Up to 11 million customers could be affected worldwide, with owners disappointed with the company’s dishonesty and underhand tactics.
It’s an erosion of trust that will take years rather than months to overcome. Customers’ feelings are understandable; this is a company that’s been giving it the gung-ho in relation to green policies.
Only last year the company claimed in its sustainability report: “We aim to be the world’s most successful, fascinating and sustainable automobile manufacturer. This is the target we set ourselves for 2018.”
Oh dear! The environmentally-friendly diesels were a myth and Volkswagen has had to slope off to its awards room and hand back accolades including Green Car of the Year.
So when it’s all gone wrong, where do you start in rebuilding your reputation? The answer lies with the people who love and believe in your brand. When things get tough in business, which they do from time to time, you need to rely on your team to pull through.
But this has to start long before disaster strikes. You need to build a family-like bond with those you work with so, if someone has made a bad decision along the way, everyone is willing to help out and make repairs, rather than jump ship. In 2010, when Iceland’s volcanic ash eruption grounded all flights in and out of the UK, stranded passenger lists at Kuoni grew by the hundreds each day.
Staff volunteered to come in at the weekend, to work late nights, to phone those passengers waiting for news and, when flights were allowed back in the air, to greet our customers at the airport and make sure there was someone there to listen to their experience and to get them home safely.
A friendly face, personal service and honest insight will last far longer in a customer’s mind than a sombre full page “we’re so sorry” advert in a large newspaper. Empowering employees to share what’s good about their company can help to rebuild relationships that were tarnished by just a few. Reputation plays an important part in keeping companies honest and forcing them to make the right decisions.
Times have changed; social media, forums and email can spread a message far and wide in the click of a share button. For Volkswagen, there’s no place to hide. It now has to live with being the brand that cheated.
After the apologies are said and done, the team that works for Volkswagen – the engineers, the showroom staff, the teams in the call centres and in the franchised dealers – these are the only people who can rebuild the trust and reputation the brand once enjoyed. If VW understands that, then the power of many passionate advocates still has the potential to make up for the folly of a few individuals.
Derek Jones is managing director at Kuoni UK
