Carroll & Kinsella Walkinstown from Dublin was recognised for their exceptional performance in customer satisfaction in both Sales and After Sales areas.

The Irish Dealer was awarded with the top honour at Toyota's 'Ichiban' European Customer Satisfaction Award event held last week at the Zappeion Megaron Hall in Athens, in presence of the Minister of Tourism of the Greek government Mrs. Olga Kefalogianni. The award was presented to the winner Carroll & Kinsella Walkinstown by Didier Leroy, President & CEO of Toyota Motor Europe.

Approximately 2,300 European retailers were evaluated on their results during a continuous performance monitoring, which is included in the company's standards. Based on a very demanding set of selection criteria, 42 retailers achieved this distinct recognition by Toyota in Europe.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Didier Leroy, President and CEO of TME said: "Toyota is deeply committed to providing superior products and services to ensure customer satisfaction. Thank you to our Ichiban winners for continuing to lead and to be the example of how to make our customers happy!'"

Mr David Shannon, Managing Director of Toyota Ireland added "I wish to add my own congratulations to Carroll & Kinsella Walkinstown on winning the Ichiban award. They epitomize Toyota Ireland's aim and that of our Dealer Network to always put customer satisfaction at the centre of everything we do".

'Ichiban' is the Japanese word borrowed from 'Okyakusama Ichiban' which means 'Customer First', with 'Ichiban' meaning 'first' or 'number one'. Since the beginning of the TME's annual Ichiban Awards in 2007, Customer Satisfaction performance of the Toyota retailers has improved by some 43% in Sales and 34% in After Sales, according to an internal Toyota customer satisfaction survey performed Europe.