Unlocking Better Customer & Employee Experiences on Behind the Mic with Sourabh Mukherjee from Ipsos

Sourabh Mukherjee is a Mechanical engineer and an MBA in International Business. His first stint came with a leading Pvt sector bank in India. After which, he hopped onto mainstream Consumer Insights & Consultancy and felt at home. Since then, he has amassed 14Y+ years of experience across multiple research disciplines and diverse sectors.
Currently, as the head of Customer and Employee Experience at Ipsos Malaysia,he drives data driven strategic decisions for his clients.

Sourabh quest for uncovering universal patterns, continues.

Sourabh Mukherjee shares his expertise on leveraging research, analytics, and AI-powered solutions to build experiences that deliver both value and impact.

Q1. What motivated you to pursue a career in customer and employee experience, and what key experiences shaped your journey from banking to consumer insights and consultancy?

It may come as a surprise, but Market Research happened to me in 2011 by ‘Process of elimination of other career-options in hand’. After a brief stint in Banking from 2006-09, during my MBA days [2009-11], I was inspired by the ‘Holland’s personality job fit theory [RIASEC] in an organizational behaviour lecture. So going by my nature of being ‘Realistic, Investigative and Creative- Market research suited best as it was an intersection of Art & Science.

Q2. How have you leveraged data, analytics, and emerging technologies such as AI to drive customer and employee experience strategies for your clients?

Ipsos has announced its strategic plan called ‘Horizons’ to boost its growth and margins by 2030. We aim to transform the company into an “AI augmented Global Market Research leader”. We are already ahead of the curve with HI + AI boosted solutions in the EX/CX space such as- CX Persona Bot, CX Gen AI Signals, AI boosted workshops.

Q3. What are some of the most significant challenges you've faced in translating research insights into actionable business decisions, and how did you overcome them?

Some frequent challenges that occur are due to the lack of awareness of how the internal vs external surveys differ. This reinforces the importance of having sound judgement on research design, sampling and aligning with research objectives at the start of the survey. Often the attempt is also to get everything out of the same survey, which often dilutes the purpose of individual surveys.

Q4. What role does customer and employee feedback play in shaping experience strategies, and how do you gather and incorporate it effectively?

This goes back to how intricately both Customer and Employee Experience are linked. When employees’ core relational needs are met, they are arguably more likely to exhibit good behaviour towards customers and to forge healthy relationships. It remains crucial to invest in creating healthy relationships with employees so that they that they are more likely to be able to do so with customers and ultimately yield higher business outcomes.

Q5. Can you describe a specific instance where research insights helped uncover a critical pattern or pain point and drove impactful change?

This was for a bank survey last year, where the client’s hypothesis was that the launch of new app would significantly improve the satisfaction of its broader base of customers. Initial internal survey results showed that the app had got very good reception, however when the external survey results came out it was still lagging competition. We discovered that the less tech savvy were still struggling with adapting to the new ways of transacting and to the UX of the app. For some customers, the migration process was still pending, resulting in inconsistent performance across the overall customer base. Timely and regular updates, communication raising awareness and tutorials would have been the ideal way out.

Q6. Could you share a success story where your work significantly improved customer satisfaction, employee engagement, or overall business performance?

We have been proud partners of TNB for its Corp reputation and CSI program since pre-covid. TNB achieved a high Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) score of 9.0 in 2025 – its highest ever result, reflecting sustained efforts to enhance service quality and customer experience.

Q7. Which methodologies or frameworks do you use to analyze experience data and ensure alignment with business goals?

We use the principles of ROCXI analysis- ‘Return of Customer Experience management’. It is powerful data integration technique that quantifies the link between survey KPIs and business/financial outcomes. It provides evidence to justify expenditure and make the Customer Experience a higher priority. Different financial outcomes include Churn, Improving Advocacy, retaining customers at risk and improving operational efficiency.

Q8. How do you collaborate with cross-functional teams such as marketing, HR, operations, and leadership to ensure insights are effectively translated into action?

We begin with ‘Engage’ phase’ where we get inputs from senior stakeholders on- Overall vision, Journeys, Products, touchpoints, OPS in the current design, set survey expectations/ hypotheses so that we can get the design right. After dissemination of results and insights, we do conduct activation workshops where our clients get the context and guidance from us before drafting and prioritizing their action plans.

Q9. How do you balance quantitative data with qualitative human insights to create a holistic understanding of customer and employee experience?

Both methodologies have co-existed since the foundational years of research. Quant is seen to be structured, close ended KPI driven, hypotheses validation ‘What’ exercise. However, Qual is to understand primarily the ‘Why’

Q10. How do you stay updated with the latest trends and developments in customer insights, experience management, and data-driven decision-making?

We are a close community of researchers within Ipsos. We leverage our global presence across 90+ markets, sectors, and clients. We have platforms to share wins and best in class insights on a regular basis, in addition to the global trackers that we run such as ‘What Worries the World’, ‘Consumer Confidence index’

Conclusion

As our conversation with Sourabh Mukherjee comes to a close, one theme stands out clearly: meaningful customer and employee experiences are built at the intersection of data, human understanding, and purposeful action. From his unconventional journey into market research to leading Customer & Employee Experience at Ipsos Malaysia, Sourabh highlights the importance of balancing analytical rigor with empathy, ensuring that insights translate into tangible business outcomes.

His perspectives on AI-augmented research, the connection between employee engagement and customer satisfaction, and the need for thoughtful research design offer valuable lessons for organizations navigating an increasingly complex experience landscape. As businesses continue to embrace digital transformation, Sourabh’s approach serves as a reminder that while technology can amplify insights, it is human judgment, curiosity, and collaboration that ultimately drive meaningful change.

“Stay tuned for more exclusive conversations with ASEAN’s leading voices in AI, customer experience, digital transformation, and innovation as we continue our Behind the Mic series.”