NACCM 2009: The Power of Global Connectivity: Opportunities from a 24/7 Worldwide Alliance

Two billion Dell conversations are occurring each year online, through chats, forums, emails, etc. People are talking about you and you want to know what they are saying about you says Vida Killian who is responsible for Marketing & Online Conversations at Dell. She shared a quote from Michael Dell that states “These conversations are going to occur whether you like it or not. Do you want to be part of that or not? My arguments is you absolutely do. You can be a better company listening and being involved in that conversation.”

Killian says that Dell has three objectives: 1) Build the brand, 2) listen, learn and engage, and 3) rapid innovation. Dell knew that social media was having a huge impact and expanded social engagement over time. According to Killian, they started with customer forums in 1995, blogosphere and social networking platforms in 2006, IdeaStorm website in 2007, and sponsored offsite properties in 2008.

Dell developed its website IdeaStorm as a result of a need for a customer-driven, central location for new ideas. IdeaStorm.com allowed them to encourage ideas, feedback, innovation and dialogue with and between their customers. What were the results, you ask? The IdeaStorm website has received 12,000 ideas to date (2,000 in the 1st week alone), and has resulted in approximately 400 ideas implemented.

Killian shared key lessons that Dell has learned over the years about social media engagement.

1. Engagement –there is pent-up demand and customers want to talk to you.
2. Open source idea generation transformed the way they operate. They not only have the IdeaStorm website but have added a Facebook Application that allows customers to post ideas directly to Facebook.
3. Customers want to engage both on and off your site. Community Forums exist on Ondell.com and Offdell.com.
4. Transparency and authenticity are key. Killian says that social media is “forgiving” if you respond quickly to the negativity.
5. Social media responsibility no longer is just the job of the social media team. In the early days, Dell had a central team. Now they have distributed ownership to different company departments including sales, service & support, product group, and marketing.
6. Define measurement objectives. Keys include Technorati ranking, Net Promoter Scores, website traffic, etc.
7. Meet specific customer needs through social media. For example, when they needed to move inventory from DellOulet, they used Twitter to send coupons to their customers. Now, @delloutlet is in the top 50 Twitter accounts and has over 1million followers. They currently have over 35 official Dell accounts on Twitter and many more personal accounts.
8. Customers want to connect globally. It is a challenge because of language and cultural barriers. Growth potential is huge to connect with customers all over the globe.

Dell’s original goal was to simply build the Dell brand. What they’ve found is that Dell doesn’t own the brand, customers do. When you engage with them, you are building the brand together which is more powerful than doing it alone says Killian.

NACCM 2009: Fueling Loyalty with a Mile High Customer-Centric Culture

During this crazy economic time, companies have two choices, according to Vicky Stennes, VP, Inflight Experience for JetBlue Airlines:

1. Think the economy is cyclical and wait it out.

2. Think customers have changed, and will continue to change. Now is a time to create a long-term strategy to create a more customer-centric culture.

JetBlue has followed the 2^nd choice. With their mission of “bringing humanity back to air service,” they must be doing something (or should I say many things?) right. J.D. Power & Associates has ranked them 2009 Top Low Cost Airline for Customer Satisfaction.

Not that JetBlue hasn't had it’s share of public bumps and bruises. Many people remember the public relations nightmare that occurred when JetBlue customers were stranded on the runway for hours with no food, bathroom, etc.

This innovative airline has managed to keep it’s chin in the air and continually focus on one of it’s main challenges: how to get people to give them a try. One of the things they’ve done is study the amazing difference in perception between people who are simply aware of the airline, and the people who have actually flown on the airline. People who have flown on JetBlue have a very high opinion of the attributes and features offered. People without flight experience on JetBlue pretty much rank them with all the other low cost carriers in terms of service and features.

To create the “mile high customer-centric culture” they are becoming known for, JetBlue started with a clearly defined set of values:

• Safety
• Caring
• Integrity
• Fun
• Passion

Then they identified behaviors that embody the values (They call them The Five “Be’s”):

• Be in Blue always
• Be personal
• Be the answer
• Be engaging
• Be thankful to every customer

These values and beliefs stem from JetBlue’s core belief: Culture and service are one in the same.

One way they convey the culture both internally and externally is their “blue” vocabulary. Everything is “Blue” – memos are called “Bluenote”; cities they fly to are called “Blue Cities.” They’re cornering the market on the word!

Another interesting idea that helps to spread the culture of service throughout the company is their attitude that everyone is a “crew member.” This echoes of Disney’s “cast member” philosophy, and it seems to work equally well.

