Looking at leaders: Ken Erickson

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:

Ken Erickson, Ph.D., CEO & Cultural Anthropologist, Pacific Ethnography Company

Erickson will be presenting the keynote "Able to Fly: Global Design Ethnography and Airplanes" at the 2013 Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit. In this session, you'll hear how Boeing wanted to understand the experience of differently-abled passengers around the world to improve the design of its passenger airplanes. Fly-along research in India, Chile, the USA and China, with an anthropological eye on “rites of passage” revealed how existing design—and service—made the experience disabling.

The audience will learn:
• How ethnographic methods are applied to design research
• How universal design transforms special needs into universal benefits
• How aging reshapes consumer needs and widens business impacts.

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.

Looking at leaders: Anders Nicholls

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:

Andres Nicholls, Partner, Prophet

Presenting one of our "Design" focused sessions, Nicholls will be telling the story of Emart.

Emart is the largest retailer in South Korea, with more than 120 big-box superstores, including some in China. With an eye toward a brand invention and format development, Emart recently created three stand-alone retail brands: Matrix, a specialty consumer electronics store; Molly’s Pet Shop, a high-end pet store/pet hotel; and Emart Traders, a warehouse-style store. Take an inside look at the design and development of these brands and their introduction to the Korean consumer.

In this session, you'll learn about:
• Leveraging segmentation data to focus on your most profitable segments
• Engaging customers to create a compelling and differentiating brand experience
• Designing your brand positioning and bringing it to life

For a great sneak peek of the session, check out this blog post on the Emart transformation.

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.

Looking at leaders: Peter Fader

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:

Peter Fader, Professor of Marketing, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Fader's keynote will be on the topic of "How Can Customer Centricity be Profitable?"

Many experts are touting the virtues of
“Customer Centricity” as a valuable emerging
business model, but there is a lot of confusion
about what this concept means – and
uncertainty about whether and how it actually
leads to greater profitability. The purpose of
this session is to bring clarity to both of these issues. We begin with a brief review of Professor Fader’s recent book (“Customer Centricity: Focus on the Right Customers for Strategic Advantage”) but then dive deep into the profitability question. We examine the main tactical “building blocks” underlying customer centricity and point out some subtle but important insights to help managers make the most effective and efficient use of each of them.

Check out this video from Wharton Digital Press for a glimpse into the topics Fader will be sharing at the Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit.


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.

Looking at leaders: Dan Hill

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:

Dan Hill, Ph.D., President, Sensory Logic


In his keynote session, "What’s the Emotional Story?" Hill will discuss the customer experience as a journey. There is a plot with risks, rewards, and the possibility of conflict. The customer will have a reaction to any brand representative with which they interact. Not only are the human representatives important, but the customer will also create a personification for the company as well with archetypes such as the magician or ogre.

Attendees will be exposed to:
 • An introduction to facial coding as a means to quantify feelings
• The role of emotions in the consumers preview, story, and aftermath with a brand and/or company
• Case studies from 14 years of experience with customer service and customer experience

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.

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.

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

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

Facebook & Nationwide Share How to Unlock Critical Insight for Your Business from Social Media

As another year comes to an end, many of us are looking back through the year reflecting on our business, our customers and the future. It's no secret that customer engagement is evolving, the question is how we, as customer-centric professionals, are addressing these changes and updating our strategies.

Today, phone communication accounts for about 6,000 connections per day, online live chat a little over 400 and social media, an astounding 1,100,000 connections per day.*

Are you listening and observing your customers through the social medium?

Your opportunity to tie in VOC data across touch points is exponential. Today's total customer experience strategy moves from "asking" to listening and observing customer actions and behaviors to achieve the holy grail of a 360 degree customer understanding.

Featuring Leaders in Social Media:

Valuing Customer Input and Feedback

Jasmine Green, Vice President, Chief Customer Advocate, Nationwide

Often referred to as "Listener in Chief", Nationwide's Jasmine Green will discuss her role in facilitating customer dialogue through the power of listening. She will talk about what it means to be a 'Listener in Chief' and the value that active listening adds to cultivating positive customer relationships. Explore how VOC data and design principles can be used to engineer experiences across your organization. She will also describe the opportunity that social media lends to actively listen to customers and proactively engage them through these mediums. Finally, she will discuss the benefits of recognizing and admitting mistakes that result in the potential to fracture otherwise positive relationships and the art of apologizing for error through action and results.

The New Collision of Measurement and Customer Insights

Sean Bruich, Head of Measurement Platforms & Standards, Facebook

As the leading place that consumers connect with friends, engage with brands, and share their experiences, Facebook represents nearly a quarter of all time spent online and bridges the digital divide between web, mobile and offline experiences. Through creating an understanding of these linkages between online and offline experiences, new technology platforms are enabling unprecedented opportunities to instrument, measure and analyze consumer behaviors, and thus create huge leaps in consumer experiences from creating powerful marketing programs to optimizing consumer products or experiences. Here, we describe some of the ways that these platforms have unlocked crucial insights into consumers, and how those insights were translated into action.

The Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit is bringing together cross-industry customer professionals from American Express, CVS Caremark, Eli Lilly, JetBlue Airways, Safelite AutoGlass, Toyota and more to share their customer journey. If you are serious about measuring and improving customer experience, you need a forum to meet fellow professionals and share best practices - and that's what this conference is about.

Visit our website and download the brochure for the full speaker list and session details.

We invite you to the 2013 summit to Craft Your Insights-Rich Customer Story - From Transparency to Trust. As a reader of this blog, we’d like to offer you a 15% discount off the standard registration rates, use code TCEL13BLOG.


We hope to see you in April in Boston.
The Total Customer Experience Leaders Event Team

Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TotalCustomer
Become a fan on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TotalCustomer


* From Social Media and the Customer Experience

Customer Experience Experts Podcast: Scott Swift

Scott Swift,
Vice President, Customer Information,
Hunter Douglas, Inc

In anticipation of our 2013 event, I recently spoke to Scott Swift, Vice President, Customer Information, Hunter Douglas, Inc. about his involvement and experience with the Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit.

We discussed upcoming trends in the customer experience space, and the huge importance of knowing what your customer experience or voice of the customer program goal is.

 Listen to the podcast here to learn more.

Want to be involved in more discussions like this? 
Visit our newly launched "Interact" page on our event website to have your say. 

Or, join Scott Swift as he chairs 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

Unveiling the 2013 Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit

You may have noticed some changes here on the blog lately. We've updated our design to provide a better experience for you, our readers, in anticipation of the launch of the 2013 Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit.

The Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit is more than a conference, it's a call to action for all leaders charged with and committed to strengthening and advancing their organization with a sound customer plan.

2013 will unite customer-focused professionals across industries, cultures and departments to deliver an unparalleled facilitation of provocation, collaboration and communication of higher level thinking around the alignment of customer strategy with business relevant aspirations. Download the brochure for the full agenda.

The opportunity for capturing data across touchpoints is exponential. Linking data driven behavior to business results, designing next generation customer experiences and measuring the impact of your customer programs is the difference between great and greater.

Customer Experience Design - Explore how VOC data and design principles can be used to engineer experiences across your organization.

Strategy - Interpret, analyze and evaluate your customer strategy to ensure business relevance

Measurement & Feedback - Drive change and optimize your sales force by measuring customer feedback through the entire customer journey.

Alignment - Integrate and leverage your customer touchpoints - measurement & ROI, linkage, VOC, social media, technology, design principles, operational metrics and senior leadership.

We proudly announce all new keynote presentations from leading B2B and B2C companies:
• Jasmine Green, Vice President, Chief Customer Advocate, NATIONWIDE
• Thomas Feeney, President & CEO, SAFELITE AUTOGLASS
• Peter Fader, Professor of Marketing, THE WHARTON SCHOOL, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
• Sean Bruich, Head of Measurement Platforms & Standards, FACEBOOK
• D. Randall Brandt, Ph.D., SVP, Customer Experience Management, MARITZ RESEARCH
• Chris Frank, Vice President, AMERICAN EXPRESS, Author, DRINKING FROM THE FIRE HOSE
• Ken Erickson, Ph.D., CEO & Cultural Anthropologist, PACIFIC ETHNOGRAPHY COMPANY
• Andres Nicholls, Partner, PROPHET

Visit our website and download the brochure for the full speaker list and session details.

Your success lies in your ability to know your customer, to value your customer and and all their unique experiences. We invite you to the 2013 summit to Craft Your Insights-Rich Customer Story - From Transparency to Trust.

As a reader of this blog, we’d like to offer you a 15% off the standard registration rates, use code TCEL13BLOG to save. Visit the webpage to register today.

We look forward to seeing you next April in Boston!
The Total Customer Experience Leaders Event Team

Stay in touch:
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TotalCustomer
Become a fan on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TotalCustomer

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

Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/TotalCustomer
Become a fan on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/Aw2yW4
Read the blog: http://customers1st.blogspot.com/

Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit 2013 Call for Presenters Now Open

INDUSTRY ALERT: OFFICIAL CALL FOR PRESENTERS 
 The Institute for International Research (IIR) presents: Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit March/April 2013

Due to the high volume of submissions, we suggest you submit your proposal early and no later than Wednesday, September 5, 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?
Contact Kacey Anderson, Marketing Manager, at kanderson@iirusa.com.

For consideration, please email rmcdonald@iirusa.com with the following information by Wednesday, September 5, 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!

All the best,
Rachel McDonald Senior Conference Producer, IIR