Automotive & MobilityHMC (via Innocean)

Hyundai Motors Europe Customer Channel Integration (CCI) Preparation

Customer Channel Integration
Digital Governance
On-site Workshop
RACI

Pain Points

To bring Europe’s channels onto a global platform, the roles and responsibilities of each department first had to be clear.

Purpose of Analyzing Europe’s Digital Customer Channels

The project began with the important goal of analyzing Hyundai Motor Europe’s digital customer channels in depth and assessing whether they could be applied to a global integrated platform. At its core was a close analysis of the digital services and channels operated by the European subsidiary, from which we derived insights for building a global Digital Customer Experience (DCX) strategy. This required an accurate understanding of the European market and the use of the RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) model to clearly define each department’s roles and responsibilities, which made it possible to realistically assess the potential for expansion to a global integrated platform. Going beyond a simple status review, the project was an important first step toward global digital transformation and helped lay the strategic foundation for improving the digital customer experience.

Strategic Lens

We analyzed the operating structure through a pre-survey, on-site workshops and RACI.

Identifying Touchpoint Issues through a Pre-Survey

The first step of the analysis was a detailed review of the scope and characteristics of the services offered by each channel, focusing on the websites and mobile apps provided in Europe. We checked each service’s features one by one, anticipated the various touchpoint scenarios customers might encounter, and wrote a pre-survey of questions that could arise in each service operation scenario. Distributing it to departments and stakeholders at the European subsidiary allowed us to identify the main issues at each touchpoint in advance and find directions for solving them. The answers helped us understand the roles of key stakeholders in service operations and define their scope of work and responsibilities. Building on this, we refined the work processes set as initial hypotheses, systematically understood the overall flow of digital customer channel operations, and laid an important foundation for assessing expansion to a global platform.

Hyundai Motor Europe CCI Research — Customer channel status analysis table

In-Depth Analysis through On-Site Workshops

Saltcake attended workshops at Hyundai Motor Europe in Frankfurt, Germany, to analyze the operation of its digital customer services in depth. Over a week of sessions, we closely examined how each department runs its digital services. Web and app services were covered in separate sessions for detailed analysis of each channel, giving us a clear picture of the scope of the services and main tasks each team handles.

In the main sessions, we learned about the services each team runs and their key projects, investigated in depth how those services are actually structured and optimize the customer experience, and focused on identifying the key challenges (pain points) each team faces and the areas that need solving.

Using prepared interview questions, we further analyzed each team’s operations and closely examined how departments collaborate with each other and with third-party vendors. This governance research applied the RACI model methodology to clearly define the relationships between tasks. As a result, we clearly defined the roles and responsibilities of each department in operating the European subsidiary’s digital customer channels and derived important insights into service operations and collaboration structures.

Hyundai Motor Europe CCI Research — Photos of the European office building and showroom

Creative Approach

We spent a week in Frankfurt analyzing operations in separate web and app sessions.

Defining Roles and Responsibilities with the RACI Model

For many departments and teams to work together efficiently in digital service operations, each department’s responsibilities and roles must be clearly defined. We used the RACI model to manage the tasks that arise in digital service operations effectively and clearly assign owners so work could proceed without confusion. By distributing tasks systematically and defining the responsibilities of each role, the RACI model makes project progress easier to manage. It is especially useful in digital service operations involving many departments and teams, preventing duplicated work and gaps in responsibility and optimizing collaboration. In the early stages of a project, it plays an important role in defining each department’s role and understanding how work actually gets done.

When to Use the RACI Model

The RACI model is usually used in the early analysis stage of a project, clarifying each department’s roles and responsibilities based on a clear understanding of current operations. It is an essential tool for understanding which departments handle the many tasks in existing digital service operations and how. This process reveals duplicated or missing work and points to directions for improvement.

Later, when building the to-be plan, the RACI model offers a major advantage. Once the current operating flow is understood, roles for efficient future service operations can be clearly defined and each department’s scope of work and responsibilities can be rebalanced. This smooths collaboration between departments, minimizes unnecessary conflict and waste in digital service operations, and helps build a flexible structure ready for future change and expansion.

Hyundai Motor Europe CCI Research — RACI role definition diagram

Defining Roles with the RACI Model

Responsible: the organization that performs a specific task and directly handles service operation and improvement, such as the team that manages service operation processes and directly improves the user experience.

Accountable: the leader who sets the direction of the task and holds final approval, such as leaders who decide the strategic direction of digital channels and make key decisions.

Consulted: experts who give advice in key decisions, including departments such as legal, marketing and IT, who advise on how services are delivered and how to improve them based on their experience.

Informed: organizations that are kept up to date on progress and give feedback when needed, so that every team is aware of ongoing work and can respond immediately when change is required.

Hyundai Motor Europe CCI Research — Channel role assignment matrix

Optimizing Collaboration with the RACI Model

Using this model clarifies the collaboration structure among departments and teams and prevents confusion or conflict over work. With responsibilities clearly separated, each team can focus on its assigned role, making work more efficient. The feedback gathered in the process becomes an important reference for future service improvements and new service launches. The RACI model also provides the groundwork for optimizing future digital service operations: once each department’s tasks are understood, problems and improvement points in how services are delivered can be found, and policies and strategies can be set to make future digital service operations more efficient.

