Exceed Customer Expectations, Receive a Coveted Ichiban Award, And Repeat…

You’ll be forgiven for thinking this is a Groundhog Day article, as the news that Northwich’s Oakmere Toyota are eager to share with you, is a repeat of last year, 2015 and 2013…

At an Awards Ceremony held in Edinburgh, Scotland last week, Toyota honoured its top-performing retailers for excellence in Customer Service. Out of the 180 UK Toyota dealerships, only three are lucky enough to be bestowed with the coveted annual Ichiban customer service award.

This most recent accolade is the fourth time that the Oakmere Toyota dealership has won the Ichiban award, having previously been chosen to receive it in 2013, 2015 and 2017.

Jonathan Jarratt, Managing Director of Oakmere Toyota said “We are delighted to have been awarded the Toyota Ichiban award for 2018 and it is a real honour to be amongst some exceptional UK dealers in receiving this coveted honour.”

He added “We are fully committed to customer service at Oakmere Toyota and strive to treat all our customers as individuals and friends of the dealership. We believe that this philosophy towards customer care, has been instrumental in us achieving our fourth Ichiban Award since 2013. I personally am hugely proud of all my staff and am looking forward to taking them out for a celebratory party now that we have been presented with our Award."

Central to the ranking of dealers for the Ichiban award is the scores and comments that are given in response to customer surveys sent out by Toyota UK following a new or used car purchase, and an after-sales service or repair.

What Is Ichiban?

Ichiban is a Customer Recommendation Award, and is Japanese for 'number one'.

Toyota Europe has been presenting these awards for more than 12 years, and from an initial focus purely on customer service, it has changed the emphasis to ‘customer recommendation through the provision of an exceptional customer experience’. According to Toyota UK, “This is underpinned by retailers delivering services based on “doing what is right for the customer”. Europe-wide, around 2,300 retailers are eligible for the awards, but just three are reserved for the UK.

Johan van Zyl, President and CEO of Toyota Motor Europe, said “Customer recommendation is not a statistical exercise, it’s about connecting to our customers and creating one-to-one relationships with them.” And the Oakmere Toyota team couldn’t agree more. Oakmere Toyota operate a Customer First philosophy, and this is proven by the stream of awards they continue to win. Customer Service is part of the company’s DNA.