Talk on customer experience management

UTAR’s Centre for Business and Management (CBM) parked under the Faculty of Business and Finance (FBF) successfully organised a research talk titled “The Art and Science of Customer Experience Management” at Kampar Campus on 30 March 2018. The invited speaker was the CEO and Head of S P Jain School of Global Management Campus (Singapore) Dr John Fong.

Dr Fong explaining the role of customer experience management

The talk aimed to shed light on customer experience management, which refers to the collection of processes a company uses to track, oversee and organise every interaction between a customer and the organisation throughout the customer’s life cycle.

Also present at the talk were FBF Dean Dr Au Yong Hui Nee, Deputy Dean for R&D and Postgraduate Programmes Dr Lau Lin Sea, Deputy Dean for Student Development and Industrial Training Yew King Tak, Chairperson of CBM Dr Lee Voon Hsien, FBF Heads of Departments, lecturers and students. 

Dr Fong explained, “Customer experience management is the practice of designing and reacting to customer interactions so as to exceed their expectations and ultimately increase satisfaction, loyalty and profitability. This strategy has been proven successful by many businesses which use customer experience management to increase the number of repeat customers and improve the bottom-line.”

Using examples from the hospitality industry, Dr Fong gave an overview of the art and science of how a luxury hotel chain manages customer experience management and constantly strives to exceed expectations. The knowledge gained from the sharing allows marketers and practitioners to make effective decision making in an organisation.

He added, “Customer’s life cycle offers various opportunities to better interact and engage with customers as well as partners. The trick lies in being able to identify these opportunities and leverage them effectively. To do that, the companies need to understand how to apply Industry 4.0 technologies such as e-commerce platforms, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality to their current customer practices and move from traditional to a digital enterprise.”

The speaker also emphasised that customers are evolving. He elucidated, “The cookie-cutter approach or a one-size fits all approach is no longer viable. Companies should understand the customer’s journey.” Using Jumeirah Hotels as an example, he shared with participants the five stages in a customer’s journey, namely Dreaming, Researching, Booking, Experiencing and Sharing, which enables the creation of an imaginative, exhilarating, thoughtful and generous experience for customers.

Dr Lee commented, “It is indeed a great platform for UTAR staff and students to learn about customer experience management. Customer experience management is covered as part of the course content under UBTC2033 Customer Relationship Management, where the role of customer experience management systems in marketing and marketing strategy is explained.” She added, “At the completion of the talk, students and faculty members will be able to exhibit the understanding on customer experience management related theories to organisations for future decision-making, explain the role of customer experience management and its relationship with the marketing environment, and demonstrate the usage of customer experience management concepts in the development of marketing strategy for an organisation.”

The talk ended with an interactive Q&A session followed by a souvenir presentation to Dr Fong.

Dr Au Yong presenting a souvenir to Dr Fong

Dr John Fong is the CEO and Head of Campus (Singapore) at S P Jain School of Global Management which has been ranked by Forbes to have one of the Top 20 MBA programmes in the world. He specialises in a variety of fields such as hospitality and tourism, business development and education. Having been the President and CEO of a University, a Professor at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, a published author, an academic reviewer for journals and textbooks and a sought-after speaker, he is most passionate about education. He is also the Immediate Past President of EuroCHRIE (European Council on Hotel Restaurant and Institutional Education), the peak academic body that represents Hospitality and Tourism Educators in Europe, Middle East and Africa. He has also been elected as Board Director of THE-ICE (the International Centre of Excellence in Tourism and Hospitality Education), an international accreditation agency that is an authoritative source on Tourism, Hospitality, Events and Culinary Arts education.