India today is a service economy with the service sector contributing to almost 55% of the countrys gross domestic product.
The service economy is characterized by the absence of a physical product as in the case of the banking industry or by a token product like a sim card in the case of mobile telephony or a completely identical product like branded goods that are sold through retail chains. Hence it becomes virtually impossible to differentiate between products owing to the same technology or physical product being instantly available to all organizations that operate in a particular industry segment.
If so then how do firms manage to acquire a competitive edge in such a situation?
The normal approach is to outshout the competition in terms of advertising but its interesting to that advertising merely creates a promise or at best an invitation to try the offering. However if the subsequent experience of engaging with the company and its offerings dont match the advertising promise then the resources spent on the advertising effort would normally work in reverse as the customer would feel very let down and perhaps promise himself to not engage with the organization again. Worse he might even discourage his friends from patronizing the organization or its products as he feels that they are not trust worthy.
The other highly favoured tactic is that of trying to gain price leadership by being the 1st to drop prices.
But this only triggers a price war which ultimately costs every organization dearly since it there is a downward limit on how low one can go on this front and organizations realize that they are bleeding badly without any significant increase in sales as each player is desperately trying to outwit the other and there is a danger of having to go below cost price.
If so then can organizations differentiate themselves on the basis of the total experience which their product or service delivers in the entire consumption process , beginning with the process of buying the product, using it and all future assistance they may require while engaging with the product?
So what is experience? To experience is to feel. We feel with the help of our 5 senses namely sight, sound, touch, smell and taste
Such feelings evoke both a rational and an emotional response. For instance when we smell lavender we not only identify it as lavender but experience a sense of calm and relaxation, similarly when we drink extra hot tea, it produces not just a burning sensation on our tongues but also makes us feel momentarily upset.
As customers we engage in a very similar manner with an organizations products / services, processes, people and the environment in which it transacts business either physical or virtual.
The memorability of an experience which we undergo as customers is invariably a function of our expectations. If expectations are met we feel satisfied and reassured. If they are exceeded we are delighted. However if they are not met then we are disappointed and upset.
Our decision as customers to continue or discontinue our relationship with firm and its products is a direct function of the consistency with which the firm meets, exceeds or fails to meet our expectations. Such decisions have a direct impact on both the organizations revenues and profits as the organizations single reason for existence is the customer.
Behavioral science tells us that people hold people responsible for everything that goes right or wrong in their lives. Hence customer experience is primarily about customers and the people within the organization who design and deliver the experience.
Only customer centric firms can deliver consistently positive customer experiences. Such firms are characterized by the presence of a large number of customer centric individuals across levels and functions whose credo is to serve others more than seeking to be served. It believes that external customer centricity is not possible without internal customer centricity and thus the core purpose of every managerial level is to enable and facilitate the next levels with the final objective of meeting and exceeding customer expectations.
So heres saying 3 cheers to all customer centric people we encounter in our daily lives and to all the customer centric organizations we deal with who consistently exceed our expectations thereby not only winning our trust and loyalty but also making us their defacto brand ambassadors by spreading a positive word of mouth about these great organizations.
The author Subir Ghosh is President, Aegis Global Academy and an industry veteran with 28 years of experience in customer-experience management across telecom, retail and consumer products. He has held Sr VP, COO and CEO positions of major service companies like BPL Mobile, The Mobile Store, and Planet M.
(Note: This is a sponsored article and has NOT been written by the PaGaLGuY Editorial Team. It is intended from an informational perspective only and it is upto the readers to research and verify the claims and judgments in the article before reaching a conclusion.)