What’s the JetBlue “Secret Ingredient”? Crew members make experiences.

The right kind of leadership is critical to leading a customer-centric organization. According to the JetBlue leadership philosophy, if you want to know what kind of leader you are, look at your calendar. If your calendar doesn’t reflect 70% of your time is spent working with your crew members, you’re not living the JetBlue culture.

Employees are equally important. So much so that JetBlue has instituted some tried and true, as well as some ground-breaking employee engagement efforts, including:

• No salary cuts
• Investment in retirement and profit sharing
• High levels of communication via Crewmember channels

JetBlue also understands who it’s core customers are. Internally, they’re called VFRs – Visiting Friends and Relatives. As business is down overall in this economy, JetBlue’s share of this audience is up – a testimony to the service it provides at a value price. And a testimony to the fact that when people are visiting friends and relatives, they truly value what they get from JetBlue.

Continuous Innovation is another key element of JetBlue’s service culture. It is their believe that innovation can take many forms, and it’s not always the new & different.

An example of JetBlue innovation during the recession. Their very successful (so successful they don’t release the actual results) “All You Can Jet” campaign. This program offered $599 unlimited travel between Sept 8-Oct 8. The results:

• Demand far exceeded expectations
• Nearly 50% of customers in this program had never flown JetBlue
• Viral Launch – 133 million reached through various social media channels and PR sources.
• They received an estimated $14 million worth of media coverage
• “Outrageous” response from customers – in a good way!

This program was amazingly more successful than they had hoped. Some flying fanatics actually flew more than 80 times during the program!

JetBlue’s new terminal at JFK – T5 – is a fresh new look at air travel. By paying attention to what travelers need today (as opposed to 1950), JetBlue offers a bright, energetic space that includes:

• lots of electrical outlets
• free wifi
• 22 restaurants and food outlets
• 25 retail stores
• a large kids area

One of the most fascinating stories about the new terminal was how JetBlue even thought through the security experience. They understand that even when you go through security, that’s still part of the JetBlue experience. So they created a better experience for TSA (the security agency) by improving the layout of the security area, and giving them padded floors among other improvements. The result is happier TSA workers who, in turn, help create happier customers.

The Q&A at the end of the session included some thoughtful questions from the packed room:

Q. How does idea generation work in your company?

A. Through the continuous dialog with our crewmembers. We do “pocket sessions” several times a year – listening tours to get feedback from customers.

Q. Are there certain behaviors you strive for to create the culture?

A. It starts with how we teach and treat each other. If treat each other right, it will flow to the customer.

We send surveys to 6 customers from every flight. One of the questions is on how much camaraderie there was among the crew. How much fun were they having? We use that information to see how we’re doing.

JetBlue, like many other companies represented at this year’s NACCM Customer’s 1^st Conference are utilizing Net Promoter scores to help them increase the number of people who will refer them to other travelers.

Vicky’s final message to customer service leadership: ROLE MODEL the behaviors you want. Your people are always watching you. You can put them through training, but your example means more than anything else. Great advice to end the session.

Takeaways that the audience shared also make a great summary of the session:

• It all starts with how we treat each other
• Culture is service
• When asked what makes you different, answer with a story instead of a soundbite
• Focus on continuous innovation as well as consistency
• Culture and profit should work together
• Manage the balance between making crew members, customers, and shareholders happy.
• Leadership should spend 70% of their time with crew members
• Acknowledge imperfection. Things happen. Be honest and deal with it.

NACCM 2009: Leading Through Turbulent Times - Disney Institute

Leading Through Turbulent Times - Disney Institute, presented by Bruce Kimbrell

Disney starts of with a video that shows how they go about preparing the park every day for the maximum enjoyment of their customers. PPIR's in the Disney Institutes's box - to encourage audience participation! Kimbrell has had 27 years of experience in Disney parks. Everyday should be a prep day for turbulent times. If it's important, if it has value, every day should be.

In the 24 Disney hotels from coast to coast, they experience 95% occupancy year round. This all has to do with the cast they have. They know what their guests are coming for. They treat every guest as if they're important.

Leadership excellence came from leaders who were willing to listen. Listening is an art and talent, few people have the talent. There were many leadership challenges from the 1960s on, after both of the Disney brothers died.

Communicate the vision. How they did it at Walt Disney:

-Create a shared and meaningful purpose

-Inspire passion and interest

-Guide decision making and strategy

-Convey values

Core competencies at Disney are how clean the park is and how friendly the people are.

