"Here's the Latest On Your Vehicle" spam email from Ford

[Chopper67]

The entire Ford marketing team should be fired.

They’ve got no control over inaccurate, uninformative, and misleading emails being sent to massive, random groups of customers?

How the heck does any viable company do that? Hope the QA team for my vehicle isn’t the same QA team in charge of communication.

The real sin here is that this hasn’t been retracted or fixed.

Mistakes happen. There are even going to be times when you just can’t do anything right. But you damn well get that team back in the second you realize it’s gone wrong and you clean up the mess you made for the brand.

There are far worse things going on in the world. It’s just a truck. But come on.

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[A51Asheville]

I received this after taking ownership of the exact build and vin i ordered.

 

[Jay634]

I got the email about 5 hours after I picked up my Bronco.

 

[USASAIL]

Mine was delivered 6 weeks ago to me and I got the email. BOGO!!

 

[Climber]

Except Ford launched a new product right at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic with no real understanding of the impact the disease was going to have on the global supply chain. Ford made business decisions regarding the Bronco in late 2019 and 2020 prior to anyone knowing the full impact of the pandemic (even on the MIC top). It's been a waterfall of production problems since then. In addition, Ford has 125,000 pre-orders for its new product, which represents a huge investment in production startup and sales revenues.

Artic Cat writes a nice flowery (pulls the "family" card - LOL) email years after the pandemic started about a product that is probably not much different than the previous year product* and the full impact on supply chain for its products is mostly known at this point. How many integrated circuits are in a snowmobile as compared to an automobile?

* a guess on my part because I don't follow the snowmobile industry.

 

[Climber]

To each their own, I would rather be sweet talked than lied to. Cars are not going through additional quality control, they are in an exposed parking lot waiting for chips as production continues. I get Ford has to do what is good for Ford.

My guess is your order is not held up or you wouldn’t be so cool with being told untruths.

 

[Chopper67]

I think retracting it would just make it worse...

I think everyone here is expecting a personal, apologetic email from Bill Ford with the exact detail of the status of their Bronco. Detail such as: the exact spot on Ice Mountain their Bronco is parked, the exact modules affected by the chip shortage and specifically what chip set is actually the hold up and what that supplier's production schedule is, then how, when and what tools will be used to install the missing module(s) and where the installer is going to place his tool box, and if the lot jockey will/has fart(ed) in the drivers seat of his Bronco. And if anyone is keeping track of the development of rust on the CV joints and what are they going to do about it.

Oh, and why has not Bill Ford has not yet had a fisticuffs with the CEO of Webasto?

Speaking as a professional marketer, there is a case to be made for leaving it alone. That is an option for managing a short term one-off embarrassment. Or if you are really convinced that you will fumble the fix and make it worse. That is the only time you just hope it goes away. And it usually proves to be an awful choice even in those circumstances.

If your priority is the long term health of the brand, and long term high dollar relationships, you own and fix your mistakes.

In Ford’s case the priority should the the brand and the relationship. Especially as the ‘hope people stop noticing’ option is many miles in the rear view mirror.

Plus, this isn’t Covid or global supply chain, this is Ford stepping on their crank - plain and simple. It should be fixed.

I also get that isn’t your point. You are right that many, including me, would like that email. But I’d settle for tracking tools that updated weekly and handled exceptions like being parked for missing chips or pulled for additional QA, a Ford-generated guide to understand what’s included in each step and Ford communicating less but communicating reliably.

P.s. many thanks to the awesome B6G folks who have stepped up to fill these gaps and help the rest of us understand the process. Your work is deeply appreciated.

 

[CodaMojo]

To each their own, I would rather be sweet talked than lied to. Cars are not going through additional quality control, they are in an exposed parking lot waiting for chips as production continues. I get Ford has to do what is good for Ford.

My guess is your order is not held up or you wouldn’t be so cool with being told untruths.

You get more with sugar then salt..

Me...

