Looking at leaders: Jonathan Stephen

Our 2013 event is all about the Insights-Rich Customer Stories. With that in mind, in the months leading up to the 2013 Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit we're going to be featuring some of our amazing customer experience leaders here on the blog.

This week, let's take a look at:
Jonathan Stephen, Head of Mobile, JetBlue Airways

In his design-focused session "Lessons from JetBlue: Designing a Mobile App that Motivates," Stephen will discuss the ways that mobile has impacted all phases of the travel experience. With advanced data networks and increased smartphone adoption, customers now have instant access to information at every touchpoint. In this session, attendees will learn how to really motivate and connect with mobile.


Get a sneak peek of what Stephen has to share in this video from Mobile Mixed, "Get An Inside Look At JetBlue’s Mobile Strategy: A Chat With Jonathan Stephen"


For more about the Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit and our featured speakers, visit our website and download the brochure. Register as a reader of our blog with code TCEL13BLOG to save 15% off the standard registration rates. Visit the webpage to register today.

Nationwide, Safelite & Facebook Integrate VOC & Market Insights into Customer Strategy

Image via CrunchBase

Are you keeping the customer at the center of every business decision?

Are you using the data captured across the ENTIRE customer journey to create a strategic business plan?

Join us at the Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit as we unite a diverse group of customer-focused change makers to share best practices on integrating VOC and market insights into your customer strategy. Gain the knowledge and skills you need to confidently uncover, manage, link and act on customer data NOW.  

Featured keynotes include:

POWER OF LISTENING:
Valuing Customer Input and Feedback
 - Jasmine Green, Vice President, Chief Customer Advocate, Nationwide

CUSTOMER-CENTRICITY:
How Can Customer Centricity be Profitable
 - Peter Fader, Professor of Marketing, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

LEADERSHIP:
Driving Good Profits by Building a Customer-Centric Culture
 - Thomas Feeney, President & CEO, Safelite AutoGlass

SOCIAL MEDIA:
The New Collision of Measurement and Customer Insights
 - Sean Bruich, Head of Measurement Platforms & Standards, Facebook

And much more. Download the brochure to view the comprehensive agenda covering customer experience design, measurement & feedback, strategy and alignment. The Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit covers everything you need to know to create a customer-centric culture.

Register today to secure your spot at the Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit and save $300 off the standard rate.


Registration Information: 
Please mention your blog reader VIP code to save 15% off the standard and onsite rate.
http://bit.ly/UxYinD 
Email: register@iirusa.com
Phone: 888.670.8200

Idea Gathering: Customer Experience News - Employee Engagement

Not just hearing, but translating innovations and insights is a huge part of the value of the Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit. Our unique idea gathering wrap-ups between sessions facilitate alignment of customer strategy inspiration with business relevant actions and have been one of our most highly rated features in the past.

Here on the blog, we'll be presenting weekly idea gathering wrap ups of some of our favorite customer experience strategy, design and alignment news and views.  This week, let's flip things around and talk about employees.

Cynthia Clark of 1to1Media recently wrote "Most companies are striving to improve the experience they deliver to their customers. However, unless they address internal process issues, this task might be a lot more difficult than expected and could lead to disappointing results." When employees can't perform in an efficient manner, customer experiences are directly impacted.

Perhaps at the other end of the spectrum, this feature "The Happiness Machine" on Slate
discusses the many ways that the Google’s human resources department optimizes employee experiences...right down to how many minutes is ideal to wait in line for lunch.

Lastly, a new report from Temkin group identified "Employee Engagement" as one of their core customer experience competencies.

Is your customer experience program engaging employees? Tell us about it in the comments.

For more conversation on topics like this, join us at the Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit: register as a reader of our blog with code TCEL13BLOG to save 15% off the standard registration rates. Visit the webpage to register today.

