I live in Lahore and own a 1.8L model Toyota Corolla Altis that I bought in 2007. Whenever I need to get my car serviced, instead of going to the local Toyota Ravi workshop which is a 3 min drive down the road from my house, I prefer to go to Toyota Walton which is a 50 min drive at the other end of the city in Lahore. On a round-trip, I’m traveling an extra 1 hr 34 min extra per trip, and that’s not counting the extra fuel mileage costs. Why? So what is that makes me put up with the extra time and cost? The reason is very simple: customer service which something that most companies in Pakistan take for granted.

On a relative scale – at least compared to Toyota Ravi – Toyota Walton in Defence, Lahore, have a much better customer service environment:

• They actually have a decent, respectable customer waiting lounge which is air-conditioned and where customers are served free tea/coffee and can watch TV.
• They have an Internet-connected PCs so you can do some Web browsing while your car gets fixed.
• The customer service staff is attentive and actually listens to customer complaints and suggestions.
• The staff and overall environment is much more professional and courteous.

That’s not to say that their service is perfect, but they provide a good service. And, of course, there’s always room for improvement.

I personally take my car to get serviced which inevitably means going during normal working hours because that’s when the workshop is open. A job at the workshop can take anywhere from 1-4 hours. Now that’s a lot of time for a busy professional like myself and it’s very hard to spare the time to get such chores done.

Even though Toyota Walton provides Internet-enabled computers for customers, it would be much more convenient if I could work at the workshop using my own laptop. This in turn means that I would need wireless (aka Wi-fi) Internet connectivity. In the past, more than a year ago actually, I gave a suggestion to Mr. Javed, the Customer Services Manager, to provide a wireless Internet connection facility for customers so that they can use a device/laptop at ease. The investment, if any at all, would amount to only Rs. 3-4K which is peanuts. Mr. Javed, to his credit, was very sympathetic to this suggestion and duly processed the request, but unfortunately it got lost in the process and nothing came of it.

A few months ago, when I visited the Toyota Walton workshop, I came across the owner Mr. Sharik. I gave him the suggestion for Wi-Fi facility for customers. I explained to him the benefits and productivity gains that such a facility would provide to his customers like myself. He enthusiastically listened to my suggestion, understood the point, and committed to providing this facility within a month.

Today, when I visited the workshop for a regular car tuneup, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the wireless Internet facility for customers was up and running. In fact, this blog post has been possible with that facility. Better still, when there was a power outage due to loadshedding, the wireless connection was on UPS backup and carried on working. Having the Wi-Fi facility for my laptop is a boon: I feel liberated and unshackled by having the flexibility of continuing working even when I’m out of my office and home. It makes me satisfied and makes for a great customer experience. Would I recommend Toyota Walton: Absolutely!

Thank you Mr. Javed and Mr. Sharik for keeping the promise and paying attention to your customers.

Takeaway Points:

(1) Small improvements to customer service, like the one by Toyota Walton highlighted above, make a big difference to the overall customer experience. It’s one that makes a customer like me willing to travel and pay extra to avail a better service. Businesses would do well to actively pay heed to their customers’ needs.

(2) A company’s internal processes and quality system should be strong and mature enough that no customer request gets missed or unattended. This also means that customer needs should be adequately attended without having to approach the business proprieter/CEO.

(3) Customers, consumers, or whatever you want to call them, need to stop behaving like sheep and putting up with shoddy services that companies shove onto them; they need to constantly make their voice heard and DEMAND better services.