Ford of Europe: Case Study

Ford of Europe needed to find a better way to train and communicate with its pan-European network of car dealers. It also needed to reduce training costs. Ford originally asked LINE to validate their strategy to create an online dealer learning and communications portal that would:

• do away with the need for printing thousands of expensive product binders
• better prepare staff for Ford of Europe classroom training and launch events
• reinforce the content and messages from the classroom courses and new car launch events
• improve communications between Ford of Europe and the sales staff employed by local dealers (the vast majority of which are not owned by Ford).

In addition to this was a need to design and build a suite of bold and innovative learning materials that would engage and enthuse the target audience. The material needed to be translated into 24 market specific versions in 21 European languages. In addition to the translation requirement, Ford also stated that the solution should include the ability to localise translated content quickly and efficiently in the individual markets. This solution needed to avoid the traditional, lengthy and iterative process of releasing versions of localised content into the markets for review and amendment cycles.

The project was targeted at over 20,000 sales consultants in 21 European countries and to help implant it, Ford of Europe chose LINE Communications as their learning and communications partner to help implement ‘The Learning Centre’.

There were four strategic reasons behind this decision:

• the expertise of the LINE Consulting team in learning portal requirements and implementation
• the unique way in which LINE blend learning, communications and technology
• LINE’s proven track record of successfully engaging individuals outside the organisation (retailers and partners) in learning and communications programmes
• LINE’s experience in the automotive sector.

The Solution – Learning Centre

Ford of Europe initially engaged LINE in a one month consultation to validate their dealer learning strategy. Subsequently LINE provided Ford of Europe with a variety of consulting services to support the implementation of The Learning Centre. This included the overall programme management of the implementation, and specialist advice on the learning management system (LMS) implementation.

A key challenge with the implementation was to make access as easy as possible for employees in the dealerships. This was achieved through a ‘single sign-on’ access via the Internet as well as through Ford of Europe’s ‘Dealer Portal’ which already provided access to key dealer applications.

To ensure successful uptake, LINE designed and produced a communications campaign directed at both national sales companies (NSCs) and dealers. The campaign included:

• printed materials
• on-line ‘teasers’
• 3 European events
• Home Page design

LINE also worked alongside the technology partner for the Learning Centre to develop a set of best practice guidelines for content development.

Launch letters
In order to introduce the concept and advantages of the Learning Centre to the entire workforce, LINE designed two letters, one for managers and one for other staff. These personalised letters were sent to every employee affected by the opening of the centre as the final part of an integrated launch campaign. The content of the letters explained why the centre had been created, what it contained and how it could be of use to the whole Ford of Europe team.

LINE included a stakeholder and management communications cascade strategy that began with three kick-off meetings in Brussels, Vienna and Rome for the leaders of Ford’s 21 European markets. In parallel, Managing Directors of the individual markets received the letter which was then cascaded down to the dealer principals and sales managers and finally sales staff.

The solution – Learning content: Ford Foundation Programme

The launch of the Ford Learning Centre provided Ford of Europe with the infrastructure to publish, target, assign and track learning across the entire European dealership network. LINE also helped design, develop and deliver the ‘Ford Foundation Strategy’ and the core content needed by all Ford dealer staff to work in a Ford dealership. By having a training programme available throughout Europe, Ford Foundation would provide a marker against which all sales consultants could be assessed.

In order to inform, shape and guide our ideas towards an appropriate and feasible learning solution, LINE undertook a period of research during the specification phase. During this period, which included meeting sales consultants and representatives of Ford of Europe, we developed an understanding of our audience and the need for the European markets to localise the translated content.

To assist European market engagement with the Ford Foundation project, LINE established a relationship with all the NSCs at an early stage in the project and agreed with them of all key dates where their involvement was required. Markets were able to review and adapt the translated e-learning content to ensure that it was relevant to their requirements and culture.

After extensive research into alternative methods of delivering e-learning solutions, LINE developed an editable interface facility, used during client reviews, to facilitate localisation by Ford markets and to accommodate the development criteria of the proposed design. LINE also supplied a training pack and provided support for this facility.

The learning experience
Ford Foundation is an e-learning suite of programmes designed to deliver top-level messages that are appropriate for all of Ford’s European markets. Every e-learning “unit” has a notional learning time of 10 minutes and covers key information that helps new-to-Ford sales people understand all of the essential skills required to effectively sell Ford vehicles. The structure of the learning material was designed to acknowledge that sales people would typically have very little time to spend undertaking learning activities, but that they would need to access learning as soon as they start in the role. (ie not some weeks/months later at a training centre) The materials also serve as refresher learning interventions for longer serving sales people.

Once the sales consultants have completed a prescribed set of units, they undertake an assessment to check their understanding of the learning.