What Disney did to improve their brand:

- Refocus on core competencies

- Refined brand, mission and product offerings

- Solidify corporate culture

Refocus your culture to demonstrate appropriate behaviors of:

-Language and symbols

-Cultural values

-Traits and behaviors

Listen to your front line which is your bottom line. Key factor that Disney relies on for communicating with their customers. Example: A Pub in the park was continually asked if they sold fish and chips. A cast member took a tally of the individuals who asked for Fish and Chips, so they created a shop where customers could buy fish and chips, which now brings in $3 million a month. The leader listened, and was rewarded as a result.

NACCM 2009: Turn Your Enemies into Raging Fans: The Critical Imperatives to Listening Online

A website called “Comcast Must Die” was one of the reasons Comcast took a more active role in reaching out to their unhappy customers. Frank Eliason, Director of Digital Care, National Customer Operations with Comcast, says this website was one of the reasons they started actively engaging in social media. They began by looking at blog site comments about their brand and let these customers know they were listening.

Eliason and his team of 11 are assigned the task of managing Comcast’s social media strategy. The company has set up both internal and external strategies to listen to customers. Eliason involved a variety of departments at Comcast to participate in listening and sharing customer stories, including Marketing, Public Relations, Customer Service and Human Resource departments. According to Eliason, this strategy has enabled Comcast to apply this information and change processes for the good in all areas of the company.

They didn’t start out that way. Eliason shares that Comcast had to learn to move away from being a product-focused company to one that is experienced-focused. It’s easy to track numbers and data to measure your effectiveness says Eliason. But you cannot change your organization by looking at only the numbers. Service people know that the customer experience and customer stories count.

With respects to blogs, Comcast takes the approach of reaching out to customers one-to-one if possible. They will first seek to call the customer and have a conversation. According to Eliason, the surprise factor is high, a two-way conversation is facilitated, and customers feel special. If they can’t reach them by phone, they try email or respond directly by posting comments on the blog site.

Eliason’s advice was similar to many other speakers today. That advice was to start listening to conversations. Search your brand name on Twitter. Don’t hold back, reach out and ask “can I help?” Know which forums your customers are hanging out on. Every customer is an influencer on your brand says Eliason. Listening and engaging are more important than ever in growing your brand.

NACCM 2009: PANEL SESSION: Leading Loyalty Amidst a Disruptive Business Environment

Moderator:

Rudy Vidal, Vidal Consulting Group

Panelists:

Jill Noblett (JN), recent Senior Vice President, Loyalty & Direct Marketing, Wyndham Hotel Group

Dan Wiersma (DW), recent SVP, Service Platforms, Sony Electronics

Megan Crowley (MC), Director Market Research, Norwegian Cruise Lines

Chris Moloney (CM), Chief Marketing Officer, Scottrade

Concept of the panel:

The idea of loyalty is changing. What are we doing differently that’s working.

Definition of Customer Loyalty:

A personal commitment to re-purchase and recommend, that resists normal competitive market pressures

Is loyalty more difficult to attain now than it used to be?

JN – Yes. People are more price sensitive. So we have to consider price, but figure out how to add as much value as we can – now we have to blend the two.

CM – One measure of loyalty is resistance to price sensitivity, but I’m not sure I agree with that anymore. The drivers are changing more dramatically.

There’s a difference between attitudes and behaviors. The marriage of these two are difficult.

DW – The fundamentals haven’t changed. Things like commoditization, the ability to replicate another company’s product or service has changed dramatically in our lifetime. That makes it more difficult to do what we have to do. I’m a huge Southwest Airlines fan. A few weeks ago, I got stuck in Phoenix due to weather in San Diego. Southwest was very responsive, took great care of us, even though it wasn’t their fault. I will fly them forever. They treated me as a person. That fundamental hasn’t changed.

MC – For us, the cruise industry, the experience is very long-lasting. For us, the experience is much more important than the price. We’re focusing on the experiences that are critical to our customers. With less money, we have to focus even more on those things that are most important to our customer.

AUDIENCE – Visibility & availability. Easy to get instant gratification now.

Speak to the empowerment of the consumer:

CM – It may be harder to overcome the price barrier. It changes the spectrum on how you have to overcome the price barrier. There’s only one price leader in any category. Everyone else has to differentiate another way.

What Southwest does so well is service recovery. Maybe right now somebody in your company is delivering bad service. How you resolve that is key!

JN – How do you add value to the price point? In Wyndham brand, we allowed customers to get some personal preferences if they fill out a profile for us. Even though we may cost $20 more, some of these people feel that the personalization is worth it. Sometimes the equity people build with your brand they don’t want to lose.

