Ford Gets The RDA Group's Thumbs Up for Quality Improvement

FYI: Ford Buyer's Guide

Bloomfield Hills, MI--June 17, 2011: RDA Group, a full-service market research and consulting firm, recognized Ford Motor Company for client excellence in quality improvement at a brief ceremony at Ford World Headquarters yesterday.  Over the past five years, Ford Motor Company has achieved unparalleled success in quality and customer satisfaction improvement.

In assessing Global Quality Research System (GQRS) trends from the beginning of the 2006 model year through the end of 2010, Ford Motor Company measured the most significant improvement trend for total Things-Gone-Wrong reduction and Vehicle Quality Satisfaction in the U.S. study. Ford finished the 2010 model year ranked near the top of the industry. Other third parties have also recognized Ford Motor Company's recent successes, including Consumer Reports and J.D. Power and Associates.

"This is a tremendous achievement," remarks Dennis Pietrowski, RDA Group's Managing Director.  "Virtually all manufacturers have shown substantial reduction of customer reported troubles over the years; most of the time with little or no improvement to customer satisfaction. As a market and survey research organization it is gratifying to see Ford embrace the survey results and customer feedback we provide and make truly outstanding improvements. The news and data has not always been good over the years, but Ford has focused and persisted and they have made tremendous improvements to their vehicles and the entire customer experience."

Based on U.S. tracking data, Ford Motor Company has had the most significant improvement trend of any full-line automaker in the reduction of customer reported troubles from 2006 through 2010.  More specifically, Ford's performance has moved from near industry average to on par with perennial leaders Honda and Toyota.  During that same time-frame, while some of the best in the industry have remained steady on the percent of customers that are highly satisfied, Ford has increased and directionally surpassed them, ranking ahead of all other full line automakers in 2010.

"It is an honor to be recognized by RDA for our efforts achieving top quality and customer satisfaction," said Bennie Fowler, Ford's Group Vice President of Quality.  "Quality is part of Ford's DNA and the Ford team is dedicated to continually finding new ways to please our customers."

The RDA Group Quality Award is a discretionary award presented by the RDA Group to recognize substantial improvements in quality and customer satisfaction over time.

About RDA Group

Established in 1969 and headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., RDA Group is a global market research and consulting firm that conducts customer satisfaction, quality tracking studies and advanced product research, for the automotive, financial services, health care, heavy equipment, utilities, and temporary staffing industries.   .