Respect and care for the customer: this is how Mazda wants to become more than just your favourite brand

What is the point of being the most innovative car manufacturer if you are unable to win over the customer? A brand can survive, it can evolve and move forward without being anything more than a brand — but is that all it is to its customers?

Mazda thinks not, and it has wanted to prove this during an exciting day in which we experienced first-hand the inner workings of the Japanese manufacturer.

Constant growth

For years, Mazda has embarked on a path of refinement and constant improvement. The results were not long in coming, and the figures speak for themselves: the Japanese brand went from selling 4,599 vehicles in 2012 to a 2017 in which it delivered a not-inconsiderable 18,558 vehicles, which means quadrupling sales volume in five years.

That is the picture in our country, but Mazda’s work does not stop there: in recent months it has signed international agreements with Toyota, Denso, Uber and Amazon to advance areas such as smart mobility and vehicle electrification, among others. All of this, alongside a 2017 in which it sold more than 1.5 million vehicles worldwide.

The customer at the centre

After all, having the best vehicles is of little use if you cannot win the heart and mind of the main player in the game: the customer. To that end, Mazda decided years ago to create from scratch a new department: Customer Experience and Loyalty, whose director is the Madrid-born César Ortiz.

What is the aim of this department? To make every customer’s experience with Mazda, whatever the reason for contacting it, end up being pleasant and positive in every respect. Mazda has spent years working on every aspect involving the customer in order to offer the user a complete experience.

At Mazda they aim for something more than being a car company: they want to create a bond that accompanies the customer through virtually the entire life cycle. The Kodo spirit and the Skyactiv philosophy are good proof of this, as is the Mukainada spirit, which seeks to improve day by day by questioning conventions.

The result of this effort is evident in any customer satisfaction survey, where Mazda comes out clearly strengthened. As an example, there was a 40% increase in overall customer satisfaction at the point of purchase between 2013 and 2017, or a 44% increase in overall satisfaction in after-sales over the same period.

As Mazda wants to become a “global” brand for its customers, loyalty among that customer base is essential. Through hard work, loyalty indices have been significantly improved, not only in terms of vehicle purchases (which rose 91% between 2013 and 2017), but also in areas such as servicing at official workshops, where loyalty to scheduled services rose by as much as 337% between 2013 and 2017 for the 7th service.

The details: what matters most

To demonstrate that care for detail, the team at Mazda Spain invited us to a practical demonstration of vehicle reception at one of the brand’s official workshops, specifically at the recently opened facilities of Kuroba Motor Majadahonda.

There, the workshop staff showed us, in a practical way, all kinds of details. Customer care is such that the customer is always invited, accompanied by an advisor, to carry out a visual inspection on receipt of the vehicle, in order to confirm visually the vehicle’s good condition before it enters the workshop.

Thanks to innovations such as the digital service book, the customer is always informed of the maintenance tasks due on their vehicle, thereby improving efficiency in workshop operations.

Of course, none of this would make sense without vehicles that deliver driving pleasure. The Japanese brand is aware of this, and that is why all its vehicles embrace dynamism and driving fun, from the city car Mazda 2 to the MX-5 roadster. Doesn’t the “Drive Together” slogan make more sense than ever?