Published : Nov. 25, 2013 - 19:59
Thomas Kuehl, head of Volkswagen Korea
Germany’s Volkswagen, which has lately enjoyed a sales boom in Korea, pledged Monday to further expand its after-sales service network to boost customer satisfaction, saying the carmaker was still bullish on growth here.
Volkswagen became the nation’s second-best-selling import car brand in October, outpacing the former No. 2 Mercedes-Benz and fast catching up with the No. 1 BMW.
This year alone, the carmaker sold 21,401 vehicles as of October, up 46.7 percent from 14,591 unit sales a year ago, according to industry data.
“Korea is still a growth story,” Thomas Kuehl, head of Volkswagen Korea, said during his first media meeting at a Seoul hotel Monday. The former strategy director at Volkswagen Group Sales India joined the Korean team in September.
According to him, Korea, which is currently the 22nd or 23rd market for Volkswagen globally, is expected to see a cumulative 100,000 unit sales next year when it marks its 10th anniversary.
The new country chief also renewed his commitment to better customer service, saying the company would step up efforts to increase the number of workshops. Currently, Volkswagen operates 25 showrooms and 26 service centers nationwide in Korea.
“We will become a leading player among import car brands here in terms of customer service and product quality,” he said, hinting at launching a new customer program that could be adopted by other Volkswagen global operations.
He added that high parts prices and repair costs for foreign-brand cars here were more related to economies of scale and pledged to increase transparency in the whole process to increase customers’ understanding.
By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)