TWO Australian Hyundai service representatives performed with distinction at the South Korean auto giant’s third biennial global service adviser championships held recently near Seoul.

Andrew Burnett from Sinclair Hyundai in Penrith, New South Wales, took out a gold medal in one of three categories in the global final – general role play – while Stephanie Wynne, who works for Scenic Hyundai in Beaudesert, Queensland, received a Top 10 Excellent Skills Award.

Meanwhile, Kia Motors Australia has announced the winner of its national service adviser ‘skills cup’ competition, Nathanial Laikum from Motorama Kia in Brisbane, who will represent Australia at the fellow Hyundai Motor Group brand’s separate championships in Korea next year.

As GoAuto has reported, Mr Burnett and Ms Wynne won the right to represent Australia at Hyundai’s global championships after taking out top honours in the domestic competition, which ran from January through to August with 42 entrants before 10 were chosen to compete in a three-day national final in September.

The global final brought 140 service advisers from 60 countries – from a total pool of 18,000 advisers worldwide – to Hyundai Motor Company’s Cheonan technical training centre, where their customer service skills and knowledge were examined across three skillset assessments.

These included the general role-playing category involving challenging real-life scenarios in which Mr Burnett took gold – edging out the top advisers from Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates, who took silver and bronze respectively – as well as a more specific workshop automation role-playing exercise and a written exam.

All three tasks were designed to test the advisers’ understanding and application of Hyundai’s customer service procedures, technical questions, problem-solving ability, repair procedure, warranty and parts knowledge.

For the record, India was declared the overall winner this year, ahead of the United States and Russia.

According to Hyundai, the global competition “strives to improve customer satisfaction and customer response skills by providing a platform for service advisers”.

“By holding the service adviser championship, Hyundai Motor plans to reinforce global customer capacity by fostering experts that deliver highest quality customer service beyond expectations,” the company said.

“Going forward, Hyundai Motor will continue to enhance global service competitiveness by providing smart maintenance through digital customer services utilising workshop automation and tablet PCs.”

Mr Burnett and Ms Wynne have followed in the footsteps of other Australian representatives.

In the second running of the championships, in 2014, Nitin Khadalia from Jefferson Hyundai in Mentone (Vic) took second place in the role play category, while Josephine Holledge from Keema Hyundai in Springwood (Qld) finished in the top 20 in the ‘excellent skills’ division.

Over at Kia, Mr Laikum won the national final in a close-run contest involving three other finalists: Randy Stagno Navarra from Essendon Kia (Vic), Bradley Toms from Brian Hilton Kia in Gosford (NSW) and Paola Hardaker from Trinity Kia in Cairns (Qld).

All four had their technical knowledge and customer service skills put to the test in the day-long event.

“It was difficult and a very good test of what we have to produce on a day-to-day basis,” said Mr Laikum, 40, who has worked for the Kia brand for the past three years.

“I am thrilled to have been able to win in the face of some serious competition.”

The best result by an Australian at Kia’s world service adviser championships was a bronze medal for Cardiff Kia’s John Tarran in 2013.

Kia’s international competition is run along the same lines as Hyundai’s and is also held every two years. No Australians featured in last year’s event, which was won by Colombian service adviser German Pacheco Rodriguez.

By Terry Martin