Expert Recall

By Mike Rozembajgier

It seems that every year or so there is a massive recall that attracts media attention, scares consumers, captures the attention of government officials, and once again underscores the importance of recall planning.

This year it is Toyota. We can learn a lot from watching how the Japanese automaker manages this recall. We’ve previously discussed how one company’s recalls can impact an entire industry and how to make sure your most important constituents trust your company and its leadership when you find yourself managing a recall. We can also learn important lessons by watching carefully how the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) monitors the automotive recall process and what it does to ensure recall effectiveness.

The ongoing investigation into Toyota’s safety problems and how they eventually led to a massive recall are a reminder of how regulatory agencies operate. Simply working with a government agency, in this case NHTSA, to announce a recall does not mean your work with them is done. In fact, you can count on the agency to continue its investigations into your products, but with an even greater level of scrutiny. Toyota is currently experiencing these ongoing investigations, particularly with their Prius models.  In fact, NHTSA is thoroughly investigating consumer complaints, most filed online, that may indicate that the company is still not taking care of its customers the way it should.

What is NHTSA looking for? The answer is simple: confirmation that Toyota has identified the right problem and offered the right remedy to fix it.  Investigating consumer complaints and monitoring activity in the consumer database helps the agency do that more effectively than ever before.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is now able to do the same kind of follow-up investigations of products under its jurisdiction. In fact, by March 2011 the CPSC will roll out an online consumer database in order to more effectively track consumer complaints and identify potential safety issues. This increased level of consumer interaction will almost certainly result in closer scrutiny and more recalls.

In this rapidly changing environment, it is critical that you listen to your customers, investigate safety complaints, and monitor for trends that could indicate a recall is in your future. Doing so will help ensure that you are not only a step ahead of government regulators, but that you also understand your customer’s concerns. With that understanding, you will be better equipped to identify underlying problems and figure out how to fix them before they comeback to bite. And by identifying the real problem and coming up with the right solution in the first place, you can more quickly close out the recall and get your company out of the spotlight.

Stericycle ExpertRECALL™ is the industry leader in recall logistics and regulatory compliance for consumer product, pharmaceutical, medical device, juvenile product, and food and beverage recalls. ExpertRECALL’s professionals are experts in recall management who can help you streamline the entire product recall process.