What creates loyalty?

MC – For us, it’s about the experience. We don’t have a very good loyalty program (from a traditional standpoint). We do understand what’s important to our customers and we try to deliver that. Our next step is to build a more robust loyalty program.

AUDIENCE – Anytime you have a touchpoint, you have to make sure the culture of service comes through.

DW – I agree completely. There are a multiplicity of things that drive loyalty, but the touchpoints of your company, both directly and indirectly are important. I asked different departments: legal, accounting, etc. if they knew how they impacted the end customer. Many of them didn’t know. At Southwest, every single person knows how they affect the end user. So what drives loyalty, as I found at Sony, is getting the linkages with everyone in the organization so they understand that what they do impacts the end customer (even the legal department – think about the legal speak they make customers read).

What is the role of the organization to creating loyalty?

CM – If people don’t identify themselves as part of the company – like saying “we” when referring to themselves in the company – the service level might not be what it should be. They won’t seem as empowered as they should be.

I will throw a wrench in it, though. Most of my friends are loyal to Apple. They’re off the charts for loyalty right now. Harley Davidson has like an 85% net promoter score. People want to be loyal, they want to be impressed, they want to have a good time. They want us to overdeliver. It’s not a situation that’s going to go away. People want to talk about your company.

The drives are probably different for each company, but it starts with overdelivering on the product.

JN – You can have great service, but if the product is flawed, you’re going to have problems. You may be loyal to a certain hotel, but if you find bedbugs, you’re probably not going to go back, or you’ll wait a long time before going back.

AUDIENCE – The opposite is true, too. What I want to know is that everytime I check into a Wyndham hotel anywhere, I want to have a consistent experience. People want good service and good product to be consistent.

JN – A lot of people talk about Zappos, but they’re all in one location. The culture and values can be easier to manage. It’s harder with a company that has many locations.

CM – I’m behaviorally loyal to my airline because of the loyalty program – I’m platinum. I expect a certain level of service for that. When I travel on another airline, I kind of expect to be kicked around.

You cannot deliver an extreme level of service to everybody. Southwest has finally joined the bandwagon and created a tiered level. We all know we have to treat our best customers special, but that can’t hurt the others.

DW – Back to the hotel example, I really like to be greeted at the front desk. My co-workers don’t care about that. We went to a hotel with an express check-in. My co-workers liked that. I felt dissatisfied because I like the interaction.

If you’re used to an environment being a certain way and it turns out different, that can be very disappointing. You have to look at how different people want things.

There’s a vicious circle of delivering what we can deliver, which attracts a certain customer. What about the others that want something different?

AUDIENCE – Let’s use the power of analytics to adapt our loyalty programs and our service models so you can tailor it to what each customer wants it to be.

JN – It depends on your product. It comes back to the drivers. What is that you know about the customer that makes them loyal?

CM – The next step would be to create a service differentiator. Can we group people into buckets? Some companies do “personas” that help understand what the customer wants.

JN – Wyndham creates personas. It was about how we presented the marketing to them. If you wanted points, we could talk to you about points. If you’re a leisure traveler, we’d talk to you a very different way.

DW – Some companies are doing exactly that. They’re having a conversation with you, then you can go somewhere else in the world and they can pull up the information on you (i.e., Ritz Carlton).

AUDIENCE QUESTION – If people fit different slots (ABC), what can you do to move people up the chain? And how do you keep the “A”s from feeling like they’re not special anymore?

JN – We moved people up the value chain through a lot of education and communication – helping them to understand the brands, what we have to offer. Sometimes they got special offers, etc. As we got to the higher levels, we tried to figure out ways to recognize them and get more share of wallet at the same time.

Sometimes we would move people up, or keep them around, even if they were a little short on points. That keeps them engaged and “hooked.”

CM – Sometimes they don’t know they’re in a loyalty program, or what level they are. You have to communicate that to them. You have to constantly learn from your customers about where they are, what’s going on with them, and how things have changed in the past year, you can move them up or down the value chain more easily.

MC – We have a much higher price point product, so we’ve done a lot of work to figure out what makes people purchase 2, 3, or 4 times. Once they’ve purchase 5 times, they’re loyalty goes through the roof. So we focus on how to choose the 2^nd or 3^rd purchase.

Chris, are you loyal to your airline brand, or are you loyal to the points?

CM – I’m hooked because they’re “my airline.” And I have a status with them (Platinum). If they had the exact same policies as Southwest, I’d go with Southwest due to the service.

Are customers loyal to the hotel brand or the points?

