How to ensure that your cars get into the good books of Consumer Reports?
Hire a top guy from there! Nissan USA, which plans to launch five new
vehicles in 15 months, has announced the hiring of CR’s former Auto Test
Center Senior Director, David Champion, for the newly created position
of executive adviser, competitive assessment and quality.To be based at Nissan’s Arizona Testing Center, Champion’s work will align closely with customer satisfaction efforts overseen by Carla Bailo, senior VP of R&D. Champion’s hiring marks his return to Nissan, where he served as a quality assurance engineer from 1994 to 1997 before moving to the influential publication.
“David Champion’s unique industry background will help ensure that the customer’s voice is evident in every product we engineer,” said Bailo. “His experience in developing robust testing methods will help Nissan keep pace with the increasing complexity of our products and stay focused on continually improving our customer satisfaction ratings.”
Champion will play a key role in Nissan USA’s focus on quality improvement. Nissan and Infiniti were among the most improved brands in J.D. Power and Associates’ 2012 Initial Quality Study that ranks new-vehicle quality. In the 2012 Customer Satisfaction Index Study, which surveys customers’ satisfaction with dealer service departments, Nissan scored the largest improvement in the industry.
In 2011, Nissan also made the largest improvement for any volume automaker in the history of the J.D. Power Sales Satisfaction Index Study that asks consumers for their impression of the dealership where they just purchased a vehicle.
