The Recall Crisis: To a Scared Customer, an Apology can go a Long Way, from Driving Sales.
For many consumers, cars are a necessity. They rely on them to get to work so that they can feed their family. They take their children to soccer practice and their spouses out for nights on the town. Throw in an occasional long-distance road trip to visit a relative or take a vacation, and it’s easy to see how much consumers rely on them. Manufacturers integrate safety messages into their branding. The government tests the vehicles. Consumer agencies review them. And consumers use this data to choose which manufacturer they want to do business with.
Time passes. Consumers go about their daily lives with a plethora of concerns that, for the most part, don’t involve their vehicles. Then, a recall happens.
Consumers and dealers alike are still reeling from the huge amount of recalls last year. It was in fact an all-time record. In 2014 about 62 million U.S. vehicles were recalled. If you were to look at this in terms of vehicle sales – it’s about four years’ worth of vehicle sales — or approximately one out of every four cars on the road today. Several recalls made huge headlines, and were very much hyped up by the media — including those for defective ignition switches in General Motors cars that have been linked to at least 50 deaths, and faulty Takata air bags, installed in Hondas and other brands, said to be responsible for at least five deaths and 64 injuries.