JN – You have to wonder if once you’ve created these points program or other program, have you created a monster? Maybe. But if you look at it like you’re giving them something they value , would they stay with you because they’re invested, even if you’re not perfect? That can change over time. I might make a different decision when I’m on business vs. being on vacation vs. when I’m visiting my grandparents. It’s more about what the person is desiring. Understand what they value, then give it to them.

AUDIENCE QUESTION – Can you share some lessons learned from loyalty programs?

DW – We’re not a steeped in loyalty programs as hospitality or airlines. We looked for the highest level of repeat customers and we gave them a “backstage pass.” If you’re close to a Sony store, you can get special stuff at the store. Almost nobody took us up on it. We sent it out to 250,000 and we had only 1000 people take us up on it in a year. We know that people are not as loyal to Sony as they used to be. We thought it would be great because we thought customers would really love the service enhancement.

What was it about that program that didn’t work?

I don’t really know. The flip side, though, was we came up with a program that’s not a loyalty program, but an enhanced services program. Customers loved that. They could come to a store and talk to somebody face to face in the store when they had a problem.

CM – A bank customer tried to do points based on overdraft fees because they’re the most profitable customers. Another bank gave points for ATM deposits. It ended up creating unbelievable lines at the ATM. A utility company tried to create a program that would incent people to use more power by leaving stuff on when they weren’t in the house!

JN – One of the things we didn’t do well was to set expectations properly with franchisees, etc. It took us a couple of years to create a dashboard for them to see the effects of the program. Calibrating those expectations is important.

Internal alignment and the understanding of the organization is important. We had a lot of technology infrastructure, we had to convert a lot of customers, etc. Sometimes we did that too quickly and we didn’t follow our own best practices. Those were learnings that were ongoing. There’s the famous expression, there’s never time to do it right, but there’s time to do it again. Take it slow and do it right.

MC – Our loyalty program is auto-enrollment. Now we’re getting to a point where we have a giant database of people that are pretty much inactive. We’re likely moving to a system that is more opt-in because those people will be a lot more active. Our direct marketing people are scared of losing their giant list, though.

What are you doing differently now than you were before?

MC – First, understanding the things that impact loyalty. Next, focus on the things that are most important. This helps get everyone excited and rally around those things when they’re prioritized.

What we’ve done recently is start with the customer. 80% of our sales go through a travel agent. So even though we touch the end customer, they purchase before we ever meet them. So we have to understand what drives the travel agent. What are the key drivers for them, so we can focus on the most important things for them, too.

Third, what makes employees excited and loyal? Same thing.

If we have loyal customers, loyal travel agents, and loyal employees, we’ll do great.

Is it a problem to “compete” with travel agents with your direct business?

MC – We need the travel agents. We love the end customer. We have to have both, but we can’t deny the travel agents.

Chris, what are you doing differently than you were 5 years ago?

CM – When you look at your business, 10-30% of your business can come through referrals. Get a hold of where referral lives in your business and figure out a way to maximize your referral program.

The people who make referrals to make referrals to people like them. So, high value customers are important to get referrals from.

AUDIENCE – How do you handle the difference in the increase in emotional loyalty?

DW – We recognized that the emotional piece was critical to loyalty. We started to do it base on the call center. When you’re calling a call center, you’re usually not happy. We started to rate emotions. We have your info and we can rate the experience based on what happened last time. We made it as simple as a frown face, happy face, or face with a straight line. We told our agents to not worry about how much time they were on the phone, but instead taking care of the emotional need of the customer.

We also employed skill-based routing. If I made you happy last time, we’re going to try to route your next call to me to take care of you.

AUDIENCE – I’m in healthcare and one of the things we’ve learned in healthcare is how to be “sensitive” to a person’s needs. And in healthcare, we have to change our hats all the time based on the medical need.

Jill, what are you doing differently now?

JN – When you’re dealing with 7000 franchisees, it’s hard to get consistency. Over the past few years, the company at large has made a shift to be more customer-centric. It’s interesting challenge because the “company” doesn’t deal directly with the customer. From a very basic standpoint, the organization started to align it’s technology so we can get an accurate picture of the customer and know what’s happened with them on previous visits. We obviously focus on retaining customers.

From a loyalty program standpoint, we tried to be relevant to our customer, meaning we tried to find things that were important to them and customize our offers, etc. to address those things. Also we tried to go deeper into personalization.

Give us something you learned that was key to making loyalty work:

CM – Net promoter score. I used to market against it. Now I’m the biggest proponent.

MC – For us, it’s listening to customers, then modeling it to them and prioritizing.

