Good CSR insight – and life-saving tips! – on how to mitigate a Toyota-style disaster by my esteemed associate, Tom Peyton, Managing Director of CSR specialist firm, Enact Consulting.
We seem actively to promote fear in today’s society; everybody is at it and there are few sources of advice or reassurance as to what to do when that emergency strikes. I remember being told by a US Ambassador, in one of those places where bombs used to go off occasionally, not to wash the car because it was then obvious if someone had tampered with it. It was a simple assurance that some of the risks were actually within my control. You may well ask what all this has to do with Toyota, but bear with me…..
I was, until last month, the very contented owner of Toyota Avensis. Fortunately, it’s too old to be suspected of having an accelerator fault but, nevertheless, it makes you think! Toyota has built a fantastic reputation for reliability over the years and it is well deserved. But now it’s in tatters; was there anything they might have been done to prevent this, once the fault had become apparent? If we consider this from a Corporate Responsibility angle, what is the most important thing to do?
Respond appropriately and reassure your customers. The recall is appropriate, but the reassurance is missing. The recall is expensive, while the reassurance is actually the cheap and easy piece. Did Toyota owners need to flood garages with enquiries, lawyers commence class actions and the press go stratospheric? Or are we just being scared irrationally once more? No, they did not and yes, we are – because the actions are quite simple.
With all the recalls, you won’t get your car fixed for a while. So: do you stop driving? It might help climate change, but it won’t solve your transport problem. Would you like some advice, just in case that unlikely occurrence happened to you? I think you might, because it gives you some measure of control over the situation. Clearly you will still need to get the car checked, but life doesn’t have to come to a grinding halt in the meantime.
Having read more of the press coverage than is good for me, I have yet to find any advice as to what to do in an emergency. Neither the press, our over-indulgent nanny state nor our esteemed motoring organisations have announced any guidelines on what to do if it happens to you. Why not? Are they scared to advise in case they get it wrong and then find themselves to blame? Is this being responsible?
Actually, after some searching, I found that Toyota provide the answer as FAQ19 on their website. Perhaps a little more prominence might help. Like headline stuff! It would have saved them money, (not the key consideration, I agree), and helped defuse what became a crisis. Most importantly, it would have immediately addressed their customers concerns; your concerns. This is the CR aspect and it’s really very simple. It’s also just plain good business.
Because it really is very simple:
- Check your mirror
- Put your emergency brake lights on
- Put car in neutral (expect a horrid noise)
- Switch off
- Move to the side of the road – and coast to a halt!
It worked for me 25 years ago when my accelerator cable jammed on the M6. It was a Chrysler!
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