SKT Ranks 1st in NCSI for 26 Consecutive Years...Longest in All Industries

SK Telecom announced on the 8th that it has secured the first place for 26 consecutive years in the mobile phone service category of the 2023 National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI) survey conducted by the Korea Productivity Center.

Since the introduction of NCSI in Korea in 1998, SKT has ranked first every single year for 26 years, making it the only company across all domestic industries to achieve 26 consecutive years at the top. NCSI is an indicator that quantifies the level of customer satisfaction by directly evaluating companies' products and services annually. It was jointly developed by the Korea Productivity Center and the University of Michigan in the United States and is widely used worldwide.

SKT promotional model answering customer inquiries using AI at the customer center
Photo by SKT

Double Celebration as SK ICT Family Sweeps First Place in Six Categories

Following SKT’s 26 consecutive years at number one, SK ICT family companies such as SK Broadband and SK Telink also achieved first place in their respective categories, marking a double celebration.

SK Broadband has ranked first in customer satisfaction surveys for IPTV and high-speed internet in two categories for 13 consecutive years since 2011. SK Broadband has been operating a ‘Customer Advisory Group’ for 10 years, composed of various household types including single-person, two-person, multi-person, and kids households, to directly listen to customer voices and reflect them in service improvements. This year, the opinions of the advisory group will be incorporated into the development of new products such as next-generation remote controls and set-top boxes, as well as various processes. They also conducted a major renewal of the ‘Visible ARS System,’ which allows customers to easily and quickly resolve various inquiries and applications without connecting to a call center, and introduced ‘Live Consultation’ using video media to effectively deliver newly launched products and services to customers.

SK Telink set a new record for the longest winning streak in the international call service sector by securing first place for 10 consecutive years. Following the principle that ‘providing excellent call quality is the foundation of customer satisfaction,’ SK Telink continuously innovates customer service and maintains top call quality. It actively reflects customer needs in services, such as renewing the international call 00700 app in line with market changes. In the newly conducted budget phone category survey this year, SK Telink’s ‘SK Seven Mobile (SK7mobile)’ achieved first place by receiving high satisfaction scores in self-activation and website convenience, earning a double crown.

The music platform FLO also ranked first in customer satisfaction for three consecutive years in the fiercely competitive music service sector. FLO, an AI-based personalized music platform that evolves the more customers use it according to their tastes, offers detailed personal music curation across the entire service, from the music home to charts and libraries. It actively supports user participation services such as ‘Creator Playlist,’ which allows users to share playlists in their library, and ‘Creator Studio,’ where anyone can upload and share audio content of various tastes, enabling users to share their preferences and enjoy listening together.

Enhancing Customer Satisfaction through Service and Network Management... Strengthening Plan Benefits

SKT has prioritized enhancing customer satisfaction and has strived to reflect customer experiences and opinions in the development process of products and services. An example is the ‘Customer Value Innovation Meeting’ held monthly, attended by the CEO, key service executives, and major executives of the SK ICT family. They identify factors that cause customer dissatisfaction, such as inconvenient systems or policies, across all SKT and ICT family business areas. They remove these dissatisfaction factors and propose ways to provide better experiences based on various data obtained from customers and the latest trends, encouraging business departments to implement them.

Additionally, SKT operates a ‘Junior Board’ system mainly composed of MZ generation members. They inspect services from the actual customer’s perspective rather than the business viewpoint and apply proposed improvements to services after internal meetings, continuously working to improve quality. In wireless ARS consultations, they applied NUGU AI to frequently asked questions such as automatic payments and selective contracts, reducing the time required to confirm information. They also added important notice pop-ups to the ‘Visible ARS’ screen and shortened consultation processes, striving to improve the perceived quality of customer consultations.

In terms of network management, SKT focuses on providing stable service in densely populated areas such as local festivals, which have recently increased noticeably after a sharp decline due to COVID-19. They are strengthening preventive network inspections and dual configurations of critical equipment. By developing and operating a management system that indexes service quality from the customer’s perspective based on data, as well as spam and smishing blocking systems, they prevent customer inconvenience.

SKT is also introducing various new rate plans tailored to customer usage patterns and age characteristics, as the rate plan is a core service that most significantly affects customer satisfaction. Reflecting the non-face-to-face trend, SKT launched the online-only rate plan ‘Direct Plan’ in December last year, available at about 30% lower prices than existing plans on the official online mall ‘T Direct Shop.’ It improved customer convenience by enabling contract succession and subscription to bundled wired and wireless products, which were previously impossible with online rate plans. SKT continues efforts to expand customer choice and reduce communication costs, from the industry-first ‘5G Customized Rate Plan’ designed by customers themselves to ‘0 Youth,’ ‘0 Youth Direct,’ and ‘5G Senior Rate Plan,’ which consider customer usage patterns and age characteristics.

Launched as the first in the mobile communication industry, T Membership focuses on increasing partner stores and enhancing ease of use by reflecting customer preferences. In the era of 15 million pet owners, SKT has newly expanded partnerships related to pets and established ‘0 Day’ for younger customers, increasing practical benefits that meet diverse customer demands. By newly adding payment functionality to the T Membership barcode, customers can now enjoy membership benefits and make payments simultaneously by simply presenting the payment barcode, improving convenience compared to the previous system where membership use and payment were separate.

Hong Seung-tae, SKT’s Head of Customer Value Innovation, said, “Achieving first place for 26 consecutive years in the National Customer Satisfaction Index confirms that SKT’s services continue to earn unwavering trust from customers. We will continue to provide greater value and new experiences to customers through various service innovations and customer satisfaction enhancement activities.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.