These are the ‘phygital’ initiatives of Hyundai PH to adjust to the new normal

Over the past 12 months, Hyundai Asia Resources, Inc. (HARI) made sure its customers wouldn't be left in a lurch with their vehicles. The company quickly adjusted to the new normal through programs and initiatives to address customer needs more keenly amid the pandemic.

The local distributor for the Korean automaker claimed to have crafted an industry-first initiative with the Hyundai Guidelines for Protection and Safety (GPS) last year, after being “challenged to recover losses and to ensure business continuity for the sake of over 500 employees and their employees, plus the thousands employed at Hyundai dealerships across the country.”

It is also underscores the commitment “to provide a safe, effortless, comfortable, connected, and personalized driving experience in the new normal.”

HARI President and CEO Ma. Fe Perez-Agudo said that the Hyundai GPS—implemented since May last year—is a comprehensive set of "phygital"  (combination of physical and digital) procedures and programs to ensure the safety and well-being within the business (HARI employees, business partners, and customers) while restoring consumer confidence as well as win back customers by tapping alternative channels.

“We had to take care of the physical and mental well-being our own, first of all, to ensure that they are ready to adapt and serve customers under the new working conditions. We can’t give customers what we don’t have,” Agudo said.

“And as we struggle to get back on our feet, we enable our customers to get back on theirs. This is HARI for you in the new normal and beyond.”

Since June last year, Hyundai HOMEPage (Hyundai Online Market Experience) allowed some 200,000 customers to browse through Hyundai vehicles. The said site serves as HARI’s pioneering online selling platform complete from vehicle selection to bank approval to delivery that can be done while staying at home.

Meanwhile, Hyundai ARMOR (Active Response, Management, Operations, and Resumption) Service Program is the revised “Right Here, Right Care” after-sales customer promise.

The reworked program, which has served more than 154,000 customers, covers the whole vehicle maintenance process while observing strict health protocols at the service workshops. Through this, face-to-face interaction is now limited as customer can now book online via Hyundai@YourService, consultation with technical experts through the dealerships, and the ordering of genuine parts through Hyundai Unified Buys (HUB).

Further, as the phygital practice has become the norm in conducting businesses, HARI prides itself that it has been utilizing the digital space since 2018.

“To widen its reach from the traditional dealerships to high-traffic locations, it launched the new retail experience called “i-space” and the first Hyundai City Store in Cebu. These trendy lifestyle spaces located in high-traffic areas, such as malls, offer walk-in customers the convenience of checking out their preferred models online at their leisure in a comfortable and very welcoming and personalized environment. By 2019, HARI had launched the Hyundai store in Lazada, generating buzz among Netizens who started buying the Accent and Reina online,” the company shared.

Further, Agudo affirmed that the initiative is the future of the business. “There’s no turning back. Phygital is the future of our industry. We have discovered a way of providing customers better journeys and they are loving it,” she concluded.

Photos from Hyundai Asia Resources Inc.

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