A Focus on Quality

An interview with Volkswagen of America’s customer-service guru

Volkswagen of America had a quality problem. Well, it had a perception problem, and that perception was that their cars were hard to understand and of generally poor quality. The problem is that they weren’t. So, a few years ago, with our help, they launched a comprehensive, aggressive campaign aimed at educating people about how their VW vehicles were designed and manufactured, and how they could get the most out of them as owners. The results were dramatic and almost instantaneous. Volkswagen shot up the rankings of J.D. Power and Associates’ Initial Quality Survey, which asks new owners about the quality and ease of understanding of their new vehicles. And, Volkswagen has continued to move up the rankings, thanks in no small part to its passion for and commitment to helping its new owners better understand all the cool and wonderful things their VW vehicles can do.

For this month’s interview, we spoke with Jochen Reichel of Volkswagen of America, who’s been integral in VW’s IQS success story. Listen as he explains, in a delightfully Teutonic accent, how our joint IQS campaign helped VW owners “trust the system,” to borrow one of Jochen’s favorite quotes. The IQS campaign got them to believe in and trust the systems engineered by VW for their safety, convenience and comfort. And, the IQS campaign took VW to new heights in the eyes of the people who matter most—the people who own its vehicles.

Enjoy.

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