SKT to Hold '2026 Insight Day' Discussing 'Benchmark of Trust with Customers'

*This content was translated by AI.

SK Telecom held its "2026 Insight Day" on the 21st, bringing together the Customer Advisory Board and the Customer Trust Committee to deliberate on trust benchmarks and metrics directly proposed by customers. This follows a January initiative where executives including CEO Jung Jae-heon and the Customer Trust Committee developed a plan to strengthen trust recovery in 2026. The event aims to establish metrics for measuring corporate trust based on experiences perceived by customers.

Attendees included executives such as Han Myeong-jin, Head of MNO CIC, and Lee Hye-yeon, Head of Customer Value Innovation, along with An Wan-gi, Chairman of the Customer Trust Committee, and 30 members of the Customer Advisory Board.

The discussion began with the concept: "Do not ask about trust; read it through actions." Instead of surveying customers on whether they trust a company, this approach treats everyday customer behaviors as evidence of trust to create measurable indicators. The idea drew inspiration from "Sustainable Seattle," an initiative in the early 1990s where citizens in Seattle, USA, adopted tangible daily items—such as wild salmon population counts and participation in community gardening—as sustainability metrics.

Previously, SK Telecom conducted an online survey and in-depth group interviews with 100 members of the Customer Advisory Board to explore the meaning of corporate trust and factors that build or erode it. The results showed that customers prioritize transparency in pricing and fee information, management of personal information and security, responsible resolution when issues arise, stable service delivery, and fulfillment of commitments to long-term customers.

During the event, the Customer Advisory Board presented scenarios and behavioral changes indicating trust formation across five areas: plan enrollment and modification, use of communication services, membership management, customer touchpoints, and trust maintenance. The core finding is that as customers' trust in a company grows, their need to independently monitor or verify things decreases.

For example, customers who receive advance notice of the expiration date for a selected discount plan do not separately track renewal dates; they simply apply based on the notification text message. The very state where customers do not feel the need to double-check serves as an indicator of trust.

SK Telecom plans to validate these proposed indicators through surveys targeting general communication service customers, refining them into a comprehensive system for diagnosing and managing trust. Once finalized, the metrics will be linked to actual customer behavior data to enable early detection of signs that trust may be wavering.

Han Myeong-jin, Head of MNO CIC at SK Telecom, stated, "Trust is not a value declared by companies but a result judged by customers through concrete experiences." He added, "The trust benchmarks directly proposed by the Customer Advisory Board will be developed into inspection standards for products, services, and overall customer service, ensuring that customer voices lead to tangible changes."

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*This content was translated by AI.