Building a Culture of HEART Across the Subaru Retail Network

LearningDesign
Client
Subaru of America
Agency Partner
Creative Design Group (CDG)
The Subaru Love Promise University shield

The Challenge

Subaru has long been recognized for its commitment to customers, communities, and employees through the Subaru Love Promise. The challenge was translating that philosophy into a consistent experience across hundreds of retailers and thousands of customer interactions every day.

Subaru needed a scalable way to ensure that every customer felt welcomed, valued, understood, and cared for, regardless of which retailer they visited. The goal was not simply to train employees, but to create a customer-centric culture that could be sustained, measured, and reinforced nationwide.

The Big Idea

What if customer experience wasn't a process to follow, but a culture to live?

Together, Subaru and CDG created Love Promise University (LPU), a learning and culture initiative designed to bring the Subaru Love Promise to life through human connection.

At the center of LPU are the HEART Pillars:

  • - Honesty
  • - Empathy
  • - Appreciation
  • - Respect
  • - Trust

Rather than focusing solely on transactional service behaviors, LPU empowers retailer teams to create meaningful emotional connections throughout the customer's shopping, buying, and ownership journey.

To bring HEART into daily practice, LPU introduced:

  • - Love Promise Moments (LPMs) that help employees recognize opportunities to create extraordinary customer experiences.
  • - Universal Love Promise Moments (ULPMs) that establish consistent customer experience standards across Sales and Service.
  • - Love Promise Champions (LPCs) who serve as culture ambassadors within their stores.
  • - The “I'd Love To” mindset, a uniquely Subaru approach that transforms customer requests into opportunities to build trust and loyalty.

The result was more than a training program. It became a nationwide movement focused on making every customer interaction unmistakably Subaru.

Bringing It to Life

Love Promise University was designed as a comprehensive ecosystem that supports learning, coaching, communication, recognition, and community building.

Key components include:

  • - Customer experience curriculum and workshops
  • - Leadership and retailer coaching
  • - National HEART Beat communications
  • - Microlearning experiences
  • - Love Promise Champion development
  • - Community-building events and conferences
  • - Best-practice sharing and resource libraries

Together, these initiatives help retailers move beyond knowledge and consistently demonstrate HEART in everyday interactions.

Business Outcomes

  • - #9 to #1 among Mass Market Brands in the J.D. Power Customer Service Index 2025 (CSI)
  • - #7 to #2 among Mass Market Brands in the J.D. Power Service Satisfaction Index 2025 (SSI)

Increased Customer Loyalty

Retail Purchase Net Promoter Score increased from 59 to 68, reflecting stronger customer advocacy and deeper retailer-customer relationships.

Nationwide Adoption

Love Promise University expanded throughout Subaru's retail network, including:

  • - 400+ retailers engaged in curriculum, events, or onboarding initiatives
  • - 700+ Love Promise Champions serving as culture leaders within their stores
  • - 15,000 team members developed

Consistent Customer Experiences:

LPU established a common framework for customer experience across Sales and Service through HEART behaviors and Universal Love Promise Moments. This created greater consistency in how retailers engage customers and deliver the Subaru Love Promise.

Recognized Customer Experience Differentiation:

Subaru's emphasis on HEART has been recognized externally. According to the J.D. Power Sales Satisfaction Index, the activation of HEART principles from concept to behavior is “abundantly clear,” highlighting Subaru's distinctive approach to customer experience.

Sustainable Cultural Transformation:

LPU established a repeatable model for embedding customer-centric behaviors into retailer operations, leadership practices, and everyday interactions. By aligning culture, learning, and customer experience, Subaru created a foundation for long-term business performance and customer loyalty.

Impact

Love Promise University transformed the Subaru Love Promise from a brand philosophy into a measurable business advantage. By aligning culture, learning, and customer experience around the HEART Pillars, Subaru created a scalable model that strengthens trust, drives loyalty, and delivers a truly Uniquely Subaru experience.