Komal Amin

Topic – Ford Online Community

Professor Cannie

February 5, 2018

Ford Online Community

The company that I chose to work with is the Ford Motor Company, which is commonly referred to as “Ford”. Ford is an American automaker with its headquarters being in Michigan, Detroit. The company manufactures and sells commercial vehicles and automobiles under its ford brand as well as Lincoln. The company was founded in 1903 by Henry Ford. Ford today is the second largest automaker based in the United States and it is only second to General Motors. I chose Ford because it’s well known to be profitable company with durable vehicles and has survived for a long time through various financial and economic crises in the United States. Ford has also established its global footing with its manufacturing operations being present today in countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, South Africa, and many others. It is therefore a community that one can study when looking at the best company to benefit from an online community (“Ford Motors,” 2017).

There are various benefits and uses that ford would enjoy when establishing an online community. The first use that the company could make of such a community is offering of post-sales services. Customers will always have issues and they will want them to be addressed by a support professional. The cost of running a professional customer response team is high for a global company like ford. However the cost could be reduced if the organization has a support portal where customers can get experiential details from other customers and therefore increase their customer satisfaction. The customers will be able to talk about various issues that they are experiencing with the products and see similarities from other users. The other use that the online community would serve is in selling and marketing. The benefit of using an online community is that this can be done more effectively. When a potential buyer has a question on the Ford product they can be able to interact with pre-sales leaders as well as customers who are already using the product. The organization can therefore be part of the clients’ journey from the point of interest all the way to sales. An online community for Ford would also enable it to control the social media conversations around their brand. It is better for organizations to hold deep customer conversations in private settings. The competitors will not be able to get much information regarding the company and it will be able to offer sustained engagement and support to the customers. Ford when having an online support community will be able to give better services and products to their customers. Sustained collaboration with the clients ensures that the organization relates to the needs of their clients. A clear roadmap can be made for the future services and products. Ford can also benefit from online communities by being able to create niche market groups. There are some executive automobiles like Lincolns and Aston Martin’s that need clients to be able to interact with customer service and people with the same interests. Some clients of the high end vehicles like sports cars pay a lot of money to get the exclusive vehicles and they deserve a place to discuss these purchases (Sahling, 2009).

In conclusion, Ford would benefit from the online community because it is a new way to communicate to their clients and get feedback. The online community would enable them to create better products and offer better services to their customers enhancing customer loyalty.

References

Ford Motors. (2017). Retrieved from https://corporate.ford.com/homepage.html

Sahling, F. (2009). Maximising Benefits from Participating in User Communities. Organising User Communities for Innovation Management, 45-74. Doi: 10.1007/978-3-8349-8711-2_3