“A STUDY OF CONSUMER EXPERIENCE IN CENTRAL MALL, SURAT”

IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE

REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF THE

DEGREE OF

BACHELORS OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SUBMITTED BY

SHIVANGI RANKA

I.D. NO.

R079

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

MR. ZACHARIAH SAMUEL

METAS ADVENTIST COLLEGE

ATHWALINES, SURAT1

“A STUDY OF CONSUMER EXPERIENCE IN CENTRAL MALL, SURAT”

A project report submitted to

NORTH EAST HILL UNIVERSITY

In Partial fulfilment of award for the degree of

BACHELORS OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

BY

SHIVANGI RANKA

Under the esteemed guidance

MR. ZACHARIAH SAMUEL

BBA programmed

MANAGEMENT STUDIES

METAS OF SEVENTHDAY ADVENTIST COLLEGE MANAGEMENT STUDIES

(AFFLIATED TO NEHU UNIVERSITY)

GUJARAT

APPROVAL: ________

2

PREFACE

I decided to choose one of the best company in retail sector that has rapidly

grown over the last few years and a company where leader is Mr. KISHORE

BIYANI, or rather, a company that has been made Mr. KISHORE BIYANI. The

project assigned to me was to study the effective promotional strategy which

influences customer to purchase a product of central.

Decision making is a fundamental part of the research process. Decisions

regarding that what you want to do, how you want to do, what tools and techniques

must be used for the successful completion of the project. In fact it is the

researcher’s efficiency as a decision maker that makes project fruitful for those

who concern to the area of study.

Basically when we are playing with computer in every part of life, I used it

in my project not for ease of my but for the ease of result explanation to those who

will read the project. The project presents the customer experience in central.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT3

It gives me immense pleasure in acknowledging the valuable assistance and co-operation

I received from the people around me for the successful completion of my internship.

I would like to express my sincere thanks to Project Guide, MR. NISHANT KANSAL,

MANAGER, CENTRAL MALL, SURAT for providing me opportunity to work with him. I feel

indebted to him for his constant support, encouragement, guidance and inspiration all through

my association with him. I would also be greatful to him for his co-operation and providing me

various facilities to work with him.

I earnestly express my gratitude to our able and competent faculty guide

MR.ZACHARIAH SAMUEL Faculty, Seventh Day Adventist College, Surat. His support and

full-fledged guidance, encouragement and valuable suggestion were instrumental in making this

project.

Completing this project would not have been possible without active assistance of mutual fund team with

whom I was working despite their busy schedule. All of them were quite generous to devote time and

energy in answering my queries, solving my problems and passing me valuable amount of Knowledge

towards my study of “CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AT CENTRAL MALL, SURAT.” My association

with them and the short stint at CENTRAL MALL. will always be of a fond memory.

Thanks are also to my family, friends, and colleagues who were with me through all

times ad egged me on towards accomplishing this project objective.

SHIVANGI RANKA Date: -

APRIL 27TH 2012

(R079)

DECLARATION

4

I as Shivangi Ranka, declares that the project made by me is very

official & honesty reward as a result of my hard work & smart work

both.

I clearly defines that I had taken my whole training honestly at

CETRAL,(FUTURE GROUP) company & prepared this report which is

not a examination & to get the practical knowledge purpose. If any case

you find the same project submitted by any other person with any kind

of change you can reject my project.

5

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

A customer (also known as a client, buyer, or purchaser) is the recipient of

a good, service, product, or idea, obtained from a seller, vendor, or supplier for a monetary or

other valuable consideration. Customers are generally categorized into two types:

6

An intermediate customer or trade customer (more informally: "the trade") who is a dealer

that purchases goods for re-sale.

An ultimate customer who does not in turn re-sell the things bought but either passes

them to the consumer or actually is the consumer.

A customer may or may not also be a consumer, but the two notions are distinct, even though the

terms are commonly confused. A customer purchases goods; a consumer uses them. An ultimate

customer may be a consumer as well, but just as equally may have purchased items for someone

else to consume. An intermediate customer is not a consumer at all. The situation is somewhat

complicated in that ultimate customers of so-called industrial goods and services (who are

entities such as government bodies, manufacturers, and educational and medical institutions)

either themselves use up the goods and services that they buy, or incorporate them into other

finished products, and so are technically consumers, too. However, they are rarely called that,

but are rather called industrial customers or business-to-business customers.  Similarly,

customers who buy services rather than goods are rarely called consumers.

Six Sigma doctrine places (active) customers in opposition to two other classes of

people: not-customers and non-customers. Whilst customers have actively dealt with a business

within a particular recent period that depends from the product sold, not-customers are either

past customers who are no longer customers or potential customers who choose to do business

with the competition, and non-customers are people who are active in a different market segment

entirely. Geoff Tennant, a Six Sigma consultant from the United Kingdom, uses the following

analogy to explain the difference: A supermarket's customer is the person buying milk at that

supermarket; a not-customer is buying milk from a competing supermarket, whereas a non-

customer doesn't buy milk from supermarkets at all but rather "has milk delivered to the door in

the traditional British way".

Tennant also categorizes customers another way, that is employed outwith the fields

of marketing. Whilst the intermediate/ultimate categorization is used by marketers, market

regulation, and economists, in the world of customer service customers are categorized more

often into two classes:

An external customer of an organization is a customer who is not directly connected to that

organization.

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An internal customer is a customer who is directly connected to an organization, and is usually

(but not necessarily) internal to the organization. Internal customers are usually

stakeholders, employees, or shareholders, but the definition also

encompasses creditors and external regulators.

The notion of an internal customer — before the introduction of which external customers were,

simply, customers — was popularized by quality management writer Joseph M. Juran, who

introduced it in the fourth edition of his Handbook (Juran 1988). It has since gained wide

acceptance in the literature on total quality management and service marketing;[10]and

the customer satisfaction of internal customers is nowadays recognized by many organizations as

a precursor to, and prerequisite for, external customer satisfaction, with authors such

as Tansuhaj, Randall & McCullough 1991 arguing that service organizations that design

products for internal customer satisfaction are better able to satisfy the needs of external

customers.

Customer satisfaction, a business term, is a measure of how products and services

supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key performance

indicator within business and is part of the four of a Balanced Scorecard.

In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers, customer

satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business

strategy.

However, the importance of customer satisfaction diminishes when a firm has

increased bargaining power. For example, cell phone plan providers, such

as AT&T and Verizon, participate in an industry that is an oligopoly, where only a few suppliers

of a certain product or service exist. As such, many cell phone plan contracts have a lot of fine

print with provisions that they would never get away if there were, say, a hundred cell phone

plan providers, because customer satisfaction would be way too low, and customers would easily

have the option of leaving for a better contract offer.

There is a substantial body of empirical literature that establishes the benefits of customer

satisfaction for firms.

Measuring customer satisfaction

8

Organizations need to retain existing customers while targeting non-customers.

Measuring customer satisfaction provides an indication of how successful the organization is at

providing products and/or services to the marketplace.

Customer satisfaction is an abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the state of

satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to product/service. The state of

satisfaction depends on a number of both psychological and physical variables which correlate

with satisfaction behaviors such as return and recommend rate. The level of satisfaction can also

vary depending on other factors the customer, such as other products against which the customer

can compare the organization's products.

Work done by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (Leonard L) between 1985 and 1988

delivered SERVQUAL which provides the basis for the measurement of customer satisfaction

with a service by using the gap between the customer's expectation of performance and their

perceived experience of performance. This provides the researcher with a satisfaction "gap"

which is semi-quantitative in nature. Cronin and Taylor extended the disconfirmation theory by

combining the "gap" described by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry as two different measures

(perception and expectation) into a single measurement of performance relative to expectation.

The usual measures of customer satisfaction involve a survey with a set of statements

using a Likert Technique or scale. The customer is asked to evaluate each statement in terms of

their perception and expectation of performance of the service being measured. Arguably,

consumers are less complex than some of these surveys tend to portend. They are basically in

two simple states; satisfied or not satisfied. On or off, just like a switch. A business can measure

its customer satisfaction index by relating the aggregates of satisfied customers versus

dissatisfied customers.

9

INDUSTRY DETAIL

THE INDIAN RETAIL SCENE

India is the country having the most unorganized retail market. Traditionally it is a

families livelihood, with their shop in the front and house at the back, while they run the retail

10

business. More than 99% retailers function in less than 500 square feet of shopping space. Global

retail consultants KSA Techno park have estimated that organized retailing in India is expected

to touch Rs 35,000 crore in the year 2005-06. The Indian retail sector is estimated at around Rs

900,000 crore, of which the organized sector accounts for a mere 2 per cent indicating a huge

potential market opportunity that is lying in the waiting for the consumer-savvy organized

retailer.

Purchasing power of Indian urban consumer is growing and branded merchandise in

categories like Apparels, Cosmetics, Shoes, Watches, Beverages, Food and even Jewellery, are

slowly becoming lifestyle products that are widely accepted by the urban Indian consumer.

Indian retailers need to advantage of this growth and aiming to grow, diversify and introduce

new formats have to pay more attention to the brand building process. The emphasis here is on

retail as a brand rather than retailers selling brands. The focus should be on branding the retail

business itself. In their preparation to face fierce competitive pressure, Indian retailers must

come to recognize the value of building their own stores as brands to reinforce their marketing

positioning, to communicate quality as well as value for money. Sustainable competitive

advantage will be dependent on translating core values combining products, image and

reputation into a coherent retail brand strategy.

There is no doubt that the Indian retail scene is booming. A number of large corporate

houses Tatas, Rahejas, Piramals, Goenka have already made their foray into this arena, with

beauty and health stores, supermarkets, self-service music stores, newage book stores, every-

day-low-price stores, computers and peripherals stores, office equipment stores and

home/building construction stores. Today the organized players have attacked every retail

category. The Indian retail scene has witnessed too many players in too short a time, crowding

several categories without looking at their core competencies, or having a well thought out

branding strategy.

STRATEGIES, TRENDS AND OPPORTUNITIES 2007

11

Retailing in India is gradually inching its way toward becoming the next boom industry.

The whole concept of shopping has altered in terms of format and consumer buying behavior,

ushering in a revolution in shopping in India. Modern retail has entered India as seen in

sprawling shopping centres, multi-storied malls and huge complexes offer shopping,

entertainment and food all under one roof. The Indian retailing sector is at an inflexion point

where the growth of organized retailing and growth in the consumption by the Indian population

is going to take a higher growth trajectory. The Indian population is witnessing a significant

change in its demographics. A large young working population with median age of 24 years,

nuclear families in urban areas, along with increasing workingwomen population and emerging

opportunities in the services sector are going to be the key growth drivers of the organized retail

sector in India.

GROWTH OF RETAIL SECTOR IN INDIA

Retail and real estate are the two booming sectors of India in the present times. And if

industry experts are to be believed, the prospects of both the sectors are mutually dependent on

each other. Retail, one of Indias largest industries, has presently emerged as one of the most

dynamic and fast paced industries of our times with several players entering the market.

Accounting for over 10 per cent of the countries GDP and around eight per cent of the

employment retailing in India is gradually inching its way toward becoming the next boom

industry.

As the contemporary retail sector in India is reflected in sprawling shopping centres,

multiplex- malls and huge complexes offer shopping, entertainment and food all under one roof,

the concept of shopping has altered in terms of format and consumer buying behaviour, ushering

in a revolution in shopping in India. This has also contributed to large-scale investments in the

real estate sector with major national and global players investing in developing the

infrastructure and construction of the retailing business. The trends that are driving the growth of

the retail sector in India are

1. Low share of organized retailing

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2. Falling real estate prices

3. Increase in disposable income and customer aspiration

4. Increase in expenditure for luxury items (CHART)

Another credible factor in the prospects of the retail sector in India is the

increase in the young working population. In India, hefty pay packets, nuclear

families in urban areas, along with increasing working-women population and

emerging opportunities in the services sector. These key factors have been the

growth drivers of the organized retail sector in India which now boast of retailing

almost all the preferences of life - Apparel & Accessories, Appliances, Electronics,

Cosmetics and Toiletries, Home & Office Products, Travel and Leisure and many

more. With this the retail sector in India is witnessing rejuvenation as traditional

markets make way for new formats such as departmental stores, hypermarkets,

supermarkets and specialty stores.

