Customer Loyalty Begins With Management
February 8th, 2010 | 
Author: The recent Toyota recall of 5.3 million vehicles with more to come has tested the customer loyalty of Toyota products. Even though the problem of sticking gas pedals appeared to be known for a while, the company did not give it the necessary attention. In time, this little customer service nuance became a customer relations disaster.
Public relations to car industry experts continue to discuss the long term customer loyalty effects. Some will say this is just a bump in the bigger picture of Toyota’s loyal customers. My sense is Toyota has a far deeper problem that being this one:
Executive Management does not believe in their products.
How do I know this? The CEO does not drive a car made by his own company.
Can you imagine for a moment what would have happened if a Ford CEO drove a Lexus or a BMW to a major news conference discussing a significant recall? What message would that had convey? Would you have faith in anything being said by that individual?
When business owners to CEOs (management) do not support their own products or services, this sends a very direct message to their customers both internal (employees) and external (paying clients). Additionally, when significant customer service issues are ignored, these behaviors will come back and bite you on the you know where.
Yet there is an important lesson to be learned here. If you are the small business owner, chief executive officer, sales manager or sales person you must be “walk your talk.” Saying your products, services or your company is the best is one thing. However, taking action of your talk is another. The CEO of Toyota failed to “walk his talk” and that will be remembered for a very long time.
This debacle of customer service only reaffirms why businesses and professional sales people need to have a clearly articulated and communicated values statement within their overall strategic action plan that they actively demonstrate.
Toyota has slide show on their website devoted to their values. One slide makes this comment “Want more reasons to believe? Look around.” If I was a Toyota customer and looked around seeing the CEO driving away in a black Audi, would I have faith in the values of Toyota, their products or their services? I think not!
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Posted in Business, Management, Marketing, Sales | 
Tags: customer loyalty, customer service, loyal customers, strategic action plan, Toyota recall, values statement
10 Responses to “Customer Loyalty Begins With Management”
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Tracking by The Sales Corner
I love sales. It’s the one job that almost anyone can do. If you’re willing to talk to people, you can succeed.
Agreed provided you are talking to the right people with the right message, you have the right products or services to meet their needs and you are right with yourself. Coach Lee
Any motorist will know that, no matter how much money you pay for a car, how new or old it is, there will always be something that can go wrong. It doesn’t matter how rare the fault is, or how well the car runs most of the time, eventually something can go wrong – and when it does, you often find yourself having to hand over plenty of cash to get it repaired. Audi Repair Manual
You are right, but there are design flaws not only in vehicles but in other products as well. When these are known, the manufacturers need to come forth and be honest. Additionally, if you do not support your own product, what message is that sending to your customers.
Great info, thanks for useful post. I’m waiting for more
You are welcome and I look forward to your future comments.
Excelentes Tips! a ponerlos en practica! Gracias!
Salutations from an avid reader. Well, there have been many posts that I have pondered over today but none of them compares to this. Bravo! And I’ll have you know that my mates consider me extremely critical therefore that is lofty praise indeed.
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