Reliable Service vs. Breathtaking Experience

We in India have been particularly used to such customer abuse from the likes of Railways or Indian Airlines as well as a Reliance Mobile or a PSU bank, that when a brand like Jet Airways happened in our midst almost 10 years ago, most couldn’t believe that Indians could have pulled off something as world-class as that. Probably it was the only truly world-class act out of India in a long-long time (actually, can’t think of anything at all).

But then a Kingfisher comes along and takes service to the new level of an experience. With its passion red colors, sensuously decked up flight crew, in-flight entertainment, the reading-material etc. Kingfisher seems to have repositioned Jet as a reliable but boring, devoid of personality, kind of brand. Jet, which for years, looked unassailable seems to have been outdone by a player who had no prior experience in running a service business and from day one has got its act right with hardly any lose ends. Moreover, they have taken customer care to new heights with staff walking around with printers that generate the boarding pass, a person at the arrival guiding you to the right conveyor belt, and now we hear of a helicopter service to take you to the Airport directly from the office district.

This is a wake up call for all the emerging service businesses like banking, retail, cinemas etc where delivering reliable service itself is a challenge and once they get it, it’s almost like climbing mount-Everest and their imagination stops working. So you have a host of me-too banks (ICICI and HDFC look like clones of each other), every mall which is a replica of the other, and all our lovely low cost airlines which are still struggling to get the basics right.

And yet if there is one thing to be learnt from a Kingfisher it is this. Even of you are taking on a competitor as venerable as Jet, there are massive chinks in the armor that can be exploited and almost overnight, thought leadership be snatched away. New service businesses have no option but to conceptualize their offering as an experience from day one and give it that unique character beyond just dependable service. They have to embody rich and textured personalities (not just almost robotic delivery of service) and it have the *&^% to even offend a few sensibilities. Only then can we create truly memorable experiences like a Disney, Virgin or a Starbucks in our midst. So will the ITCs, Oberois, Leelas of the world take a cue!