Hyundai Motor Europe CCI Research — Cross-organisation workflow diagram

Delivered Experience

We delivered a final report that serves as the basis for decisions on the global DCX strategy.

A Feedback Loop That Makes Plans Realistic and Actionable

After the workshops, collaboration between the Korean headquarters and the European subsidiary continued. This went beyond data collection: it was an essential process for deeply understanding the on-site context and reflecting it strategically.

For items discussed in the workshops that needed further analysis, we requested related data from the European subsidiary and secured key information on digital customer experience operations, including KPIs, customer feedback and internal operating manuals. This allowed a more precise analysis of the gap between customers’ actual usage patterns and internal operations, and helped identify practical improvement points for digital channel operations. The final report was structured to provide an intuitive, strategic understanding of the European subsidiary’s digital customer channels, offering practical insights that can serve as the basis for decisions when building a global digital customer experience strategy.

Digital Strategy Consulting That Connects Organizations and Customers

In this project, Saltcake played a key role in refining the research methodology, leading workshops and meetings, and bringing key findings into strategic decisions. Through close collaboration with Hyundai Motor Europe, we helped set a strategic direction aligned with its digital transformation goals. Designing and advancing the digital customer experience requires a deep understanding not only of the services offered at customer touchpoints, but also of the internal systems, organizational structures and ways of collaborating that build and run them. This project verified these capabilities at Saltcake and will prove its value as a trusted partner in similar global digital strategy projects.

Reviewing bar charts on a tablet alongside printed graphs

Client

Mapping who owns what across Hyundai Motor Europe's digital channels before going global.

Project Information

Industry: Automotive & Mobility
Project Type: Optimization
Role: Research, Workshop Facilitation, Governance Analysis

Client: HMC (via Innocean)
Client Introduction: Hyundai Motor Company is a mobility company leading the global market, transforming future mobility through eco-friendly technologies such as electric and hydrogen vehicles and smart mobility solutions. Accelerating its customer-centered digital transformation, it aims to deliver a consistent brand experience to users worldwide by advancing the UX/UI of its global websites and in-car services.

As part of its global digital Customer Channel Integration (CCI) project, Hyundai Motor Group launched a customer channel integration research project for Hyundai Motor Europe. The project aimed to extend the digital customer channel experience from Korea to global markets and deliver a consistent experience. The key goals were to integrate web- and app-based digital touchpoints so customers could use them more effectively across the Hyundai, Kia and Genesis brands, stay consistent with the global digital strategy and improve operational efficiency.

Case Intelligence Summary

Pain Points

To bring Europe’s channels onto a global platform, the roles and responsibilities of each department first had to be clear.

As part of Hyundai Motor Group's global Customer Channel Integration (CCI) project, we had to assess whether the digital channels run by Hyundai Motor Europe could fit onto a global integrated platform. That first required an accurate picture of the scope and nature of the web and app services the European entity operates. Above all, in an operation involving many departments and third-party vendors, integration could not be judged without knowing who was responsible for what. The challenge went beyond a status review: clarifying roles and responsibilities was the first step toward a global DCX strategy.

Strategic Lens

We analyzed the operating structure through a pre-survey, on-site workshops and RACI.

We examined the operating structure in three steps: pre-survey, on-site workshop and RACI analysis. First we checked every feature offered by the European websites and mobile apps, predicted the touchpoint scenarios customers might go through, and turned them into survey questions by service scenario. Distributed to departments and stakeholders across the European entity, the survey surfaced key issues at each touchpoint in advance and clarified the roles and scope of core stakeholders. We then validated this hypothesized work process on site, building a systematic picture of how the digital channels run end to end.

Creative Approach

We spent a week in Frankfurt analyzing operations in separate web and app sessions.

Saltcake attended a one-week workshop at Hyundai Motor Europe in Frankfurt, Germany. In separate web and app sessions, we interviewed each team about the services and key projects they own, how those services are actually built, and the pain points they face, and looked at collaboration between departments and with third-party vendors. We organized this governance information with the RACI model — Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed — to make ownership of each task clear. RACI both exposed overlaps and gaps in current operations and became the basis for a to-be plan that reassigns roles for future operations.

Delivered Experience

We delivered a final report that serves as the basis for decisions on the global DCX strategy.

After the workshop, headquarters in Korea and the European entity kept collaborating in a feedback loop. For items needing further analysis, we requested data from the European entity and secured key information such as KPIs, customer feedback and internal operating manuals, then analyzed the gap between customers' actual usage and internal operations in detail. The final report was structured to give an intuitive, strategic understanding of the European digital channels and became the basis for decisions on the global DCX strategy. The project showed that changing a digital experience requires understanding not only the customer touchpoints but also the organization and collaboration behind them.

Not sure who owns what across your global teams? Let’s set the ground rules for collaboration with a RACI analysis

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