Ford India is not just expanding its service network, but also making car maintenance and service pricing more transparent.

“The effort is aimed at dispelling the perception that ‘Ford car maintenance is costly’,” said N Prabhu, Vice-President, Ford Customer Service Operations, comparing the maintenance cost of three models – Figo, Aspire and Ecosport – with competition.

The company is coming up with ‘Ford Service Promise’, whereby car owners will know the exact service price of the vehicle before they walk into the dealership outlet.

“This information will be on our website by next month. By providing details about their vehicle (age of the vehicle, kilometres run etc), the cost of service can be ascertained through all customer touch points such as Ford’s Service Cost Calculator and dealer website, menu board at all dealerships, service reminders, and Ford Mobile App,” he said.

“Hitherto, maintenance costs proved to be high because it was more to do with replacement rather than repair. Now, we have introduced ‘sub-assembly levels for repairs’ by breaking up an auto part into sub-components, thereby bringing substantial savings for the customer,” Prabhu explained.

In a bid to make service accessible, the company is on an aggressive expansion of its workshop network. “There are around 280 workshops across the country and we have been opening a new workshop every fortnight over the last four years; these are located largely in tier-III towns. We are also looking at extended sales and service outlets, quick lane service, etc.”

Notwithstanding affordability and accessibility, the company is planning to expand the distributor base from five at present to 12 before next year.

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