New Delhi, March 24, 2009 -- Ford India last week, inaugurated in Delhi its first 'Quick Service’ station, a unique process of vehicle servicing, at Harpreet Ford in Gurgaon.
The 'Quick Service' station was inaugurated by Dan Morris, vice president, Marketing, Sales & Service, Ford Asia Pacific and Africa, along with Nigel Wark, executive director, Marketing, Sales and Service, Ford India.
The Quick Service initiative, allows Ford dealers in India to service the vehicle and hand it over to the customer in just an hour or so. This new initiative results into a lot of time saving for the Ford customers at the authorized dealers, unlike in the past when periodic vehicle servicing for the customers was a whole day affair.
The Quick Service initiative was a result of a review of the current servicing procedure and shaving off everything that wasted time, The Quick Service bay becomes the interactive reception area to eliminate the flow between reception and bay. This means the bay is in clear view from the customer lounge, providing transparency to the process in a clean and conducive environment.
The equipment has been standardized to facilitate the process, thereby providing unmatched services to the customers. Two technicians working on the car have step-by-step instructions to synchronise the servicing process thereby reducing turn around time for service completion. For example, in a 10,000-km maintenance service, the technicians would only need to hoist the vehicle once instead of two or three times.
In addition, everything that the technicians require such as parts, oil, air and water are available in they bay so that they don’t have to get them from the parts counter, oil room and materials room, thereby saving time. The 'Quick Service' process complements Ford’s current Quality Care procedure for scheduled servicing.
''The 'Quick Service' process maximizes space utilisation, thereby improving dealers’ productivity and profitability,'' said Ford India's Customer Service Operations general manager, Arias Jesus Metelo, who initiated this concept in India.
So far, more than 23 dealership outlets have implemented 'Quick Service' in markets such as Mumbai, Hyderabad Bangalore and now Delhi. And dealers are clamouring for this new process because it’s certainly making the customers happy.
One of the dealers said, ''The dealership will be able to service eight vehicles per bay per day now, up from two vehicles in the past.''
''Profitable dealers translate to a more profitable company that continues to keep customers happy and totally satisfied,'' added Arias.
As with the excellence in quality invested in our carlines and a better cost of ownership, the Quick Service Station initiative is an extension of Ford India’s commitment to introduce world-class customer service programs in India.