Hyundai: Marching Forward

MANILA, Philippines - Having no less than a dozen cars in its line-up, Hyundai Automotive Resources Incorporated (HARI), the country’s official distributor of Hyundai cars and trucks, is in a unique position to offer an automobile for just about every segment. Whether you’re looking for a tiny city car to an all-out sports car, Hyundai has your bases covered. Things have certainly moved in the right direction for Hyundai, a far cry from the so-called “Starex days” – when they were solely reliant on one product line.

However, offering avant-garde products is just the tip of the iceberg for any automotive company. After all, if you can’t look after your would-be buyers, then what’s the use? Just as it is important to offer a desirable car, it’s also important to offer excellent sales and after sales service since these are intertwined in the overall brand experience. Recently, HARI was triumphant in the 8th Hyundai World Motor Skills Olympics with Nelson A. Tavara of Hyundai La Union being distinguished among the ten technicians to receive the title of “Excellent Skills”. With Hyundai’s new global “24/7” initiative – where they will launch seven new models in 24 months begining with the all-new Tucson launched just this week. The Philippine STAR sat down with Ms. Fe Perez-Agudo to ask about the unique opportunities and challenges that face Hyundai dealers in the Philippines.

Q: There’s a rapid growth of HARI dealers here in the Philippines. Any specific area which saw the biggest growth? Do you attribute this growth to anything in particular?

FPA: Our Hyundai dealers in Metro Manila and Luzon areas still contribute the biggest growth in HARI’s dealership operations, notably because the concentration of demand for Hyundai vehicles is in those areas. 65% of our sales come from those areas. From two dealers in 2001, we now have 14 dealers in Metro Manila alone; this expansion of the dealer network is driven by a combination of the growing acceptance and demand for Hyundai vehicles, as well as our desire to better serve the growing family of Hyundai owners.

What is even motivating is the fact that our dealers in other provincial areas are quickly keeping pace with the success that our dealers in Metro Manila and Luzon are enjoying. Case in point is Hyundai Cebu, Inc., which was hailed Dealer of the Year for two consecutive years (2007 and 2008). And their success is not gauged solely on sales; Hyundai Cebu is also very competitive in terms of after-sales, customer relationship management, and its active campaign of Genuine Hyundai Parts. Other Hyundai dealers in the Visayas region, like Hyundai Iloilo, Bacolod, and Bohol also serve as inspiring examples of dealership progress. Also, because of the rapid growth in the Southern areas like Davao and Cagayan de Oro, we’re even more encouraged to make Hyundai a significant contributor in shoring up the economy in those places and help boost their motoring industry.

We see it positive that our dealers in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao are quickly keeping pace with Hyundai’s rapid rise as a global automotive player that it certainly shows in their overall operations, and I believe that’s the key to our dealer network’s success – it’s their team effort, commitment, and focus to Hyundai’s vision to become a leading global automotive company that delivers refinement and confidence in every customer’s unique motoring lifestyle.

We hope to continue strengthening our dealership presence in other strategic provincial territories, as we note a widening acceptance, as well as opportunities, for the Hyundai brand across the archipelago.

Q: What do you think attracts people to visit a HARI dealership?

FPA: I would say it’s the total Hyundai brand experience. From product, to showroom, to front liners, service, and customer relationship, our dealers make a dedicated effort to delight customers. That’s what makes total customer satisfaction – it’s the kind that engages customers; it makes the connection, and it’s beyond selling – it’s creating and sharing a whole new experience, which we hope will keep the customer coming back for more. To this mission, we are driven to fast track the continuous improvement of our dealership operations to ensure quality after-sales services that our customers expect and deserve.

Q: Hyundai Motor Corporation (HMC) recognized HARI for their Dealer Enhancement Program. What in particular did HMC recognize? What do you think attracts people to visit a HARI dealership?

FPA: Hyundai’s global phenomenon may be attributed to its emphasis on improving product quality and service quality. Improving its service quality encompasses improvement in all areas of operation. HARI remains at the forefront in implementing dealer enhancement initiatives to a point that we have become Hyundai’s DEP (Dealer Enhancement Program) Capital of the World. The DEP is a continuing program, thus, you can expect more improvement in the years ahead.

We have a total of 28 dealers certified as Hyundai Elite dealers by Hyundai Motor Company (HMC); that in itself is a great achievement for HARI, as it reflects our continued adherence to and support of Hyundai’s mission to institutionalize the brand and its operations here in the country. And that’s also why HARI has been dubbed the DEP Capital of the World.

We have also won three awards this year that further affirm the strength of our team of Hyundai dealers in the country. One is the Recognition for Outstanding Performance in all areas of distributor operation, which was awarded to HARI by HMC last April in a special ceremony held at Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. HARI bested 11 other distributors that vied for the top recognition, achieving high scores in all five major categories that comprise the body of criteria for selecting the best-performing distributor, which includes Organization, Customer Satisfaction, Training, DEP Evaluation, and Warranty. Second is the 2008 Award of Excellence, which we received last June, during the Hyundai Motor Global Distributors Convention awarding ceremonies in South Korea. This latest award crowns HARI as the Asia-Pacific Distributor of the Year for the third time. Lastly, HARI was also bestowed with the 2008 Best DEP Award during the said event, for our balanced implementation of Hyundai’s DEP (Dealer Enhancement Program).

