European Customer Satisfaction award for Toyota's top performing retailers

Toyota Motor Europe (TME) announced the winners of the 2013 'Ichiban' European Customer Satisfaction Award during an event held in Cannes, France.

Customer First philosophy has always been a focus of Toyota and is part of company's DNA. With this principle in mind a total of 44 awards were presented to retailers from across 32 markets, in recognition of their exceptional performance in Customer Satisfaction both in Sales and After Sales areas.

Approximately 2,300 European retailers were evaluated on their performance, based on a very demanding set of criteria.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Didier Leroy, President and CEO of TME said: 'Excellent service is a must. With one-to-one contact, we give personal attention to the needs and requirements of every single customer, individually. With products and services that appeal emotionally. We must be in touch with the heart of each customer.'

'Ichiban' is the Japanese word borrowed from 'Okyakusama Ichiban' which means 'Customer First', with 'Ichiban' meaning 'first' or 'number one'. Since the beginning of the TME's annual Ichiban Awards in 2007, Customer Satisfaction performance of the Toyota retailers has improved by some 47.5% in Sales and 40% in After Sales, according to an internal Toyota customer satisfaction survey performed Europe.