Posted: 16/03/2017
Toyota’s Australian dealers have stepped up to the challenge of meeting ever-higher customer-care standards, according to independent surveys of owners.
An impressive 47 per cent of Toyota’s national dealer network achieved the maximum five-star status in 2016 after the company significantly raised the criteria for achieving this ranking.
Previous surveys of owners – whom Toyota refers to as guests – measured the level of satisfaction with their experience at Toyota dealerships.
The focus has now moved to delivering an ownership experience that motivates guests to recommend Toyota to their friends.
Toyota Australia’s executive director sales and marketing Tony Cramb said the company is in the midst of aligning and rallying the entire business into a truly guest-centric organisation.
“The customer journey – guest experience – is the new measure of success for the automotive industry,” Mr Cramb said.
“We want our guests to be satisfied, but more importantly we want to deliver an experience that lives up to our Oh what a feeling! brand promise every time we meet,” he said.
“Toyota is determined to be as well known for providing an amazing guest experience as for delivering vehicles that excel in quality, durability and reliability.
“Standing out from the competition in guest experience is all about focusing on behaviours that drive satisfaction, build loyalty and ultimately ensure Toyota owners become advocates for the brand.”
Mr Cramb said the 2016 five-star guest experience dealers have proven themselves to be leaders in the automotive industry.
He said 100 of the company’s 212 participating dealerships attained the maximum rating for both sales and service under the new criteria.
As expected, this was lower than the 2015 result under the previous standards; however, it represented an improvement from 88 dealers or 42 per cent of the network that achieved the maximum rating in 2014 under the superseded criteria.