Q: HARI has a unique National Training Academy for your staff. What kind of things to students learn there? Was there a big improvement in the performance of sales/service staff after the competition of the course?

FPA: Cognizant of the importance of developing our most important resource, i.e., our frontliners and after-sales service personnel, HARI established its National Training Academy, which is tasked to train our dealer’s sales and service personnel. Graduates of the National Training Academy are awarded Hyundai Motor Company certifications upon their successful completion of the training courses. Thus, Hyundai customers are assured of the quality and competence of the service technicians who take care of their cars. Service managers, advisors, parts personnel, and service technicians are armed with basic and advanced training in both technical and non-technical subjects needed in conducting world-class service operations.

Since 2002, more than 900 service staff have been equipped by HARI using HMC’s global standards. Also, starting 2005, HARI has certified over 600 dealer sales managers and sales consultants, exceptional in their product knowledge, selling, and negotiating skills. We have also given special emphasis on training all staff in customer care. Regular updates are given through follow-up and refresher courses as we introduce new products and services.

Q: Ondoy and Pepeng, have these typhoons affected you dealerships? If so, how is HARI helping these dealerships? How about owners who were hit by these typhoons?

FPA: Immediately after Ondoy, we’ve responded by coming up with a special assistance program for Hyundai motorists titled, “Hyundai Sagip Center: The Hyundai Car Repair Assistance and Restoration Program for Typhoon Ondoy Victims.” This program ran for the whole month of October. We provided help lines for flood-affected customers, which enabled them to arrange schedules for towing and service appointments at authorized Hyundai dealers. Aside from setting up our exclusive Sagip Center and devoting a special team to attend to customers’ queries, we also came up with Hyundai Sagip Service packages that offered special discounts on labor, parts, and repairs for flood-affected vehicles. The program aimed to assist customers to the fullest – from the time they call for help, to the time that their Hyundai vehicles are back on the streets and roadworthy again.

To support our dealer operations, we’ve beefed up our service teams at the dealerships – manpower, equipment, and parts all in, to attend to the workload of flood-damaged cars lined up in the service bays. All possible means to support our dealers in terms of technical support, additional manpower, and speedy airlifts of parts from Korea are being exhausted to assist them in serving their customers’ need to get back their cars in excellent roadworthy condition. The program has done well so far, and the response of the motoring public has been positive and overwhelming.

Repair of flood-affected vehicles is ongoing, and although it’s quite a challenge, not just for us, but for the Philippine auto industry in general, customers remain understanding and appreciative of all the help and support given to them. We at HARI are inspired at the “Bayanihan” exercised in this tragic turn of events. It gives us hope that even if we belong to different companies or affiliations, we are united in helping customers get back on their feet again and cope with the crisis positively.

Q: HARI has a very robust line-up with everything from small city cars to luxury sports cars. However, there’s one particular area which Hyundai has yet to enter and that’s the light-truck market (the exception being the H100). Do you think the lack of a pick-up truck or a pick-up based sport utility vehicle could have been a handicap for Hyundai?

FPA: A pickup model would certainly be a welcome addition to the Hyundai lineup as this segment has been steadily growing over the years with a 9.5% market share versus the total industry sales last year and a 9.7% market share as of October 2009 industry sales report.

Automotive companies have different strategies in growing the market. As for Hyundai, our strategy is geared towards refined and confident motoring. What do we mean by this? Refinement for Hyundai means evolving and cutting-edge designs of vehicles, which reflect the lifestyle of Hyundai customers – progressive, fun, exciting, creative, and pace-setting. Confidence on the other hand is about Hyundai’s commitment to excellence in product and service quality, the motorist’s safety and well-being, and engaging and environment-friendly technologies.

If you would notice, Hyundai has stepped up its key operations and R&D around the world to come up with vehicles like the Genesis luxury sedan – which won the 2009 North American Car of the Year by the way, the Genesis Coupe, and the eco-friendly Blue-Drive family of vehicles and Concept Cars – evidence of Hyundai’s ongoing pursuit to revolutionize the global automotive industry through innovations that definitely engage the market and make a difference in the way we live, not just drive. And through the years, the market’s acceptance of Hyundai and the customers’ confidence in a Hyundai vehicle have been overwhelming.

Further, in the 2009 Best Global Brands survey jointly conducted by Interbrand, a leading consultancy in branding, and BusinessWeek, the New York-based global business media organization, Hyundai ranked 69th, up three notches from 2008. In the latest survey, Hyundai ranked 8th overall among global automakers, surpassing several prominent competitor brands.

With the ongoing global success of Hyundai, I don’t think that a lack of a product for a particular segment of the market, such as the pick-up truck/SUV-based pick-up segment, is a handicap, but rather a welcome opportunity that can be explored. While that opportunity is yet to be realized, we, at HARI, are confident that Hyundai will be able to create more vehicles fitting of our unique and dynamic lifestyles.