Tell Ford President Mark Fields what you think the company needs via the new Your Ideas.
Have a complaint, a question or an idea you’d like to share with Ford Motor Co.? The maker says it’s ready, willing and, now able to listen, thanks to its new “Your Ideas” portal, which will be part of a new website the maker has titled TheFordStory.com.
The new portal will permit users to post their thoughts, then see what others have to say in response. Users will be able to rate and review what others have to say, as well.
“Ford continues to push the envelope when it comes to engaging consumers in what’s next for Ford cars and trucks,” said Mark Fields, Ford’s President of the Americas, during the opening session of the annual SAE World Congress, in Detroit. “We are going beyond traditional consumer market research, studies and focus groups. Ford is turning to the social Web as an innovative way of generating new vehicle feature ideas customers really want and value.”
While Fields doesn’t promise that Ford will weigh in on every consumer comment posted on Your Ideas, it will track those that receive the most “thumbs up” responses, and have them reviewed by the company’s advanced product marketing and planning teams.
Ford has been trying to embrace the sort of open-architecture strategy that has been working so well in the consumer electronics and Internet world. It has opened up its Sync infotainment system, for example, to outside developers – though not to the degree that Apple has encouraged app development for the iPhone. The automaker has also turned to the University of Michigan for advanced research on in-car communications.
Participating students are working on ways to make it easier to access social networks from the new 2011 Ford Fiesta.
To access the Your Ideas portal, Click Here.