Ford discusses its ‘Quick Service’ strategy

Mr. PK Umashankar- VP, Customer Service Operations, Ford India Private Ltd shares his thoughts with CarDekho

Passenger car service sector in India has transformed over the past decade. Gone are the days when car servicing took more than a day’s time; Ownership experience has been prioritized and cars are now picked up from home by the service centre for the customer's convenience.

Ford India has strengthened its pan-India network to 230 sales and service outlets in over 123 cities and have introduced a unique servicing process, 'Quick Service', that allows routine services to be performed in less than 90 minutes. This has already been made available across 90 dealerships. Ford’s Service Head shared his views with CarDekho, on these changing trends in car servicing.

What has led to the change in customer satisfaction scenario in context to the car service industry since the last decade?

US :  I would like to mention a few points which have changed over the last decade:

. Calling up customers for reminding about his/her car service.
. Receiving customer feedback after the service.
. Pick up and drop service to the customer’s premises. This is a major change that took place over the last decade.
. Providing loaner car, if in case service period is longer.

These are the major changes which increased the customer satisfaction level.

Now car service in India is not just about the technical service, it is more about customer experience, satisfaction and management. How do you see this change in trend and what are the strategies that should be further adapted to increase the level of satisfaction, in order to retain the customer, post warranty period?

US :   Well I see this change in trend as positive. It’s now important for service centers on how they manage their customers. One should listen to customer patiently and if possible repeat the same to customer to confirm understanding, so there is no loop hole for misinterpretation of his/her needs. During this engagement with the customer it is important that the customer feels that he is controlling the conversation and not the other way around. One needs to deliver the customer what has been committed. This is important to build trust. My view is that the whole situation is now based on customer expectations management so that they feel satisfied with it.

Do you feel if there is any sort of lack in skilled manpower in auto service centers? If it is, then what steps should be taken to meet this requirement?

US :  I don’t feel there is any lacking in skilled manpower. The young talent coming out of technical institute has fairly good knowledge about basic automobile technology and the knowledge of IC engines. OEM’s generally have their own training centers for training them complex processes and fine tune their skills.  Here at Ford, we have technical training centers in more than 6 states and we conduct more than 200 training programs in a month. We have training program from a basic entry level technician to master technician and various specialized courses on automotive electronics, fuel injection systems, ABS etc. Recently we provided training to one of the technicians who have hearing and speaking impairments.

Indian automotive after-market has been estimated to be around Rs 33,000 crores, it has grown at a rate of 11% annually and is accounted at Rs 45,000 crores by 2015. And how, as an OEM do you see this as a prospect?

US :   Aftermarket is a key business area for every OEM. Here at Ford we aim to give a complete loyalty solution to our customers.  We provide road side assistance, extended warranties etc to make him feel comfortable. Our aim is to provide the right amount of service to the customer at every interaction, I order to keep the customer maintain an enjoyable and enduring relationship throughout the ownership cycle.

Do you think that increasing warranty period would help to retain a customer for a longer tenure?

US :  After sales service is a very competitive product in India.  We provide extended warranty to our customers in most products. There is also optional extended warranty, which we offer and we engage 75-80% of our customers in extended warranty scheme. Customer’s objective is to get peace of mind and hassle free service; we tell him/her the benefits of longer warranty, which will ensure his objective.

The current trend shows that 50% of the after service market is catered by OEM and 46% by small unorganized garages. What should be done according to you to retain the old customers, which are majorly served by these garages?

US :   At OEM service centers, customer gets extended warranty, schedule service plans, single point of dealing for all his grievances and cashless support. These all benefits make customer experience very enjoyable and helps in patronizing our product. But, at unorganized setups you may get closure to home solutions but you can’t expect the quality and assurance which only OEMs can provide.

Generic parts manufacturers in India currently constitute for 27% of the total market share, whereas OEM constitutes for 39% of the market share. How should the OEMs look forward to counter this threat of branded generic parts?

US :  We only emphasize on Ford products and Ford certified products for optimum performance from our cars. But it’s a competitive and open market, customer has full rights to choose rightly engineered part at the right cost at the right time. Our strategy is very clear to offer genuine parts to our customers at cost effective pricing.

Ford has introduced lower price second brand, Ford Motorcraft to capture markets. Do these second brand products are successful and should more OEMs come up with such initiatives to get more customers?

US :   We don’t offer Motorcraft in India.  As I told you that it’s a competitive market and cost of ownership is very important aspect for customers in today’s scenario. Here at Ford, our strategy is very clear to provide frequently change parts at minimum cost to our customers. So I don’t think that we need these lower price second brands in India.

Now, the non vehicle manufacturers such as Carnations and Reliance are also planning to get into automotive service sector. What, as an OEM is your response to this? Do you see them as a potential threat?

US :   I am not sure about it but as an OEM, I told you that we at Ford have clear cut strategy to provide complete loyalty service to our customers throughout his ownership cycles by providing extended warranty, genuine products, certified equipments for servicing by our trained technicians. Yes, I agree the competition exists but our distributions points are strong enough to support our customer base.