DW – I’m a huge proponent of NPS. Alignment is critical. In order to have a successful loyalty program, you need alignment of marketing, sales, etc. Without it, you struggle. Lastly, the significant impact your people have on your customers. Empower them to do things.

JN – Showing metrics and ROI as soon as possible gets the company behind the effort as quickly as possible.

NACCM 2009: Creating a Customer-Centric Social Media Strategy that Works

Business owners want to jump on the social media bandwagon but just don’t know where to begin. Becky Carroll, founder of Customers Rock!, believes you must have a strategy to engage in social media today. In her presentation today, "Putting Together a Customer-Centric Social Media Strategy that Works: Deciphering the Hype from Reality", she discusses how to put together a customer centeric social media strategy that works.
Why consider social media? Carroll says because your customers want it or management wants it. She reminds us that 60% of Americans are using social media, 93% believe a company should have a presence in social media and 85% believe a company should interact via social media. Using social media helps to remove the “faceless veil” so that customers can get to know you on a personal level says Carroll.

According to Carroll, hitting the Social media sweet spot allows us to:
– build trust with customers
– build community
– WOM maximizer
– two-way conversations

Based on the book Groundswell, Carroll shares several reasons to use social media: to listen, talk, energize, help and embrace your customers. Ask your customers which social media venues work best for them.

How do you create a social media strategy? Carroll says you should participate by first listening, deciding what you want to do with your customers and choose the right tools. Establish social media goals. What do you want to do? Share your expertise, build relationships, create a conversation, customer service, or be more human?

Carroll shared several company examples which are successfully using social media. She mentioned the top three brands with the deepest brand engagement using social media Starbucks, Dell and Ebay. Other examples include Coca Cola, JetBlue and Cisco. Coca Cola’s Fan Page was developed by two loyal customers. JetBlue Airways uses Twitter for customer service and has over 1.4 million followers. Cisco CEO John Chambers was captured on video in his office doing duck calls. The video was posted on their blog and allowed customers to see his human side.

The key to social media is in the planning. Decide who is in charge of social media. Many are outsourcing to marketing companies and PR firms. Carroll believes you should not outsource this to someone outside of the company. Find someone in your organization who would love the opportunity to create conversations about your company. Everyone needs to be involved in strategy: marketing, customer service, R&D, C-level, and employees.

Decide which metrics are the most critical. Start with small, focused pilots. Remember, you must be consistent as it is a relationship-building activity for the long term according to Carroll. Ask for customer feedback and revise your strategy as needed.

You can engage in social media in a planned way. Set up the plan and get your organization involved. According to Carroll, it takes a little nurture and care. Little things like “thank you” matter to your customers. Begin by listening is Carroll’s strongest advice.

NACCM 2009: Managing the Customer Service Experience

Customers today are more interested in the experience they have with you, your products and services than ever before. Making the customer experience your value proposition should be our goal according to Lewis (Lou) Carbone, founder and CEO of Experience Engineering and author of “Clued In, How to Keep Customers Coming Back Again and Again.” Carbone reminds us of a quote from Peter Drucker that brings light to this concept, “The purpose of a business is to create value for its customers and the reward for that is profit.”

Two companies, Disney and Howard Johnsons, have influenced his thinking about the customer experience. In working with Disney, he found that their management was concerned more about the customer experience, i.e., concerns over the melting rate of ice cream in their different theme parks, the scent of chocolate chip cookies to enhance the experience, down to the design of Main Street in a way that visitors perceived a long entrance that went on forever and perceived a quick exit after a long day at the park. Compare this to Howard Johnson’s model which lost its customer focus over the years.

According to Carbone, the economy has affected how we look at customer service today. One way a business can differentiate itself is through the service experience. Companies must move from a “make and sell” product-based mentality to a “sense and respond” experience-based mentality. The “sense and respond” mentality focuses on what our customers really want from the service experience and examines the impact of cultural influences and psychological needs. When we factor these into the service experience, we can significantly improve customer loyalty and retention.

An experience audit can help us compare a current customer service experience with a desired customer experience. We can audit our current customer experience with a variety of tools including, language analysis, clue scanning, one-on-one customer interviews, etc. Clue scanning, for example, allows us to look for clues in a service experience that can be improved to better meet the needs and desires of the customer. By using these tools we can close the gap between the current and desired customer experience.

Carbone believes that improving the customer service experience involves both art and science in today’s world. “It is not enough to say ‘let’s treat them well,’” says Carbone. We must look beyond that and decide what we want our customers to feel about themselves when they do business with us. Managing customer clues will become extremely important as time goes on. He foresees a day when every customer is treated as an individual unit as we perfect our “clue-consciousness.” Until then, we must continue to keep our eyes focused on improving the service experience to remain competitive and successful.

