Mr. Subir Ghosh discusses key considerations for customer experience management (CEM) programs and strategies. He notes that while technical skills are important, developing the right mindset and understanding customer motivations are critical gaps. Smaller companies can excel through strong customer focus regardless of size. Experiential marketing will take more time to develop in India compared to the West. Developing a strong service culture across all industries and roles is vital for customer loyalty.

1. Institute of Customer Experience Management
Post Graduate Programme in
Business Management
FAQs

2. A chat with
Mr. Subir Ghosh
DATE: 19TH OCTOBER 2011

3. Subir Ghosh, President of Aegis Global Academy, answers questions on
‘Bridging The Skills Gap in Service Industry’ that students have to ask him as
he sets out to chat online with them.
We bring you the snapshot of the same chat on www.Timesjobs.com

4. Q&A
• Q: What skills gap do you see in service industry today?
• A: My view of the formula for success in the service industry is a
combination of the right mindset, skill set and knowledge of
products / process. While the latter 2 are standard fare in most
training related endeavors its the mindset i.e. the service orientation
which is the starting point for connecting with the role and the
customer where the lacunae lies. The outcome is that people are
indulging in rituals without understanding the rationale or the
emotion behind the rituals thus defeating the whole purpose.

5. Q&A
• Q: You yourself managed customer experiences for so many brands in the
past. How has customer reception to brands changed? How challenging
is it to manage and manipulate brand experiences of new age
customers?
• A: Customer expectations are always a function of the promises made by
organisations in the course of their sales and marketing efforts. With the
proliferation of brands and enhanced competitiveness, organisations are
always trying to outshout one another with the objective of grabbing
attention, thus, raising the expectation bar only to disappoint during the
consumers moment of truth, a classic example is the big hype over 3g
services which promises the moon but fails miserably in delivery due to
very limit on the ground equipment in most cities. As regards the 2nd
part of the question please understand that both of us are customers
and hate to be manipulated, thus building trust by matching delivery
with promise is the only way forward.

6. Q&A
• Q: 'Customer Centricity' is the key to customer retention. But since
almost all new-age brands understand and practice it, what could
brands do to differentiate and get an edge?
• A: While almost all companies talk about very few practice, at least
that's my experience so far. There is a lot of talk of intent but very
little commitment to creating the right culture and practice. Very
little customer related data is a part of top management; the only
thing that people still look at is revenues and costs and little else.
However some organisations like Taj hotels, HDFC bank, stand out.
Jet airways was a premier brand in this segment but has been
slipping of late.

7. Q&A
• Q: Big service-delivery companies with better awareness often apply
the 3Cs of service industry, but smaller companies are neither aware
nor have enough means to apply it. What could be done to make
smaller companies equally customer-oriented like their bigger
counterparts?
• A: I think customer centricity is a belief that business exists only
because there are customers with expectations and everything else
is peripheral, this has nothing to do with companies being large or
small. I know of many small business display this philosophy very
exemplarily, the dhabas on the highway for instance which give you
a great value for money, experience and never fail to live up to
expectations. Our favorite restaurant, tailor, jeweler, with whom we
have long term relationships are all manifestations of businessmen
who demonstrate this mindset.

8. Q&A
• Q: Who is primarily responsible for the skill development? Is it the
education system / university / colleges / students / industry?
• A: I think it’s everybody's responsibility the students who should desire
this, the education system that must enable this at a basic level and
organisations that must provide this as a part of building the
capability of the organisation. However the onus would primarily lie
with the seeker as one has to be committed to enhancing one's
ability in the 1st place otherwise it would be a case of taking a horse
who is not interested in drinking to the water hole.

9. Q&A
• Q: Are their different CEM strategies for B2B and B2C companies? What
are the core considerations while formulating these strategies?
• A: The philosophy doesn't really change as the fundamental reason
why a customer engages with a seller is because he / she is looking
for a solution to some aspect of their lives either in the professional
or personal spheres. The challenge would typically be around an
efficiency / convenience issue, a security / productivity / cost
reduction issue or a fun excitement / status enhancement issue. The
consideration would always centre around the proper identification
and creation a delivery capability to meet and exceed expectations
on the issue.

10. Q&A
• Q: What are the initiatives from industry to bridge the gap?
• A: The industry is now slowly beginning to realize that with a
proliferation of choice easy availability of information and a platform
to amplify dissonance, the power is slowly shifting from the hands of
the institution to that of the individual. Several top captains of
industry are at least beginning to make the right noises; you can
read some of these on our website www.aegisglobalacademy.com.

11. Q&A
• Q: Do you think service delivery companies in India are ready to
embrace the idea of experiential marketing? How far are we from
the west in the quality of service delivery?
• A: We are at least one decade away from the west if not more in terms
of experiential marketing simply because the era of consumerism
where there are choices galore for the consumer has been around in
the west for 3 decades or more. We have only in the last decade
moved from a scenario of monopolies, duopolies to a multiple
choice scenario. Hence we are still caught up in the product
paradigm, not having grasped the fact that people don't really buy
products but buy solutions to a problem or challenge they are facing
while trying to enhance their quality of life is concerned.

12. Q&A
• Q: Apart from good service and favorable brand experience, what are
the other components that influence customer brand loyalty?
• A: Customer experience is facilitated/impacted around the 2 aspects
of an organisation that a customer engages with, namely people,
processes, products and physical/virtual environment in which
business is transacted. While the last 3 aspects can be replicated
the only sustainable differentiator that impacts the efficacy of the
other aspects is people. Hence the attitude and engagement level
of people within the organisation will be the continuing
differentiator for all time to come; it's the culture that would be the
only unique thing between companies.

13. Q&A
• Q: Hotel management programs are best known to teach efficient
service delivery in hotel sector. Do you think there should be
dedicated service delivery programs for other service sectors too,
like banks, telecom etc?
• A: Service culture orientation would be mandatory for every
organisation irrespective of the industry as the only reason
customers engage with organisations is that they require some need
of theirs to be served. Thus people within organisations are either
serving colleagues to enable the final customer or serving customers
directly. Why should any other role even exist if it does see itself as a
part of the final customer enablement process?

14. Q&A
• Q: What key considerations you keep in mind before designing CEM
programs for your institute?
• A: Three things:
i. The motivations of customers to engage with companies.
ii. The mechanisms adopted by the various industry verticals to
deliver on these expectations.
iii. Global best practices in this field both from a research
perspective and industry specific practices.

15. Lets Begin…
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