It’s a marketer’s nightmare. Your hugely successful product has a flaw that affects performance and user safety, prompting a global product recall. But what should you do if, like in the case of Toyota, you’ve been “too late” to act?

“The key thing to remember is delayed communication can be just as damaging as a poorly judged action, if not more so. Therefore it is crucial that you hold you hands up, admit there is a problem, apologise then promise to do everything in your power to resolve it with minimum impact on customers – quick and honest communication will give your brand the best chance to make it out the other side of a crisis.” says ALS Head of Marketing & PR and crisis communications specialist, Anna Simpkins.

“Product flaws are inevitable from time to time, but people can be very forgiving if they feel they are being listened to and   that someone within the business is taking responsibility.”

There has been much said about Toyota’s response to safety fears over their Pruis and Corolla models in recent weeks, and the company commenced the recall process, although perhaps a bit more slowly than customers and the media would have liked.

To quote Toyota President, Akio Toyoda (pictured), the automotive giant has “failed to promptly analyse and respond” to the safety issues that have plagued them for months.

Once the product flaws are dealt with, the marketing departments are then faced with the unenviable task of assessing the extent of the brand damage and working out how to rebuild customer trust.

This task, in Toyota’s case, is even greater as it is a global issue and the fact that they have, by their own admission, been “too late” to react. Toyoda even added “The problem has also been compounded by poor communications both within our company and with regulators and consumers.”

OK,  so Toyota may have been late to react, and to apologise, but some would say that their eventual handling of this crisis helped them to redeem themselves (which I would tend to agree with), meaning that all efforts can be focused on managing the global recall and minimising the threat of prolonged brand damage rather than fighting their way out of a media scrum.

How do cultural differences affect image?

Cultural awareness, as anyone who works in language services will tell you, is key for all communications. Not least when you’re trying to balance admitting your errors with trying to keep valued customers on-side.

How low to bow: Criticism of Toyota's handling of product flaws, and bowing, has intensified

Firstly, you can never learn enough from speaking to your own customers.  Asking for a frank assessment from customers is something ALS asks of its customers after every single project.

This provides us with areas for improvement, alerts us to any significant problems when they do arise, as well as the nice ego-boosting comments we tend to get for being so open.

Constant dialogue with our audiences means we are well positioned to deal with any crisis relating to  ALS services, should we ever need to (touch wood).

If you speak to most people in the UK, the general consensus would probably be to admit the mistake, offer to fix it quickly, and do so without added cost or convenience to the customer. Some customers might (either rightly or brazenly), ask for compensation of some kind – but the process is fairly straight forward in cultural terms.

Contrast that with other cultures, such as in Japan, where Toyota have even been criticised for bowing “incorrectly”. US President, Barack Obama didn’t even face that level of criticism, in a recent meeting with the Japanese premier.

Perhaps the most poignant aspect of this was the heartfelt words from Toyota’s Yoshimi Inaba, in a meeting between members of Congress and Toyota bosses. The company’s North American President denied that there had been an instruction not to discuss liability for the fault, declared that “nothing costs Toyota more than loss of trust”.

What cultural differences have you noticed when dealing with complaints, or product/service flaws?