Nam Hyun-woo has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2013, mostly covering business and politics. He currently belongs to the Business Desk where he covers topics such as emerging tech, AI, ICT and Korea's chaebol community. Prior to joining the team, he was the paper's correspondent for the presidential office of Korea during the Yoon Suk Yeol and Moon Jae-in administrations.
Volvo vows to improve customer service in Korea
A Volvo technician talks on the phone at the brand's new service center opened in Yangcheon-gu, southwestern Seoul, last month. / Courtesy of Volvo Cars Korea
By Nam Hyun-woo
By Nam Hyun-woo
Volvo Cars Korea is expanding its aftersales service network, in a bid to expedite its recent growth in the domestic market, the Swedish brand's Korean unit said Friday.
Volvo Cars Korea opened a service center in Yangcheon-gu, southwestern Seoul, last month, which is one of the largest car maintenance centers in the capital region.
The four-story center is the second Volvo service center in western Seoul, and has 36 bays for general repair, body repair and refinishing services.
Following the Yangcheon-gu center, the brand will set up three new service centers each in Suncheon in South Jeolla Province, Gyeonggi Province and Seoul, and expand an existing center in Wonju, Gangwon Province. Volvo Cars Korea said it will open a total of five new service centers and expand two existing ones, so it can have 27 service centers in Korea.
Along with the centers, Volvo Cars Korea introduced Volvo Personal Service, which matches a customer with a technician who can provide seamless maintenance services from reservation and checkup to repair.
“With the personal service, customers can feel as though they have a personal doctor caring for everything to do with their cars,” a Volvo Korea official said.
Along with the services, the brand offers five years or 100,000 kilometers of free warranty for every customer, which the brand said is “one of the best services available in the market.” For that the brand increased its budget by 38.9 percent last year.
The brand's aggressive moves for customer services came after a noticeable rise in Volvo's market share in the domestic market.
According to the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association, Volvo sold 916 vehicles in Korea last month, becoming the No. 4 player following Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Lexus.
It was the highest monthly sales since Volvo's entry into the Korean market in 1997.
In aggregated sales in the first four months of this year, Volvo sold 3,426 vehicles, up 27.7 percent from the same period a year earlier.
“We expect we can smoothly achieve this year's sales target of 10,000,” the official said. “A growing number of consumers are recognizing the quality of Volvo cars and our efforts to improve our aftersales service.”