Toyota

A reputation for quality is a huge asset for any manufacturer but, as Toyota has found to its cost, it takes years to build and only moments to lose. And when you add in a failure to take a fast and zero tolerance approach to any threat to customer safety, you risk gaining a very unwelcome reputational replacement.

Unless Toyota wants to risk being seen as cavalier about the safety of its customers it will need to respond fast with complete transparency and the rapid firing of anyone involved in the delay of international warnings and product recalls.

This will need to be followed up, and fast, with a well communicated and financed programme to ensure reparation to anyone who has suffered and to improve future product safety and recall processes.

Toyota has failed to deliver a number of the actions essential to surviving a reputational crisis. The company was slow to respond and it failed to understand that any problem that threatens public safety will prompt strong action from third parties – in this case the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. You need to act before you are made to and to go further than you probably need to. And the top man must take public ownership of the problem from the outset.

Product recalls are common in manufacturing, and the car industry is no exception. They don’t have to be a disaster. But fail to act fast, even if this makes the remedy more costly, and you will pay a heavy price for decades to come. No-one will forgive a company seen to put money and short term discomfort ahead of safety.

Crisis Preparation needs Systems Testing

An undercover Dispatches team has just added to the woes of the Royal Mail by exposing poor security, inefficiency and possible insider thefts in its 8th February programme. Ahead of what is clearly a well promoted programme, other media piled in deliver their own damning verdicts. Only a few days earlier The Times Money team sent 100 birthday cards to 14 different addresses across the country, each containing a £1 National Lottery scratch card. Only 93 arrived with the scratch card. This is not the first time that media have tested The Royal Mail and it certainly won’t be the last.

It’s high time the Royal Mail started a process of regularly sending its own undercover agents in so they can root out bad apples and poor practices ahead of those who will, quite justifiably, air the findings in public forums. Testing systems and quality processes and acting rapidly on the findings is part and parcel of any good crisis prevention programme. You’d do well to remember that if you look after a service important to the general public.

What does social media mean to your business?

We’ve just launched a survey to gauge the use of social media in B2B communications, with particular focus on companies in manufacturing, engineering, construction and professional services.

Which social media tools – if any – are businesses in these sectors using? How integrated is social media in their communications? And if businesses aren’t doing more, why not?

So, if you’re a B2B brand and have 5 minutes to spare we’d be hugely grateful if you would share your experience with us – simply click on the link below to take part

http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB229V6UC3UUK

In return we’ll enter you into a prize draw to win a luxury hamper – a little something special for the festive season! Thanks in advance from K+R marketing