Ford South Africa is further enhancing its commitment to customer service by implementing new Rapid Hub teams across each of the country’s nine provinces. These Rapid Hubs will complement not only the launch of the Next-Generation Ranger, Ranger Raptor and Everest, but will reach and support existing Ford customers too.

The Rapid Hubs are the next step in transforming the ownership experience to one that treats customers like family. This initiative takes a more proactive approach to the maintenance and repair of customer vehicles, immediately putting the resources and expertise in place should a dealer not be able to resolve a technical issue in the recommended timeframe.

Each Rapid Hub is serviced by a team of on-the-ground Ford experts made up of a Zone Manager, Field Service Engineer, Rapid Hub Manufacturing Technician, Customer Relationship Centre, Dealer Sales Manager, Rapid Hub Lead and a Hub Champion.

Working as highly motivated teams rather than isolated individuals, they provide every Ford dealership with a set of extra hands, help and technical expertise. These Rapid Hubs are designed to unlock a myriad of solutions within the dealership and provide consistent communication from beginning to end.

“We want to ensure that our benchmark Next-Gen 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. “With Rapid Hubs we are successfully advancing communication, unlocking processes within dealerships as well as making our response time faster and more efficient.”

All Rapid Hubs carry the inherent ability to make prompt decisions by cutting across departments and geographic areas. Resources can also be leveraged and deployed between hubs to optimize service delivery at any given place or time.

Rapid Hubs are therefore 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 quickly identify vehicles that aren’t repaired in the recommended timeframe. Action is immediately taken to minimise vehicle downtime, increase customer satisfaction and ensure that the dealership has the required support on demand.

One of the many advantages of Rapid Hubs is that Ford South Africa is notified 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 that gives the customer added peace of mind. This information is also sent back to the respective assembly plants every day so that production processes or quality concerns can be addressed during the manufacturing process.

The Ford Rapid Hubs joins a number of active customer experience channels and tools that have already brought new levels of satisfaction and reduced vehicle downtime.