| Industry Probe | |
june-july, 2020 | The Health
17
Coway Malaysia sees
the need to recruit
Life-Care company
is hiring as health
awareness among
Malaysians increases
BY KHIRTINI K KUMARAN
The Covid-19 pandemic has had
a severe negative impact on
the job market globally, and the
Malaysian employment sector
has not been spared. Most firms,
both large corporates and small
and medium enterprises (SMEs),
have not escaped unscathed
with many of them facing insolvency.
Hence, Coway (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, a Life-
Care company and leader in clean air and
water technology, hopes to de-stress the
economics by offering job opportunities to
suitable candidates, thus helping to reduce
the unemployment rate in Malaysia.
Coway has more than 120 branches
nationwide, and with the current business
expansion, it is conducting a mass
recruitment drive nationwide for talents
such as trainers and IT programmers. As
Malaysia is the hub of the Southeast Asia
business market, Coway has plans to set up
an IT system here and is looking to hire a
large number of IT programmers.
“I think the awareness for health-related
products among Malaysians has increased
following the pandemic,” Coway Malaysia
Managing Director Kyle Choi Ki Ryong told
The Health.
He said the public was today more
aware of the necessity for water purifiers,
especially during the MCO period. They
want easy access to clean water. Thus, there
has been a high demand for water purifiers.
Choi said Coway was planning to
introduce several new products to the
Malaysian market this year. The latest
is a water purifier named ‘Coway Kecil’
which features direct water purification
technology. It allows for instant extraction
of clean water with only a finger’s touch.
“Its slim and compact design is suited
to be fitted in any kitchen with ease. We
understand that the average size of homes
in urban areas such as the Klang Valley is
comparably smaller,” he said, adding that
it caters to smaller households of four and
below.
Comparatively, Coway’s flagship water
purifier, ‘Ombak’, introduced in 2018, has
the largest tank capacity in the market and
is suited to large households with bigger
families. Ombak comes equipped with 50
temperature-volume settings.
“In short, our products are designed to
meet the current market demands and
customised to cater to different needs and
behaviours of our customers.”
A new plan to strengthen its SOP
Choi pointed out that during the early
stages of the MCO, Coway encountered
difficulties in its operations as its business
model required a lot of physical interaction
with customers.
“We took precautionary measures
to help prevent the spread of the virus
as well as protect our service personnel
and customers from the potential risk of
exposure to the virus by halting all services
including maintenance and technical
support to minimise human physical
contact.
“However, we were keenly aware of
customers’ needs. The use of water purifier
and air purifier during the pandemic was
quite high,” he said, adding its service
personnel guided customers on product
maintenance tips and repairs upon
requests via phone or video calls.
“Besides, our dedicated health planners
also stayed up with our customers and
prospects via communication tools to
assist, while all our staff were working from
home to ensure operations were running as
smooth as possible.”
Coway was quick to draw up a new
plan to strengthen its Standard Operating
Procedure (SOP) once the MCO was lifted
and house visits resumed. Its ‘Rasa Sayang’
campaign was launched recently and
included five valued-added services.
“The additional value-added services are
at no additional charge. It included hand
sanitiser and mask giveaways, advanced UV
sterilisation services, fogging disinfection
services, additional sterilisation with its
Hi-Care 2.0 device and Personal Protective
Equipment (PPE) for extra protection.”
Initially, some customers were reluctant
to have home service for their products,
fearing the current pandemic situation.
However, Choi said that after launching the
campaign, customers changed their mind,
and the response had been delightful.
“We appreciate our customers for their
trust and support, so we are now planning
to increase our workforce to ensure every
customer can benefit from this meaningful
campaign.”
Choi noted that Malaysians were
habitually aware of the importance of
drinking clean water.
“Even since 14 years back, when we
first ran a survey on Malaysian customers’
habits, we found many were drinking
boiled water or using a simple filter system
rather than drinking water directly from
the tap.
“So, we saw the opportunity. Once we
provided the water purifier technology,
which was the easier solution, they adapted
to it.”
Making it’s products
affordable for customers
He attributes the critical success for their
business to customers’ high awareness of
the necessity for clean water.
“Throughout the years, we take pride
Kyle Choi Ki Ryong,
Managing Director of
Coway Malaysia.
Choi and Chris Noh, Head
of Marketing Division of
Coway Malaysia (left) at the
Coway Kecil launch.
in helping more than 1.5 million families
in Malaysia and seven million families
worldwide in the journey to drink, breathe
and live pure.”
Another critical reason for Coway’s
success is the fact that it leases its products
to customers on a monthly payment basis
for three years. It makes it more affordable
for the average household as they don’t
have to fork out a lump sum for the cost of
the product.
Coway’s Research and Development
(R&D) progressively improved with new
findings and consumer behaviour in
Malaysia by developing ‘Water Map’ that
aims to collect and study the standard and
quality of water samples nationwide.
“With our expertise in water and air
quality and sense of responsibility, our
professional research team, including the
WQA-Certified Water Specialists (CWS),
will constantly carry out tasks ranging
from previous research to product design,
development, reliability test and customer
satisfaction test for the next few years.”
While many Malaysians are lucky to
have the privilege of having access to clean
water, the unfortunate reality is that are
still many others, especially Orang Asli
living in rural areas, who do not share such
a privilege.
“In line with our vision of being The
Life-Care Company, Coway Malaysia has
made it both our responsibility and mission
to ensure that no one is marginalised from
using what is rightfully theirs: clean water.
It led to the initiation of the Happy Water
Project.”
Since its inception in 2017, the Happy
Water Project has successfully helped 268
houses comprising 395 families from 21
villages to have access to clean water.
“Our vision is to ensure at least 1,000
families of the underprivileged community
benefit from this project.”
The project was halted temporarily due
to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, Choi said Coway would continue
to work on this meaningful CSR project in
the coming years and ensure it achieved its
target.
In helping the country’s efforts in
combating the Covid-19 pandemic, Coway
has donated 100,000 face masks to PDRM
and 300 air purifiers to over 38 public
hospitals across Malaysia.
“We have also made a monetary
contribution of RM300,000 to the Ministry
of Health (MoH) via proceeds from the sales
of our air purifiers,” Choi adds. — The Health