Profiting from Misfortune

I hope I am not the only person in the automotive business who is ashamed of this headline. I mean, I understand we are in business to make money, but the ambulance-chasing implications here are hard to ignore.

It is a truism that any point of customer interaction is an opportunity to win upsell business, but lives were lost as part of the recent upswell in recalls. Now, not all recalls have life-threatening considerations, but the sheer volume of recalls suggests the need for a fundamental shift in the way cars are made and the way in which we communicate with car owners.

In a recent interview with Phil LeBeau of CNBC, GM's CEO Mary Barra acknowledged the likelihood that despite its best efforts the car company will be unable to locate as much as 25% of the owners of cars with faulty ignition switches. I will let you contemplate that reality in the context of an estimated 19 fatalities linked to the ignition switch failure. (My son is still waiting for the arrival of the replacement part for his 2011 Chevrolet Impala.)

The automotive industry has given itself a severe black eye around the question of recalls. And now that GM's sales are soaring, the expectation is that we will all move on and get back to sales and let those pesky recalls take care of themselves.

The process of recalling cars is severely flawed. Emails, postcards, phone calls and Websites are not up to the task of resolving this crisis.

Millions of cars are on the road with flawed hardware and outdated software code. All of these cars need attention and vehicle connectivity is the solution. The day will soon arrive when we have a dedicated idiot light on the dashboard for "RECALLS" - that has a dedicated wireless connection to the car maker. Maybe the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration can mandate this feature the same way back-up cameras were mandated.

I know a recall is an opportunity to have a positive customer engagement experience. But this message was far more benign just 12 months ago before the GM ignition switch catastrophe. To talk about making money off of recalls - even within our cloistered industry and for all the right reasons - just seems wrong.