Engine Service DesignThe Service Design Consultancy
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Engine Service Design
The Hyundai Motor Company was determined to be the world’s best for service in the automotive industry; an industry not usually synonymous with great customer service. The challenge, was to create a flagship cultural space in Seoul, one that communicates the values of the brand and reflects the needs and expectations of a younger, wealthier market.
The Engine Service Design team helped Hyundai Motor Company imagine and design a ground-breaking experience for their new retail model, Hyundai Motor Studio in Gangnam. Once open, the site had 200,000 visitors in the first 18 months, over four times what had been expected. The retail model has since been expanded worldwide.
Client: Client Voice Duration:
The Hyundai Motor Company see ‘service’ not ‘sales’ as the basis of valuable customer relationships and truly believe that if they give people a great experience they will buy more.
Creating memorable moments for car enthusiasts
We built on Engine’s deep knowledge of the Hyundai Motor Company’s brand, from a previous engagement in Seoul, leveraging spaces and technology to create “memorable moments” in their six-story site, encapsulating the modern and premium values of the brand.
This included the creation of an art exhibition space and library for the store, where visitors have access to rare collections of books about cars, making it a ‘go-to’ place for any car enthusiast.
Customers enjoy a unique experience configuring their car, including access to technology that helps them understand the build quality of Hyundai’s vehicles. The brand space also hosts events for customers to meet and connect with engineers, designers and car racers from Hyundai Motors.
Redesigning service for a younger customer base
The greatest challenge was to redesign the role and approach of the Hyundai Motor Company’s retail staff, adapting the staffing model, management and approach to customer service to better serve a younger customer base. This had to be done whilst retaining the more conservative but vitally important traditions that their success had been built upon. The Engine Service Design team worked with sales staff at the company to define (and negotiate) the new roles and behaviours that were needed to draw in the younger and increasingly wealthy audience – a vital outcome for the business.
The ‘rallying cry’ needed to shift the culture of retail service
The ‘Serve With Pride’ customer service model was a strong driver for the expansion of the Motor Studio brand experience.
The confidence of senior executives and internal stakeholders soared following the success of the Hyundai Motor Studio on Dosan Street (an area in the downtown commercial area of Seoul, synonymous with luxury automotive retail). This allowed Engine to work with the Hyundai Motor Company team to move forwards much faster, using it as a laboratory to further develop the service model.
“Most significantly we’ve been able to create a cultural space, one that communicates the values of the Hyundai Motor Company Brand and reflects the needs and expectations of a younger market.”
“We were able to put great investment into service, establishing the ‘Serve With Pride’ model for our retail staff and developing the new ‘Guru’ role, which is very different from how service has always been delivered in our retail stores.”
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Identify the difference between what you do today and what your future customers don’t yet know they need. Reimagine the future.
Unlock new value by imagining, designing and piloting services and experiences your colleagues are inspired to deliver and your customers will love.
Mobilise your organisation with a plan to change, build or buy what’s needed to deliver new services and experiences.
When legacy issues and disjointed ways of working are impacting your customer experience and critical metrics, you need a trusted partner to guide you.
When you need to think differently to stay ahead, but you’re unsure how to differentiate your customer experience, you need a trusted partner to guide you.
When you spot an opportunity to disrupt your industry with a new product or service, you need a trusted partner to guide you.
How design-led companies get more of the right services to market faster
With this book, the authors show you how to instil an outside-in approach to strategy; moving away from a management approach that’s technology, marketing or resource optimization-led, to one that is customer-inspired and experimental with innovation.