Richard L. Chitty is vice president of parts, service and customer satisfaction for Lexus, the luxury division of Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. Since June 1988, Chitty has been responsible for directing all parts, service and customer satisfaction related activities for Lexus. He was part of the team that formed Lexus, and he helped design the customer service program currently in use by Lexus associates. In 1991, Lexus became the first manufacturer to win the J.D. Power and Associates' "Triple Crown" of customer satisfaction (Sales Satisfaction Index, Customer Satisfaction Index and Initial Quality Survey), with a repeat sweep in 1994.
QD: At Lexus, how do you measure customer satisfaction?
Chitty: We measure it at the dealer level. Every one of our dealers must follow up with the customer, and we check with every customer. Dealers call the customer both for our service and sales activity, and they find out if there's something wrong and get it fixed.
We do a formal four-page survey with each customer after they buy the car. And then a four-page survey every time they get the car serviced. Questions include: "What do you like most about the car?" "What do you like least about the car?" "What features would you like to have on your new car?"
That information goes directly to the engineering departments. And it goes over there by VIN number, so they know exactly what car the survey was about. They can tell when the car was produced. They learn whether they made a change that was acceptable to a customer or not.
QD: How does this tie in to what Lexus calls the Customer-Inspired Automobile?
Chitty: The best way I can describe it is that we are very serious about hearing the voice of the customer.
We have developed a system of getting voice-of-the-customer information and are able to do something with it; all survey data goes back to the engineering department. On the 1995 LS 400, for example, there were more than 1,700 changes. Most people won't believe this, but each one of those changes came from a customer's request.
Customers told us we needed to improve certain features. They wanted a bigger trunk, for instance, so we gave them a bigger trunk. They wanted the handling to be a little more quick, so we gave them that.
Here's another example of what we mean by a customer-inspired automobile. During the redesign, our product planning group told the chief engineer for the car that the glovebox light needed to be a little brighter. He said an interesting thing: "I'm not changing one thing on that car until I hear from our customers." He'd believe our own people, but he wasn't going to change it just because he thought it was right. He was going to see what the customer wanted.
QD: How do you identify and deal with process problems in a service environment?
Chitty: We developed Lexus service by flowcharting everything. It's like building a car. When a car runs down the assembly line, there is an exact process for it. So when we started Lexus, we decided to do the same thing with service. This forms the basis of our service training. If some problem occurs, you go back and look at the flowchart and say, OK, here's our problem.
Maybe a customer survey for a dealer shows that customers are unhappy with how the dealership handles appointments. He says, "I've got to fix this before it gets to be a problem." So he pulls out the flowchart and looks at how the dealership handles appointments. What are they not doing right? The dealer can look at the flowchart and say, "Bingo, the problem is right here."
Here's a recent example of how we dealt with a service problem. We had some difficulties with one of our suppliers for tires which we buy in the United States, particularly in the customer service area. The problem wasn't with the tire itself but rather with getting replacement tires-where customers could get them. Most auto manufacturers don't warranty the tires; the tire company does. So, normally, if a customer has a tire problem, they go to the Goodyear or the Firestone store. But Lexus doesn't want that. We want customers to come back to us. That was the problem we identified.
The next step was to map out the process. We flowcharted it. We examined the process, took the emotions out of it, determined the right thing to do and then got the vendor in and figured out a system to deal with the issue.
QD: No matter the source of the problem, you want the customer to come to you? Chitty: Yes. They know how they're going to be treated, and they don't get into the Goodyear or Firestone data base, so that those companies start sending information to come to them for service. There are a lot of reasons for this. Number one is that we want to retain our customers. And service is how we do that. Of the people who bought a 1995 LS 400, for instance, 67 percent were previous Lexus buyers.
QD: How important is it to satisfy every customer?
Chitty: We think it's critically important to do everything that you possibly can to satisfy every customer. Will you satisfy every customer? No. That's impossible. But you must try to do everything humanly possible, going sometimes beyond reason. Because they will convert to raving fans. Because you can't afford to have a customer talk negatively about your product.
Do we have some problems at Lexus? I'm sure we probably do. But we still must try to satisfy those customers-we've got to buy the car back, we have to trade them out of a car. You should be fanatically committed to satisfying that customer. Why? One, because it's the right way to do things. And two, because the chances of them coming back and buying another car are pretty good.
On the other hand, you can't be all things to all people. You need to decide where your success is and go after that. Do we have any business making sports cars at Lexus? No. That's not our niche, that's not our customer. We could do that, but it would diversify us from a lot of other things that we should concentrate on. You can't satisfy every customer need, but you should be able to satisfy every customer.
QD: How do you view the future of customer service?
Chitty: I think the level of customer expectations will continue to go up. The winners are going to be the companies that deliver more personalized service. We have a mission statement at Lexus-we call it a covenant: "We will treat each customer as we would a guest in our own home." How do you do that? The key will lie with the structure of automobile dealerships. I don't think they'll exist as they do today. I think the customer is going to have a one-stop dealership. I will contact you and say: "We've got a brand new LS 400 coming out. I'm going to send you a brochure so you'll have the colors. Just pick out the car and you can come down and look at it on a computer touch screen, and if you'd like, I'll bring a car out to you."
We'll take care of the insurance for you. We'll arrange the license plates for you. We'll do all of those things that you normally must do yourself. People are going to look for more and more individual attention.