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

INFOGRAPHIC: The Great Social Customer Service Race

Earlier this month, we tweeted a link to "4 Customer Service Lessons from the Biggest Brands on Twitter." We're happy to present a guest post delving into that topic by Ashley Verrill, along with the great infographic. (To submit your own guest content, email mleblanc@iirusa.com)

I recently completed a five-week research project meant to assess the social customer service responsiveness of 14 top consumer brands in the U.S. Twitter specifically is rising in popularity as a medium for voicing consumer queries. I wanted to see how companies such as Coca Cola, Pepsi and Apple leveraged technology to fulfill this need.

To test these companies, I asked four of my colleagues to send customer service tweets to 14 leading consumer brands in seven industries. Each company received one tweet per weekday for four consecutive weeks. For two weeks we used the @ symbol with the company's Twitter handle, but for two more weeks we just mentioned the brand without the @.

The questions were either urgent, or we needed help right that second; positive; negative; or a query from the company's FAQ page. Here's a few lessons we learned about listening technology from the experiment.

Listen for Mentions With @, no @ and #Brand
There was a huge disparity during the race for messages with the @ and those without. Certainly brands shouldn't insert themselves in someone else's conversation, but these interactions also provide an opportunity for the company to express proactive customer service. These interactions increase the likelihood the customer will share the interaction and refer your brand to friends.

Marketing can uncover positive feedback that's perfect for retweeting and fend off competitors that are also listening for their brand. During the race, several tweets directed at Bank of America and Wells Fargo received a response from a competitor asking that we consider their institution instead.

Successful Prioritization Rules Are Key
Customers that tweet requests on Twitter are seeking instant gratification. For companies that receive thousands of mentions a day, it's impossible to expect them to catch everything, but businesses should have a system for picking out the most important messages. During the race, many of the participants missed messages that indicated huge risk of switching brands, or high purchase intent.

Social CRM programs allow users to customize prioritization rules with things like key word identifiers, social clout and customers history. So a company could for example make sure a tweet with “help,” “mad,” “#fail,” “thank you” and the brand name, is moved to the front of the service queue.

Identify Active Socializers
Also important to this message priority system is social customer service history. I hoped one of the companies in the race would see we were active brand followers and improve their response averages - but this didn't happen.

Companies could program a prioritization trigger that alerts agents when a brand advocate or detractor has sent a message. This is particularly important when paired with social clout considerations. Overall, the brands that participated in the race only responded 14 percent of the time. Whether the issue is one of technology or strategy, it's clear even the top brands in the world are still fine-tuning their social customer service strategy.

About Ashley Verrill 
Ashley Verrill is a market analyst and writes for the Software Advice website. She has spent the last six years reporting and writing business news and strategy features. Her work has appeared in myriad publications including Inc., Upstart Business Journal, the Austin Business Journal and the North Bay Business Journal. Before joining Software Advice in 2012, she worked in sales management and advertising. She is a University of Texas graduate with a bachelor's degree in journalism.

Flashback Friday: Podcast: Janet LeBlanc on Creating a Customer-Centric Culture

Earlier this month, we learned that a substantial portion of our audience does not believe their companies have a customer centric-culture. Janet LeBlanc, President, JANET LEBLANC + ASSOCIATES  has been a perennial favorite at the Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit. Let's take a look back to 2012, where we spoke to her about creating a customer centric culture for some tips:

One building a customer centric culture  LeBlanc says, "it's one of the most challenging transformational change initiatives for any senior executive to undertake." For more on the process and the types of culture you may currently be operating under, listen to the podcast. 

If you'd like to hear more from Janet LeBlanc, join us at the Total Customer Experience Leader's Summit in April.

Register as a reader of our blog with code TCEL13BLOG to save 15% off the standard registration rates. Visit the webpage to register today.

