Jesse Pickard's Thoughtstream

Ford Canada's Answer Centre: weak execution, but admirable

Ford Canada features an Answer Centre that pulls in Ford related Q&A from Yahoo Answers.

I love that it is uncensored and prominantly featured. Allowing unmanipulated UGC on a  vehicle site is a huge step forward for automakers. Unfortunately, the execution is poor. Pulling in all Q&A from Yahoo Answers results in a lot of useless information from unqualified sources. Why not allow visitors to ask questions to registered Ford owner’s, who currently visit the site to make finance paymentsand schedule repairs? This way, visitors can get answers from owners who are trusted and qualified and all of the questions are more relevant because they fellow shoppers. There is also an ability to match owners and shoppers based on the similar demographics.  For more on connecting car owners with new shoppers, check out my post in the AA|RF headlight blog on The Untapped Power of Owner Communities