The service industry’s contribution to the country’s gross domestic product is over 50 per cent. The sector is growing at 12 per cent per annum, well above the average GDP growth of 8 per cent. However, the shortage of executives with the right people skills has led Aegis, a BPO of the Essar group, to start the Institute of Customer Experience Management. It will train students in managing ‘customer experience’. The Indian Institute of Management, Indore is partnering Aegis to train students, as are COPC (USA) and SQ Centre (Singapore).

The institute will teach students for 15 months (out of which 11 months will be spent on campus and the rest in the industry). Says Aegis Global Academy President Subir Ghosh: “It is more of an approach from the customer’s point of view rather than an insider’s perspective.”
 
The trigger for such an institute, which Aegis claims is the first of its kind, came from the company trying to manage the life-cycle of its customers. “We try to make our business less transaction-based and more customer life-cycle oriented,” Ghosh says. The institute will lay stress on students aiming to service a customer through his life-cycle than just sell a service or product. (more…)