Customer Service Week Is Coming: How Will You Celebrate?

In 1992, the U.S. Congress declared the first week of every October to be National Customer Service Week. In a proclamation, then president George H. W. Bush wrote of the value of a holistic customer experience:

"A business built on customer service understands and anticipates the customer's needs. It designs goods and services to meet those needs and builds products that perform to customer expectations. It then packages them carefully, labels them correctly, sells them at a fair price, delivers them as scheduled, and follows up, as necessary, to satisfy the customer. This kind of commitment to service leads to customer loyalty and to genuine improvements at the bottom line."

Now, 20 years later, will you take the opportunity to celebrate, reflect, or honor your own commitment to customer service next week?

Many use this week as a opportunity to reward or recognize those who are on the front line with customers - from call center representatives to retail staff. Another way to celebrate could be taking this as an opportunity to step back and review your holistic customer experience - go through the process of making an order, calling a helpline, using your website or visiting a store - and asking, is there more we could be doing? Lastly, this is a great time to hold a training, take a class, or read some thought-leadership: get re-inspired! (Perhaps join our LinkedIn group to discuss your challenges with like-minded individuals.)

Here's some of our recent favorites in thought leadership to start with:

1to1media: Customer Experience Leaders Spank Customer Experience Laggards in Total Returns

Chadwick Martin Bailey: Is Your Loyalty Program Just a Face in the Crowd?

Social Media Today Social Customer: Why Customer Insight Matters To Every Customer Service Leader

Whatever you are doing, we'd love to hear from our community. Post photos of your celebrations to our Facebook page or share in the comments below.

Michelle LeBlanc is a Social Media Strategist at IIR USA with a specialization in marketing. She is the voice behind the Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. She may be reached at mleblanc@iirusa.com

CALL FOR PRESENTERS: DEADLINE EXTENDED! Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit

INDUSTRY ALERT: OFFICIAL CALL FOR PRESENTERS: Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit 2013 Call for Presenters Now Open

The Institute for International Research (IIR) presents:
Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit
April 8-10, 2013

Due to the high volume of submissions, we suggest you submit your proposal early and no later than Wednesday, September 12, 2012 to Rachel McDonald, Senior Conference Producer at rmcdonald@iirusa.com or 646.895.7405.

The Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit is an event that showcases trends, insights and best practices for measuring, aligning and communicating your customer experience strategy to ensure business relevance.

A Three Day Conference Experience Featuring NEW Topics
Customer Experience Design & Measurement
• Experience Engineering
• Design Management
• Redesigning a Program
• Analyzing VoC
• Data Deployment and Data Dissemination
• Social Media Feedback
• New Innovative Methodologies
• Internal Customer Index Scoring vs. NPS
• Enterprise Feedback Management

Strategy & Alignment
• Using VoC to Take Actionable Insights
• Employee Engagement
• Monetizing Your Customer Experience
• Recovery Strategy
• Linkage
• Customer Service

High Level General Sessions that Focus On:
• Innovation & Creativity in Customer Experience
• Operational Perspective
• Digital Customer Experience
• Behavioral Economics
• Leadership

We are also happy to consider topics not listed here that you feel would add value and be appropriate.

PLUS! Idea gathering forums following each session topic.
The Audience
• Individuals within the company responsible for customer experience, voice of customer, customer research
• Individuals with direct experience for the customer experience and/or voice of customer collection, dissemination, interpretation and results
• Individuals seeking to enhance their own company's capabilities in these areas (become more customer-centric and drive business results through improved customer experience), and willing to help others advance through sharing of best practices and experiences

Speakers receive FREE admission to the conference.

Sponsorship & Exhibition Opportunities
If you are interested in sponsorship or exhibit opportunities please contact Jon Saxe, Business Development Manager at jsaxe@iirusa.com or 646.895.7467.

Interested in Becoming a Media Partner or Featured Event Blogger?
Contact Kacey Anderson, Marketing Manager, at kanderson@iirusa.com.

Call for Presenters:
For consideration, please email rmcdonald@iirusa.com with the following information by Wednesday, September 12, 2012.
• Proposed speaker name(s), job title(s), and company name(s)
• Contact information including address, telephone and fax numbers and e-mail
• Talk title
• The main theme you plan to address
• Summary of the presentation (3-5 sentences)
• Please indicate what is NEW about the presentation
• What the audience will gain from your presentation (please list 3-5 key “take-aways”)
• Previous conference experience
• Short bio

Due to the high volume of responses, we are unable to respond to each submission. All those selected to participate as speakers will be notified shortly after the deadline.

Thank you for your interest in the Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit. We look forward to receiving your proposal!
The Total Customer Experience Leaders Event Team

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