About ‘MINISO’

MINISO, a Japan-based designer retail, was co-founded by Japanese

designer Mr. Miyake Junya and a young Chinese entrepreneur Mr.
Ye Guofu in Tokyo, Japan, Guofu also works as chief designer for the
company.
MINISO promotes the use of “intelligent consumer products”. Brand
believes in the philosophy of “simplicity, nature and good quality” and
the brand proposition of “returning to nature”, MINISO gains the
popularity among customers because of their policy to change the
product range every week, competitive pricing, and targeting at
intelligent consumer product chains. MINISO was run by MINISO
Industries Co. Ltd. in 2013 and entered the Chinese market in
September of the same year to comprehensively come into the market of
intelligent consumer products in China. It opened its first store in India
in August 2017.
Established in Japan in 2013, MINISO, actively explores the
international market and has opened over 2600 stores till now. At
present, MINISO has reached strategic cooperation agreements with
more than 60 countries including South Korea, Thailand, Singapore,
Canada, Australia, The United States, Russia, the United Arab Emirates,
and Germany. They have an average growth rate of 80-100 stores per
month.

Customer experience program

Product range: The products sold are many and varied, there are
snacks, clothing, cosmetics, jewellery, homeware, electronics, and much
more. Because, having wide variety of products increases the chances of
sale, also the customer feels easy because he or she can get all the needed
items under one roof without any hustle bustle.
Product quality and pricing: MINISO is a Japanese brand which
deals in lifestyle products, most of the product they deal in are made up
of plastic. MINISO uses high quality plastic to manufacture the product.
They get the products manufactured from Chinese manufacturer due to
the low labour cost buy do not compromise on the quality.
There are some complains about the electronic products they provide
like earphones and keyboards but other than that the quality is really
impressive.
Store aesthetics and visual merchandise: interior of the store is
simple and minimal. Brand follows a minimal theme, you can find the
boxes with icons printed on them that depict the products they are
containing.
Stores are almost standee free however small tags can be found on the
shelfs which describes the products, the products are unique and simple.
Mostly product follow a bright colour theme without being tacky, in the
background you can hear a mild instrumental music playing all the time,
tester products are available for testing before you buy the product.
Store merchandise and setup gives a very elegant look. Despite being a
brand which caters to middle income group they have been successful in
creating the brand image as high-end retailers.
Store staff: We all know the importance of a good store staff as they are
the face of the brand, the first interaction between brand and customer
always involves a sales man. MINISO is having an unprofessional store
staff in India, people can easily find the complains against the store staff
MINISO is having.
Brand can work on valuable feedback which is provided by many
customers on internet to improve the conditions of stores in India.
Customer care: The brand is not having a very fast and efficient
customer care, most of their products have a warranty for 6-12 months
and finding a service centre is another task. The electronic products have
a warranty for 6 months, during the warranty period if you come across
some manufacturing defect then the company replaces the product with
a new one but whole process takes around one month which is very
disappointing.
Customer should not forget that MINISO is a Japanese brand which is
still in a growing phase, brand still has to go a long way to compete with
the leading brands in the segment.
Customer reach: As of September 2018 MINISO has only 35 stores in
India, that is a small number but if you consider the time period of one
year than it is not bad. The brand is planning to open another 1000+
stores in India by the end of 2019.
Right now we can say that the brand is not reaching up to the mark
where we can say that the brand is having a widespread reach but we can
see that happening in coming years. However, the store is doing good in
terms of customer reach in China where they are having 1000+ stores.
24x7 connect: The 24 hour helpline is not there so if you get stuck with
the product in the middle of the night the best possible solution is to wait
until morning and then try to call customer service.
Sometimes these small service delay and unsolved problems can cost the
brand more than just the money, which is why MINISO should start such
services as soon as possible.
Brand name: Most of the people do not know about the MINISO
stores, as there was very little to no marketing done initially. The brand
did a good marketing over internet and social media but that was not
enough for a country of 1.35 billion.
People who have bought the products from MINISO liked the store
aesthetically and for their creative ideas, but there were many
complaints from the people who have bought electronic products.
Also, a very disappointing information is floating over the internet about
the brand. People accused the brand of being Chinese and not Japanese,
and there has been no clarification from MINISO on this topic. Such
instances can make the customers feel cheated, which can further result
into loss of business.
Analysis of the CX program by MINISO
