FORD

MOTOR
COMPANY

FORD MOTOR COMPANY IN INDIA: LURING

CUSTOMERS BY INNOVATIVE AFTER SALES SERVICE

Prepared by:Prepared by: | Prem Sagar Gomber(N-38),Vishal

Gautam(N-69), Harsimrat Singh(N-17)Prem Sagar Gomber(N-38),Vishal
Gautam(N-69), Harsimrat Singh(N-17)

Subject Area
This case deals in the subject area of customer relationship management in
automotive industry in light of after sales and service perspective. Customer
relationship management is one of the key activities in any business organization
and after sales and service plays an extremely important role in retaining customers
in automotive industry.
This study explores coherence of relationship marketing and customer relationship
management elements.

This study would also look at the financial aspects of the steps taken for the
customer relationship management initiatives and the time frame over which the
cost of these measures is recovered.

Study Level/Applicability
This study takes the case of Ford India which has faced challenges in bringing
customers to the authorized dealers for after sales service and repair. This looks at
the promotional schemes initiated by Ford to not only retain the existing customers
but also bring back the lost customer. Retaining the customers for after sales service
and repair becomes more important since nearly 43% of the revenue for the car
dealerships comes from services and sale of spare parts.
This would look at the model which Ford followed in order to track and retain its
customers. It would also look at the initiatives take by the company to bring back its
lost customers. We will also look to examine the efficacy of each of the steps taken
by Ford and the contribution it has made to the overall/dealer revenues.

Case Overview
Ford India is wholly owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Company in India. With
headquarters in Chengalpattu, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, it is currently the 6th largest
car manufacturer in India.
Ford India launched its operations in India in 1996. And after nearly 17 years of
operation and $2 billion of investment Ford has able to capture about 3.06% of the
market share.
However, till about 2009 in general, very few customers were coming to the
authorized dealers after the warranty. Post warranty, the customers preferred to take
their cars to the local garages.
After the launch of Ford Figo the compact car from the Ford stable, as the sales
rose, it became extremely important for the company to increase focus on the after
sales services in order to retain the newly acquired customers.
Strengthening its focus on customer service the company took a slew of measures
to improve the customer experience during the after sales service and repairs. Each
of the measures was targeted for specific set of customers. Some of the measures
are listed below.
1. Reduced the cost of certain key using Child part strategy
2. Launched Ford quick lane service
3. Launching the integrated service solutions as in Figure 2.

Figure 2

4. Accelerated localization programme so that customers can enjoy low cost

spare parts resulting in lower total cost of ownership.
5. Fords quality care program emphasizing ensuring consistent service
standards measured against benchmarks.
6. Cost-effective plans for extended warranty.

Expected Learning Outcomes

The learning outcomes targeted out of this case study are the following
1. Customer relationship management and the role it plays in a business.
2. Coherence between relationship marketing and customer relationship
management
3. Factors considered while making decisions related to customer relationship
management.
4. CRM formation process and its steps.
5. Elements of CRM system as given.
6. Tools used for tracking the progress of a customer relationship management
initiative.
7. Cost Benefit analysis when increase localization is capitalized.

Supplementary Materials
1. Wikipedia article on Ford India:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_India_Private_Limited
2. Society of Indian Automobile manufacturers website:
http://www.siamindia.com/scripts/industrystatistics.aspx
3. Ford India corporate website: http://www.india.ford.com/ford-service/solutions
4. Book on Customer relationship management: Concept and cases by Alok Lumar
Rai
5. JD power Asia Pacific website
6. Articles from economic times

Practical/Social Implications
Steps taken by Ford resulted in benefits to all the stakeholders.
1. Customers were able to get reliable service at reasonable prices.
2. Customers got genuine spares at affordable prices.
3. The customer footfall for availing services increased which led to increased
revenue for both company and dealers.
4. It also helped company to gain increased customer trust.