Kia Motors announces its service and training network in India

Kia Motors announced its service network of 192 centres across 160 cities in India. The Korean automaker will leverage IOT (Internet of Things) technology that is ingrained into its Kia Link App.

Easing the process of scheduling a service appointment, Kia vehicle owners will get notified via the Kia Link App about an upcoming or service due reminder. The app would allow the customers to make an appointment at their preferred dealer. This also helps the dealer to keep a track of the vehicle’s reporting and better utilisation of resources at the service centre. To eliminate delays and digitize the process, the workshops are equipped with RFID scanners which would identify the car through RFID technology. This would be followed by the allocation of a service advisor who then would diagnose the car digitally at the e- vehicle health check-up bay and share the report with the customer via the app with real-time updates and progress on the repair work. The effort is to make the overall operations paperless. Furthermore, the service centres would bank on Kia’s Mobis network for delivery of parts through its four PDC in Chennai (South), Navi Mumbai (West), Delhi-NCR (North) and Kolkata (East).

Through the Kia Link App, customers would be informed of the ongoing work by the service advisor with periodic alerts, thereby increasing transparency around the total time consumed and the cost of repair and service. After the final inspection of the car, the customers would be apprised of completion of work. The customer would be explained the finer details of work required or done via KCVG (Kia Customer Visual Guide). Keeping the paper-less culture intact, the app would enable the customers to pay digitally via the payment gateway in-built into the app.

The after-sales and service program would be carried out by Kia Motors India’s technicians who have undergone skill enhancement and training programs at one of Kia’s training centres in Faridabad, Mumbai and Bangalore. The training centres are equipped to train the dealer staff on dedicated bays for mechanical repair, body and paint repair, EV training, sales training, role plays, system trainings, digital and virtual training experience as well as broadcast room training. Each training centre is spread over 23,000ft to accommodate multiple training facilities. All the training centres have been in operation since June 2019 and Kia Motors have trained over 2400 dealer staff so far.

Commenting on the occasion, Manohar Bhat, VP and Head, Marketing and Sales, Kia Motors India said, “As a global leader in customer satisfaction initiatives, Kia Motors has been a front-runner in raising the bar higher by giving the best of after-sales services to our customers. Kia Motors India brings in a similar level of quality and hassle-free experience as we command some of the most advanced tech-driven service centres in the country. Our spare parts network ensures spare parts are available across the country with 4 PDCs in Chennai, Navi Mumbai, Delhi NCR and Kolkata. We are confident that such a mix of both sales and service facilities will quickly instill the confidence of the Indian customers in our brand. We eagerly look forward to providing the best in class after-sales service to all our valued customers.”