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Several luxury brands from across the world are heading for India. But concerns on the lack of individuals trained for luxury brand management continue to trouble these companies.
In an effort to solve this problem, service-based organisation Luxury Connect has started a three-day Luxury Customer Experience Management Programme for mid-career professionals in the industry.
Workshop
The first such programme, concluded recently, trained 20 participants from diversified backgrounds, such as luxury automobiles, watches, jewellery, lifestyle and others, to deal with customers.
The company teamed up with the Retail Training Director at Louis Vuitton, Mr Jean Claude Roustant, for this programme,
“We conducted a survey and realised Indian manpower is not up to global luxury standards and that the lack of trained manpower is one of the key challenges for development of the luxury market in India,” said Mr Abhay Gupta, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Luxury Connect.
Qualifying people
Mr Gupta said this is the first part of Luxury Connect's three-step process, with the first targeted at people working in the luxury market but not qualified for the industry.
The two-month-old Luxury Connect plans to launch a five-day Luxury Brand Management programme in July, aimed at people with experience in the luxury industry.
The company has tied up with SDA Bocconi School of Management, Italy, for this course.
Short-term workshops
Further, Mr Gupta said by next year, his firm hopes to start a 10-month post-graduate course for students who want to join the luxury market.
“For this year, we are looking at only short-term workshops because there are enough professionals who first need to be upgraded in their education. Subsequently, we will begin the post-graduate course, hopefully by next year,” he said.
It is estimated that this market would need about 1.76 million trained professionals by 2022.
Talking about the luxury customer experience, Mr Roustant said the personnel in stores seem uninterested in customers.
“They don't ask questions about customers' needs and demands. They don't talk about the brand, don't sell the brand.”
He said high net-worth individuals travel a lot and are exposed to global experiences and, as such, are very demanding.
He added that the growing middle-class too needs to be a focus segment as it is increasingly spending on luxury goods.
Luxury Connect also has three other verticals — consultancy, sourcing and e-commerce — of which e-commerce is still in the pipeline.
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