IDRC’s Service Delivery Best Practices Award: Ford Motor Land Services and Alliance 2000

In late 1993, Ford Motor Co. Chairman Alex Trotman had a better idea. He announced his intent to globalize the company as the first step in a push to become the world’s leading automotive firm. Improved customer satisfaction would be a critical objective.

“We have to squeeze out everything we do that is unproductive from a customer’s standpoint,” Trotman said.

With some 350 owned properties, 650 leased properties and 725 dealerships around the world, it was clear that Ford’s real estate arm would play a big role in the drive to globalize and boost customer satisfaction. In fact, Trotman’s vision led Ford Motor Land Services Corp. (FMLS) to both globalize and reengineer its real estate services operation.

“Our goal overall was to become better aligned with our customers, provide increased customer satisfaction and reduce cycle time,” FMLS Vice President of Global Real Estate Sean McCourt says.

A key element in the revamped real estate process was a strategic alliance with Alliance 2000, a joint venture between Cushman & Wakefield and CB Commercial/Madison Advisory Group. The partnership has enabled the No. 2 U.S. automaker to expand its organizational capacity, align itself with the world’s largest global real estate service delivery entity and gain access to leading-edge market information and technology.

Additionally, the new organizational structure has allowed McCourt and his staff to refocus their efforts on enhancing client relationships and working collaboratively with customers to develop innovative real estate solutions.

But perhaps most significant, FMLS’ reengineered real estate operation has achieved dramatic improvements in service delivery. Ford Credit, one of its largest clients, reports a 51 percent increase in customer satisfaction, a 25 percent reduction in project cycle time and a 22 percent increase in employee satisfaction with the workplace.

Performance boosts like those recently helped Ford and Alliance 2000 win a Best Practices Award for service delivery from the International Development Research Council (IDRC), the world’s preeminent association of corporate real estate executives.

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