Article by Mr. Sudipto Ghosh
PGDM (Executive) – Marketing
Batch: January 2021

I have been tracking the world of marketing and customer experience management and the changes in the industry for the past 8 years. As a Martech journalist who has interviewed over 2000+ Chief Marketing Officers and as many senior marketing leaders and CEOs working in Marketing and Sales technology software industries, I have witnessed some ravishing transformation in the way customer service has evolved, particularly in the last 2 years since the onset of the COVID-19 and its umpteen number of disruptions. Back in 2013, mobile gaming was just rising and not many users had actually signed up for any apps. Though market for mobile advertising and social media apps had already made their presence felt in the US, and India was among the fastest-growing markets for various types of business-centric applications, nobody would have guessed the roadmap the marketing trends for the next 10 years. Everyone had heard of Mobile Commerce / m-commerce, but trust me, there were hardly anyone willing to invest in the m-commerce business that early. The logic was simple – who is going to beat the Googles, Amazons, Ubers and AirBNBs in their own home ground. And then arrived the likes of Indian software companies that focused on entirely m-commerce markets. The leaders included:

• IndiaMart
• 99acres: real estate booking
• Shaadi.com: Match-making
• Flipkart and Snapdeal: e-commerce
• OLX, Quikr: Classified ads (more like Indianized version of Yellow Pages)
• Naukri/ Times Jobs/ Monster: Job boards and hiring services
• Lenskart: Personalised opticians
• Healthkart: Online health products, protein shakes
• Quora: Online content sharing

I am pretty sure, there were many more brands that came in early in the m-commerce business and would have loved to stick around but these are iconic brands that made their mark very early, and the companies such as Paytm, Swiggy, Dunzo, 1mg, and millions of other apps see these brands as their earliest rivals. So, what led to this massive influx of mobile app businesses in India, and for that matter around the world?

I would attribute this massive influx to three things:

• Boom of mobile usage powered by cheaper data packs and availability of high-quality smart phones
• Big data and analytics
• Ease of customer service management with online feedback!

Today, if we observe closely, it is impossible to think of any marketing campaign that doesn’t speak of budgets to be spared for social media campaigns and video content. The rise of YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn seemingly brought to the fore importance of leveraging user data collected from various sources to build what we call today, “customer persona.” It is a stark reality in marketing jobs that the lack of understanding of marketing intelligence, data science and analysis could derail your career. Companies are hiring for talented marketers from top MBA colleges such as IMT Ghaziabad to fulfil the growing number of vacancies in tier 1 categories.

In fact, it was only when I was working my project in the 3^rd semester of the PGDM – Executive in Marketing, I found out how important new technologies like Marketing Automation and Social CRM are for leading a successful career in customer centric companies. I was totally surprised at the way Social CRM and Social Commerce have combined in the new era of delivering customer experience and personalization with superior Marketing communication, Analytics and so on.

UNDERSTANDING THE CURRENT INTEGRATION OF MARKETING, ANALYTICS AND SOCIAL MEDIA

The interesting relationship between the core marketing activities, social media and analytics can be understood from the way decision-makers look out for intelligent insights from their business analysis teams, who more or less use the same set of tools as marketers (CRM), in addition to upgraded platforms built on Big Data such as Microsoft BI, Tableau, Sisense, and Google Cloud. And, then link to all the top draw user data collection tools such as Hubspot, Salesforce, Oracle Marketing Cloud for better decision-making in marketing and sales. Social media tools such as Hootsuite, Facebook (now Meta) and Meltwater offer cutting-edge advanced social media monitoring and analysis opportunities to marketers for better understanding of how users could be converted into customers and loyal advocates of their brands in the near future. If you use mobile app, you are more likely to experience the power of Marketing engagement, social media customization and analytics yourself. In most cases, if I am happy with a certain service offered by a brand, I can tag the company’s social media online and solicit a response. The social media channels have climbed the rung in customer services faster than the traditional channels, such as a phone call or email, or chat. What’s the reason for this?

Obviously, brands don’t want to lose their social media reputation and their marketing image as portrayed through TV advertisements and magazines where everything they say is writing on the wall – but not anymore. Social media channels like Twitter and FACEBOOK where posts and tweets on bad customer service can escalate very quickly and “crowd sourcing” of ideas and complaints lead to massive unpopularity among users and followers, and later governing bodies taking a note of a malpractice or “inability to provide promised services as per agreement”.

If you are a marketer working in such a company that has to tackle a customer service issue rising from an online conversation, what would you do?

Here’s what specialized skilled marketing leaders recommend:

• Revisit the basics of Integrated Marketing Communications and tackle the issue arising from digital conversations online with politeness;
• Always reply to the tweet or post after you verify the profile; don’t engage on bot conversations or with trolls;
• Please ask for communication on an email as a follow-up or DM, away from the limelight of the rest of the social media universe
• Find out if this is a unique case of customer service or other customers also feel the same
• Do a survey and check how you can improve your customer service.

HOW MBA IN MARKETING REALLY HELPS EASE THE PAIN POINTS IN MODERN DAY CUSTOMER SERVICES?

There is no two way about the MBA specializations for marketing professionals and aspiring techies who wish to leap into the new age of doing business using analytics and social commerce. If you want to be on a Shark Tank episode, you need that business acumen to be honed and polished, which is only possible when you tackle real-life business problems through vocational training, classroom studies, industrial case studies and above all, discussing with fellow peers and marketing faculties. At IMT, I could do all these and combined with my already existent case studies from my previous jobs as a Martech writer and journalist, I could closely relate to the traditional marketing concepts and how these still exist in the post-COVID world. We will continue to see the transformation of marketing jobs and titles with further interaction between CRM analysts, data science professionals and social media managers.

I am concluding by raising a toast to every marketing professional who has chosen the path to glory with analytics, social media management and customer experience.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are of the author. They do not, in any way, purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Institute or its employees.