The era of CS Builders is upon us

Behind Hyundai Glovis’s customer satisfaction management there is the “CS Leader.” For years, the CS Leader indispensably served as a bridge, messenger, spokesperson, communication channel, and interpreter between Hyundai Glovis and its customers. After 10 years, the title of CS Leader has changed to “CS Builder,” thereby creating a new impetus to carry out further customer satisfaction activities.

The ten-year era of CS Leaders

The goal of CS (Customer Service, Customer Satisfaction) is to provide the best service, as expected by customers, through systematic management, customized service, and active communication channels based on service leadership. Past CS Leaders of Hyundai Glovis have built trust with their customers and reinforced win-win cooperation through considerate and proactive steps such as personally visiting sales offices and holding briefings. In addition, they provided optimal service based on accurate manuals. Voice of Customer (VOC), which obtains the opinions of customers directly, discovered touchpoints with customers through customer satisfaction surveys, on and offline communication, and on-site inspections. As a result, the company’s services were extensively improved.

The customer range of Hyundai Glovis is not limited to external and domestic customers. In connection with overseas teams, the company has set up standard work processes to preemptively respond in the event of any local emergency, participated in overseas conferences in order to secure potential customers and strengthen networking, and took active roles in the world stage. However, if its endeavors were only successful on the external front, it would not have gained so much recognition. CS Leaders would identify colleagues in other departments and teams as internal customers and then took the lead in communicating with them. They also spread a company culture that was friendly and efficient at the same time.

What is a CS Leader (CS Builder)?

CS Leaders serve to promote customer satisfaction policies and to create a customer-first culture throughout the company as a facilitator of customer service in each team. Always listening to the diverse voices of the staff as well as the internal and external customers and striving to make qualitative improvements to customer satisfaction, it would not be an overstatement to say that they are at the frontline of customer satisfaction. They are the ones focused on the customer voices at home and abroad as well as demonstrating gentle yet powerful leadership through customer satisfaction surveys, VOCs, and service quality training so that Hyundai Glovis can always operate smoothly.

CS Builders, a new future of customer satisfaction

The year 2012 saw the foundation of Hyundai Glovis customer satisfaction being established for the time. At that time 44 initial CS Leaders representing each team were selected. They encouraged using the “Script for Responding to Calls” that adopted the CS slogan to enhance a customer satisfaction-centered mindset and standardize the internal and external customer response. With the growth of the company every year, 67 CS Leaders were active in 2015, and “Six Major Codes of Conduct for Customer Satisfaction” were created to support their activities, together with the publication of the “CS Best Practices” booklet. Since then, the number of CS Leaders has grown to 133 and their activities included CS Empathy Creation (2017), Special Lunch for CS Leaders (2019), the introduction of non-face-to-face team channels and CS Awards (2020), the launch of CS Empathy Easy School Content (2021), and 2022 CS Leader Welcome Guide and CS Awards. In just 10 years, the number of CS Leaders more than tripled since its beginning, proving that Hyundai Glovis’ customer satisfaction increased just as quickly. The annual CS Leader Excellence Award is an occasion for celebrating how much Hyundai Glovis’s customer satisfaction has improved and it is the resounding result of the effort of those CS managers who worked so hard to provide customer satisfaction throughout the year.

In 2023, CS Leaders are taking a new path as CS Builders. “Buildup” is defined in the dictionary as reinforcement, strengthening, accumulation, development, and preparation. In sports terminology, it is used to describe “the practice of running with speed even to the last part of the race in order to show the greatest acceleration until the last moment”. Embracing such meanings, the title of “CS Builder” demonstrates the will to lead CS with a new vision to build a more optimal system and culture in addition to the activities being carried out so far. This is all for the purpose of providing the best service quality to each organization and customer from start to finish. CS Builders will go forward to preemptively identify the grievances of customers that have not yet been revealed, fill in the gaps, and as representatives of each team, serve as a flexible and sturdy bridge that connects the Communication Team – the department in charge of customer satisfaction – with individual employees. Team leaders Kim Han-seok and Lee Su-ho, recipients of the latest CS Awards, recently talked about the vision and prospects of CS Builders who will be leading a new decade of customer satisfaction at Hyundai Glovis.

I lead the Asia Auto Parts (KD) Biz Team. We supply KD parts to both carmakers and parts companies throughout Asia.

When I was in my third year as a CS Leader, I wanted to find out exactly how much our team’s customer satisfaction rating had improved from the previous year. Since we had made so many efforts, I expected some improvement. I remember us being thrilled when we saw how much our customer satisfaction rating actually improved from the previous year.

Back then, I spent more time assessing customer satisfaction levels. But now that I’m in a position where I work with customers directly, I look to actively resolve any inconveniences felt by our customers. We are in sales, so we do think a lot of about revenue, but I also think revenue is something that naturally follows when we improve our customer service. Management thinks the same thing. What has not changed is that we need to consistently work to eliminate customer inconveniences, instead of focusing on one-time services, to actually improve customer satisfaction.

In terms of customer service, if a customer expresses even the slightest hint of dissatisfaction, we listen attentively, offer an explanation, and suggest and apply different means for improvement.

I was made team leader of the America Forwarding Business 1 Team on February 13. The team is responsible for forwarding products in America for Hyundai Motor Group affiliates such as Hyundai/Kia, Hyundai Mobis, and Hyundai WIA and other parts suppliers. We transport car parts both by sea and land. The affiliates need us to get the parts for their production lines to them on time, so our customer contact team, sales team, and operations team work together to complete all deliveries on time, without any delays. As for parts companies, once we receive an order from them we carry it out with the same scheme as the affiliates.

At that time, we had both our parent company and affiliates as customers. When I joined the team, good relations had already been established with them, so I really just communicated with our customers and looked after our regular business operations. The same year that I started in this role, Hyundai Glovis decided customer service management was a top priority and efforts were made to build a sound CS management framework. As a CS Leader, I maintained good communication with my counterparts at our client companies. I remembered holidays and birthdays and so on, and I made efforts to send text messages, e-cards, and even birthday cakes to them.

As the CS Leader of Key Account Management Team 1, our customers were our parent company and affiliates. They had both pride and needs, and expected customer-oriented processes and outcomes. I really think we went above and beyond the role of a service provider. On the other hand, the customers and buyers of the Trading Operation Team were not affiliates, and most were overseas companies, so we worked off of signed contacts to deliver the required services. Fulfilling our contract obligations was enough to satisfy them, but we went a step further and gave them the “Korean service.” For example, as a bonus we would provide them with relevant information at all times which made them pretty happy. Then and now, what has remained constant is the essence of customer service. Customers want certain benefits from us, and as the service provider, we must communicate and provide those benefits. This process is something that is very important and challenging, and something that we always need to try to improve.

Customers seem to appreciate conducting business in a reasonable manner based on a sense of understanding achieved through communication. In today’s changing environment, we have to actively coordinate with our customers and partners while maintaining a positive attitude.

Writer Editorial Department
2023.02.21