Welcome to NACCM: Customers 1st

This week, we're going to be live from NACCM: Customers 1st in Phoenix, Arizona. Conference Producer Amanda Powers recently sat down with us to let us know what to expect from this year's conference.

NACCM 2009 Kicks off on Monday!

We hope that you'll be joining us next week in sunny Phoenix for the 2009 NACCM Customer 1st event. We'll be LIVE on-site as we blog, Tweet and record all that NACCM has to offer.

Follow us right here for our coverage of the conference. Also, be sure to follow along on Twitter and join in the conversation with #NACCM.

Check below for a glimpse of what's in store for us next week.


Take a look at all we have to offer:

• 40+ insightful presenters focused on delivering real world case studies showcasing new innovative approaches for delivering customer-centricity.
• 7 Exciting new keynote sessions: fresh sources of motivation and inspiration to help you make an impact. Keynote themes include Authentic Leadership, CCO Perspectives, WOW Experiences, Customer Trends, Human Factors, Customer Service and more!
• More networking activities than ever - including a Mexican Fiesta Dinner, Wild West Party and dinners with peers around the resort to ensure you're making the right connections and getting the right face-time with your industry counterparts.
• New Programs added to ensure your investment delivers the value you need and expect... including the ROA (Return on Attendance) tool, event mentorship program, post-event executive summary and participant key takeaways report.

• Outdoor sessions and activities bringing the insights and knowledge sharing into an open-air environment.

• Event Concierge offering personalized attention aimed at helping you with all your planning needs.

• All New Tracks & Summits, the value of 5 conferences for the price of one: Customer-Centric Social Media, Next Generation Loyalty & Retention Strategies, Strategic Leadership & Customer-Centric Culture, Organizational & Operational Excellence, Innovating the Customer Experience


Plus - Connect, Engage and Learn from your Peers...here is a list of companies who've already signed on to attend:

Affinion Loyalty Group
ALSAC St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Arizona Public Service
Baxter Healthcare Corporation
Blueocean Market Intelligence
BrightSight Group
Burke Inc.
CACI International Inc.
Canadian Blood Services
CIGNA Healthcare
Comcast Corporation
Compassion Canada
Conway Freight
Customers Rock!
Data Development Worldwide
Dell Inc.
Enumclaw Insurance Group
Essilor
First Data Merchant Services
Forum
Freeman
GFK Custom Research
GlaxoSmithKline
Hallmark Insights
Helzberg Diamonds
Hewlett Packard Company
Home Nursing Agency
Homestead Technologies
HSN
inContact
Intel Corporation
Intercontinental Hotels Group
JetBlue Airways
LaCrosse Footwear Inc.
Lexis Nexis
Marriott International
Mastercard Worldwide Medallia Inc.
NCO Group
Norwegian Cruise Line
OnCURE Medical Corp.
Powerhouse Consulting
Predictive Consulting Group Inc.
Pyramid
Quest Diagnostics
Regence
Research In Motion
San Diego Gas Electric
Scotiabank
Scottsdale Insurance Company
Sensory Logic
Setar
Sony Electronics
Southern California Edison
Southwest Airlines
Sportgiving.com
TELUS
The Disney Institute
The Forum Corporation
The Hartford
Thomson Reuters
Towerbank International
Travelocity
Ubercool LLC
Union Bank & Trust Co.
Union Bank of California
United States Olympic Committee
Verizon Wireless
Wachovia
Walk the Walk
Wyndham Hotel Group
YMCA of the USA
Zappos.com

What if we only offered online customer service?

I came across this interesting thread on the UK Business Labs Forum in which a business owner was thinking about switching their online and phone service for customer service to strictly online only, eliminating the phone element. Many customers though still feel the need to physically speak to representatives on the phone right off the bat and when things aren't being explained well online through instant messaging. Do you think this is a wise decision to remove phone service from their customer service initiatives?

Improve Customer Service -- Or Else

Ed Wallace of CIO.com writes that Baby boomers aren't just reducing their debt and watching their spending, they are also re-evaluating the types of products they would buy in the future -- everything from luxury cars to their homes. Wallace warns, "Attention CEOs: Now, more than ever you can't afford to let sloppiness, misinformation, or poor service cost you any more customers."

Wallace continues, because it is becoming harder than ever to separate customers from their dollars, customer care and the buying experience are more important than ever. The problem is that, at least if my experiences this year are anything to go by, that experience is so unrewarding that I, and many other consumers, may keep right on sitting on our wallets.