The retailing configuration in India is fast developing as shopping malls are

increasingly becoming familiar in large cities. When it comes to development of

retail space specially the malls, the Tier II cities are no longer behind in the race. If

development plans till 2007 is studied it shows the projection of 220 shopping

13

malls, with 139 malls in metros and the remaining 81 in the Tier II cities. The

government of states like Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR) are very

upbeat about permitting the use of land for commercial development thus

increasing the availability of land for retail space; thus making NCR render to 50%

of the malls in India.

India is being seen as a potential goldmine for retail investors from over the world and

latest research has rated India as the top destination for retailers for an attractive emerging retail

market. Indias vast middle class and its almost untapped retail industry are key attractions for

global retail giants wanting to enter newer markets. Even though India has well over 5 million

retail outlets, the country sorely lacks anything that can resemble a retailing industry in the

modern sense of the term. This presents international retailing specialists with a great

opportunity. The organized retail sector is expected to grow stronger than GDP growth in the

next five years driven by changing lifestyles, burgeoning income and favorable demographic

outline.

INDUSTRY EVOLUTION

1. Traditionally retailing in India can be traced to

14

2. The emergence of the neighborhoo, Kirana stores catering to the convenience of the

consumers

3. Era of government support for rural retail: Indigenous franchise model of store chains run

by Khadi & Village Industries Commission

4. 1980s experienced slow change as India began to open up economy.

5. Textiles sector with companies like Bombay Dyeing, Raymond's, S Kumar's and Grasim

first saw the emergence of retail chains

6. Later Titan successfully created an organized retailing concept and established a series of

showrooms for its premium watches

7. The latter half of the 1990s saw a fresh wave of entrants with a shift from Manufactures

to Pure Retailers.

8. For e.g. Food World, Subhiksha and Nilgiris in food and FMCG; Planet M and Music

World in music; Crossword and Fountainhead in books.

9. Post 1995 onwards saw an emergence of shopping centers

10. Mainly in urban areas, with facilities like car parking

11. Targeted to provide a complete destination experience for all segments of society

12. Emergence of hyper and super markets trying to provide customer with 3 V’s - Value,

Variety and Volume

13. Expanding target consumer segment: The Sachet revolution - example of reaching to the

bottom of the pyramid.

14. At year end of 2000 the size of the Indian organized retail industry is estimated at Rs.

13,000 crore

RETAILING FORMAT IN INDIA

1. Malls:

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The largest form of organized retailing today. Located mainly in metro cities, in

proximity to urban outskirts. Ranges from 60,000 sq ft to 7,00,000 sq ft and above. They lend an

ideal shopping experience with an amalgamation of product, service and entertainment, all under

a common roof. Examples include Shoppers Stop, Piramyd, and Pantaloon.

Specialty Stores:

Chains such as the Bangalore based Kids Kemp, the Mumbai books retailer Crossword, RPG's

Music World and the Times Group's music chain Planet M, are focusing on specific market

segments and have established themselves strongly in their sectors.

2. Discount Stores:

As the name suggests, discount stores or factory outlets, offer discounts on the MRP

through selling in bulk reaching economies of scale or excess stock left over at the season. The

product category can range from a variety of perishable/ non-perishable goods.

3. Department Stores:

Large stores ranging from 20000-50000 sq. ft, catering to a variety of consumer needs.

Further classified into localized departments such as clothing, toys, home, groceries, etc.

Departmental Stores are expected to take over the apparel business from exclusive brand

showrooms. Among these, the biggest success is K Raheja's Shoppers Stop, which started in

Mumbai and now has more than seven large stores (over 30,000 sq. ft) across India and even has

its own in store brand for clothes called Stop.

4. Hyper marts/Supermarkets:

Large self-service outlets, catering to varied shopper needs are termed as Supermarkets.

These are located in or near residential high streets. These stores today contribute to 30% of all

food & grocery organized retail sales. Super Markets can further be classified in to mini

supermarkets typically 1,000 sq ft to 2,000 sq ft and large supermarkets ranging from of 3,500 sq

ft to 5,000 sq ft. having a strong focus on food & grocery and personal sales.

16

5. Convenience Stores:

These are relatively small stores 400-2,000 sq. feet located near residential areas. They

stock a limited range of high-turnover convenience products and are usually open for extended

periods during the day, seven days a week. Prices are slightly higher due to the convenience

premium

6. MBO:

Multi Brand outlets, also known as Category Killers, offer several brands across a single

product category. These usually do well in busy market places and Metros.

INDIA’s NUMBER OF DOMESTIC GROCERY CHAINS AND EARLY

FOREIGN ENTRANTS

RECENT TRENDS

1. Retailing in India is witnessing a huge revamping exercise as can be seen in the graph

2. India is rated the fifth most attractive emerging retail market: a potential goldmine.17

3. Estimated to be US$ 200 billion, of which organized retailing (i.e. modern trade) makes

up 3 percent or US$ 6.4 billion

4. As per a report by KPMG the annual growth of department stores is estimated at 24%

5. Ranked second in a Global Retail Development Index of 30 developing countries drawn

up by AT Kearney.

6. Multiple drivers leading to a consumption boom:

1. Favorable demographics

2. Growth in income

3. Increasing population of women

7. Raising aspirations: Value added goods sales

8. Food and apparel retailing key drivers of growth

9. Organized retailing in India has been largely an urban

10. Phenomenon with affluent classes and growing number of double-income households.

11. More successful in cities in the south and west of India. Reasons range from differences

in consumer buying behavior to cost of real estate and taxation laws.

12. Rural markets emerging as a huge opportunity for retailers reflected in the share of the

rural market across most categories of consumption

1. ITC is experimenting with retailing through its e-Choupal and Choupal Sagar

rural hypermarkets.

2. HLL is using its Project Shakti initiative leveraging women self-help groups to

explore the rural market.

3. Mahamaza is leveraging technology and network marketing concepts to act as an

aggregator and serve the rural markets.

13. IT is a tool that has been used by retailers ranging from Amazon.com to eBay to radically

change buying behavior across the globe.

14. E-tailing slowly making its presence felt.

RETAIL SALES IN INDIA

18

CHALLENGES & OPPORTUNITIES

19

Retailing has seen such a transformation over the past decade that its very definition has

x4 4rdundergone a sea change. No longer can a manufacturer rely on sales to take place by

ensuring mere availability of his product. Today, retailing is about so much more than mere

merchandising. It is about casting customers in a story, reflecting their desires and aspirations,

and forging long-lasting relationships. As the Indian consumer evolves they expects more and

more at each and every time when they steps into a store. Retail today has changed from selling a

product or a service to selling a hope, an aspiration and above all an experience that a consumer

would like to repeat.

For manufacturers and service providers the emerging opportunities in urban markets seem to lie

in capturing and delivering better value to the customers through retail. For instance, in Chennai

CavinKare LimeLite, Maricos Kaya Skin Clinic and Apollo Hospitals Apollo Pharmacies are

examples, to name a few, where manufacturers/service providers combine their own

manufactured products and services with those of others to generate value hitherto unknown. The

last mile connect seems to be increasingly lively and experiential. Also, manufacturers and

service providers face an exploding rural market yet only marginally tapped due to difficulties in

rural retailing. Only innovative concepts and models may survive the test of time and

investments.

However, manufacturers and service providers will also increasingly face a host of specialist

retailers, who are characterized by use of modern management techniques, backed with

seemingly unlimited financial resources. Organized retail appears inevitable.

Retailing in India is currently estimated to be a US$ 200 billion industry, of which

organized retailing makes up a paltry 3 percent or US$ 6.4 billion. By 2010, organized retail is

projected to reach US$ 23 billion. For retail industry in India, things have never looked better

and brighter. Challenges to the manufacturers and service providers would abound when market

power shifts to organized retail.

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The retail sector has played a phenomenal role throughout the world in increasing

productivity of consumer goods and services. It is also the second largest industry in US in terms

of numbers of employees and establishments. There is no denying the fact that most of the

developed economies are very much relying on their retail sector as a locomotive of growth. The

India Retail Industry is the largest among all the industries, accounting for over 10 per cent of the

country’s GDP and around 8 per cent of the employment. The Retail Industry in India has come

forth as one of the most dynamic and fast paced industries with several players entering the

market. But all of them have not yet tasted success because of the heavy initial investments that

are required to break even with other companies and compete with them. The India Retail

Industry is gradually inching its way towards becoming the next boom industry.

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COMPANY PROFILE

22

ABOUT THE COMPANY

CENTRAL MALL:SHOP, EAT, CELEBRATE

Launched in May 2004 at Bangalore, Central is a showcase, seamless mall and the first of

its kind in India. The thought behind this pioneering concept was to give customers an

unobstructed, pure shopping experience by ensuring the best brands in the Indian market are

available to the discerning Indian customer.

Central offers everything to the urban aspirational shopper. Located in the heart of the

city, Central believes its customers should not travel long distances to reach us. Instead, we must

be present in popular customer destinations.

Central houses over 300 brands across categories such as apparel, footwear and

accessories for women, men, children and infants apart from a whole range of Music, Books,

Coffee Shops, Food Courts, Super Markets (Food Bazaar), Fine Dining Restaurants, Pubs and

Discotheques. The mall also has a separate section for services such as Travel, Finance,

Investment, Insurance, Concert/Cinema Ticket Booking, Bill Payments and other services. In

addition, Central houses Central Square, a dedicated space for product launches, impromptu

events, daring displays, exciting shows, and art exhibitions.

Central is a format of Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited (PRIL), India’s leading retailer

that operates multiple retail formats in both the value and lifestyle segment of the Indian

consumer market. Headquartered in Mumbai, the company operates over 16 million square feet

of retail space, having over 1,000 outlets (including shop-in-shops) across 73 cities in India and

employs over 30,000 people. The company’s leading formats include Pantaloons, a chain; of

fashion outlets, Big Bazaar, a unique Indian hypermarket chain; Food Bazaar, a supermarket

chain, and Central. Some of its other formats include Depot, Brand Factory, Blue Sky, Star and

Sitara. 

Pantaloon Retail is part of the Future Group which has presence in multiple businesses in

the consumption space including consumer finance, capital, insurance, retail media, mall

development, logistics and brand development. 

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CENTRAL: SHOP, EAT, CELEBRATE: SURAT

Origin 

The need to create destination malls in India and the vision to become the leading

lifestyle retail store in the country led to the birth of the very first Central in 2004. Located in the

heart of Bangalore: M.G. Road, the first Central stood as the focal point of the city. The name

‘Central’ was chosen to suggest that it is a hub for every celebration, a place where people from

all walks of life first think of heading to, when it comes to shopping, eating and having a great

time. The name is styled to suggest exuberance, optimism and an exciting celebration.

Conclusion Central has broken the conventional norm of what shopping meant to the average

Indian shopper and introduced India to the concept of seamless shopping. This provided

shoppers with the ease of not having to step in and out of different outlets, with a wide range of

brands available all in one place. Central caters to a kaleidoscope of people from all walks of life

and all ages, giving them newer and more exciting reasons to celebrate the small and big

moments of life. 

Central stands for the exuberant, the vibrant, the exciting. With a lively combination of a

whole lot to shop from, an array of treats to eat and never-ending reasons to celebrate, a trip to

Central turns shopping into ONE BIG CELEBRATION!

Corporate Office:

Jayanagar, 9th Block: 26593099

Registered Office:

Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited Knowledge House, Shyam Nagar,, Jogeshwari (East)

Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400060

MISSION STATEMENT:

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"OUR MISSION IS TO PROVIDE A SEAMLESS SHOPPING EXPERIENCE TO CUSTOMERS ACROSS INDIA WITH SHOP, EAT, CELEBRATE ALL UNDER ONE ROOF. ALL THIS, WHILE REAL WEALTH FOR ALL STAKEHOLDER."

