BMW's premium strategy
BMW’s Fast Lane Center in Yeoksam, southern Seoul, is an example of innovative ideas to improve customer services. BMW customers can receive essential maintenance services without long waits. / Courtesy of BMW Korea
Fast Lane Center designed to better serve high-end customers
This is the seventh in an eight-part series highlighting BMW Korea’s success story here. The Korea Times has selected eight key success factors and analyzed these based on interviews with company executives and industry experts to understand its strategies and know-how. ― ED
By Kim Tae-jong
BMW Korea has bolstered an innovative spirit to satisfy the premium market’s demands.
The company seems to understand the necessities for premium customer services in the Korean market, which can meet the high expectations of drivers of high-end cars.
Experts also point out that BMWs sell well to consumers who have high standards for quality, luxury and performance because the firm builds those attributes into its automobiles and also successfully provides premium services to drivers.
“BMW has concentrated on premium segments on a global scale and consistently defines high-end brand identification and it has led to the current success, said Kim Pil-soo, a professor of automotive studies at Daelim College. “But it would have been hard to reach the current pole position if it failed to offer premium services to customers, which can meet the high expectations of customers here.”
The premium marketing and services have interplayed synergistically to maintain the company’s strong leadership in the automobile industry, he said.
BMW Korea has aggressively increased the number of maintenance shops and adopted an ombudsman system for the first time in the industry with the aim to also lead in after-sales service here.
It has eight dealers who run a total of 42 showrooms and 42 repair centers nationwide, the largest number among imported automotive brands. It will soon have 660 maintenance bays and 1,053 repairmen, also the largest number among foreign car firms. It also has the largest number of highly-skilled technicians at 35.
BMW Korea has also come up with various innovative ideas to satisfy local customers.
To minimize inconvenience, it opened the Fast Lane Center in Yeoksam, southern Seoul in August where customers can receive essential maintenance such as the replacement of engine oil, brake pads and filters without a long wait. It plans to open centers in Dogok-dong and Yongsan, other best-selling areas for BMW in Seoul.
It has also various service programs.
BMW Service Inclusive (BSI) covers all the areas that BMWs need within five years and 100,000 kilometers mileage after the purchase. That allows drivers to enjoy motoring without worrying about maintenance costs.
To make sure customers will be fully satisfied with its services the company has also opened the online Invoice Hotline, which allows BMW owners to request confirmation as to whether their cars have been fixed at a reasonable price. Submitted requests will be reviewed by the carmaker and its dealerships with the final results coming out within five days.
BMW has also launched a special program in which a group of 100 customers share their after-sales experiences and ideas for improvement.
The group, consisting of customers of differing age, gender and car type, will evaluate service quality until June and their suggestions will be compiled into a book so that they can be used to upgrade the automaker’s customer services.
Market insiders said BMW Korea took a bold step to tackle the weakest point of imported brands here, namely the inconvenience in after-sales services and high maintenance costs.
“It is usually hard for an imported brand to invest a lot to build an after-sales network before business success. But BMW Korea has invested a huge amount of money to upgrade its after-sales network, which is one of the factors for its current success,” said Ko Young-suk, partner and managing director at Boston Consulting Group.