Page 168 - Toyota Under Fire

RESPONSE AND THE ROAD TO RECOVER Y

in training the CSRs and giving them the authority to resolve
customer issues and concerns paid off time after time. The efforts
of dealers and TMS call center personnel served to remind many
customers of why they had trusted Toyota in the first place.
Of course, all of these responses to customers cost money—
money that Toyota could afford even as the world was still emerg-
ing from the trials of the recession because of its policies of
thinking long term and keeping large cash reserves. Jim Lentz,
president of TMS, described the philosophy:

Obviously we’re tracking spending. But we’re doing
whatever is necessary to fix any shortcomings that
we had in our current processes, make sure that we
have the right process, and make sure that we’re tak-
ing care of customers. . . . For us to be able to rebuild
our brand strength, I am not concerned about the
dollars we’re investing today to keep that strong. . . .
It’s important for us to keep the strength of our dealer
operations so the dealers continue to invest in their oper-
ations, as we grow back into a stronger brand and into
a stronger marketplace.

Phase II: Contain

At this point, with a growing awareness of the seriousness of the
crisis, Toyota as a whole began to move not just to react, but to
contain the crisis. The goal of containment is not to deal with
the ultimate source of the problem, but to ensure that no further
damage is being done while the longer-term efforts at improve-
ment kaizen get underway. Perhaps the most important part

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