 

[CodaMojo]

I've been built since late January 2022 for a 2-door Black Diamond and gone through all the crap with a 2-door order everyone else has. The email was definitely confusing, but I'm an adult and patient. The world is a mess at the moment; I am adjusting my expectations accordingly. Nothing Ford has said in my case has been untruths; yup, the status has changed about 3 times for my build, but there are a lot of moving pieces, both at my dealer and at Ford. I guess I see this a bit more globally than most and from a large business perspective. Though it is easier in my case since the Bronco is an adder to the fleet and a long-term strategic purchase. I can appreciate those who expected deliveries based on Ford's original pre-COVID estimates, but life is far from perfect. All in all, it appears full-rate production has been delayed about 8 months from first planned pre-COVID, which I think is impressive on Ford's part considering the circumstances.

We can discuss Starlink too, if you want. Oh, and replacement of my 22-year-old washer/dryer stack...

Shit happens. Lol.

Well said... However When ford does the knee-jerk-reaction and spam Emails everyone; that has nothing to do with Virus, global chain or gas prices. It's like mail bots took over corporate minds and they want to "rip off the band aide". Then it causes a maelstrom of discontent that gets everyone fired up and or confused. Some time less communication is better IMO

 

[CodaMojo]

Speaking as a professional marketer, there is a case to be made for leaving it alone. That is an option for managing a short term one-off embarrassment. Or if you are really convinced that you will fumble the fix and make it worse. That is the only time you just hope it goes away. And it usually proves to be an awful choice even in those circumstances.

If your priority is the long term health of the brand, and long term high dollar relationships, you own and fix your mistakes.

In Ford’s case the priority should the the brand and the relationship. Especially as the ‘hope people stop noticing’ option is many miles in the rear view mirror.

Plus, this isn’t Covid or global supply chain, this is Ford stepping on their crank - plain and simple. It should be fixed.

I also get that isn’t your point. You are right that many, including me, would like that email. But I’d settle for tracking tools that updated weekly and handled exceptions like being parked for missing chips or pulled for additional QA, a Ford-generated guide to understand what’s included in each step and Ford communicating less but communicating reliably.

P.s. many thanks to the awesome B6G folks who have stepped up to fill these gaps and help the rest of us understand the process. Your work is deeply appreciated.

Yes!!! Real Talk Here ^^^

 

[markpilip]

In addition, Ford has 125,000 pre-orders for its new product, which represents a huge investment in production startup and sales revenues.

Agree that Ford had and is having a lot of unforeseeable and difficult problems.

But they didn't have 125K pre-orders. They only had 125K fully refundable reservations.

Based on prior experience, my estimate was that only 10-20% would actually convert into people putting their money down and actually ordering.

So they probably only had 12-25K definitive orders from the reservationists.

Now the hour one/day one (TM) crew probably converted at a much higher rate, peace be upon them.

 

[markpilip]

Well said... However When ford does the knee-jerk-reaction and spam Emails everyone; that has nothing to do with Virus, global chain or gas prices. It's like mail bots took over corporate minds and they want to "rip off the band aide".

Looks to me like a relatively simple list selection problem. I'll bet whatever email system Ford is using has the record-level detail of the email addresses in some odd and undocumented layout.

Some less-than-well-trained marketing agency--probably run by the Ford interns--did a list pull and garbled the select and suppress criteria.

Then nobody--could be Levine's interns again--QC'd a sample of the records, where they could have found the problem.

So it's a merge/purge problem with the email. Probably indicative of the overall care--or lack thereof--that Ford applies to all processes, whether it's procuring components, forecasting demand, or something as simple as an email send.

Sloppy all around.

 

[CodaMojo]

Looks to me like a relatively simple list selection problem. I'll bet whatever email system Ford is using has the record-level detail of the email addresses in some odd and undocumented layout.

Some less-than-well-trained marketing agency--probably run by the Ford interns--did a list pull and garbled the select and suppress criteria.

Then nobody--could be Levine's interns again--QC'd a sample of the records, where they could have found the problem.

So it's a merge/purge problem with the email. Probably indicative of the overall care--or lack thereof--that Ford applies to all processes, whether it's procuring components, forecasting demand, or something as simple as an email send.

Sloppy all around.

One Hundo!!!

 

[jwhitecarolina]

Ford's performance throughout is too stupid to be stupid. Whatever. I'm getting closer and closer to being a simple flipper if/when mine ever arrives. They succeeded mightily in one thing: completely alienating a first time Ford buyer.

 

[toddf125]

Well fellas, I took delivery Jan 24th this year and I too received this email! The whole situation is a shit show from the beginning!

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