How Korean wisdom transformed luxury car buying
Genesis has upped the game when it comes to selling cars, putting the customer’s needs first through the Korean art of hospitality, called “son nim”, as Steve Fowler discovers
Car buying has been ready for a rethink for decades. The high-pressure environment in a building that’s usually more like an aircraft hangar than a relaxing retail space hasn’t changed much, apart from a bit of tinkering around the edges.
The internet has allowed buyers more freedom to choose and download information. But when it comes to buying, a personal experience is still important to the vast majority of people who are too nervous to simply hit a ‘buy now’ button. And, sadly, the personal experience isn’t up to scratch when it comes to most brands.
I’ve always been hugely impressed by what Genesis has to offer – both in terms of the cars themselves and the way the company wants to treat its customers. It’s a brand that is doing things differently – and I like different.
If you want to see how much I like the cars, then take a look at our video about living with an electric car where I spent some time with the Genesis Electrified GV70.
But the Genesis difference starts well before you buy one of their cars – it starts in the plush surroundings of a Genesis Studio, as Jonny Miller, Brand Director at Genesis Motor UK told me.
“The whole essence of what we do in the Studios is around the Korean son nim hospitality philosophy,” said Miller. “It’s about giving our cherished guest a bespoke individual consultation and an investigation of our brand.”
I’ve been to a couple of the Genesis Studios in London – in Westfield, West London and in the rebuilt Battersea Power Station in South London (there’s another Studio in Edinburgh) – and they really are stunning spaces. They’re easy to access, beautiful to look at, comfortable to be in, and with staff who are attentive, but not overbearing.
“Our Studios are a visual interpretation of what our brand stands for,” said Miller. “It talks about design, but it’s not supposed to be a hard sell. As a customer, you can go through the investigation, the test drive, the configuration entirely at your own speed, at your own leisure.”
Most of that is done in a Studio by one of the Genesis Ambassadors. These are the friendly folk I’ve met on my visits who are there to welcome you, introduce you to the car in a no-pressure environment and even offer you a cup of Korean tea.
All that doesn’t mean that you have to visit a Genesis Studio to buy – it’s entirely down to you. It’s what Miller refers to as an omnichannel approach.
“If you want to work completely online, then you can,” said Miller. “You can go through our website and take a digital journey, push the buttons and buy a car. Or you could do a bit of that and then come to the studio and have the rest of it done for you, but then you’ll also be fully immersed into the brand.
“We’ll get you into the car, take you in the consultation room and provide you with our Korean hospitality in the form of a Korean tea or coffee. It’s about making you feel calm, welcome and relaxed and that there’s not someone sat hiding behind a computer not showing you what they’re doing.
“It’s very much done on the big screens in the studio consultation room, so it’s more back and forth, more inclusive, more immersive.. There’s no price to haggle, we are not hiding anything from you. We’re literally working the configuration, the pricing, everything in front of you and we’re doing it together.
“We can give you the iPad or the tablet and you can ‘drive’; you can create your car and put it on the big screen. Then if you then want to go and see it, touch it, feel it, you can.
“Equally, if you want to go home and complete your purchase, you can. We want you to feel as though it’s your experience, not a factory led experience of ‘do this, go here, talk to them, go there, do that, talk to them’, and then you’ll be hassled into signing a document that says you’re going to buy a car. Studios are there to mix it across a physical and online presence.”
Once you’ve decided to go through the purchase process, you’ll be assigned to a Genesis Personal Assistant who can take you through the purchase process and even bring the car to you to test drive.
“If a customer’s been into our Studio and doesn’t have time to do a test drive, part of our Genesis difference is that we come to you,” explained Miller.
“Our Genesis personal assistant contacts the customer and will go out with that car, do a test drive at the person’s home or their office or wherever is convenient. It’s driving on their terms, but more importantly on the roads that they’re familiar with, so they can really understand the car.
“One of the big things we like to say to people is that we’re going to put you in a fantastic car, but we don’t want to put you in a fantastic car where you don’t know where you’re going. We want you to be able to enjoy the car; you can drive us to the office or to your home or to roads you know, allowing you to enjoy the car, not worry about someone telling you to turn left or right!”
The next step of taking Son Nim closer to you is for Genesis to open a series of smaller Genesis Showcases around the country, working with selected car retailers in ten locations that are currently listed on the Genesis website.
The Genesis difference also applies to the way it treats its ambassadors and personal assistants, and how they school them in the art of son nim.
“Through our training, we send them out to go and experience fine dining or go and experience a luxury hotel or a spa. We try to instill into our staff the question: how did it make you feel? That’s the critical piece. How did it make you feel when someone did that? They didn’t give you money, they didn’t give you a discount, but they made you feel special.
“A lot of it always came back to time and how it made people feel. Time and feelings are the big things that we focus on with that son nim element.”
You’ll like the son nim experience at Genesis, and the good news is that son nim applies to the cars, too. That’s another crucial part of the Genesis difference.