SOM MBA Students Explore Customer Experience in Action

By: Dr. Gerard Tocquer and Ms. Sitahng Puttha

Services Marketing: Competing through Customer Experience in a Hybrid World

As part of the MBA course Services Marketing: Competing through Customer Experience in a Hybrid World, led by Dr. Gerard Tocquer, students from the School of Management, Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), participated in two field visits designed to bring customer experience (CX) strategy to life.

These visits, enriched by insights from guest speakers, provided students with a unique opportunity to understand how organizations design, deliver, and scale customer experience in very different contexts.

Field Trip 1: Novotel Future Park Rangsit on April 16 2026

Marketing a New Hotel When the Experience Does Not Yet Exist

The first field trip challenged a fundamental question in services marketing: How do you market a service that customers have never experienced?

At Novotel Future Park Rangsit, students explored how a new hotel builds demand before opening—when no reviews, no memories, and no lived experience exist yet.

Through discussions with industry professionals, students discovered:

• How branding, sales, and marketing must align before launch

• The importance of creating trust without experience

• The role of communication in shaping expectations before delivery

  
  

The visit highlighted a key insight:

In services, experience is the product—but before it exists, marketing must make it believable.

Field Trip 2: Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) on April 20th 2026

Integrating Customer Experience in a Large Public Organization.

The second visit offered a very different perspective:

How does a large public organization embed customer experience into complex operations?

At the Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA), students explored how a critical infrastructure provider integrates CX into its daily operations while managing a large-scale, highly technical system.

They were introduced to MEA’s “Triple Go for Goal” strategy:

Go Smart – leveraging smart grids, real-time monitoring, and advanced infrastructure

Go Digital – enhancing customer access through apps, digital platforms, and 24/7 services

Go Green – embedding sustainability through EV infrastructure and renewable initiatives

A key highlight was the on-site experience, including:

The One Stop Service Center, showcasing seamless multi-channel service delivery. The Power System Control Center, illustrating real-time operational coordination

Students observed firsthand that:

Customer experience is not only designed at the front stage—but built through invisible, highly coordinated backend systems.

From Classroom to Reality

Together, these two visits illustrated a powerful contrast:

• At Novotel: designing experience before it exists

• At MEA: delivering experience at scale in a complex system

For students, these experiences reinforced a central idea of the course:

Customer experience is not a function—it is a strategic capability that shapes how organizations operate, compete, and create value.

We sincerely thank both Novotel and MEA for their warm welcome and hospitality to our students.