41
One day in 1987, Dave Illing worth, the general manager of Lexus, dic-
tated to his assistant “The Lexus Covenant.” Hokey in a way that
mission statements can be, Illing worth’s spark of inspiration none-
theless reshaped customer service throughout the industry. “The
Lexus Covenant” was carved into a block of granite and placed in
the company’s then headquarters in California. Every Lexus dealer,
none of whom had seen or driven the LS400, had to sign a copy. You
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slightly evolved intro. It reads, in part:“Lexus will do it right from the start. Lexus will have
the finest dealer network in the industry. Lexus will treat
each customer as we would a guest in our home.
If you think you can’t, you won’t. If you think you can,
you will. We can, we will.”In 2004 , Lexus published a book—cleverly called The Lexus
Story—that told the tale of implementing a promise that touched
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the task, Jim Sherburne of Toyota’s Calty Design Research, explains:
“I felt that it had to have a feeling of permanence. ‘We’re here and we’re
substantial,’ it should say.”
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of sales desks, and restrained and consistent signage. But it was the
less obvious touches that best sold the new brand. For instance,
Sherburne positioned the service write-up areas alongside the deal-
ership’s driveway so that service writers could see the customers
approaching, slam the license plate into the computer database, call
up the car’s history, and greet the owners by name. Customers were
given loaner Lexuses, not compact cars, and their vehicles would be
washed before they were returned. Plus, Lexus established a road-
side-assistance program.
Customer service among luxury dealerships was legendarily
crappy before Lexus. Many owners would ditch dealerships, relying
instead on independent shops to maintain their cars. Service was
Lexus’s way to overcome its lack of heritage. Lexus’s senior techni-
cians became “diagnostic specialists.” They wore clean white shirts
and were expected to explain directly to customers what was going
on with their cars. It changed the industry.
Some 30 years later, almost every luxury brand has stepped up
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Starbucks drip and real half-and-half have pretty much replaced
percolators full of Folgers and packets of nondair y creamer in ever y
dealership’s waiting room. That’s a win.Lexus Blows Up the Dealership
FOLGERS SHALL NEVER AGAIN POLLUTE YOUR
MEN/WOMEN SEEKING CARS DELICATE PALATE. BY JOHN PEARLEY HUFFMANCraig Newmark
revolutionized the
used-car market-
place for buyers,
sellers, and chronic
tire kickers.
Netscape, Compaq, CompuServe,
AOL... defunct, defunct, defunct,
and that’s still around, huh? The old
digital guard fades away, but
Craigslist.org persists. It’s a
throwback, still the plain-text
cyberhub that wiped out newspaper
classified ads, transformed finding an
apartment, facilitated a lot of illicit
hookups, and without even trying,
revolutionized how cars are bought,
sold, and habitually perused. And it
was Craig Newmark who built it.
Newmark founded Craigslist, an
email newsletter shared among
about a dozen friends, in 1995 after
being laid off from Charles Schwab.
From that, it morphed into an
unceasing disrupter of any ad
market that could be classified.
Based in San Francisco, it has grown
and grown despite its founder’s lack
of personal ambitions for it.
In a rare interview last year, New-
mark told the U.K.’s Telegraph, “As a
nerd, I don’t know why I need a
billion dollars.” But he reportedly is
a billionaire. Now 6 7, Newmark
focuses on philanthropy: For
instance, he donated $6 million to
Consumer Reports in 20 19. He
prefers public transit and doesn’t
own a car. —John Pearley HuffmanNE
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