MINISO is a china based Japanese brad which produces many kind of
products, some of their products are very good like towels, toys, combs,
bottles, clothes, everyday products used in kitchen and much more. But,
some of their products are not reliable example range of electronics.
MINISO originated with the aim of providing the customers with high-
quality products at affordable prices equivalent to the value of product,
but we can see from the above scenario that the brand has not been able
to prove itself when it comes to electronics.
Customer experience which is an integral part of any marketing strategy
is also having a serious backlog at MINISO’s. they have no facility for 24
hour customer service, product warranty is only for 6 months,
replacement takes more than a month, store staff is unprofessional, and
brand doesn’t make the customer feel special. However there are two
things which are really amazing about the brand which are – the product
range and the collection of beautifully curated products.
Developing a customer experience management
program.
Customer experience
It is the sum total of all interactions that happen between the customer
and the organisation throughout the customer lifecycle. It is inclusive of
following phases, admit, affirm, active, acclimate, accomplish, and
advocacy.
Assess: In the Assess phase, the customer is deciding if they want to do
business with you. They are learning what to expect from your
organization and sharing (explicitly and implicitly) their expectations for
the relationship. The customer is hopeful that you'll be able to help them,
but it's cautious optimism at best.
Admit: The Admit phase begins when the customer admits they have a
problem or a need and believe you, the company or organization, can
solve it. As a result, they buy your product or sign up for your service.
This is often referred to as "the sale," and sadly, in most businesses, this
is where any customer-focused initiatives end.
Affirm: The Affirm phase is more commonly known as "buyer's
remorse." The customer begins to doubt the decision they just made to
work with you. Almost every businessperson has heard of the buyer's
remorse concept, yet few businesses do anything to counter their
customer's feelings of fear, doubt, and uncertainty. If you don't address
these feelings, you will need to work overtime to get back to the state of
joy, euphoria, and excitement the customer felt in the Admit phase.
Active: The Activate phase begins with the first major post-sale
interaction, when the relationship between customer and organization
first materializes in a meaningful way and the business begins to deliver
on the promises made during the Assess phase. The customer is excited
to get started but somewhat anxious about whether everything will go as
promised.
Acclimate: In the Acclimate phase, the customer learns about an
organization's way of doing business. Too many businesses that have
delivered their product or service dozens, hundreds, thousands, or
millions of times assume that everyone in the world knows their
particular process. For the customer, this is most likely the first time
they've ever experienced this particular way of doing things. They are at
best unsure and at worst frustrated by the lack of familiarity. If you don't
properly onboard the customer and get them bought in to your
approach, they will never become a long-standing, loyal customer.
Accomplish: In the Adopt phase, the customer takes ownership of the
relationship, leading the charge on deepening and strengthening the
bond. In this phase they proudly show their support and affinity for your
brand and are thrilled to be associated with your reputation.
Advocate: In the Advocate phase, the customer becomes a raving fan,
zealous promoter, and eager referral engine all in one. In this phase, they
develop into a built-in, unpaid, un-commissioned marketing
representative, singing your praises far and wide to other potential
customers who might benefit from your product or service.
Each of these phases are equally important for development of a loyal
customer base, and a loyal customer base can do wonders for your
business.

Customer experience, Customer services, and

User experience
If you don’t know the meaning of each term properly than you can get
confused between the three terms easily. Customer experience is a
general term which includes many aspects , customer services and user
experience are two aspects of customer experience.
Customer service refers to the services provided to the customer
during the term of customer lifecycle, it includes the services before the
sale and services after the sale has been done. It is one of the key factors
involved in sales, customer consider the services he or she is going to get
from the company before buying the product.
User experience is the interaction that happens between the customer
and the application or website what company provides. If customer gets
a hassle free experience using the mobile application or website than he
will automatically feel delighted.

Why customer experience matters

 In a survey conducted by Oracle, 74% senior executives said that
customer experience affected how enthusiastic customers were
about being brand advocates.
  A study by American Express revealed that 60% of the participants
were willing to pay more for a better customer experience.
 Research conducted by Bain & Company uncovered that 80%
participating companies believed their customer experience was
great, while only 8% of their customers agreed with them.

