Ms Wynne and Mr Burnett – from the Scenic Hyundai, Queensland and Sinclair Hyundai, New South Wales dealerships respectively – beat their peers to take the top two spots after vigorous testing began at the start of the year and concluded in a three-day event in Sydney earlier this month.
Chicken dinner: Winners of Hyundai Australia’s service advisor competition Andrew Burnett (left) and Stephanie Wynne (right) with HMCA technical training manager Peter Quinn (middle) will head to South Korea to represent Australia against the world.
HMCA technical training manager Peter Quinn told GoAuto the national competition was open to all Hyundai service advisors around Australia who wished to take part.
“It’s open to all service advisors in all dealerships and they have to fill in a nomination form to say they wish to participate,” he said. “So we don’t force them to go for it.”
Mr Quinn said there were 42 applicants this year and each one was judged in various categories since January to determine the top 10 around Australia.
“They (competitors) have to do an online quiz, they get scored every month on CSI (customer service index), they get scored every month on parts sales, they get mystery shopped by phone and walk-ins, and then obviously accuracy on repair work – they get the right email address, phone number, etc,” he said.
“So that all goes in a big pool, from January up until August, and then we take the top 10 advisors and then we bring them in to the national competition.”
Finalists are then scrutinised further in a written test, a one-on-one interview and they have to perform well in various technical tasks including programming Bluetooth, radio and remotes, bypassing smart keys and demonstrating how to do an emergency shut-down procedure, as well as proving their proficiency in a technical drive that covers self-parking, blind-spot monitoring, autonomous braking and automatic cruise control use.
However, Mr Quinn said it was the role playing tests that highlighted a service advisors ability for high levels of customer service, a skill which is invaluable to the South Korean car-maker, and to see how they deal with difficult customers.
“It could be a standard drop off with maybe an air-conditioning problem or a rattle, and we really look at not only the process of getting all the details, but how do they look after the customer, like do they greet the customer correctly, do they offer them a tea or coffee, do they offer them use of the internet lounge, do they really get that rapport with the customer about their kids, about their weekend, about their life,” he said.
“Really what I call the emotional touch, that’s where the big scoring points are.
“In one big scenario they have all these issues they have to sort out for a customer, so we’re really seeing how they can handle something under pressure, how they handle the customer and how we are going to get that customer back in on side.”
With the top two finalists heading to South Korea to represent Australia in the international championships, Mr Quinn said it is mindset training that will give the Australians the edge and he added that he was confident Ms Wynne and Mr Burnett would perform well on the world stage.
“Once you get at that level, everyone has the same process, it’s a mental state to get you over the line,” he said. “So we train them for the whole day for that, so when it comes to the competition, the people that really get it are prepared.
“We did the technicians [championship] last year and we got silver with the same mindset training, so I am confident we will give it a good run.
“I think that’s where we have the edge over the other countries, they teach process, and I teach mindset and customer service, and when we’re going over there to compete, everyone knows the process but we want that emotional touch with the customer and that’s where we get the edge.”
Hyundai Australia has been running its national service advisor competition every year since 2011 and also has a similar championship for its technicians now in its 13th year.
By Tung Nguyen
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