Understanding Jaguar’s emotional appeal
IN MY column in the January 2024 issue I discussed how throughout the Eighties the American market research company J D Power managed Jaguar’s customer clinics for pending vehicles. But that wasn’t the only major contract the company had with us since the other work J D Power carried out for Jaguar was called ‘quality tracking’. Highly innovative at the time, it would have a major transformational effect on both the company and the cars it produced.
Everyone who bought a Jaguar in the United States was contacted by phone first three and then nine months after they’d taken delivery. Everything about their experience with the car was then discussed, including the service of the dealer, their expectations of the car, the way it performed and more importantly, any reliability or quality issues.
The interviews were recorded on compact cassettes and sent to Jaguar’s chairman and the person who introduced quality tracking, (Sir) John Egan (pictured above circa 1980 with the rest of the Jaguar board), who apparently listened to every single one of these tapes.
At the regular feedback sessions that he organised for the senior staff, Egan used to play some of the more interesting or salient interviews. And they really were quite eye-opening.
Jaguar was still trying to sort out its quality and reliability problems at the time so some of the responses were painful to hear. Sir John admitted that in some of the worst cases he sent the customer a bouquet of flowers along with his apologies for the poor quality of their car.
Yet as hard as they were to listen to, these interviews really did change the way Sir John and the board started to manage the company. Very expensive rigs were soon installed that tested important components millions of times. Doors were slammed, windows were pushed up then down and handles were pulled.
THE XJ40 THAT FOLLOWED HAD VERY LITTLE SCULPTURE IN ITS SHAPE
Because this testing took place at Jaguar’s engineering centre at Whitley, when you walked close you heard all of these bits of car being used over and over again but of course there was nobody there; the rigs were operated by computers and pneumatics. Yet this testing really did help transform Ja
