UK Toyota Centres win first European customer satisfaction awards

Four UK Toyota Centres were winners of the 2007 Toyota Ichiban* European Customer Satisfaction Awards at a ceremony in Venice , Italy in April. The Centres were, Border Toyota of St Boswells, Minories Toyota from Wearside, and two Ron Brooks Toyota Centres from Ilkeston and Mansfield, won this recognition. These Centres were chosen as they were deemed to have excelled at customer satisfaction taking into account both Sales and After Sales performance.

“Our goal is to achieve complete customer satisfaction with a number 1 ranking in every European market by 2010,” said Andrea Formica, Senior Vice-President for Sales, Marketing and After Sales, Toyota Motor Europe. “With the Toyota Ichiban European Customer Satisfaction Awards we want to thank those Centres who strongly support us in these efforts. They listened to their customers and strove to go the extra mile to ensure owners feel positive about Toyota at every stage of the customer experience.”

The Centres were judged on the results of a Complete Customer Satisfaction survey which Toyota introduced in ten participating European countries in 2006. The UK Centres performed strongly in key satisfaction drivers for both sales and after sales. Customers were, for instance, highly satisfied with their welcome to the showroom, test drives, the purchasing process and the hand-over of the car. Regarding after sales, customers valued the handling of appointments, the accuracy and punctuality of service delivery as well as follow-up and customer care.

This is the first time Toyota has introduced Toyota Ichiban European Customer Satisfaction Award for Centres. Tadashi Arashima, President and CEO Toyota Motor Europe, and Thierry Dombreval, Executive Vice-President Toyota Motor Europe, handed over the awards in the presence of Toyota ’s European affiliates and UK top management.

For the future, Toyota Motor Europe will extend the reach of the awards to other European markets in an effort to ensure the consistent application of the renowned ‘ Toyota Way ’ principles in retail.

*“Ichiban” is taken from the Toyota customer satisfaction slogan “Okyakusama Ichiban” which means “Customer First” in Japanese. “Ichiban” means “first” or “number one”.