MISSION

TIME LINE

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Bangalore Central May 2004Hyderabad Central November 2004

Pune Central April 2005Vadodara CentralJanuary 2007Pune Central2October 2007Gurgaon CentralApril 2008Goregaon Central May 2008Vashi Central September 2008

Indore Central May 2009SoBo Central July 2009Ahmedabad Central November 2009

Bangalore Central 2 December 2009

Vishakhapatnam CentralAugust 2010surat central January 2011

SHOP, EAT, CELEBRATE!

Our Baseline is the very essence on which Central is designed. Enriching the experiences of its

customers and being a part of their celebrations, by giving them everything that’s fun to do,

under one roof.

1. SHOP:  from over 500 national and international brands spread across different

categories like Menswear, Womenswear, Youthwear, Kidswear, Footwear, Eyewear,

Sportswear, Watches, Cosmetics, Fragrances, Jewellery, Accessories, Toys and much

more.

1. MEN’S WEAR: Formal wear to make a statement in the board room, party wear

to shine in style, casual wear that helps you relax and accessories that complete

your look; Central has everything for the men of style. 

1. Formals

2. Casuals

3.  Ethnic 

4. Party

2. WOMEN’S WEAR: From the hippest apparel, to the trendiest accessories, the

most fashionable footwear to stylish partywear; Central offers all for the most

stylish divas in town. 

1. Formals

2. Casuals

3. Ethnic 

4. Party

5. Western

6. Lingerie 

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1. KIDS WEAR: Grow up in style and have all the fun with the widest range of

apparel, footwear, accessories and toys

2. EAT:  the very best in fine dining and the very best in snacking. The food court at Central

offers customers scrumptious delights across numerous cuisines under a single roof.

CATEGORIES

1. Café

2.  Foodcourt 

3. Fine dining 

4. Lounge 

5. QSR

3. CELEBRATE:  every moment of shopping with value added services such as Beauty

Central, Flower Central, Wi-Fi Central, DJ Central, Radio Central and Gift Central.

Customers can take part in innovative and fun activities during the Weekend Celebrations

at Central.

OUR BRAND VALUES:

1. Great experience 

2. For the many, not the few 

3. Relentless innovation 

4. Making shopping a celebration 

5. Honest, open, caring and fun

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FUTURE GROUP:

Future Group is one of India’s leading business houses with multiple businesses spanning

across the consumption space. While retail forms the core business activity of Future Group,

group subsidiaries are present in consumer finance, insurance, brand development, retail real

estate development, retail media, logistics and information technology. The group’s retail

businesses operate around 16 million square feet of retail space in 75 cities and towns and 65

rural locations across India. As on June, 2010, the group operated, 133 Big Bazaar stores, 184

Food Bazaar stores, 48 Pantaloons Fresh Fashion stores and 12 Central stores. The group’s

specialty retail formats include, sportswear retailer Planet Sports; electronics retailer eZone;

home improvement chain Home Town and rural retail chain Aadhaar, among others. It also

operates popular shopping portal www.futurebazaar.com.

Future Group believes in developing strong insights on Indian consumers and building

businesses based on Indian ideas, as espoused in the Group’s core value of ‘Indianness.’ The

Group’s corporate credo is, ‘Rewrite rules, Retain values.

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CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IN CENTRAL MALL

WI-FI CENTRAL:

Help the customer stay connected even while they are shopping at the store.

GIFT CENTRAL:

Create enhanced shopping experience for consumer by providing them with innovative gift

wrapping options leading to greater job of shopping and gifting.

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DJ CENTRAL:

Make the shopping experience entertainig by playing the latest hits and consumers request

FLOWER CENTRAL

Create value for consumers by providing them an option to buy a wide range of seasonal flowers

and other floral treats.

RADIO CENTRAL

Update consumers on the latest promotions, events, activity, services and offers in- store.

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BEAUTY CENTRAL

Create an opportunity for consumers to experice beauty product first hand and thereby promote

cosmetic brands.

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OBJECTIVES

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OBJECTIVES:-

1. To identify the target market.

2. To classify the shoppers on the basis of buying behavior.

3. To know how the shoppers perceive the merchandise and store’s brand image.

4. To create a 'customer-pull' environment that increases the amount of impulse shopping.

5. To understand customer’s experience while buying a product at central mall.

6. To study how retailers position the product as a lifestyle product rather than a traditional

product.

7. To create synergy between product, store and advertisement

8. To know whether the customer’s perception about the display and layout of various

products at central mall.

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SCOPE OF THE STUDY

34

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The benefit of the study for the research is that it helped to gain knowledge and

experience and also provide the opportunity to study and understand the prevelent CONSUMER

EXPERIENCE PROCESS.

The key point of the research is:

1. To study the fact about the company

2. To understand and analyze various consumer experiencee factors followed

in the com-pany

3. To suggest any measure and recommendation for improvement

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

36

REASERCH METHODOLOGY

In everyday life human being has to face many problems viz. social, economical,

financial problems. These problems in life call for acceptable and effective solutions and for this

purpose, research is required and a methodology applied for the solutions can be found out.

DATA COLLECTION

Primary Data:

Primary data was collected through survey method by distributing questionnaires to

branch manager and other sales manager. The questionnaires were carefully designed by taking

into account the parameters of my study.

Secondary Data:

Data was collected from books, magazines, web sites, going through the records of the

organisation, etc. It is the data which has been collected by individual or someone else for the

purpose of other than those of our particular research study. Or in other words we can say that

secondary data is the data used previously for the analysis and the results are undertaken for the

next process.

METHODOLOGY

Exploratory Research:

On the basis of the objective shown above , a methodology has been designed to center

the study in and around method.

This project is an exploratory research as it is dependent on both primary data which

would be collected through a questionnaire which had been prepared as per the field survey and

discussion with the concerned individual. The secondary data which has been collected from

various sources.

The project here is based on primary data which would be collected with the help of a

questionnaire. This primary data collection would be done.

The secondary data has also been collected from various literature survey done through

material available in books, internet and journal Different statistical tools and techniques like

SPSS and Microsoft excel have been used for the study.

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Sampling Detail

The sample size taken for the study consist of 100 individual respondent

The sampling technique used would be “stratified random sampling”, where the sampling

frame has been divided into non- overlapping group or strata. The data obtained has been

analysed with the help of statistical tool.

RESEARCH DESIGN

Data is collected through:

1. Personal interview with retailers and shoppers.

2. Doing survey with the help of questionnaire among customers at central mall.

We have tried to investigate the target consumer through qualitative questions and

quantitative questions.

SAMPLE SPREAD AND SIZE

1. The study was done only in Surat.

2. Sample of around 100 customers was taken.

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CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

39

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

A customer experience definition to guide organizations.

As pioneers in the field of customer experience we have conducted a great deal of

research into what constitutes a “customer experience.” Much of this research was focused

development of our four bestselling books on the subject. As we continue to better understand it,

we also continue to refine our definition.

A customer experience is an interaction between an organization and a customer as

perceived through a customer’s conscious and subconscious mind. It is a blend of an

organization’s rational performance, the senses stimulated and the emotions evoked and

intuitively measured against customer expectations across all moments of contact.

Importantly:

A customer experience is not just about a rational experience (e.g. how quickly a phone is

answered, what hours you’re open, delivery time scales, etc.).

More than 50 percent of a customer experience is subconscious, or how a customer feels.

A customer experience is not just about the ‘what,’ but also about the ‘how.’

A customer experience is about how a customer consciously and subconsciously sees his or her

experience.

A brand begins and ends with the customer, and most important to the customer's

perception is the customer experience. Customers will believe their own experience

before they believe advertising...and strong brands are built one customer

experience at a time.

Customer experience (CX) is the sum of all experiences a customer has with a supplier

of goods or services, over the duration of their relationship with that supplier. From awareness,

discovery, attraction, interaction, purchase, use, cultivation and advocacy. It can also be used to

mean an individual experience over one transaction; the distinction is usually clear in context.

Growing recognition

Analysts and commentators who write about customer experience (CX) and customer

relationship management have increasingly recognized the importance of managing the

customer's experience.[1] Customers receive some kind of experience, ranging from positive to

negative, during the course of buying goods and services. Brad Daniels (Business Development

40

Manager) says that “an experience is defined as the sum total of conscious and unconscious

events. As such, a supplier cannot avoid creating an experience every time it interacts with a

customer” (2011). Furthermore, it has been shown that a customer’s perception of an

organisation is built as a result of their interaction across multiple-channels, not through one

channel, and that a positive customer experience can result in increased share of wallet and

repeat business.

A company's ability to deliver an experience that sets it apart in the eyes of its customers

serves to increase their spend with the company and, optimally, inspire loyalty to its  brand.

"Loyalty," says Jessica Debor, "is now driven primarily by a company's interaction with its

customers and how well it delivers on their wants and needs." (2008) 

To create a superior customer experience requires understanding the customer's point of

view, say Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D in Rules to Break and Laws to Follow. "What's

it really like to be your customer? What is the day-in, day-out 'customer experience' your

company is delivering? How does it feel to wait on hold on the phone? To open a package and

not be certain how to follow the poorly translated instructions? To stand in line, be charged a fee,

wait for a service call that was promised two hours ago, come back to an online shopping cart

that's no longer there an hour later? Or what's it like to be remembered? To receive helpful

suggestions? To get everything exactly as it was promised? To be confident that the answers you

get are the best ones for you?" (Peppers and Rogers 2008)

In short, customer experience meaning a customer journey which makes the customer

feel happy, satisfy, justify, with a sense of being respected, served and cared, according to his/her

expectation or standard, start from first contact and through the whole relationship.

Emerging Business Requirement

With products becoming commoditized, price differentiation no longer sustainable and

customers demanding more, companies – and communication service providers

(wireline, wireless,broadband cable, satellite) in particular – are focusing on delivering superior

customer experiences. A 2009 study of over 860 corporate executives revealed that companies

that have increased their investment in customer experience management over the past three

years report higher customer referral rates and customer satisfaction (Strativity Group, 2009).

This finding is also supported by research completed by software company Chordiant in 2008

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into the customer experience management performance of large organisations across Europe.

The research surveyed 450 large organisations to create a maturity model and the results showed

that over ¾ of the organisations surveyed achieved level 3 (of 5) or less for CEM performance (5

being best possible result). The results also showed that performance in four key business areas

(market share, retention, profitability, and customer satisfaction) was directly related to CEM

performance.

The customer experience has emerged as the single most important aspect in achieving

success for companies across all industries (Peppers and Rogers 2005). [7] For example, Starbucks

spent less than $10MM on advertising from 1987 to 1998 yet added over 2,000 new stores to

accommodate growing sales. Starbucks popularity is based on the experience that drove its

customers to highly recommend their store to friends and family.

Customer Experience Management

The goal of customer experience management (CEM) is to move customers from

satisfied to loyal and then from loyal to advocate. Traditionally, managing the customer

relationship has been the domain of Customer Relationship Management (CRM). However,

CRM strategies and solutions are designed to focus on product, price and enterprise process, with

minimal or no focus on customer need and desire. The result is a sharp mismatch between the

organisation’s approach to customer expectations and what customers actually want, resulting in

the failure of many CRM implementations.

Where CRM is enterprise-focused and designed to manage customers for maximum

efficiency, CEM is a strategy that focuses the operations and processes of a business around the

needs of the individual customer. Companies are focusing on the importance of the experience

and, as Jeananne Rae notes, realizing that “building great consumer experiences is a complex

enterprise, involving strategy, integration of technology, orchestrating business models, brand

management and CEO commitment.” (2006) [9]

According to Bernd Schmitt, "the term 'Customer Experience Management' represents

the discipline, methodology and/or process used to comprehensively manage a customer's cross-

channel exposure, interaction and transaction with a company, product, brand or

service."[10] Customer experience solutions provide strategies, process models, and information

technology to design, manage and optimize the end-to-end customer experience process.