Steps to create a customer experience

management program for a retailer
Developing a customer experience management program is not a very
difficult task, the developer should address the needs of customer and try
to solve the problems which customers are facing. The procedure
involves few steps which are mentioned below.

These steps could be used by a variety of business developers and

retailers to improve the customer experience program they are having.
Customer experience management has become a very important
part of business management because customers have started looking
forward than just the products. The brands such as apple, Walmart,
Starbucks, etc. are considered as the most successful in their own
respective fields because the one thing which is common for all of them
is that they all are customer oriented brands. They treat their customers
as a valuable resource which can fetch huge business if future.

1. Understand your audience: To create the best customer

experience, you have to first understand your customers - who they
are, their motivations and concerns. If your organization wants to
deeply understand customers and empathize with them, you need
access to in-depth intelligence.

There are two ways of doing this:

a. The customer service team can gather the information about the
customers who walk in. The offline method of gathering
information is best because it would be a human interaction
which is difficult to avoid.
b. Some online software could be used to gather the information
but this method is not reliable because people can easily chose
not to fill the online form.

When retailer would be having information about the customers

than it will be easier for them to create a more suitable customer
experience program.
2. Understand your business: Understanding your own brand is
a integral part of making a customer experience program. Before
offering a product in the market a seller should know why is he
selling, how is the product going to solve the problem his
customers are facing, what are the goals of his business, and what
kind of market he is aiming for, only then the retailer can work on
his customer experience strategy.

The retailer should also work on the motive of the business,

weather the business is focused on gaining new customers or is
it focused on retaining the customers it is having. Proper
business plan could be made on the basis of the market scenario.

Review brand study properly and this will help to make necessary
changes where improvements are needed. Restructure goals to
create long lasting values through a customer experience strategy.
Identify the barriers and how CX strategy will help to achieve the
objectives.

3. Work backward: If the retailer wants to know how to improve a

customer experience than he should work backward from the
customers point of view. Successful entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs
have adopted this strategy to understand the needs of customer.

There are two ways for doing this:

a. List your brand’s customer experience stages and places where

you have an opportunity to make an impression. Try and
showcase your USP using these opportunities. For example
amazon always delivers the product before time, this is their
USP.

b. Focus on utility and real problem solving instead of offering

unnecessary features. Retailers these days focus on the features
they are providing but they are neglecting the basic needs of a
customer. If they follow any premium brand than they will come
to know that those brands which have become successful have
always tried to solve the problems faced by their customers.

4. Hire the professionals: when a customer walks into a retail

store the first interaction he or she has is with the store staff, the
way staff treats your customer is the most crucial part of customer
experience. There are some stores where the staff is so well trained
 that they pick up the small details from the conversation and make
the changes inside the store accordingly.

That is why hiring the professionals is a very important decision

that any retail outlet has to make, it can affect the business they are
constantly trying to make. The qualities that matter in a customer
service executive are interpersonal skills, the ability to interact and
connect with people, presentation, hospitality and the ability to
maintain a cool mind through crises.

5. Eliminate the flaws in CX design: suppose the customer is

going through your online portal and is facing a lot of hurdles and
problems while ordering, the customer would never return to that
place. These are the flaws which are present in all the CX programs
across the brands, a good manager would try to find out such
complications and would eliminate them as fast as possible.

A good customer experience executive will also try to keep the

channels uniform, these channels could be mobile applications,
websites, e-mails, social media pages. If the channels would be
uniform than the customer would feel easy to reach to it’s goal, and
would be delighted at the same time.
Some tips which brands can follow are :-
 Website and application should follow same theme
 Online helpdesk should be highlighted with bright colours
 Customer care should be available 24x7
 Similar email ID for variety of complaints
 24 hours revert back service
 Hand to hand replacement

6. Stay attentive about customer needs and use feedback

loops: we discussed about the survey conducted by Bain &
Company where 80% of the companies thought that they have a
good customer experience program but only 8% of the customers
agreed with them. Sometimes the retailers think that they are
providing the best services in the market but the actually they are
wrong, to save the company from this misconception regular
feedback loops are very important.

