About The Session
Accelerating Customer Experience
Today’s competitive environment requires rapid change to exceed the increasing expectations of customers. As Chief Customer Officer at Hyundai Motor America, Barry Ratzlaff will share why and how Hyundai is accelerating the customer experience. From measuring customer feedback, to standardizing processes, to aligning the organization, and to engaging dealers, Hyundai is taking an integrated approach to improve all touchpoints across the entire customer journey.
About The Speaker
Barry Ratzlaff is the chief customer officer and vice president, retail experience and after-sales for Hyundai Motor America. Ratzlaff is a 30-year automotive veteran with roles in manufacturing, quality and product development. In his 10-plus years at Hyundai, he oversaw the company’s rapid rise in both the J.D. Power Initial Quality Study (IQS) and Customer Service Index (CSI). He has served in leadership positions in Product Quality, Service Business Development, Customer Connect and, most recently, Digital Business Planning and Connected Operations. He successfully led the deployment of Hyundai BlueLink technology and other telematics services.
Ratzlaff previously served as the executive director of customer connect and service business development for Hyundai Motor America from 2013 – 2015. In this role, he was responsible for dealer service process performance, owner marketing, consumer affairs and Blue Link® connected car.
Since joining Hyundai in 2006, Ratzlaff has held the positions of director of customer care and connected car, director of service operations, and director of quality and service engineering.
Ratzlaff has extensive work history in the automotive industry, including his time at Hyundai, he has also held roles at General Motors, Toyota and DaimlerChrysler. He spent 14 years at General Motors’ Wentzville Assembly Plant, where he held responsibilities in process engineering and production management. After his time at General Motors, he spent three years at Toyota. At Toyota, Ratzlaff led establishing the quality assurance and quality control processes as part of the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana start-up team. While he was at DaimlerChrysler from 2000-2006, he served as the director of proactive quality in Auburn Hills, Mich., where he led process re-engineering to improve vehicle quality during development and launch. In 2005-2006, Ratzlaff managed the DaimlerChrysler St. Louis, Mo., South Assembly plant.
He earned his Bachelor of Science in Industrial Administration and Finance from the General Motors Institute, now known as Kettering University, and he received his Master of Business Administration from Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.