Submission title: Ford SyncMyRide.com
Category: Supporting
Name of company submitting: Mzinga

In January 2007, Ford announced the launch of SYNC--a factory-installed, in-car communications and entertainment system developed by Ford and Microsoft that allows various portable digital music players (i.e., the iPod and Zune) and Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones to be operated with simple voice commands.

To support the new product, Ford launched SyncMyRide.com, which provides product overview information, supporting document, videos, ringtones and other multimedia about SYNC.

As the SYNC system gained popularity and demand-- it was ranked #4 on Popular Mechanics Top 10 Most Brilliant Gadgets of 2007 list -- customer inquiries and support needs increased.

To help streamline response time for users and reduce overall related supports costs, Ford opted to turn to their customers on the SyncMyRide site, implementing Owner to Owner discussions to facilitate peer-to-peer support in April 2008.

The integration of social media within the site enables registered owners to post comments, questions and suggestions to the forum for others to review, reply, and rate.

Due to strict automotive regulations, it was important to implement a solution that would allow easy member registration management and moderation of user activity.

Through seamless integration with Ford’s owner database, vehicle owners can enter their VIN # and an image of their car appears as their profile avatar. In addition, moderation tools allow site administrators to pre-moderate all posts, and filter profanity, targeted keywords and malicious code. Registered users are also empowered to report violations to site administrators for review and action.


Business benefits and metrics
Upon launching peer-to-peer discussions, Sync support costs dropped significantly, while customer response times have declined.

Ford has also gained additional market research and insight from forum discussions regarding product versatility. While the SYNC product has many devices that have been approved by the manufacturer for use, customers are finding that it works with other devices as well, and they continue to share those discoveries, tips and tricks with other members.

Since the launch of facilitated discussions within the SyncMyRide.com site in April 2008, more than 4200 Ford owners have become members, and 827,226 messages had been viewed as of August-- an average of 165,000 per month.