Toyota Recall - Brand Vulnerability - Lessons Learned

I've been putting off writing this entry because I've been stumped with where to start. Part of the problem is figuring out what I actually think.

I think Toyota has an impressive and long track record for safety, reliability, resale value and more. I think it would be short sighted for consumers to throw that history out the window due this recall. However, I also feel that our fast paced world has resulted in giving us short-term memory. The result may be that a company's current reputation is likely to be the one that sticks (at least for today).

Still - my gut tells me this will be a blip.

That being said, I think this has been a great lesson learned for Toyota and anyone else trying to build a brand. I agree with the pundits that have suggested Toyota's strong brand may be it's weakness as it's now being held to a higher standard. But, Toyota participated in placing the bar that high. Further, I think Toyota excerbated the problem with it's reaction. In my opinion there are a two ways to deal with a problem. Let's call one the Maple Leaf way and the other "name your favourite brand to hate" way. When Maple Leaf realised they had a listeria problem they immediately went public, issued a recall, took full responsibility, issued apologies and launched an investigation. The other way is to hum and haw and weigh your options and then finally 6 + months later issue a recall. Shall I post a poll and ask you to vote for your favourite? Which brand do you think will be the least hurt?

So here's the lesson I learned through this Toyota recall debacle: don't let a customer sit and wait. This shouldn't really be news; but how many of you have bought a house or a car or anything of value and even if all you had was a follow up question once the sale was done you could wait weeks if not forever for a respone? Trust me I've bought my share of real-estate and vehicles wherein after the sale was done I suddenly I had contact info to nowhere.

What is that marketing stat - it costs 5 times more to attract a new customer than to earn the business of a current one? As a business owner I not only believe this to be true, but I know just how important it is that each and every one of our customers speak positively about us. Toyota's slow response has probably increased this margin significantly.

I think Toyota's brand will take some knocks but in fact remain strong. I think customers will be using this as a bargaining chip in purchases for the next little while. I hope Toyota has stopped resting on it's laurels when it comes to consumer engagement. But mostly I hope that seller's might walk away with a lesson learned: consumers, even after sale, need care.

What do you think?

Happy Driving!