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CEM systems

One of the key features of successful CEM implementations is their ability to manage

multi-channel interactions. Customer experience solutions address the cross-channel (contact

center, Internet, self service, mobile devices, brick and mortar stores), cross-touchpoint (phone,

chat, email, Web, in-person), and cross-lifecycle (ordering, fulfillment, billing, support, etc.)

nature of the customer experience process. By contrast, CRM solutions tend to offer point

solutions for specific customer-facing functions such as, but not limited to, sales force

automation, customer analytics, and campaign management.

Experience-based providers also integrate both internal and external innovations to create

end-to-end customer experiences. They evaluate their business models as well as business

support systems and operational support systems (BSS/OSS) from the customer’s point of view

to achieve the level of customer-centricity necessary to improve customer loyalty, churn

and revenue (Lopez, 2007).

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The Importance Of Great Customer Experiences...

And The Best Ways To Deliver Them

Customer experience is one of the great frontiers for innovation. Although the concept

was first invented by Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore in their 1998 Harvard Business Reviewarticle,

most companies have been slow to grasp it. Yet I predict that customer experience will decide

the winners and losers in the years ahead. Here's why:

RAVING FANS 

Excellent customer experiences are still so novel that, when we have one, we talk about it. Ask

anyone who has bought a Mini Cooper. This kind of viral phenomenon creates buzz in the

marketplace and generates more revenue than traditional marketing.

LOYALTY 

A stable base of existing customers makes it easier to boost both top and bottom line growth.

Some 80% of Starbucks' (SBUX ) revenues come from customers who visit their stores an

average of 18 times a month.

PREMIUM PRICING 

Customers will gladly pay more for an experience that is not only functionally but emotionally

rewarding. Companies skilled at unlocking emotional issues and building products and services

around them can widen their profit margins.

DIFFERENTIATION 

The degree of choice in goods and services is bewildering. A history of sustained positive

customer experiences increases the chance that a new product gets chosen over its competitors.

Companies that deliver exemplary customer experiences share a set of integrated business

disciplines that drive their success. Consider these:

MOMENTS OF TRUTH 

Great customer experiences are full of surprising "wow" moments. For customers of Starwood

Hotels & Resorts (HOT ), owner of the "W" and Westin chains, the moment of truth comes

when they walk through the door of their hotel room and see the bed. Starwood execs believe

that clean, sumptuous linens strike an emotional chord with their clientele, put off by seeing

dark-colored, dirty-looking bedspreads. It didn't make financial sense initially to go with fancy

bed linens, but the loyalty and buzz they've generated more than justify the expense.

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BRAND VALUES 

Well-articulated brands are the lodestar of customer experience. In a world of competing

alternatives, they provide guidance for customers and managers. Witness Whole Foods Market

(WFMI ). Everywhere you look in its stores, the company's brand values are evident: Sell the

highest-quality foods, satisfy and delight customers, support communities, promote

environmental stewardship, etc. Everything in Whole Foods reflects the brand, leading to a

satisfying interaction for each of the chain's customers.

TECHNOLOGY AND PEOPLE 

Link information-technology strategy with human resources management. Bottom-line magic

can happen when technology is deployed to keep customers happy and coming back. IT can

profile the most profitable customers and help managers focus their human resources on keeping

them happy. Ritz-Carlton, Progressive Insurance (PGR ), and Harrah's Entertainment do this.

CO-CREATION 

Allow your customers to help create their own experience. You know this phenomenon is at

work when people say, "TiVo (TIVO ) has changed my life!" Enter a machine that allows you to

see what you want when you want it, and bingo! TV is a whole new game wherein the viewer

makes the rules. This creates value for discerning people who want television to work for them

instead of against them. To cope with the modern world, people want more control.

AN ECOSYSTEM APPROACH 

Focus on a constellation of products and services that deliver a seamless, wonderful

experience to people. The iPod, of course, is the best example of this approach. The iPod

ecosystem includes hardware, software, the iTunes site -- first with songs, now with video and

accessories -- to manage your music or videos.

Building great consumer experiences is a complex enterprise, involving strategy,

integration of technology, orchestrating business models, brand management, and CEO

commitment. It's harder than you think.

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THE THREE "DS" OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Call it the dominance trap: The larger a company's market share, the greater the risk it

will take its customers for granted. As the money flows in, management begins confusing

customer profitability with customer loyalty, never realizing that the most lucrative buyers may

also be the angriest and most alienated. Worse, traditional market research may lead the firm to

view customers as statistics. Managers can become so focused on the data that they stop hearing

the real voices of their customers.

Financial software powerhouse Intuit briefly fell into this trap, despite a history of

excellent customer service. In 2001, its Turbo Tax program commanded 70 percent of the retail

market for tax-preparation software and 83 percent of the online market. But then it began doing

things that annoyed customers, such as upping the price of tech-support calls and limiting

software licenses to one computer. Store-based retail growth flattened, and as Web-based tax

preparation sites sprang up, online buyers started jumping ship. In 2003, Turbo Tax's share of the

online market plummeted.

A recent Bain & Company survey reveals just how commonly companies misread the

market. We surveyed 362 firms and found that 80 percent believed they delivered a "superior

experience" to their customers. But when we asked customers about their own perceptions, we

found that they rated only 8 percent of companies as truly delivering a superior experience.

Clearly, it's easy for leading companies to assume they're keeping customers happy; it's quite

another thing to achieve that kind of customer devotion.

So what sets the elite 8 percent apart? We found that they take a distinctively broad view

of the customer experience. Unlike most companies, which reflexively turn to product or service

design to improve customer satisfaction, the leaders pursue three imperatives simultaneously:

1. They design the right offers and experiences for the right customers.

2. They deliver these propositions by focusing the entire company on them with an

emphasis on cross-functional collaboration.

3. They develop their capabilities to please customers again and again—by such means as

revamping the planning process, training people in how to create new customer

propositions, and establishing direct accountability for the customer experience.

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Each of these "Three Ds" draws on and reinforces the others. Together, they transform

the company into one that is continually led and informed by its customers' voices.

1. Designing the right propositions

Most large companies are adept at dividing customers into segments and designing value

propositions for each one. But those that deliver a truly outstanding customer experience go

about the design business in a unique way. In defining segments, they look not only at customers'

relative probability but also at their tendency to act as advocates for the company—to sing its

praises to friends.

Customer advocacy can be summarized as a net

promoter score, calculated as the percentage of

customers who would recommend a company (the

promoters) minus the percentage that would urge friends to stay away (the detractors). Because

such a simple measure is understandable to all parts of a company, it can serve to rally and

coordinate the entire organization. As described in the sidebar "Thinking Clearly About

Customers," the ultimate goal is to shift ever more customers into the high-profit, high-advocacy

area.

Of course, the experiences that turn passive buyers into active promoters will vary by customer

segment. What captivates one group may turn off another. In formulating segments, therefore,

it's important to look beyond basic demographic and purchasing data to discern customers'

attitudes and even personalities.

Vodafone offers a good example. The U.K.-based mobile phone company grew rapidly through

acquisitions in the 1990s, becoming one of the leading mobile providers in the world. To ensure

that its offerings could be effectively delivered to target customers in any country, it stopped

categorizing its customers simply according to where they live, as most cellular providers do.

Instead, it divided its immense marketplace into just a few, high-priority global segments:

"young, active, fun" users, occasional users, and a handful of others.

It then developed targeted, experience-focused value propositions. The "young, active, fun"

group was offered Vodafone live!, a state-of-the-art service that provides everything from games

and pop-song ring tones to news, sports, and information. Occasional users were offered

Vodafone Simply, which, as noted in the Vodafone Group's 2005 annual report, provided an

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The ultimate goal is to shift ever more

customers into the high-profit, high-

advocacy area.

"uncomplicated and straightforward mobile experience." Such clearly delineated service

platforms allowed everyone in the organization to understand strategic priorities and focus on

innovations that would better serve the segments.

In designing propositions for specific segments, leaders focus on the entire customer experience.

They recognize that customers interact with different parts of the organization across a number

of touchpoints, including purchase, service and support, upgrades, billing, and so on. A company

can't turn its customers into satisfied, loyal advocates unless it takes their experiences at all these

touchpoints into account. Design is thus closely tied to the delivery from the very beginning.

Planning focuses not only on the value propositions themselves but on all the steps that will be

required to deliver the propositions to the appropriate segments.

2. Delivering value to the customer

The most brilliantly designed and insightful customer offerings can be rendered impotent by

poor execution. To ensure effective delivery, the leaders must first create and motivate cross-

functional teams—from marketing to supply chain management—to deliver their value

proposition across the entire customer experience. Second, they must treat customer interaction

as a precious resource. Data mining and customer relationship management (CRM) systems can

be valuable for creating hypotheses, but the ultimate test of any company's delivery lies in what

customers tell others. The best companies find ways to tune in to customers' voices every day.

One company that's particularly adept at listening to its customers and delivering what

they want is Superquinn, the Irish grocery chain. Founder and President Feargal Quinn walks

each of his stores' aisles every month, talking to consumers. Twice monthly, he invites twelve

customers to join him for a two-hour roundtable discussion. He asks them about service levels,

pricing, cleanliness, product quality, new product lines, recent displays and advertising

promotions, and so on; he also asks what items they still buy from his competitors and why.

Quinn uses what he learns to evaluate store managers and continually improve the company's

strategy and its execution of that strategy.

For example, Quinn once learned that 25 percent of Superquinn shoppers were not

buying from the stores' bakeries. When he made bakery managers and employees aware of this

statistic and began tracking it, they came up with scores of creative ideas to build traffic.

Customers soon were enticed to visit the bakery by the aroma of freshly made doughnuts; once

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there, they found baskets of warm wedges to sample. Today, more than 90 percent of customers

buy at least one item from the bakery every week.

As Superquinn's experience suggests, people staffing the front lines need to be well hired,

well trained, and well treated if a company is going to deliver on its propositions.

Customer metrics serve an equally critical function: They allow companies to be sure

their delivery continues to meet the needs of the target segments. But traditional metrics, focused

on the performance of individual functions, aren't enough; measures have to be crafted to inspire

cross-functional collaboration.

One example is net promoter scores: Improving them requires a concerted effort from the

front line to the back office. Precise customer service objectives for specific customer

interactions can also help to rally the troops. A bank might create a goal of phoning each new

customer within one week of opening a checking account; a cable company, within a week of

installing a line. Hitting such targets requires specific, coordinated contributions from customer

support, marketing, channel management, and finance.

Leaders also find other, informal ways to let customers tell them whether they're

succeeding. Superquinn awards its customers "goof points" for pointing out anomalies such as an

out-of-stock item, a dirty floor, or a checkout line longer than three people. The goof points

provide discounts off future purchases.

3. Developing the capabilities to do it again and again

Customer value propositions can never be static; they must be subject to regular

innovation. It's the same with delivery—every company must improve its performance quarter

after quarter, year after year. Leaders in crafting the customer experience have established a

number of capabilities to achieve this kind of systematic innovation and improvement. They

include:

Tools that aid customer-focused planning and execution. The integrated marketing plan

developed by Vodafone, for instance, unambiguously puts customers at the top of the company's

strategic priorities.

Customer-based metrics and closed feedback loops that establish accountability.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car tracks customer satisfaction with its rental experience on a five-point

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scale for every branch, and employees of branches that fall below the corporate average—getting

top-box scores 80 percent of the time—are ineligible for promotion.

Customer-focused management incentives. Net promoter scores, for example, are increasingly

used in performance reviews.

Top-performing companies also create processes that seek direct, immediate customer

feedback—not simply to ensure that things are going well but also to build in methods of

systematic innovation and improvement. SAS Institute, the Cary, North Carolina-based software

company, creates a "SASware Ballot" every year, giving customers a chance to vote on a list of

potential software improvements. EBay employees known as "pinks" monitor the company's

message boards, quickly learning which issues, complaints, and concerns may need attention.

American Express calls customers who don't quickly activate their new cards to find out if

they're having problems.

Intuit turned around TurboTax's online market-share slide by, in part, institutionalizing its

ability to constantly improve its offerings. The company's Consumer Tax Group, which had seen

the biggest share decline, created a 6,000-member "Inner Circle" of customers who agreed to

serve as a kind of ongoing, Web-based focus group.

