Corporate Leaders Bet on Consumer Experience for 2014 and Beyond

Ford Motor Co. tips its hand

“We don’t have any binder full of best practices for you. You are it. If you don’t want to change the world—go home.”
—Brett Wheatly of Ford Motor Co., to the first candidates for coaches of the fledgling Consumer Experience Movement (CEM) program

When Chris Hunsicker, potential coach to Ford dealerships, heard those words from Wheatly, his surprise was understandable. After three days of CEM orientation in Dearborn, Michigan, Hunsicker looked around at his colleagues and confessed, “I’ve waited 20 years for this level of work!” What follows is a remarkable “bet the house” tale that began at the highest corporate echelons and managed to beat the odds by surviving the translation from mantra to frontline operation.

In the beginning: Corporate-level enthusiasm

More than a few organizations have penned a mission statement which begat a slogan that was hailed by corporate as a mantra, presented to all stores and staff as their new guiding principle, but was then summarily ignored by employees and eventually forgotten.

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Comments

Hunsicker or unsicher ? (German language)

Hi Ryan. Yes, Ford is very big in Italy, too. Its Fiesta dominates its market class, it's bigger than the Fiat Punto and the Renault Clio. In other - higher - classes Ford still suffers its image of "poor" quality against Audi, BMW and Mercedes, for example. I don't think it's mainly a question of training dealers, consumers are so volatile they buy fashionable items rather than sound ones. It's not the case of the Ford Fiesta, of course, it's a good car but it's practically not advertised, yet consumers keep buying it. I therefore think there's further work to do to know and understand how and what consumers buy. Regards.