As India’s economy enters a phase that allows private sector growth — as well as increased foreign competition — the nation’s sizable middle class of about 350 million people has experienced a conundrum of sorts.
On the one hand, the number of brand choices that customers have for various products and services has exploded. But on the other hand, most Indians’ expectations of what constitutes a quality product — or competent service — remains relatively low.
For India’s businesses to thrive in this new economic wave, two basic things must occur, according to Subir Bandyopadhyay, a professor of marketing at Indiana University Northwest in Gary who has studied consumer behavior for nearly two decades. Not only must Indian companies must better understand customers, but customers must better understand what quality products and services means.
So Bandyopadhyay spent the past summer and fall in India as a Fulbright Scholar helping consumers and business cultivate such habits. Now back in the U.S., Bandyopadhyay explained what his research tried to accomplish.
“By identifying the different facets of service quality used by Indian consumers, organizations will be able to focus their attention to improve service quality, prioritize their efforts to improve customer satisfaction, and systematically assess their progress so that they can develop goals and strategies for improvement,” he said.
To learn more about Bandyopadhyay’s recent work in India, click here.
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