They supplied basic demographic information, along

with their response to the all-important question

"How likely are you to recommend TurboTax to

friends or colleagues?" They were then asked to explain their No. 1 priority for enhancing

service in any aspect of the customer experience, including shopping, buying, installing, and

using tech support.

A follow-up question let them prioritize a list of ten suggestions made by other customers.

The Internet software that collects these ideas allows Intuit to segment customers into groups,

such as promoters and detractors, according to their priorities and issues. Detractors wanted a

new approach to tech support and customer service. Promoters ranked rebate programs as their

top priority for improvement. Intuit probed for details: Where rebates were concerned, was it

awkward proof-of-purchase requirements, slow turnaround times, or the amount of the rebate

that most needed attention?

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People staffing the front lines need to be

well hired, well trained, and well

treated.

Thanks to these moves, the Consumer Tax Group was able to redesign its core TurboTax

product, deliver it to the customer more effectively than ever, and maintain a mechanism for

continually developing its related capabilities. Net promoter scores among both first-time users

and veterans rose dramatically, and the company regained market share in Web-based channels

and renewed share growth in stores.

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7As APPROACH TO CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT AT STORE LEVEL

Some of the most memorable quotes on Customers are: 

"It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the

customer who pays the wages" - Henry Ford

“There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the

chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else"- Sam Walton 

In a recent HBR article ("Let Emerging Market Customers Be Your Teachers", HBR,

December 2010), the authors gave out an interesting insight quoting McKinsey studies. "In

developing economies, the retail aisle is where the marketing action is - it's where the customers

make purchasing decisions. McKinsey studies show that in China, for example, as many as 45%

of customers make those decisions inside stores, compared with 24% in the United States."

Although their study did not include India (the authors conducted a study in 2009 in China,

Poland, Turkey, Brazil, South Africa and Peru), I am sure the results would apply equally well to

Indian retail landscape as well. How to engage the customers at the store level? What kind of

experience should stores offer to the customers that would increase their customer life time

value? How to improve the customer experience at the store level?

To answer these questions, I have developed a model titled - 7 As Approach to Customer

Experience Management at Store Level - that would help retailers orchestrate a better and

delightful customer experience management at the store level. Remember however: It is only

when all these 7As are used simultaneously that the stores can expect better delivered customer

experience and not in isolation.

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53

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT BEST PRACTICES

Customer experience management is a dedication to serving customer needs

from theirperspective. Customers make paychecks possible, and shareholders leave when

customers leave ... not the other way around. So businesses exist to serve a customer need that

results in a profitable revenue stream. Customer experience is defined entirely by customers, but

the solution provider defines customer experience management (CEM). The customer is the

judge of whether the experience was acceptable or stellar, or not; CEM seeks to understand the

gap between desired and current experience as seen from the customer's viewpoint, segmented

by the customer's circumstances. Then CEM solves the gap holistically and anticipates the

evolving needs of the customer to preventfuture gaps. 81% of companies with strong capabilities

and competencies for delivering customer experience excellence are outperforming their

competition.(1)

10 Characteristics of Customer Experience

Ten characteristics differentiate CEM from the common knowledge of former initiatives such as

customer satisfaction, loyalty or customer relationship management. The level of understanding

of these characteristics among executives company-wide was assessed in the 2010 ClearAction

B2B CEM Benchmarking Study. The best understood tenets of CEM (top half of graph below)

reflect aspects of customer perception measurement. The lesser known tenets describe the

customer's high degree of control in characterizing customer experience, and the need for

organizations to maintain insatiable curiosity and uncanny adaptability for delivering superior

customer experiences. 

Here are the ten ways that customer experience is unique from customer satisfaction:

4. Perspective: customer experience is defined entirely by the customer, not the solution

provider.

5.  Preventive: customer experience gravitates toward the easiest and nicest methods to get

and use solutions that address customers' needs.

6. Duration: customer experience encompasses the point from which customers become

aware they have a need until they say that need is extinct.

7. Dynamic: customer experience evolves with the customer's context — the purpose and

circumstances of their need, and overall experience reference points.

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8. Choice: customer experience is built on trust and mutual respect for variety; share of

budget is more important than loyalty.

9. Multi-faceted: customer experience is measured by functional and emotional (social and

personal) judgments related to the customers' expectations.

10. Operational: customer experience is shaped by all the contributors to an organization's

processes, policies and culture, in addition to the physical product or service associated

with the customer's need.

11. Integrative: customer experience is impacted by the degree of alignment among

departments, technologies, channels, etc.

12. Anticipatory: customer experience is ongoing, where the present and future are equally or

more important than the past.

13. Transparent: customer experience sees through the solution providers motives and

intentions, and favors genuine sincerity for the customer's well-being.

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CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT SUCCESS FACTORS

CEM has evolved to a more mature, customer centric field with roots in total quality

management and customer satisfaction, and metamorphisis through customer loyalty, customer

relationship management (CRM), experiential marketing, and word-of-mouth marketing. CEM

encompasses all of the above, with an operational emphasis on enterprise-wide engagement

for alignmnent of what you do to your customer's priorities.

1. Formal business process for CEM

1. Employee empowerment & engagement

2. Organizational learning (knowledge management)

3. Quality tools (Pareto, fishbone, etc.)

4. Systems thinking\

5. Change management

6. Internal branding

7. Recognition and awards

8. Incentive pay

9. Balanced scorecards

10. Relationship skills training

11. Benchmarking

Customer Voice:

Best practices in customer sentiment monitoring differentiate between enablers of customer

experience (the firm's solution) and customer's desired outcomes, focusing feedback mechanisms

on the customer's world rather than the company's world. Best practics also include:

Identify all the influencers on the buying decision (initiators, approvers, users, buyers,

influencers, gatekeepers, decision-makers)

2. Collect voice of the customer from all of the influencers on the buying decision

3. Monitor customer perceptions of business transactions

4. Monitor customer perceptions of overall business relationship

5. Involve executives in objective listening sessions with customers

6. Analyze lost sales

7. Track positive and negative word-of-mouth

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8. Resolve customer complaints systematically

9. Integrate customer feedback sources

10. Analyze integrated customer data

11. Communicate resolution of customer complaints

12. Communicate improvements spurred by poor survey ratings

Customer View:

Best practices create company-wide understanding of customers' priorities and value, including:

1. Establish a single view of each customer across divisions and regions

2. Stream relevant customer feedback to all parties in the company

3. Calculate customer lifetime value

4. Segment customers based on lifetime value or customer experience parameters

5. Use customer metrics to evaluate organizational performance

6. Include customer metrics in balanced scorecard

Customer Centricity:

Best practices in customer centricity help keep customers' well-being at the center of everyone's

thinking, decisions and behaviors:

1. Use customer feedback to guide annual operating plan

2. Review business processes from customer perspective

3. Use customer metrics in performance reviews

4. Reward customer experience improvement in team recognition

5. Align incentive pay to customer experience metrics

6. Create department-level action plans to improve customer experience

7. Listen to customer needs prior to product development efforts

8. Base strategic decision-making on customer experience or lifetime value segmentation

9. Base front-line employees decision-making on customer experience or lifetime value

segmentation

10. View customer experience management as an ongoing journey

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As the dynamics in the customer's world are constantly evolving, an insatiable curiosity

about customers is a key to success. Company-wide alignment with customers prevents waste

(improves profit) and prevents customer hassles (improves organic revenue growth).

ClearAction has personal experience implementing these best practices in large, fast-

paced organizations that emphasized acheiving strong business results. Let us share practical

methodologies and solutions to aid you in your customer experience management journey.

Customer Experience Management

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CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT

What is CEM?

Customer experience is the sum of all experiences a customer has with a supplier of goods or

services, over the duration of their relationship with that supplier. It is believed that successful

businesses influence people through engaging, authentic experiences that render personal value

(HBR – Pine and Gilmore 1998). A 2009 study of over 860 corporate executives revealed that

companies that have increased their investment in customer experience management over the

past three years reported higher market share, retention, profitability, and customer satisfaction

(Chordiant, 2008, Strativity Group, 2009).

Why is CEM valuable?

Acquiring new customers can cost five times more than satisfying and retaining current

customers.

1. A 2% increase in customer retention has the same effect on profits as cutting costs by

10%.

2. The average company loses 10% of its customers each year.

3. A 5% reduction in customer defection rate can increase profits by 25-125%, depending

on the industry.

The customer profitability rate tends to increase over the life of a retained customer.

Core Tenants of CEM

CEM is a strategy that focuses the operations and processes of a business around the needs of the

individual customer.

Focus on the importance of the “experience.” �Disciplined methodology and/or process used to comprehensively manage a customer’s cross-

channel exposure, interaction and transaction with a company, product, brand or service.

Weaves together strategies, departments, process models, and information technology to design,

manage and optimize the end-to-end customer experience process

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Decooda Goal

The goal of Decooda is to monitor and analyze all multi-channel interactions. We work cross-

channel (contact center, Internet, self service, mobile devices, brick and mortar stores), cross-

touchpoint (phone, chat, email, Web, in-person), and cross-lifecycle (learn, shop, order,

fulfillment, billing, support, loyalty, advocacy, etc.) of the customer experience. We integrate

and analyze all unstructured and structured content from the social sphere, enterprise or from any

other 3rd party to extract meaningful insights from end-to-end customer experiences. Decooda

enables:

1. Accurate measurement sentiment over any time horizon and at virtually any level,

including the individual

2. Identification of hot topics, emerging trends, and key influencers, and scores them based

on their ability to move the market.

3. Viewing the communication string between people to identify what drives the greatest

measurable impact in shaping sentiment and reputation across the competitive social

landscape.

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Quantification of the value of social conversations, brand investments, and market-driven

events that have the greatest impact on the brand, providing valuable insights into the

engagement design and investment reallocation decision process.

Constraint based scenario simulations in a “market sand-box” to test and validate social�

media strategies and engagements prior to making any investments, insuring risk is mitigated and

a clear Return On Marketing Investment is achieved.

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CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT PROCESS

"CEM is both Analytical and Creative 

CEM is both Strategy and Implementation 

CEM's Focus is External and Internal" 

As we enter the second half of the first decade of this new millennium, 24/7 Internet

access reaches well over 1 billion people around the globe. Millions perform B2B, B2C or X2X

transactions with millions of suppliers eager to attract their business. In the digital world as well

as in the physical one, buying decisions depend on an immense variety of factors, some of them

rational such as price, features, availability, etc. and many others -perhaps the most important

ones- related to feelings and emotions a particular brand conveys to the buyer. Most companies

in the manufacturing and services industries fight their way through the troubled waters of "red

oceans" as their products and services become more and more commoditized and watch with a

sense of impotency how profits and ROI decrease. 

Many CxOs continue doing business as usual, trying to outsmart their competitors and

win their customers' loyalty by means of the oldest and often quite effective - but always short

lived- tactic of price reductions. Others have decided to set distance apart and sail the winds of

"blue oceans" creating new markets, innovating their products and services, and crafting

unparalleled and enduring experiences for their customers. We immediately recognize successes

like iPod, YouTube, SecondLife, Palm Island, Burj Tower in Dubai, Google Earth, Mandarin

Oriental Hotel, Nike, Cirque du Soleil, Starbucks and hundreds of other products and services,

as being unique and different We become aware that captivating customers is not a matter of

price anymore, but a matter of well-thought, well-designed and well-executed customer

experiences. 

Today we all are talking about a new paradigm - CEM - that emphasizes emotions,

feelings, sentiments, passions and experiences that we hardly heard of when we used to work

around CRM principles. The community is coming to terms and beginning to differentiate

between CRM as being mainly transaction oriented, and CEM as being process oriented. CRM

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focuses on knowing the consumer to suit the seller needs, CEM on understanding the consumer

to suit her needs, acquire foresight and maintain an emotional relationship. The bottom line is

that no matter which business you are in, the only way to climb to the top of the mountain - and

stay there - is by having a customer-centric strategy the results of which are customers fascinated

by the experience you provide them with -to the extend that that they will keep coming and

coming for more and more of it. Did I say loyalty? 

