(Bloomberg) — Amid the worst safety-defect crisis in its history, General Motors Co. executives and staff have taken to social media to find customer complaints and identify quality issues long before they become a crisis.
GM, which faces lawsuits for dragging its feet before recalling a faulty ignition switch that's connected to at least 35 deaths, is now mining every source of information to head off another crisis, President Dan Ammann said in an interview. The company has social-media managers, customer service staff and even executives at the highest rank trying to find early warning signs from its vehicle owners, he said. Ammann and Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra even call some customers to get their feedback.
That's a change for Detroit-based GM, whose engineers tried to avoid issuing a safety recall for the ignition switch even as evidence mounted over several years that its small cars had a problem, court and company documents show. GM has encouraged employees to alert top management if they see possible recalls.
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