The less enjoyed part of vehicle ownership is the maintenance and service required during its lifetime. Ford is looking to ease that for customers with the introduction of Rapid Hub teams and a more proactive approach to repair.
This initiative immediately puts the resources and expertise in place should a dealer not be able to resolve a technical issue in the recommended timeframe.
Each Rapid Hub comprises Ford experts: a Zone Manager, Field Service Engineer, and Rapid Hub Manufacturing Technician. Additional members include Customer Relationship Centre, Dealer Sales Manager, Rapid Hub Lead and a Hub Champion.
Working as teams rather than isolated individuals, they provide every Ford dealership with extra hands, help and technical expertise.
“We want to ensure our products come with an ownership experience that understands customers’ unique needs and exceeds their expectations,” says Ashen Ramdhani, FCSD Sales and Field Operations Manager at Ford South Africa.
The Rapid Hubs seek to successfully advance communication, unlock processes within dealerships and make response time faster and more efficient.
Rapid Hubs can speed up the decision process by cutting across departments and geographical areas with resources interchangeable between the hubs and equipped to help dealers respond quickly to customers regarding any quality issue with their vehicle.
The system gathers daily reports on all vehicles booked in at Ford dealers for service or maintenance, allowing the teams to identify automobiles that miss the recommended repair timeframe. Subsequently, Ford takes action to minimise vehicle downtime, increase customer satisfaction and ensure the dealership has the required support on demand.
One of the advantages of Rapid Hubs is that they pick up and notify Ford of any Ranger, Ranger Raptor or Everest that enters a dealership for a repair within the first four hours. They will then work closely with the dealership to resolve the issue and provide a solution.
This information gets sent to the respective assembly plants so that production processes and quality concerns are addressed during the manufacturing process.