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 Now Open: The Inaugural Strategic Selling Summit

CALL FOR PRESENTERS: Introducing the Inaugural Strategic Selling Summit co-located with the 13th Annual Shopper Insights in Action Conference July 15-17, 2013

Submit your proposal by email to rmcdonald@iirusa.com by Friday, January 25, 2013

Event Date: July 15-17, 2013 Location: Swissotel - Chicago, IL

INDUSTRY ALERT: OFFICIAL CALL FOR PRESENTERS
The Institute for International Research (IIR) is currently seeking corporate practitioner presenters for:

The Inaugural Strategic Selling Summit

Optimizing the Path to Profit

Due to the high volume of submissions, we suggest you submit your proposal early and no later than Friday, January 25, 2013 to Rachel McDonald, Senior Conference Producer at rmcdonald@iirusa.com. Only proposals from retail, brand and CPG corporate practitioners will be considered, for all other submissions please see sponsorship section below.

Every July in Chicago, key stakeholders within the shopper insights and shopper marketing ecosystem gather to connect with like-minded peers to share innovative stories, fresh insights and sure-fire successes at the Shopper Insights in Action Conference.

Responding to the growing value of shopper marketing, category leadership and merchandizing, this year we are thrilled to announce the Inaugural Strategic Selling Summit focusing on Optimizing the Path to Profit. Co-located with the Shopper Insights in Action Conference we are offering a one-stop shop for the entire customer-facing team. Stay-tuned for more event details on www.ShopperInsightsEvent.com.

With over 650 delegates, The Strategic Selling Summit will share keynotes, but will have its own dedicated tracks covering Shopper Marketing, Category Leadership, Analytics, Strategic Merchandising, and more.

We are currently seeking shopper marketing, merchandising, category and innovation practitioners to present case study examples that illustrate the implementation of the insight, technology that supports high impact activations, how to bring the activation to life at retail, and proven return on investment.

New Content Areas for the Strategic Selling Summit:
• Social Shopping
• High Impact Activations
• Mobile Innovations
• ROI & Measurement
• Proven Examples of How Shoppers Behave In-store
• Technology that Supports the Activation
• Collaboration Between Buyers & Shopper Marketers
• Virtual Shopping Case Studies
• Trends, Technology & Strategies Impacting Retail Environments
• Category Reinvention
• Retail Leadership
• Data Collection, Usage and Sharing
• Understanding the Mindset of the Always On Shopper
• Trends & Innovation Driving Shopper & Consumer Behavior
• Category Growth Strategies
• Aligning Shopper Marketing & Category Management Initiatives
• Strengthening Retail Partnerships
• Collaboration Practices for Category Growth
• Innovation in Private Brand & Brand Identity
We are also happy to consider other topics that you feel would add value and be appropriate.

Confirmed Keynote Speakers include:
• Andreas Weigend, Social Data Lab, Stanford University and Former Chief Scientist, Amazon.com
• Tim Dorgan, Vice President E-Merchandising, Peapod
• Doug Rauch, Former President, Trader Joe’s
• Jenn Lim, CEO, Delivering Happiness and Co-Creator, Zappos
• Phil McGee, Director, Director of Shopper Insights, Campbell Soup Company
• Jonah Berger, James G. Campbell Assistant Professor of Marketing, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and Author, Contagious: Why Things Catch On
• Paul Zak, Neuroeconomist, Professor of Economics, Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University and Author, The Moral Molecule

Retailers, CPGs and Thought-Leaders already committed to participate include:
Red Bull North America, Heineken, Kraft, Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Jockey, Peapod, Mondelez, Kellogg Company, The Hershey Company, Barilla America, Saint Joseph's University, Campbell Soup, The Clorox Company, Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, Staples, Church & Dwight, The Home Depot, Merck, AOL, Unilever and many more…

If you would like to nominate a track session speaker or a main-stage keynote presenter, please email: rmcdonald@iirusa.com.

Corporate Practitioner Speakers receive complimentary admission to The Shopper Insights in Action Conference as well as The Strategic Selling Summit as well as any pre-conference activity such as workshops or symposium (a value over $8500).

