Hyundai Motor creates new program to hear customers

Hyundai Motor started recruiting individuals or groups of up to five people for its customer involvement program H-Ombudsman. The nation’s largest automaker will receive opinions from those customers about products, service, and marketing strategies.

Anyone can apply for the program on the automaker’s homepage (www.hyundai.com). The recruitment will run until June 23. The finalists will be announced June 27.

Starting from July, the selected customers will be placed into teams and given the opportunity to provide their input over the course of the next four months.

Four experts, including Dennis Hong, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at University of California, Los Angeles, will help the participants develop their ideas. Other benefits include assistance with monthly expenses and discounts on Hyundai vehicles.

The best person or team will have the opportunity to take a tour of the company’s manufacturing plant in the Czech Republic.

Four outstanding teams will be selected in October based on a poll at a company event and evaluations by the mentors. The best team will later be selected through online voting at Hyundai’s year-end festival.