The differentiator for many brands today, including companies like Ford that sells automobiles, is a memorable customer experience, tailored by personalization and relevancy. Making that customer experience memorable and one that prompts a customer to tell family and friends about it is the ultimate goal.
“We are looking to provide a great experience for all of our customers,” Erich Merkle, Ford’s U.S. Sales Analyst, told Loyalty360. “Most recently, we have talked about the introduction of FordPass, which launches this April for the U.S. and Canada. We really performed well with our newest products. SUVs are hot and Ford had its best February SUV sales month in the company’s history. Our new Edge was up 91%, with 35% of the mix coming from high-end model series (including Titanium and Sport model series). We continue to have really strong demand for the new Explorer, which was up 18% and Escape. Escape is coming off a record sales year in 2015 and February sales were up 14%. SUVs have been really strong overall and it benefits Ford, as a leader in this space. We do make an effort to graduate people from younger folks starting out in a Focus and later transitioning to an SUV. We find that with many of our younger buyers as they begin to form families of their own. We see them move into our SUVs.”
Ford’s intense focus on personalization and memorable customer experiences was reflected in its February U.S. retail sales, which were the company’s best in 11 years. That pervasive customer-centric focus permeates the company’s culture.
“It’s really important,” Merkle explained. “Many of our initiatives have been geared toward personalizing the vehicle and the experience for the customer. This began with the early days of Sync and has now grown into a much broader customer experience and beyond with FordPass.”
In addition to FordPass, Ford is working toward autonomous vehicles.
“Ford is tripling the engineering investment during the next five years in driver assist and semi-autonomous vehicle technology to accelerate innovation and availability for customers,” Merkle explained. “This includes new features like Traffic Jam Assist and Fully Active Parking Assist. Traffic Jam Assist relieves stress and enhances comfort by helping control acceleration, braking and steering. Fully Active Parking Assist will help drivers by steering and controlling the throttle and brake to seamlessly pull into a parking spot at the touch of a button. Both of these features – and many more – start to roll out in the next three years.”