That is why it’s essential to create a feedback loop. Here is how you
can create a feedback loop:
 a. Use post-interaction, real-time feedback surveys. You can even
follow up with customers over the phone for more details.
b. Pay attention to what is being said about you on social media,
this is where customers are usually the most honest.

7. Research about the competitors and create goals: Do

proper analysis of your competitors, current market threats to get a
clear idea of business and your customers. Use both internal and
external processes to get an overview of market environment and
competitors. This analysis will help to know where improvements
are needed to overcome the gap between current position and
competitors. The very next step is to do deep analysis of the
current state to create strategic goals and objectives that will help
in implementing a successful CX strategy.

These goals and objectives will focus on competitive threats,

market issues, and the opportunities discovered throughout the
strategy project.

8. Systems for quick resolutions: Once you have taken a

collection of all interactions and feedback from customers, you can
build an efficient resolution system to satisfy customers’ needs.
Ideally, every unsupported stage in the customer lifecycle should
have an unobtrusive support system in place.

The best way to do this gives your customers and prospects

control. Instead of forcing your support on them, show them that it
exists and that they can access it easily when needed.

Three ways to provide customer support are :

a. Live chat platforms: These live platforms can give a Realtime

solution to customers. Customers find it easy to interact with
customer service representative, even the people who are not
the customers but have queries regarding the product can
resolve the queries easily and quickly. This is a very popular of
customer experience program.

b. Social media pages: The conversation can also take place

over the social media pages where generally most of the people
are already available. The problems can be discussed over the
forums and anyone can come up with a relevant solution. This is
 quick and also involves many consumers to interact with each
other.

c. Feedback forms: Traditional feedback forms are still used by

many retailers, though they are old-fashioned but still they are
the most reliable and most convenient way of getting connected
with your customers.

9. Making a memorable brand personality: Even if your

customer experience is great, you risk losing customers to brands
that are more memorable, spunky or have an intangible quality to
them. For instance, there are several smartphones that can rival
the iPhone in the market, but Apple remains the only smartphone
manufacturing company to make an huge profit every year.

Apple was able to build such a loyal customer base because they
are oriented towards the customer happiness, they build the
premium quality products, added the features which were
exclusive, they provide the best service, the staff is well trained,
customer can approach the company almost everywhere in the
world, software’s are exclusive, they guarantee the safety of your
data, and most importantly they treat the customer as family.

10. Optimise the customer experience program: Once you have

made customer experience strategy, executives can focus on where
still improvements are needed. Customer Experience Strategy is an
ongoing process. Executives can measure and can regularly
optimize efforts.

Below are some practices to follow when optimizing a customer

service strategy:

 Analyse small minute details to make customer experience

better.
 Keep yourself in place of customers and gather the information
regarding brand experience, design, product usage etc.
 Know your targeted audience
 Give proper training to customer executive about your products,
how to deal with customers queries and motivate them to
become customer-centric.
 Customer experience is a continuous process and requires
continuous efforts to make customer journey powerful
Summary
Customer experience is a integral part of marketing strategy, if
customer would not feel delighted by the service you are providing
to him or her than he might never return. Lack of loyal customer s
can cost the brand more than just money, one regretful customer
can take away huge business opportunities of future.

MINISO which is a Japanese retailer deals in the lifestyle products,

the product range is wide and they have large variety of beautifully
curated products. The brand focuses on the middle income group
because the market size is large and they can cater to al huge
audience.

The customer experience program they have adopted is good in

countries like Japan and China but in India still they have to do a
lot of background work. There is a lot of scope for improvement in
coming future because the brand is new with the concept and it is
having the first mover advantage.

There is a customer experience program developed my me, there

are some general steps mentioned in the report, these steps could
be followed to make a successful CX program.

Bibliography
 Design Roadmapping in an Uncertain World: Implementing
a Customer-Experience-Focused Strategy. (Ebsco host)
 https://www.quora.com/topic/Miniso-retailer
 http://www.minisoindia.com/contact-us/
 http://knowledge.ckgsb.edu.cn/2017/05/31/c-suite-
interview/miniso-mega-success-interview-ye-guofu/
 http://www.minisoindia.com/about-miniso/