of the main reasons why I will not use an automatic car wash....it simply does not do a through job. It takes a LOT of water and a LOT of work with the hose to get ALL of the sand out of ALL the cracks and nooks. Even when you think you have it all, flush again...you will be surprised to see how much is left. If you don't get ALL of the sand out it will mix with the water, sponge, mitts, or auto-wash brushes and scratch the paint and trim.