Jae-heon Jung (정재헌), CEO of SK Telecom, again stressed his commitment to restoring customer trust and improving services.

In a column posted on SK Telecom’s newsroom on Wednesday, Jung said the company ranked No. 1 in the mobile segment in all three major domestic customer satisfaction surveys, including NCSI, KS-SQI and KCSI, this year. He said the results carried added weight because they were confirmed by customer assessments the year after customer trust had been damaged.

Looking back on last year’s situation when customer trust wavered, he said trust built up over a long period was shaken and the company’s pride in being South Korea’s top telecom carrier was also put to a major test. He said he learned deeply that customers’ trust is never something to be taken for granted.

Jung said the company expanded field-focused customer touchpoints to recover after customer trust wavered last year. SKT employees met about 35,000 customers directly this year in 87 cities and counties nationwide and listened to opinions on network quality, roaming, membership and rate plans. Jung said the company decided to go first and listen rather than wait for customers to speak up first.

The company also continued service overhauls based on customer feedback. It strengthened AI-based network security and blocking of spam and voice phishing, and disclosed related activities through an information security white paper. At large events such as a fireworks festival and a cherry blossom festival, it used AI to forecast telecom demand and deploy base stations.

For roaming, it increased the amount of data available at the same price and raised speeds after data is used up. It revamped T membership so users can easily check various benefits in one place. For rate plans, it removed the distinction between 5G and LTE and simplified the choice structure for subscription benefits such as OTT and AI services.

Jung said the customer was the standard for all those changes. He said the company focused not only on increasing benefits but also on making it easier for customers to choose needed services and enjoy them more conveniently in daily life.

The company also expanded mechanisms to reflect customer opinions directly in management. It operates a customer trust committee made up of a customer advisory group and outside experts, and had the customer advisory group participate in the planning process for products and services. For customers with 10 or more years of service, it offered experience programs such as “Forest-cance Day,” “Table Day” and “Adventure Day.”

Jung stressed that restoring trust requires sustained effort. He said results appear as a single ranking, but require daily efforts behind it, including meeting customers, examining inconveniences and changing things one by one.

He also said the trust customers have sent again became the power driving change. He said he will turn customers’ voices into change and carry that change into stronger trust.