This strategy should use some levers to facilitate the climbing. One of these levers is

without any doubt, the adoption of a process approach that will enable us to manage the

customer experience: to monitor, control and measure what really matters to her and at the end,

to respond quickly to her varying demands and expectations. Designing, implementing and

managing a CEM program requires some basic concepts which in essence are no different from

those in other programs targeted at obtaining the results our customers and stakeholders expect,

namely value and a unique and memorable experience on the one hand; and revenue, profits and

cash flow on the other. 

It requires a disciplined approach that begins with a strong "raison d'?§?tre", high level

sponsorship, a mature customer centric culture, fully committed personnel with the right skills, a

qualified team able to work smarter - not harder - to get it right and a strong champion. Piece of

cake huh? 

First the pants, then the shoes

Process methodology is there to help us bridge the gaps created by organizational silos

(marketing, manufacturing, billing, etc.) that prevent a seamless execution of our customer

experience strategy and restrain our customers from desiring our products and services and

becoming truly advocates. Implementing the right experiential processes certainly will deliver

value to your customers. 

However, prior to getting into a thorough process implementation, one must think about

the cultural issues that lie at the foundation of our company. Yes, you can modify some or many

of your processes and optimize them to be truly customer-centric, but unless everyone in our

company is vibrating at the same wavelength - it is difficult to convey great experiences to our

customers. We must begin by building respect for our customers, gaining their trust by making

them rely on the quality of our products/services and on the honesty of our relationship.

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Processes that are implemented lacking a true compromise from most of our employees normally

end up making things easier for management but not for the customer. One must have a vision,

focus on the customer, the right people (Virgin Atlantic's "brilliant basics"), and then we are set

to foster a more creative and innovative approach aimed at influencing and modifying the

rational and emotional elements of your customers' experience. We are now prepared for

delivering those "magical touches" that will make a dramatic difference and win you "raving

fans". 

Step by Step into CEM

In his acclaimed opus "Customer Experience Management", Bernd Schmitt introduces a

straightforward-five-step CEM process (See Figure 1) that we will hitherto refer in this article.

"All ways lead to Rome": As long as you keep in mind the basics, one can modify his approach

to CEM. I happen to like Bernd Schmitt's approach and I advocate for it. 

Adapted from: "Customer Experience Management" by Bernd H. Schmitt

I have tried it with a number of customers and have obtained good results. I should point

out that the outcome has nothing to do with the process itself but with the bottlenecks one faces

when trying to change a 20 or 50 years-old culture which has proven to be successful. Every

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industry, company, market and customer segment has its own peculiarities and we should be

careful when taking them into consideration and making the appropriate modifications,

especially after several rounds of trial and error iterations. You may also find CEOs or CMOs

reluctant to follow advice and preferring to either skip a step (thinking her company has already

mastered it) or cutting the required resources short. 

Schmitt's five steps are quite comprehensive 

1. Analyze the experiential world of the customer. 

Get to know the environment your B2B or B2C customers operate in. Understand their

world and yours. What the future looks like as far as your industry is concerned and as far as the

sociocultural environment your customers are in is concerned. What are your competitors doing?

What type of experiences are they providing to the customers? Obtain an insight of your

customers as deep as possible. Know "not assume" what your customer's needs and expectations

are; how, when and why your customers use/consume or not use/consume your products.

Understand your customers' buying decision making process. Are your customers collaborating

in the design of your products? Revise, in as much detail as possible, Jan Carlzon's moments of

truth (MOTs). To begin, select the few critical ones (save the others for later) and bring them

into what now has developed into the "experience curve" and define what the desired experience

would be at these points. Oh, yes. How do we obtain the data to plot our initial experience curve?

You could use several sources. I like to begin with the input from marketers, salespeople and

employees within the company I am working with. They should be encouraged to get opinions

from their families and friends before submitting their final scores. This way we obtain the

emotion/experience curve the company thinks it is providing to its customers. One advantage of

this is that from the very early stages, everyone in the company is involved in the program. The

results are always displayed through the intranet and people are asked to comment and enrich the

process. 

Subsequently I normally structure a set of simple surveys using one of the many tools

EFM (Enterprise Feedback Management) companies have made available. Initially we try 2 or 3

different surveys aimed at different market segments, beginning with lead customers whose

opinions we value. At this stage we validate if the critical points we identified in our internal

exercise are the same customers regard as important. Normally there are differences. It is

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important to highlight that those points which are most important for your customers should be

the bases for your customer's scorecard. Based on these results we motivate customers to join a

respondent panel that will provide us with feedback during the whole process and hopefully for a

long time thereafter. The size of the panel varies depending on the type of product. When

possible, feedback from these initial surveys is complemented with direct observations and focus

groups. Focus groups concentrate more on learning about the experience with major competing

brands and also on the most critical scenarios customers go through during their experience with

the product. We make sure customers are aware that the company is highly interested in listening

to their voice and that by speaking out they are helping customize their own experience. Most

customers do it gladly and except for a few cases, I have always found a great deal of

collaboration. One or two months later we are able to have a second graph, one from the

customers and believe me, when we compare the company's graphs with the customer's, we get

plenty of surprises and a great deal of learning. Remember that the devil is in the details and step

1 needs details and lots of data. The output of this first step is not only learning the actual state of

your consumers' and competitor's experience, and mapping it, but along the sub-process. The

exercise should have identified quite a few ideas that could and would differentiate you,

opportunities to heal customer relationships and to resolve issues that impact customers, and of

course step one constitutes the core input to step two. 

2. The Experiential platform 

Armed with the analysis and ideas from stage one; we examine very thoroughly the gaps

the customers have helped identify and begin the process of drafting the strategy. In terms of the

traditional marketing, the experiential platform goes way beyond "unique selling proposition -

UPS" or the "Value Proposition" we are used to. Here we borrow some key concepts from other

managerial disciplines that have proved their value in strategy definition: balanced scorecard and

blue ocean strategy, and combine them into the development of Schmitt's three strategic

components of his experiential platform: the experiential positioning, the experiential value

promise (EVP) and the overall implementation theme, which details the hows. 

Step 2 is perhaps the most critical one of the CEM process since it lays out the foundation

of the entire customer experience strategy. It should be noted that experiential value promise is

meant to look for the most powerful experience that will differentiate your product in the minds

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of your clients. In this step we imagine the types of experiences we should convey to our

customers in order to impact them. In his first book Experiential Marketing, B Schmitt defined

five types: sensory, affective, cognitive, physical, and social identity experiences. These are the

factors that should be analyzed and then linked to the traditional value proposition (attributes,

breath of line, being first, price), etc. when you are in determined to differentiate your product or

service in the minds of your prospects. The step defines what the experience is going to be like

for the customer/customer segments, why the customer should trust that the company will deliver

the offered EVP, and how different, innovative and revolutionary (a blue ocean perhaps?) that

experience will be. 

I recommend to my clients to seek additional advice which normally comes form

advertising and PR agencies, sociologists, psychologists and anthropologist (neuromarketing has

come to age) which are much better fit to propose impacting positioning and creative

implementation themes that would leverage alternative EVPs. Let us refer to Nokia. Its

experiential position is "Connecting People". Its experience value proposition: "Meeting

Mobility and service needs". Design, technology and customer engagement are Nokia's core

elements in its implementation theme. Again, I suggest having at least 2 or 3 EVPs that have

been previously agreed upon after evaluating their feasibility in terms of demanded resources

and expected results. At this point the company must have completed an assessment of its

external and internal environment (culture); a conviction that the organization has the right skills,

motivation and tools required for the strategy to be flawlessly executed; a complete

understanding of their customers and markets, some of it will come from CRM data; and an

approximation of the competitor's reaction once the plan begins to be executed (steps 3, 4 and 5).

Aren't we missing something? Yes, of course! A set of milestones and indicators that will ensure

that as the program advances, and your customers' experiences are the right ones, the financial

targets will be met in the short, medium and long term. Whenever possible, it is also

recommended to pre-test -in controlled environments- the ideas and proposals that were

developed at this stage. Depending on your own situation, you may have to follow steps 3 (brand

experience), 4 (customer interface) and 5 (continuous innovation) simultaneously or in a

different order 

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3. Designing the Brand Experience 

Steps 1 and 2 are a pre-requisite to any CEM plan and should be done in sequence and as

thoroughly as possible. They constitute the blueprint of your customer experience strategy. At

step 3 we begin translating strategy into actions. It is here where moments of truth are more

critical, where reality meets expectations, where the bottom line occurs. According to Schmitt,

brand experience is determined by three factors: the product experience including the price, the

look and feel and the experiential communications. The brand experience comprises all

differentiating factors of your products or service. Differentiation isn't necessarily product

related, it can be on anything. Going back to Nokia, when buying a specific Nokia unit, and for

that purpose any mobile phone brand, customers expect a working phone with few or many

features depending on the selected model. Nokia, Motorola, Samsung or whatever mobile phone

brand's experience is more related to aspects such us design, fashion, size, weight, which are as

important as to how the mobile phone works. The Mandarin Oriental Hotel strengthens its luxury

brand by means of spacious guestrooms, the finest dining venues, superb trend setting spas,

banquet and conference facilities, which constitute and exceptional service to its business and

leisure travelers in premier world destinations. As their slogan says: "a place where a thousand

little moments .. make up a single, unforgettable experience. Although I have not yet spend a

night at any of the MOGH - a luxury I cannot afford - I have no doubts the hotels do whatever is

needed in order to make sure that world celebrities such as Kenzo Takada, Jane Seymur,

Frederick Forsyth and many others who regularly stay at the hotels, have become raving fans

paying up to $2,500 per night. Nokia has a very distinctive way to advertise and invite potential

customers to acquire Nokia cellular units. Their experiential communications (TV, print ads,

billboards, brochures, packing, etc.) are always in synch with the EVP and the experiential

theme. This may me one of the reasons why when thinking about cell phones, one third f the

world thinks and buys the Number 1 cell phone. 

4. The Customer Interface. 

While designing the brand experience has to do with static aspects that impact our senses,

the customer interface takes care of the dynamic side of the customer experience. The interface

the company provides at the different touchpoints is like the final exam that proves how much

we have learned. Front office personnel, sales and service people, contact center agents are in the

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privileged position of being able to enhance the customer experience. Is our personnel properly

trained to handle these t?§?te-?§?è-t?§?te encounters with customers. Do they have the right

attitudes and skills to reinforce the job done by marketing in designing and communicating the

brand? Are employees trained and empowered to act immediately when needed and treat each

customer as a segment of one? 

` Today people have less time to get involved in person to person interactions like

meetings, telephone conversations, letters, memos, etc. that take place at the various physical

channels. Many of these interactions are now taking place on the Internet. Households are

shopping both online and through the Web which has created a need for a truly integrated

channel experience (store, call center, catalog, Web) where personalization is key to the

experience and should respond in specific ways to customer's profiles including physical

location, the language, the culture and the currency. This is the real of modern technology (Web

2.0) which now has the ability to recognize and influence the shopping habits of the consumers

and provide a seamless experience to your customer in every channel, allowing intelligent

dialogues with your customers and self-support, sensing customers needs in real time, driving

companies to operate on a sense and respond basis, having customers to actively and deliberately

take part in the process of design, shaping or even producing a product/service, knowing it is -for

them. A prime example of this in the software industry is Saleforce's APEX Exchange. 

The Web customer experience is a combination of excellent application design and

marketing where new tools and methods allow better insight into how to improve the customer

experience and, of course, the bottom line. To take care of the bottom line you must be sure your

entire process is on the right track. How do you know you are succeeding, delivering the value

customers expect and driving the right experiences' Measuring! Step two should have provided

some ideas of what is really important for your customers. Fine tune the definition from the

lessons learned in step four, generate a few success metrics, (KPIs) be sure to ratify them with a

panel of customers, otherwise it may be risky. There are also other key performance indicators

you should have that do not need to be validated with your customers, specifically your

operational indicators, return on customers, etc. For example, call center statistics such as

abandon rate, first resolution rate, system availability and so on. The field of web analytics is

very comprehensive and provides you with valuable metrics to make you more efficient, to

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improve your customer experiences and above all to help you sell more by analyzing the

behavior of your customers when visiting your web site. It is recommended to build a scorecard

system to constantly monitor your progress. A very good reference and methodology was

described by Patricia Seybold Group. It is simple and straightforward. 

