UK Toyota Centres Claim Top European Customer Service Honours

KEY POINTS

• Toyota honours three of its UK dealerships with Ichiban awards for exceptional customer satisfaction
• RRG Stockport, Oakmere Toyota Northwich and Snows of Honiton presented with awards at ceremony in Athens
• Respectively they represent the highest-achieving large, medium and small Toyota centres in the UK

Ultimate satisfaction is the goal for all Toyota centres and three of the UK’s finest have been recognised for their excellence in this year’s Toyota Ichiban awards.

RRG Stockport, Oakmere Toyota Northwich and Snows of Honiton were among the 42 businesses across Toyota’s European operations that were honoured in this year’s awards. Their success reflects their achievement in building customer satisfaction in both sales and after sales – from the showroom floor through to the service and repair bays.

Around 2,300 retailers were assessed through continuous monitoring of their performance against a demanding range of criteria, including Toyota’s own businesses standards and its “customer first philosophy”.

The centre principal from each of the UK’s winners attended the Ichiban presentation ceremony, held in Athens last week (22 May). The awards were presented by Didier Leroy, President and CEO Toyota Motor Europe, who said: “‘Toyota is deeply committed to bringing superior products and services to ensure customer satisfaction. Our thanks go to our Ichiban winners for continuing to lead and set the example of how to make our customers happy.”

Dean Watson, Centre Principal at RRG Stockport, said: “All my team work extremely hard to ensure that every one of our customers is delighted with the experience they receive at RRG Stockport. This prestigious award is testament to the commitment and dedication of everyone at RRG Stockport.”

Richard Golsworthy of Snows of Honiton said: “I feel an immense amount of pride, both personally and for the hard work of all our centre staff who do so much to make sure the customer is always put first. Since I joined the centre four years ago we have worked extremely hard to improve the service we provide, and this award is a great acknowledgement of our achievements.”

Ichiban comes from the Japanese term okyakusama ichiban which means ‘customer first’, with ichiban meaning ‘first’ or ‘number one’. Since the annual Ichiban Awards were introduced in Europe in 2007, customer satisfaction performance by Toyota retailers has improved by around 43 per cent in sales and 34 per cent in after sales, according to an internal Toyota survey conducted in Europe.

ENDS