Samsung Customer Care Hosts Third National Skills Competition

On November 5^th, 2021, Samsung Electronics America’s Customer Care division hosted its third National Skills Competition 2021 at its Samsung Technical Training Center (STTC) in Little Ferry, NJ. After hosting virtually in 2020, the Customer Care division brought together 15 technicians in person for a TV and Home Appliance (HA) repair competition accompanied by advanced technical training.

Chris Kim, VP of CE Customer Service, welcomes participants

Chris Kim, VP of CE Customer Service, welcomed and guided the participants during the one-day competition. He said, “This is an opportunity to acknowledge our top service technicians and the Branded Engineer (BE) service providers for their excellence. One of the main reasons for hosting such an event is to further improve ‘First Time & One Time’ repair experience for Samsung customers. We will also continue to invest in technical training for all of Samsung dedicated field technicians.”

Fifteen national finalists were selected to compete in this year’s event, three of which were participants from previous years. Since the first competition in 2019, each year the areas of competition change as the product or service categories vary due to new product launches.

The HA awards were garnered by Rohan Brown of Home Service Network Inc (1^st place), Amin Boroumand of FA Display (2^nd place), and Joseph Lee of NISI-HA (3^rd place). The TV awards were garnered by Hieu Tran of Hi Definition Electronics Inc (1^st place), Youseong Yang of Service Quick Inc (2^nd place), and Christopher Mieske of One Stop Appliance Repair Inc (3^rd place). The awardees’ organizations received cash awards of $15,000 (1^st place), $7,500 (2^nd place), and $4,000 (3^rd place) respectively.

(Left to right) Winner of TV category Hieu Tran, VP Chris Kim, and Winner of HA category Rohan Brown

Winner of HA category Rohan Brown, who had also participated in 2019, said, “This year’s event was more geared towards real-world situations. It was a great way to see what we are made of. We encounter both a lot of good and bad in the field, so a lot of times we still have to focus through it. That way, we can get the repair done and make sure the customers are happy.” First timer and Winner of TV category Hieu Tran said, “The best part was meeting and learning from other contestants.”

Customer Care plans to continue hosting the Skills Competition annually to nurture the development of brand engineers as subject matter experts. When asked about participating in future Skills Competitions both winners were enthusiastic. Brown said “Anxiety was high, but I enjoyed myself. I could feel I need to keep it up so that I could improve in different areas. It motivated me to come back for next year.” Tran agreed saying, “This was new to me but I had a great time. I’m definitely motivated to come back. Hopefully I can come back next year!”
Congratulations to all the winners and participants. We hope to see you in 2022!

The 2021 Samsung Skills Competition host Samsung Electronics America Customer Care team: (left-right) John Han, Jim Narsh, Sunny Lee, Christopher Kim (VP of CE Customer Service), Nick Webert, Eduardo Batazim