One very effective way, although questioned by many, is to ask your customers Fred

Reichheld's Ultimate Question: How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a

friend or colleague? On a scale from 10 (Extremely likely) to 0 (Not al all likely), you plot the

results of your survey and classify your customers into three categories: Promoters (loyal

customers) for scores 9 and 10; Passives (satisfied but not enthusiastic) for scores 7 and 8;

and Detractors (unhappy customers) all others. See figure 2. Then you calculate what Reichheld

called Net Promoter Score (NPS) by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the

percentage of Promoters. 

Adapted from: "The Ultimate Question" by Fred Reichheld 

The largest the percentage of Promoters the better your company is in a position to grow

based on your customers. 

5. Continuous Innovation. 

The above four steps may have gotten you at the top. If you have done the things right

and the right things, most probably your customers are receiving a very distinctive experience

and your bottom line is reflecting that. But, once you have reached that uniqueness stage, even if

it is an uncontested "blue ocean", the odds are your competitors will be after you improving what

you have improved and very soon your customers will be demanding more. This means the job is

never finished. You have to keep on improving, innovating, creating new and more complete

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experiences for your customers, introducing new technology as it becomes available, as long as it

gives you an your customers and advantage. Innovation is a mandate that must keep us

constantly thinking about: what are the ideal wishes of our customers, what can we improve to

extend our actual offerings, how can we break the actual rules of our industry? Transformation

and innovation is a never-ending process. Figure 3 shows the complete CEM model as proposed

by Bernd Schmitt. 

Source: Customer Experience ManageMent by Bernd Schmitt 

The late Walt Disney once said: "Reaching The Top is NOT the Challenge, Never Stop Climbing

Is!"

One final word. What we have described is an ideal situation. It requires a great deal of

discipline, skills and money. Companies have to be realistic and adapt the process described to

their own situation and especially to their own resource availability. Some companies have the

funding to invest heavily on such process. Others have to advance in small increments and do it

little by little

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THE RIGHT WAY TO MEASURE YOUR CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Attempting to measure the customer experience with a single metric such as customer satisfaction or

customer advocacy is overly simplistic and risky. Instead, companies should dig deeper and establish a

portfolio of measures that can determine how each touch point contributes to the overall experience.

The Total Customer Experience is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts

The customer experience is a complex process that can consist of multiple touch points; a process that can

be broad, long-running, span multiple channels, and can be influenced by any combination of internal and

external factors. Effectively measuring the total customer experience requires a more acute understanding

of its individual parts.

The customer experience process does not begin and end at a store, sales representatives, web site or call

center. It extends from the moment the customer becomes aware of your company and is comprised of

multiple independent interactions, transactions, and contacts along the way.

Each customer experience is made up of any number of touch points and customer encounters, each of

which should be measured independently to determine their contribution to the overall experience. An

issue encountered at any one of these points can dramatically influence the overall experience.

For example, the quality of an automobile is an aggregate measurement of the quality of the individual

parts combined with the integrity of the overall design and assembly process. If any one part fails to

perform properly, the overall perception of quality is diminished. Likewise, even if every part is perfectly

manufactured but isn’t arranged or assembled in a useable manner – the perception of quality will suffer.

Only when quality manufacturing is guided by quality design will the experience truly be maximized.

Although overarching metrics such as customer satisfaction and customer advocacy are quickly becoming

standard metrics in today’s companies, attempting to measure the customer experience with a single

metric can be overly simplistic and risky. Effectively managing the customer experience requires

effective measurement and management of a portfolio of metrics that will provide insights into what is -

or is not - working.

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Identify Your Touch Points

The customer experience is a collection of touch points encountered by the customer that includes the

attraction, interaction, and cultivation of customer relationships. Touch points may include

advertisements or promotions, online and in-store shopping experiences, transaction and bill processing,

and post-purchase delivery, usage, and support.

The total number of touch points that the customer encounters goes well beyond the point of sale.

Establishing an accurate inventory of all of your company’s touch points – both intentional and

unintentional - can mean the difference between success and failure.

Defining when and where the customer experience begins and ends is perhaps the most difficult task

facing any business. Too often, companies define the lifecycle and customer touch points too narrowly,

leaving critical elements of the customer experience to chance.

A touch point is defined as any customer interaction or encounter that can influence the customer’s

perception of your product, service, or brand. A touch point can be intentional (an advertisement) or

unintentional (an unsolicited customer referral). In this era of broad customer skepticism, the

unintentional touch points often matter the most. Which would you trust more: a company’s ad pitch or

your best friend’s personal referral for a product? Both are touch points, but one carries much more value

than the other.

When your business interacts with a customer, it’s often easy to overlook what is really going on; you are

touching them in many, perhaps subtle, ways. When it comes to customer experience management, the

right touch can make all the difference. To do it right, you must first identify all of your potential touch

points and then work to measure and optimize each one.

Measure Individual Touch Point Effectiveness

Each customer touch point is typically designed for a specific operational purpose. An advertising touch

point may be designed to build brand awareness or to identify prospects. A point of sale touch point may

be designed to execute transactions. A call center touch point is designed to resolve customer issues. Each

touch point is unique and contributes to the overall customer experience in different ways.

Effectively measuring each touch point requires a holistic approach to understand the contribution to both

operational and customer relationship objectives. For example, the operational side of an advertising

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touch point may be measured in terms of a conversion rate. The customer relationship side of the same

touch point may be intended to influence the customer’s perception or awareness of the company’s brand.

Measuring the effectiveness of each touch point should balance both operational and customer experience

objectives. Operational metrics are typically easily identified, while customer relationship metrics can be

elusive. Ideally, timely and recurring customer feedback is collected and compared to operational results

to provide a more complete picture. In doing so, companies can obtain a better understanding of how each

individual touch point is contributing to the overall experience.

For example, let’s say a business establishes a goal to achieve a 5% click-through-rate (CTR) with their

pay-per-click campaign. If the actual campaign achieves 100% of that goal, they might consider it a

success. However, customer perceptions might not be so rosy if the ad promised a product, promotion, or

discount that isn’t readily available or is difficult to obtain. As a result of customer confusion and

aggravation, the company may achieve only 50% of their revenue goals for the campaign.

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MEASURE THE OVERALL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

In order to effectively measure the overall customer experience, companies must accurately measure the

contribution of each individual touch point as well as the overall level of customer satisfaction and

advocacy. At times, the results of one touch point may have an unanticipated affect on other aspects of

the experience.

Consider how the individual touch points associated with a fictitious product launch might impact the

experience at an electronics store:

1. Product Innovation: A key manufacturer is developing a leading-edge product that will be

innovative in the marketplace. The media learns of these developments and publishes reports that

an amazing new product is coming soon. Consumer excitement and anticipation is driven to

extremely high levels, although actual ship dates remain unknown. (Score: 10/10)

2. Electronics Store: Employees at the store and call center are inundated with inquiries about the

pending new product but are unable to provide any additional information regarding availability

nor can they accept pre-orders. (Score: 3/10)

3. Marketing: The product launch date is set and marketing begins to actively promote the new

product and its innovative features. Consumer anticipation is again driven to new highs as the

launch date approaches. (Score: 10/10)

4. Product Purchase: On launch day, consumers flood the store and web site to get the new

product. Those customers that are fortunate enough to purchase one are extremely satisfied.

(Score: 10/10)

5. Out of Stock: Initial euphoria quickly turns sour as the store runs out of stock and thousands of

customers are turned away without one of the highly coveted and heavily promoted products.

Customers are told to check back again in a few weeks. (Score: 1/10)

For a handful of customers who were able to purchase the product, they are extremely satisfied with their

experience and are willing to tell all of their friends about their latest purchase. Conversely, however,

many other customers who were turned away empty-handed are now frustrated and highly dissatisfied

with the experience.

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Relying solely on customer satisfaction or customer advocacy measures may not illuminate how each

touch point contributed to the overall experience. Simplistic customer satisfaction and advocacy scores

may mask the underlying factors that either contribute to or detract from an exceptional customer

experience.

Evaluating how each individual touch point contributes to the overall experience in this scenario can help

to identify specific areas for improvement. While touch points 1, 3 and 4 scored high, touch points 2 and

5 clearly have room for improvement.

Focusing only on an aggregate metric without understanding or managing the contributing factors can

yield unpredictable results. Companies seeking to improve their overall customer experience should

establish customer experience measures that correlate individual touch point results to overall customer

experience measures.

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CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE METHOD

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Commitment and Diagnosis Phase

-Stakeholder Assessment-Constituent Assessment

Product TrainingMission, Goals and Objectives Assessment

Technical Integration with Association Management System

Customer Experience Prescription Phase-Identification of formal communities-Recommendations for new programs

-Recommendations for non-dues revenue opportunities

-Recommendations for user adoption and engagement

Beta Group Phase-Identification of beta group participant

-Best practices for beta group management-Beta group training

-Beta group feedback

GTM (Go-to-Market) Phase

-Recommendations for communication vehicles and timing of communications

-Recommendations for positioning, tone and method of communications

-Recommendations for metrics-Execution

Community Wellness Check-Ups

-Assessment of user adoption based on identified metrics at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months

Recommendations for growth, innovation, and sustainability

-Recommendations for community participation in Higher Logic’s User Group

Customer Experience Strategies

Customer experience spending and adoption continues to rise in 2010, with most companies that offer

better customer experience levels outperforming their competitors. Here is a summary of effective

customer experience strategies heading into 2011.

1. The Voice of the Customer

Emotions account for over 50% of an experience, as Colin Shaw points out in The DNA of Customer

Experience. Emotions can only be captured qualitatively, and voice of the customer programs are the way

to do it.

Encourage and measure feedback from customers across all channels and touch points. Customer

perceptions of the company and experience should be measured, analyzed, and acted upon to drive the

customer experience forward.

2. Key Performance Indicator Benchmarking

In addition to qualitative feedback gathered above, quantitative key performance indicators (KPI’s) that

measure progress towards customer experience goals should be established. These may vary from

organization to organization, but it is important to ensure the KPI’s selected have a significant impact on

the customer experience, are measured accurately, and can be acted upon.

3. Diverse Communication Channels

Customers have unique and diverse preferences on how they would like to interact with companies. The

more communication channels you provide, the more likely it is that you cover their desired channel.

Emerging channels such as chat, online communities / forums, and social media (LinkedIn, Twitter,

Facebook, etc…) are popular among younger demographics, whereas the telephone is still the method of

choice for older customers.

4. One View of the Customer

Nothing destroys a customer experience better than a broken / incomplete view of the customer across

different departments or channels. Provide a complete view of the customer and interaction history across

78

all channels and touch-points in the organization to ensure this does not happen. Customers should

experience little to no disruption when being transferred between channels for support.

5. Engage Your Employees

Employee engagement has a positive impact on customer engagement. Aligning employee incentive

programs such as bonuses to customer metrics is a great way to improve the experience.

As an example, information infrastructure provider EMC’s online community lets employees connect and

engage through blogs, social networking tools, and RSS feeds. Employees are now well connected to the

company strategy and culture, with a positive impact on customer service.

6. Create A Knowledge Foundation

Understand what your customers want and need, and continually model this information into a knowledge

base. Provide your agents and employees with rapid access to this knowledge to ensure consistent

experiences and the right support is provided to your customers with each interaction.

7. Customer-Focused Business Decisions

With each business decision your organization makes, you should ask one question: what is the impact on

the customer experience? This impact should be a key factor in your decision-making if improving the

experience is a core objective of your business.

