Ford is Leaning on Dealerships to Finish Your Car Repairs Faster
Last year, Ford launched a new initiative with a catchy name: Uptime Assist. A team of employees in a call center will reach out to dealerships who have had a car in for service for more than two days to offer “technical support or assistance.”
It sounds an awful lot like the Ford Corporate team in Michigan is essentially nudging service managers to get vehicles done and back out to customers. The twist is that the program is that the free program is entirely voluntary for dealerships. There may be another reason entirely that it’s working.
Note that this is part of Ford’s push to reinvent its dealerships as “immersive brand experiences.”
Daniel Justo, vice president of the Ford Customer Service Division, said, “Ensuring our dealers understand the importance of uptime is the biggest thing.” And by “uptime” he means the amount of time a Ford owner can use and drive their vehicle. “We want customers to be back on the road the same day.”
Ford’s “Uptime Assist” program is actually reducing customer wait time
Here are the current numbers: 70% of Ford dealership repairs are complete in under two days. But there must be a few vehicles stuck in service bays for a long time and dragging the average down. The average time for a repair is five days. But Ford says the new program has already improved average wait time. In the past twelve months, average repair times have improved at least 10%.
Perhaps the knowledge someone is looking over their shoulder keeps dealerships moving along. Or perhaps the Blue Oval’s assistance with technical knowledge and ordering parts is truly speeding up the process. But one dealership owner says it’s something else entirely.
Morris Smith III owns two Ford dealerships in Kansas. “One of the biggest complaints we’ve had as it relates to recalls is parts availability…With Uptime Assist, a customer makes an appointment and parts get shipped, you do an inspection and already have the part on hand. It definitely helps from a customer satisfaction standpoint, as well as from a dealer standpoint with throughput.”
Ford dealerships complete 35 million repairs annually.
