Toyota to strengthen customer service

The city-based Infinium Toyota is one of the best dealerships in the country for sales and customer service and satisfaction, Ito said.

Ito was in Ahmedabad on Sunday to preside over a programme to enhance skills of Toyota dealer personnel through a contest for dealers from the western India.

Infinium Toyota is the second largest Toyota dealership in the country as far as sales are concerned.

There are two Toyota dealers in the state "" Infinium Toyota and East Africa. While Infinium Toyota handles Ahmedabd, north Gujarat, Saurashtra and Kutch, East Africa Toyota handles the market from Vadodara to south Gujarat.

Beginning operations on January 16, 2002, Infinium Toyota has already sold over 8,000 vehicles, most of which are Toyota Qualis.

The Corolla and Camry models have been launched just this year and the Camry is imported and sold in India as a completely built unit (CBU). East Africa Toyota has sold around 5,500 units so far.

"In less than two years since we started Infinium Toyota, we have sold more than 8,000 vehicles, almost all of which are the Toyota Qualis," said Gitesh Yagnit, CEO, Infinium Toyota.

Besides the showroom-cum-service station on Sarkhej Gandhinagar Highway, Infinium Toyota has a facility at Rajkot too.

Three service stations are located at Gandhidham, Mehsana and Bhavnagar, he added.

In a bid to provide better customer service, Toyota Kirloskar Motor has embarked on a programme to enhance skills of Toyota dealer personnel all over the country.

Starting with skill contests by each of the 40 dealerships for their employees, the winners from each dealership will contest for the zonal crown, and then the national crown before the winner is sent for international skills contests of Toyota Motor Corporation.

Ten dealerships from the western zone took part in the western zonal skill contest in Ahmedabad on Sunday. The contest was presided by Yasunori Ito.

The dealerships who took part in the contest included Shinrai Toyota, Millennium Toyota and Lokazi Toyota from Mumbai, Wasan Toyota from Nasik, DSK Toyota from Pune, Sharayu Toyota from Goa, Rajpal Toyota from Indore, Grace Toyota from Nagpur, East Africa Toyota fromVadodara and Infinium Toyota from Ahmedabad.

"This dealership excellence programme is being implemented for the first time in India, but is an extension of the 'Kaizen' concept of TMC, which means striving for continuous improvement," said Ito.

He said besides having the best human resource personnel, it is also essential to reward those who have excelled in their work and hence the exercise.

Yagnik said at Infinium, all technical personnel have a minimum qualification of diploma or degree in automobile engineering and front-office staff or service advisors have been trained to translate customer complaints in technical language to the workshop personnel.