79

80

The Experience-Based Differentiat ion Mat urity Model

While EBD represents a blueprint for excellence, most firms are still in the early stages of their

customer experience journeys; far from mastering all three of its principles.4 To understand how

large organizations can make their way toward EBD, we interviewed nearly 50 organizations —

a combination of companies that are on customer experience journeys and vendors that help with

these efforts. Our discussions identified the following five levels of maturity that companies

progress through on their way toward EBD (see Figure 6):5

· Level No. 1: interested. Customer experience is important but receives little investment from

the executive team.

· Level No. 2: invested. Customer experience is considered very important, and formalized

programs emerge.

· Level No. 3: committed. Customer experience is critical, and execs are actively involved in an

effort to transform the company.

· Level No. 4: engaged. Customer experience is a core piece of the firm’s strategy.

· Level No. 5: embedded. Customer experience is ingrained in the fabric of the company.

Using our EBD self-test, we assessed the maturity level of 287 North American firms (see Figure

7).6

Interestingly, 37% of the firms were not yet on the path to EBD maturity (see Figure 8). Of the

firms

that were on the path, nearly two-thirds were in the first two stages of maturity.

81

82

ANALYSIS

83

QUESTIONNAIRE

Form No._____ Date: __________

Dear Respondent,

I Am Conducting A Survey For My Project On “An Analysis Of Consumer Experience

Towards Central mall:shop, eat, celebrate With Respect To Surat”. I Request You To

Kindly Cooperate With Me And Fill Up The Questionnaire. The Data Collected For The Project

Will Be Used For “Academic Purposes” Only.

1. Is This Your First Visit To Central Mall Surat?

1. Yes

2. No

3. What Did U Come To Buy?

1. Ladies Ethnic

2. Western

3. Youths

4. Men’s Formal

5. Men’s Casual

6. Kids

4. What Is Your Most Preferred Brand?

__________________________________________

5. Did U Get What You Were Looking For?

1. Yes

2. No84

3. If No Please Specify?

1. Size Not Available

2. Brand Not There

3. Price High

4. Colour Not There

6.Stores Are Conveniently Located ?

a. Very Strongly Agree

b. Strongly Agree

c. Agree

d. Disagree

7. Store Hours Are Convenient For My Shopping Needs ?

a. Very Strongly Agree

b. Strongly Agree

c. Agree

d. Disagree

8. Store Atmosphere And Decor Are Appealing ?

a. Very Strongly Agree

b. Strongly Agree

c. Agree

d. Disagree

9. A Good Selection Of Products Was Present ?

a. Very Strongly Agree

b. Strongly Agree

c. Agree

d. Disagree

85

10. Overall, I Am Very Satisfied With The Store ?

a. Very Strongly Agree

b. Strongly Agree

c. Agree

d. Disagree

ANALYSIS

Is This Your First Visit To Central Mall Surat?

4. Yes

5. No

Sr.No. Respond No. Of Respondent

1 Yes 34

2 No 66

86

34%

66%

no. of respondentyes no

Interpretationn:

The survey conducted on 100 respondent reviles that 34% i.e. 34 respondent were the

first visitors to the mall were as other 66% were a second time or frequent visitor to the mall.

2. What Did U Come To Buy?

87

1. Ladies Ethnic

2. Western

3. Youths

4. Men’s Formal

5. Men’s Casual

6. Kids

Sr. No.Respond No. Of Respondent

1 Ladies Ethnic 32

2

3

Western

Youths

54

4 Men’s Formal 72

5 Men’s Casual56

6 Kids 66

88

11%

19%

26%

20%

24%

No. of respondentLadies ethnic Western Youths Men’s formalMen’s casual Kids

INTERPRETATION:

The above graph shows that most of the respondents are looking for men’s casual and formals.

89

1. Did U Get What You Were Looking For?

90

2. Yes

3. No

Sr.No. Respond No. Of Respondent

1 Yes 77

2 No 33

67%

33%

no. of respondentyes no

Interpretation:

Most of the respondent received what they wanted to purchase but around 33% of people didn’t

get what they were looking for.

91

1. If No Please Specify?

1. Size Not Available

2. Brand Not There

3. Price High

4. Colour Not There

Sr.No. Respond No. Of Respondent

1 Size Not Available 13

2 Brand Not There 27

3 Price High 56

4 Colour Not There 4

92

13%

27%

56%

4%

No. of respondentSize not available Brand not there Price high Colour not there

Interpretation:

Major of the respondent found the price to be high, after that it was seen that brand demanded by

them was also not available. Other then that few of the people had an unavailability of size and

colour of there preference were missing.

6. Stores Are Conveniently Located ?

1. Very Strongly Agree

2. Strongly Agree

3. Agree

4. Disagree

5. Strongly Disagree

6. Very Strongly Disagree

SR. NO. respond Very

Strongly

Agree

Strongly

Agree

Agree Disagree Strongly

Disagree

Very

Strongly

Disagree

93

1 Stores Are

Conveniently

Located

13 20 32 14 10 11

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Stores Are Conveniently Located

Very Strongly AgreeStrongly AgreeAgreeDisagreeStrongly DisagreeVery Strongly Disagree

7. Store Hours Are Convenient For My Shopping Needs ?

1. Very Strongly Agree

2. Strongly Agree

3. Agree

4. Disagree

5. Strongly Disagree

94

6. Very Strongly Disagree

SR. NO. respond Very Strongly Agree

Strongly Agree

Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree

Very Strongly Disagree

1 Store Hours Are Convenient For My Shopping Needs

34 46 11 6 3 0

Very Strongly Agree

Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree

Very Strongly Disagree

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Store Hours Are Convenient For My Shopping Needs

8 . Store Atmosphere And Decor Are Appealing ?

7. Very Strongly Agree

8. Strongly Agree

9. Agree

10. Disagree

11. Strongly Disagree

12. Very Strongly Disagree

95

SR. NO. Respond Very Strongly Agree

Strongly Agree

Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree

Very Strongly Disagree

1 Store Atmosphere And Decor Are Appealing

23 25 13 22 10 7

Store Atmosphere And Decor Are Appealing

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

23 25 13 22 10 7

Very Strongly Agree Strongly Agree AgreeDisagree Strongly Disagree Very Strongly Disagree 9.

9. A Good Selection Of Products Was Present ?

13. Very Strongly Agree

14. Strongly Agree

15. Agree

96

16. Disagree

17. Strongly Disagree

18. Very Strongly Disagree

Sr. no. respond Very

strongly

agree

Strongly

agree

agree disagree Strongly

disagree

Very

strongly

disagree

1 Good

Selection

Of Products

Was

Present.

23 56 13 8 0 0

23%

56%

13% 8%

Good Selection Of Products Was Present.

Very strongly agreeStrongly agreeagreedisagreeStrongly disagreeVery strongly disagree

10. Overall, I Am Very Satisfied With The Store ?

19. Very Strongly Agree

20. Strongly Agree

21. Agree97

22. Disagree

23. Strongly Disagree

24. Very Strongly Disagree

Sr.no.

respondent

Very

Strongly

Agree

Strongly

Agree

Agree Disagree Strongly

Disagree

Very

Strongly

Disagree

1. Overall, I

Am Very

Satisfied

With The

Store.

12 24 26 11 21 6

12%

24%

26%

11%

21% 6%

Overall, I Am Very Satisfied With The Store.

Very strongly agreeStrongly agreeagreedisagreeStrongly disagreeVery strongly disagree

  Very Strongly Strongly AgreeDisagreeStrongly Very Strongly

98

Agree Agree Disagree Disagree

(Store) Has The Lowest Prices In The

Area.

7 34 44 13 1 1

Merchandise Sold Is Of The Highest

Quality.

4 15 34 28 12 7

The Merchandise Sold Is A Good Value

For The Money.

25 22 31 12 2 8

Merchandise Displays Are Attractive. 6 23 55 12 2 2

Advertised Merchandise Was In Stock. 5 16 24 25 12 18

I Am Very Satisfied With The Price I

Paid For What I Bought.

67 17 10 2 1 3

I Am Very Satisfied With The

Merchandise I Bought.

54 10 21 9 4 2

99

(Store) Has The Lowest Prices In The Area.

Merchandise Sold Is Of The Highest Quality.

The Merchandise Sold Is A Good Value For The Money.

Merchandise Displays Are Attractive.

Advertised Merchandise Was In Stock.

0 20 40 60 80 100

Very Strongly AgreeStrongly AgreeAgreeDisagreeStrongly DisagreeVery Strongly Disagree

100

Interpretation

graph 1:the above graph shows that most of the stores are conveniently located, respondents

strongly agree that the srore atmosphere and décor are appealing and a good variety of products

are available at central mall

graph 2: most of the respondents agree that the merchandise displays are attractive and that the

merchandise sold there is of good value for money and of highest quality

101

LIMITATIONS OF THE

PROJECT

102

LIMITATIONS OF THE PROJECT

It is a known fact to all that nothing and nobody in this world is perfect! However hard one may

try, but certain limitations – directly or indirectly are bound to crop up.

Certain aspects which have put limitations on this project are listed below.

1. The foremost limitation is the Time-Constraint. The time frame for the completion of this

project is 2 months which is undoubtedly a little less. As a result, full utilization of ideas

and creativity was limited.

2. Secondly, the Sample Size of 50 out of the huge population may be considered as a

limiting factor. Hence the reaearch results are not produced so accurately.

3. Last but not the least, certain questions of the feedback form were left unattended by the

respondents for reasons not known. As a result, analysis was a little difficult and not

accurate.

103

SUGGESTION

&

CONCLUSION

104

SUGGESTION

1. Consumer requirement for each department in the store is to be identified well in

advance.

2. All the display should be available at the store.

3. Price should be checked as it is seen that consumer is finding price pretty high.

4. Environment and decore should be made more attractive to make consumer experience

more enjoyable.

105

CONCLUSION

Based on the study and the research done during the training period it is seen that the

organization has got a good consumer experience policy. However the following thing are

observed in the research:

5. The consumer are satisfied with the existing consumer experience process.

6. The consumer experience should not be complicated.

7. To some extent a clear picture of the required consumer should be made in order to

make the experience as the consumer need.

106

BIBLOGRAPHY

107

BIBLOGRAPHY

1. Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh

2. The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary by Joseph

Michelli

3. What’s the Secret: To Providing a World-Class Customer Experience by John R. DiJuliu

108

ANNEXURE

109

QUESTIONNAIRE

Form No._____ Date: __________

Dear Respondent,

I Am Conducting A Survey For My Project On “An Analysis Of Consumer Experience

Towards Central mall:shop, eat, celebrate With Respect To Surat”. I Request You To

Kindly Cooperate With Me And Fill Up The Questionnaire. The Data Collected For The Project

Will Be Used For “Academic Purposes” Only.

4. Is This Your First Visit To Central Mall Surat?

5. Yes

6. No

7. What Did U Come To Buy?

1. Ladies Ethnic

2. Western

110

3. Youths

4. Men’s Formal

5. Men’s Casual

6. Kids

8. What Is Your Most Preferred Brand?

__________________________________________

9. Did U Get What You Were Looking For?

10. Yes

11. No

12. If No Please Specify?

1. Size Not Available

2. Brand Not There

3. Price High

4. Colour Not There

13. The Following Questions Evaluate Your Views Of The Store You Visited.

Please Indicate Your Opinions About Each Of The Following Statements.

Very

Strongly

Agree

Strongly

Agree

Agree Disagree Strongly

Disagree

Very

Strongly

Disagree

Stores Are Conveniently Located.

111

Store Hours Are Convenient For

My Shopping Needs.

Store Atmosphere And Decor Are

Appealing.

A Good Selection Of Products

Was Present.

(Store) Has The Lowest Prices In

The Area.

Merchandise Sold Is Of The

Highest Quality.

The Merchandise Sold Is A Good

Value For The Money.

Merchandise Displays Are

Attractive.

Advertised Merchandise Was In

Stock.

Overall, I Am Very Satisfied With

The Store.

I Am Very Satisfied With The

Price I Paid For What I Bought.

I Am Very Satisfied With The

Merchandise I Bought.

112