DETROIT – When Ford CEO Mark Fields takes center stage at the company’s huge annual press event at the North American International Auto Show, usually what follows is a massive kaleidoscope of light and sound and the world premiere of a significant vehicle like an all-new Mustang, Focus or F-150.
This January, with the bright lights blazing, Fields instead announced an idea, FordPass, a free customer service intended to digitally link Ford to its customers and the general public. The global service goes live in April.
“As we’ve studied the mobility challenges people face, we designed FordPass to help provide services that make consumers’ lives easier,” Fields says. “FordPass is really about listening to people’s needs and developing ways to help them move better.”
Spawned during a marathon 72-hour brainstorming session and developed over an 18-month period by a team led by Stephen Odell, executive vice president-global marketing, sales and service, and Henry Ford’s great-great-granddaughter, Elena Ford, vice-president-global dealer and consumer experience, FordPass promises to be nothing short of General Motors’ OnStar on steroids.
The concept ties into the Ford’s Smart Mobility plan to transform into an automaker capable of manufacturing vehicles but also a mobility company functioning as a participant in a future where people move from one mode of transportation to another. FordPass “aims to do for car owners what iTunes did for music fans,” the company says.
The idea, Ford says, is to make life easier for people during the “900-plus hours a year they spend in a vehicle moving between home, work, school and social events.”
“FordPass is about convenience,” Odell says. “We’re connecting consumers with the world, making it all incredibly easy.”
Available to anyone who signs up for FordPass are services such as assistance to help locate, reserve and pay in advance for a parking space through partners Parkopedia and ParkWhiz, and use of Flight Car, a car-sharing service similar to the house- or apartment-sharing service Airbnb.
A mobile-app-based service called FordGuides provides live operator assistance to obtain directions, parking assistance and other guidance. FordPass will enable members with Ford vehicles equipped with SYNC Connect to remotely start their vehicles, lock or unlock their vehicles or locate their cars in a parking lot. Roadside assistance also will be available.
Mobility Made Easier
Like the mobile-app Waze that uses crowd-sourcing to provide real-world, real-time travel and traffic information, FordPass can make using a variety of mobility options easier and more seamless, Beth Donovan, global marketing operations manager, tells WardsAuto.
“We need to participate in this because we can make people’s lives better through these services,” she says. “Like Waze says, we’re outsmarting mobility together.”
There will be upfront and operational costs associated with FordPass, but Donovan says the company is taking a long-term view that the service will build customer relationships while giving Ford entré to a burgeoning mobility sector with an estimated value of $5.4 trillion.
In addition to cyberspace connections, FordPass envisions brick-and-mortar interactions through FordHubs where consumer can check out company innovations and redeem loyalty points for Ford merchandise. Points earned through use of the service also can be redeemed through partners McDonald’s and 7-Eleven. Initial FordHubs are planned for New York, San Francisco, London and Shanghai.
For customers interested in 4-wheeled products, such as the all-new ’17 Lincoln Continental revealed at the Detroit show, FordPass has that covered. Buyers of Ford’s luxury models can get the same service, called “LincolnWay.”