Sponsorship & Exhibiting Opportunities:
What if I am not a corporate practitioner (from a client-side company) but still would like to participate?
More than 70% of our content will be delivered by corporate practitioners from retail, brand and CPG. If you are a consultant, market research firm or solution provider and wish to be a part of the program, please contact Jon Saxe, Senior Business Development Manager at jsaxe@iirusa.com or 646-895-7467. We will customize opportunities to fit your needs from speaking, branding, networking and/or exhibiting.

How to Submit:
For proper consideration, please include the following information with your proposal:
• Proposed speaker name, job title, and company name
• Complete speaker contact information - address, telephone and e-mail
• Short biography of speaker (50-75 words max)
• Title of presentation (one-line, benefit oriented)
• Short summary of content to be delivered (no more than 75 words), followed by three bullet points of what audience members can expect to "take away" from the presentation
Tips/Guidelines to Consider:
• Sessions are 30-40 minutes in length, inclusive of time for Q&A
• Preference will be given to proposals that clearly illustrate the full insights to activation process
• Commercialism and self-promotion from the podium is strictly prohibited. Your presentation will be reviewed by a Content Review Board prior to the event and should you self-promote during the session, you will not be invited to return as a speaker.
• The conference audience consists of brand/CPG-side marketers, category leaders, retailers and thought-leaders responsible for implementation of the insight at retail. Your proposal must present new innovations and strategy, and how it will move the industry ahead.
• Travel and expenses are the responsibility of the speaker.
• If your proposal is accepted you agree that it has not and will not be presented at any other industry forum within one year. It is important that the content is new and not repurposed here or anywhere else.


Due to the high volume of proposals we receive, not every submission is selected. We rely heavily on three components:
• Content matches interest of audience.
• Compelling topic that showcases something new and exciting. It must show how to optimize the path to profitability.
• Speaker is able to provide details in the format of a case study or interactive session. This event is about sharing with members of your industry, so the speaker must be willing to showcase the "how-to" details.

Those selected will be notified no later than February 2013. Thank you for your interest in IIR’s Inaugural Strategic Selling Summit. Stay-tuned for more event details on www.ShopperInsightsEvent.com.

Idea Gathering: Customer Experience News - Big Buzz about Big Data

Not just hearing, but translating innovations and insights is a huge part of the value of the Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit. Our unique idea gathering wrap-ups between sessions facilitate alignment of customer strategy inspiration with business relevant actions and have been one of our most highly rated features in the past.

Here on the blog, we'll be presenting weekly idea gathering wrap ups of some of our favorite customer experience strategy, design and alignment news and views.  This week, let's talk about what seems to be a huge hot topic for 2013: Big Data.

"Big Data" has made an appearance on a lot of year-end and year-to-come lists as a hot topic to watch. CMS Wire named 2013 "The Year of the Customer and Rise of the Data Driven Marketer." and Temkin group included "'Big data' predictive insights." in their list of 13 Customer Experience Trends to Watch in 2013.

In 2013 Predictions: The impact of big data for carriers in 2013 on RCR Wireless News Robert Rich, Managing Director, TM Forum Insights Research wrote that "big data is certainly among the most important forward looking topics for business and IT organizations in service providers today, and it will remain among the top issues/initiatives for the foreseeable future, including of course 2013." 1to1media published "The Customer Experience Crystal Ball: Predictions for 2013" and noted that "organizations continued to grapple with the gargantuan amounts of customer data" in 2012."

But back in December, Kerry Bodine, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research wrote on the 1to1media blog "Companies that become mesmerized by Big Data put themselves at risk of spending enormous amounts of time and money amassing new data sources -- and, in the process, forgetting that research methods like observation and one-on-one interviews even exist. This has the potential to create a large, and exceedingly expensive, blind spot."

Here on the blog, I recently spoke with TCEL keynote Chris Frank about data in our Customer Experience Experts podcast series.