• The individual subjects include:
• Introduction to Ford Foundation
• The Ford Brand
• Selling Skills
• Selling Sustainability
• Selling Technologies
• Selling Safety
• Converting Leads to Sales (Lead Management).

The design solution
LINE invested significant amounts of time during the specification phase of the project to ensure that the look and feel of the programme would appeal to the pan-European target audience. The programme used animated characters which were all reviewed by the individual markets and changes were made based on the feedback that was received. Key to the success of this activity was the very strong working partnerships that were built with the market representatives and the end-learners.

Essentially, the design solution had three core aims:

• Targeted high-level content: With numerous product launches and updates, sales consultants face an information overload. This programme is designed to provide only the essential information that sales consultants needs to know.
• Stimulating interactive content: The content is designed to engage the sales consultant, retains their attention and deliver training information in a new and entertaining style
• Training-burden is lessened: the sales consultant undertakes the training when it is most suitable for them. Training is delivered directly to their desktop

The tone of the content and the look and feel of the whole programme is light and humorous. It uses warm and irreverent animations to communicate the key messages in a light hearted and friendly way. Each module only takes 10 minutes to complete and new sales staff are encouraged to do one module per week. This strategy ensures that the training does not have a significant impact on their working week.

Each phase of Ford Foundation contains a further quiz unit which assesses whether the learner has understood the key learning messages in the context of a dealer environment. All phases that have been delivered to date were publicised using innovative, high impact digital ‘teaser’ pieces with audio and animation as part of the communications strategy.

Translation and localisation
A critical success factor for this project was the ability to translate and localise content efficiently and quickly across all of the language versions required. LINE designed and developed an English master version of the full programme. When this received final sign-off, translated versions were built and released to the market representatives.

As part of this project, LINE designed and built a highly innovative localisation tool which allows designated Ford of Europe employees in the NSCs to change any of the translated text on screen to better suit their individual markets. NSCs are supported by LINE staff throughout the localisation process. The WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) localisation tool made the process of localisation very straightforward.

Results and Evaluation

The overall implementation and launch of the Learning Centre has been a great success for Ford of Europe and has enabled them to produce meaningful data which supports the efficacy of the solution. Highlights include:

• the project was successfully completed in less that 12 months with more than 90 % take-up by the target group of 20,000 dealer sales consultants across 21 European markets
• the Learning Centre is now used to deliver e-learning that supports all new vehicle product launches, as well as foundation training and ‘just in time’ communication material
• the audience has expanded beyond sales to include after-sales and technical dealer staff
• the Learning Centre has increased new car sales on some models: those consultants who successfully completed training courses outsold those who didn’t by an average of more than two cars per year.

Evaluation
A significant volume of evaluation has been undertaken to measure the success and the impact of The Learning Centre. The following information provides an overview of the results that we can make public.

• 23,820 sales people across Europe registered on the Learning Centre
• c45,000 hours of e-learning completed to date
• reduced training time for learners to be certified as ‘fully trained’ from 37 months to 13 months
• learning materials available in 24 different European languages
• 93% of key messaging fully understood by learners
• per capita training cost reduced by c74%
• launch events now have e-learning as a pre-requisite to attendance
• 81% of sales people believe that e-learning helps them sell vehicles in the pre-launch stage
• sales people completing the e-learning have recorded 2.4 additional car sales per year compared to those who do not undertake the e-learning.

Our engagement to support dealer training at Ford of Europe is ongoing.

Client endorsement

Learning Centre
“LINE has been instrumental to the success of The Learning Centre. Thanks to their breadth of knowledge and experience in learning, communications and technology, they ensured that the design was right, and then managed the implementation, making sure it delivered on the promise of that design. Throughout this project and others they have always been proactive, thinking on Ford’s behalf and providing rigorous independent advice.” Jakob Alkil: Manager, Launch Events and Training, Ford of Europe

Ford Foundation
Comment from users:-

“Our team thinks the Ford Foundation course is both attractive and interesting!”
(Ford of Turkey)

“The course is really playful and informative.”
(Ford of Hungary)

“I think this information will be really useful for newcomers.”
(European Direct Markets)

“The programme looks great and inspiring and I am sure everyone will like it.”
(Ford of Finland)

“This course looks great!”
(Ford of Norway)

“The module’s structure is really good; the story and the quiz are a good process to learn.”
(Ford of France)

“This is an excellent course! Really nice! And the localisation tool is so easy to use. Fantastic!”
(Ford of Italy)

I can say that both Ford Foundation courses and localisation server are user-friendly. It is easy to localise the course and it is helpful that I can open and review the master version and the local version at the same time. Courses have catchy images and animation.
(Ford of Russia)

“One of the advantages when compared to other localisation tools from other content providers, is the fact that you work directly on the page you’re localising (instead of translating or making amendments to text portions and having to access a course preview window afterwards to view the changes.”
(Ford of Portugal)