Taj Group & Kingfisher are leading services companies; Dont cut customer service in slowdown: Dr A Parasuraman

In fact they should increase the focus and spends on customer services, so that when the economic upturn comes, their brands are the favorites of customers. Thats the message coming from one of the global leading marking gurus and an authority on Services marketing area -- Dr A Parasuraman. Dr Parasuraman was in Delhi to deliver a talk on strategies to create value in bad times and good on January 6, 2009.

At the forum, Dr Parasuraman addressed ways to leverage intangible assets such as customer service, human capital, information capital, service quality, brand, operations and processes, organization capital, etc and create sustained value.
When asked by MBAUniverse.com which are the Indian companies that are leading the services marketing thought in India, Dr Parasuraman said: Taj Group of Hotels is perhaps the best example of service marketing excellence. The services are consistent across locations and touchpoints. Kingfisher Airlines is another example of superior customer service.

A. Parasuraman is the James W. McLamore Chair in Marketing, Professor of Marketing at the University of Miami, School of Business. His key publications include Technoready Marketing: How and Why Your Customers Adopt Technology, The Free Press (coauthor with Colby); Marketing Services: Competing Through Quality, The Free Press (coauthor with Berry); Delivering Quality ServiceBalancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations, The Free Press (coauthor with Zeithaml and Berry). Dr Parsuraman completed his D.B.A. from Indiana University in Marketing area. Earlier he did his M.BA. from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and is also a Bachelor of Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

The event was also addressed by Dr Sharad Sarin and Dr M Muneer. Dr Sarin has been a faculty member since 1976, with XLRI, Jamshedpur, and has been the Dean of XLRI [19841988] and a Visiting Faculty to the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad [India], the University of Rhode Island, Kingston [USA], Colorado University at Boulder [USA] and Helsinki School of Economics [Finland]. Dr Muneer is a leading management consultant and author based in India and Dubai. He has over 20 years of management experience having worked across industries and countries.

Dr Parasuramans also covered topics like:

How do you unlock hidden value in your company and create value for your customers?
What is your companys strategy for value creation? And how do you contribute to this value creation process?
Do you have a customer delight strategy that is actionable?

He also discussed cases like Nordstorms Nordies, Southwest strategy, Xerox disaster, Intel turnaround, Subway serendipity, Wells Fargo online financial services, and other live examples.
The event is being organized by Knowledge Management Company iMedia. MBAUniverse.com, Indias leading management portal, is the Official Management Portal of this important knowledge event. Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for highlights from the event.