Essay About Federal Warranty Consumer Protection Laws And Quality Vehicles

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Kia Motors America is based in Irvine, California, and is dedicated
to the principles of its parent company, Kia Motors Corp. of Seoul,
South Korea. The guiding mission is easily stated: “provide highquality,
high-value and safe vehicles at market competitive prices
and back them up with a 10 Year / 100,000 Mile Warranty
Program and a customer-first policy.”
The Ever Changing Business Challenge
As Kia’s sales growth continued to explode, increasing from just
over 12,000 vehicles in 1994 to nearly 170,000 vehicles in 2000
(1316% sales growth in 6 years), the company grew acutely
aware of the demands that their growing customer base had and
would continue to have on their then current customer service
operations. Because of the American consumers’ typically heavy
reliance upon their automobiles, the cost of purchase, and the
state and federal warranty consumer protection laws, an “out of
the box” approach to consumer assistance was necessary. To
address this need, the Kia Motors America (KMA) executive team
performed a “build vs. buy” analysis and ultimately decided to
focus on its core competencies of manufacturing and selling
quality vehicles to the American public. An action plan was
developed that involved an investment in the three cornerstones
of consumer support: (1) quality staff, (2) efficient and effective
processes, and (3) advanced technology. Kia selected a market
leader, Cross Country Automotive Services, as its business
partner to outsource its contact center operations to support this
overall plan.
The Solution:
Jointly Developed Total Case Management
Following an extremely aggressive 90-day implementation and
development period, Cross Country’s Total Case Management
Program (TCM) began taking Kia customer calls on April 2, 2001.
The jointly-developed implementation plan included the case
management flow among the parties (contact center, customers,
dealers and KMA staff), position description development,
recruiting and hiring, the development and conduct of a training
and quality monitoring program, resolution of all telecom,
hardware and software issues, as well as the development of
performance metrics. Through TCM, Cross Country case
specialists are committed to:
• Resolving customer issues at the first opportunities for
intervention, thereby reducing expenses associated with
escalated customer calls
•