Kia Motors America

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