Customer is the king – rightly proved & practiced by Toyota customer service.

A recent visit to the Viva Toyota dealership was an eye-opening experience about the Toyota culture where every aspect to customer service & convenience is the utmost priority. Right from offering appointment based services to a direct walk-in. Honestly, the current set-up for car service are mostly monotonous and long. What we learnt new, was Toyota strives to achieve continuous technological & customer convenience enhancements by offering  EM 60, 90 & 120.

What are these terminologies? EM 60 means a periodic maintenance service within 60 minutes of receiving the vehicle. Which was further advanced to EM 90 & 120 for quick repairs & other services. In the meanwhile to ensure the customer’s comfort, the facility is equipped with a play area for kids, a resting room with bunk beds & lounge area serving refreshments. Generally, this is a one day long procedure and many even take about 24 hours. So, in this way, a lot more of the dealer costs are incurred and this means an increase in cost to the dealer, which will reflect on the bill. So, a lesser cost is beneficial to a buyer. This makes it a lot easier for them and its a win-win for all.The dealership doesn’t have to struggle with unfinished car business as well. 

Customer convenience is upscaled to another level by launching the ‘service express’ which is a service station on wheels that is well equipped for all types of periodic maintenance service, EM60, minor, medium, major, general repair jobs like AC, wheel alignment, balancing etc. It can also perform vehicle diagnosis, online repair order generation, eco-wash & minor car beautification services. They also provide a 3 year 24×7 free road side assistance (RSA) which can be further extended up to eight years with retail RSA program. They have a special program, know as the Toyota Edge, where the customer can create his custom made program as per requirement.

The company has also ensured that the dealer doesn’t need to invest a lot in inventory. If the dealer sells one spare, it will be replaced by that one. This will keep the dealership cost at a lower amount. Thus everyone is happy, be it the dealer or the seller. At the end of the day, to turn around the profit sheet, the buyer will have to add an extra cost to the customer. This will hamper trust and even company’s image in a way.

He has the power to choose from a variety of their products, can conveniently pay through easy EMI options & enjoy savings. Toyota is known for its quality, service and value offering to the customer. This is where the real work happens. The company is offering the customer additional and quicker benefits to make things simplified.

It seems, this is one area where auto companies aren’t putting too much of a focus. In terms of product service and the trust building that takes a while. We did learn of this, as the company invited us to its plant. But how do other auto companies enact on this?