Toyota Motor Europe awards 46 top performing retailers in Europe for Customer Recommendation

Customer First philosophy has always been a focus of Toyota and is part of the company’s DNA. With this principle in mind a total of 46 awards were presented to retailers from 34 markets, in recognition of their exceptional performance in Customer Recommendation results both in Sales and After Sales.

‘Ichiban’ is the Japanese word borrowed from ‘Okyakusama Ichiban’ which means ‘Customer First’, with ‘Ichiban’ meaning ‘first’ or ‘number one’.

This year is the 10th Ichiban Awards ceremony and marks the change from Customer Satisfaction to Customer Recommendation; moving from satisfying our customers to providing an exceptional customer experience. This requires a mindset which is characterised by a combination of high empathy and an uncompromising view of doing what is right for the customer. 

Approximately 2,300 European retailers were evaluated on their performance in customer recommendation as well as business performance.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Dr. van Zyl, President and CEO of TME said: “We want not only to be Number 1 in the hearts and minds of our Customers - but we want the Customer to be Number 1 in the hearts and minds of every person in every retailer - from the hostess and technician to you. Customer Recommendation is not a statistical exercise, it's not a number game - it's about connecting to our Customers, it's about creating one to one relationships with them.”