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Feb
5
The smartest people in public relations will tell you that there are three kinds of stories about your product: good news, bad news, and stuff that’s in between. How do you spin each one?
The smart ones will tell you that you don’t spin the good news because it doesn’t need it, and you don’t spin the bad news because (a) it probably won’t work, which means it will backfire, and (b) taking your lumps on the bad news makes the media and public more willing to give you the benefit of a doubt on the stuff that’s in between.
Toyota, after some initial missteps behind the scenes, is doing the akamai thing now. It’s doing a huge recall, Akio Toyota himself apologized, and action will be taken. They’re not sure what action will be taken but they’re going to figure out what action should be taken. Fair enough.
That’s a good lesson for other companies, but everyone should understand that it is human nature for senior management of major corporations to believe, inaccurately, that they can somehow control the message. And it’s hard for a VP of corporate communications to advise “taking your lumps.”
In Hawaii, where some 8,000 vehicles are affected, or about one in ten Toyotas on the road, we have learned another lesson: Servco Pacific is a company with character. Mark Fukunaga, its vice president, actually came on “Sunrise” and took lumps, while also explaining that the most efficient way to get the problem fixed is to call for an appointment because (a) that’s what all the other customers are doing, and (b) some who call are learning to their relief that their cars are not affected by the recall.
As Mark was leaving I asked him how Servco was going to make the 24-hour operation of its service bays that the company announced. He said the mechanics would get overtime, but they were also calling back some former mechanics to help out, and if that wasn’t enough they would hire temps.
We’re learning still more in the wake of the Toyota crisis.
The Washington Post reports that the matter has undermined confidence in the independent ratings that auto models get. Many do only limited testing. Even Consumer Reports relies partially on government testing, though it also does some of its own. No surprise to me: I’ve had my eye on Consumer Reports for years since they did what they thought was a comparison of Kona coffees and gave indifferent ratings, not realizing that most of the coffees they were tasting were Kona blends that are 90% anonymous coffee.
CNN reports that Honda, Ford, General Motors and Chrysler, as well as Toyota, have all had numerous complaints of unintended acceleration, and every one of them has done recalls for this. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has also logged recalls over this issue from Nissan, BMW, VW, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Mercedes, Kia, Mazda, Land Rover, Suzuki and Volvo, CNN reported, and may I just add, kudos to CNN for thinking of checking this.
You may also be interested to know that there is a rumor circulating in legal circles that the acceleration problem is more common in cars with an electronic throttle system. Toyota, however, has maintained that there is no connection. Toyota also says the problem is only in cars that were manufactured in North America.
Finally, there is at this writing a possibility that the other recall over Prius brakes might be extended to Lexus hybrids that have the same braking system.
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3 Responses to “What the Toyota safety debacle teaches us”
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soooo – what does it teach us? Are you sayng it is being handled fair to middlin? I’m interested, I work for a dealership.
[So far, I think the dealer is handling it well. The parent company, fair. HMD]
Steve Woz thinks it’s a programing issue in his Prius, but even HE couldn’t get through to the TM corporate structure…
http://www.tuneyfish.com/blog/prius-brake-problems-symptoms-faq-how-prius-brakes-work/
Just a website dealing with Regenerative Braking System, Toyota Prius has.
Prius meaning before, or ahead. Ahead of its time. Knowing a Japanese company they will make lemonade out of Lemons.
Akio Toyoda has made his appology. Lost face, since it was his family who founded Toyota.