This week also saw data expert, Nate Silver, the founder of FiveThirtyEight, taking questions in a Reddit Ask Me Anything thread.

Lastly, our current LinkedIn poll is looking for your opinions on customer data: vote today!



For more conversation on topics like this, join us at the Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit: register as a reader of our blog with code TCEL13BLOG to save 15% off the standard registration rates. Visit the webpage to register today.

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

Your 2013 Customer Experience Strategy Checklist

Wall Street has identified customer experience as a huge opportunity for growth in that organizations who are doing it right are seeing profits soar above those who have not. The key, of course, is understanding how to align customer strategy against the other long range goals of driving loyalty alongside new business.

How you get this done is what your peer groups will be debating and discussing at the upcoming Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit. Where to spend - how to spend and how to allocate resources - it's all about making it happen in 2013.

We cover it all at the Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit.

Your Customer Experience Strategy Checklist:

√ Cultivate Positive Customer Relationships through Active Listening - Valuing Customer Input and Feedback, Nationwide
√ Transform Data Into Insights to Drive Your Customer Experience Agenda Forward - Curating the Customer Conversation: Making Smarter Decisions in a Data Overloaded World, American Express
√ Unlock Crucial Insights from Online and Offline Experiences to Drive Business Decisions - The New Collision of Measurement and Customer Insights, Facebook
√ Create an Organizational Belief that Customer Experiences Impact Business Results - Eli Lilly's Transformational Journey: Creating Unparalleled Customer Experiences, Eli Lilly
√ Increase Customer Insight throughout the Organization with Customer Survey and Operational Data - Insights from the Service Center: Combining Survey & Operational Data, eBay
√ Support a Customer-Focused Culture with Communication Strategies and Leading Edge Technology - Driving Good Profits by Building a Customer-Centric Culture, Safelite AutoGlass
√ Motivate and Connect with Your Consumer through the Mobile Medium - Lessons from JetBlue: Designing a Mobile App that Motivates, JetBlue
√ Treat Customer Experience as a Business Discipline - Outside In: The Power of Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business, Forrester
√ Develop a Single Customer Experience Metric That Can Be Used to Measure the Overall Health of Customer Experience - Developing a Total Customer Experience Metric, Toyota Financial Services

Visit our website to download the brochure and view the full program. As a reader of this blog, we’d like to offer you a 15% discount off the standard registration rates, use code TCEL13BLOG.


We look forward to seeing you this April in Boston!

The Total Customer Experience Leaders Event Team

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Become a fan on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TotalCustomer

Poll Results: Does your organization have a customer-centric culture?

I recently posted a poll on LinkedIn asking "Does your organization have a customer-centric culture?" which was posted on this blog and across several customer service and customer experience related groups.



While not statistically significant in scope, the results really surprised me: 40% of those who responded answered no! If professionals who have enough of an interest in customer experience topics to join a related LinkedIn group or read this blog feel this way, how would any other employee respond?

We've heard time and again that a customer centric culture will lead to improved customer experiences. How can we make this a priority for organizations?

The poll is now closed, but air your thoughts in the comments here! Is your company's culture customer focused? Why or why not? If not, would you want to change things?

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

Customer Experience Experts Podcast: Chris Frank

In anticipation of our 2013 event, I recently spoke to keynote speaker Chris Frank, Vice President, American Express, Author, Drinking From the Fire Hose.

As a "business person first and an author second" Frank has created an actionable resource for professionals challenged by the deluge of data now available to them. Listen to the podcast here to learn more about the book, Frank's predictions for the future of 'Big Data' and more.

Want more content like this? 
Visit our newly launched "Interact" page on our event website. 

Or, join Chris Frank at the 2013 Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit. As a reader of this blog, we’d like to offer you a 15% discount off the standard registration rates, use code TCEL13BLOG.

Visit our website to download the 2013 brochure, learn more about the event, or register.

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