How Toyota Financial Services is Tackling COVID-19
Though Toyota has shut down production all across North America, Toyota Financial Services has boosted the capacity of its call centers to better accommodate customers who may have difficulty making payments on their vehicles.
The automaker’s financial department has announced that both Toyota and Lexus customers are eligible for payment relief options. These take the form of either lease extensions or payment deferrals. Customers are evaluated on a case-by-case basis, and should they receive financial relief, it does not negatively impact their credit ratings.
“Over the years, our customers have come to trust us to work with them, to be flexible and to respond to their needs,” said Darren Cooper, President and CEO of Toyota Financial Services. “In a time of crisis, we believe it’s more important than ever that we maintain that trust by staying flexible enough to continue to meet their needs.”
In a press release, Toyota Canada said that it encouraged customers seeking financial relief to call its 1-800 number, and that “to say the response was overwhelming would be an understatement.” Cooper claims call centers immediately received nearly double the call volume of a typical day before the COVID-19 pandemic.
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“Unfortunately, this meant our customers had to wait much longer than usual before they were able to speak to one of our customer service representatives,” he added. “Even though our reps were working extremely hard to handle a huge number of calls, many of our customers were, quite understandably, frustrated with the situation.”
In response to this situation, Toyota apologized to its customers, boosted its customer care center staff by 175 percent, and increased the number of phone line leases from its telecommunications provider by 50 percent. It also updated its online customer portal to make it easier for customers to serve themselves.
Following these changes, Toyota Financial Services was able to handle more than 2,000 calls per day, with an average wait time under 10 minutes. “In one automaker’s opinion,” Toyota Canada wrote, “the last thing any loyal customer should have to worry about is being able to make the payments on the vehicle they depend on.”
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Kurt Verlin was born in France and lives in the United States. Throughout his life he was always told French was the language of romance, but it was English he fell in love with. He likes cats, music, cars, 30 Rock, Formula 1, and pretending to be a race car driver in simulators; but most of all, he just likes to write about it all. See more articles by Kurt.