How are you serving your baby boomer customer base? Have you made any changes to your customer service strategy in order to retain and earn new customers within this demographic?

Warning: Improve Customer Service -- Or Else

7 Tips to Improving Customer Service

I came across this post on SEOhosting.com that highlights 7 tips for offering "better" customer service. Every company plans on offering better customer service but it's time to actually buckle down and go through with it. Here are the 7 tips the post includes:


1. Offer online chat - customers want to be able to chat immediately especially if they are having a technical glitch or problem

2. Use Twitter - Comcast and Southwest Airlines are just a few examples of great companies that are being proactive and not reactive to customer complaints by using twitter

3. Have a FAQ section - this can reduce a lot of calls to customer service by simply having a webpage with dedicated answers

4. Include a search function - make your website more friendly by allowing consumers to search for specifics

5. Post contact info on every page - don't make it difficult for customers to get in contact with you

6. Increase response time to emails - make sure to answer all emails at least within 24 hours

7. Ask how you can improve customer service - constantly ask what are more ways to improve your service

Customers 1st 2009 Podcasts: A Conversation with Dan Hill, Author, Emotionomics

As we get gear up for the 2009 NACCM: Customers 1st Event this year, we're going to be interviewing and getting to know the speakers and sponsors who will bring their perspectives on customer service to you. We recently sat down with Dan Hill, author of Emotionomics. He will be participating in the keynote speech, “Saving Customer Ryan: The Power of Emotion Brand Equity” at this year's conference. Download the NACCM:Customers 1st Brochure to find out more about the program this year.


Subscribe Free
Add to my Page

Dan Hill is the President of Sensory Logic, Inc., founded in 1998 as a scientific consumer insights firm that specializes in gauging both verbal and nonverbal, subconscious reactions to advertising, store environments, and product design, packaging and presentation. He has also provides executive coaching for sales force training relating to interpersonal communication skills.

Dan will be presenting the keynote speech “Saving Customer Ryan: The Power of Emotional Brand Equity” at this year’s NACCM: Customers 1st Conference this November 2-5 at the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak in Phoenix, Arizona.

What is a company’s emotional equity and how can this affect consumer perceptions?
Dan: Well, we often talk about equity from an advertising perspective, and what they often mean is the awareness of the brand. That you’re aware of a brand, and you find it relevant. What I think it means when you get to customer service, what’s the experience you’ve had with a brand, is it meaningful, is it distinct and above all is it positive and it’s emotional because our emotions drive our decision making process and reflect the memories that we’ve had, and that’s why they’re so powerful and drive customer perceptions. If you have a positive feeling, it’s relent, it can drive you back toward the brand.

How important is it to customer service to be able to read what your customers are feeling when they are doing business with you?
Dan: It’s crucial because the breakthroughs in brain science confirm that people are largely emotional decision makers, the emotional part of the brain sends about 10x as many signals as the rational brain and vice versa, so everybody feels before they think, and the important thing about customer service is you’re in the moment, you’re interacting with another human being, it’s probably the single most emotional moment in the business world, and if you can engender positive feelings, and read as you’re creating those vibes with the other person, that’s really when you’re going to build brand equity.

How can being able to read facial expressions of candidates help during the hiring process?
Dan: Well, we all know that these days, people don’t disclose much in references, and obviously the person doing the interview is going to put on their best face possible, and the important thing you need to know is once you hire the person, and they are at the crucial touch point where brand equity is built so much, you really want someone was a good brand ambassador. Someone who has an agreeable personality, and I really think you can pick that up in an interview. Much more in just the words, after all in a stressful situation, it’s really a chance to get past the lip services. There are studies that show 55% of crucial communication is through the face and only 7% through the words. Reading someone’s temperament, seeing how they handle the stress of the interview, seeing how positive they can be and stay away from the negatives, those same qualities will be very valuable in someone who’s helping a customer.

Can you tell us a little about what you’ll be presenting at this year’s NACCM: Customers 1st?
Dan: [I will ]Probably two or three things most of all. One is to try to introduce people to the importance of the emotional element in people’s decision making process. As I said breakthroughs in brain science have confirmed that people are overwhelmingly emotional decision makers. That’s one part. The other part is indeed about hiring. We are linking how people emote and how they feel to their core personality. That’s how someone over time reveals themselves. And the third point will be specific practical applications to what the customer experience and customer service situation is and how you can make it better.

Rating the Carriers: Customer Service Showdown

Laptop magazine recently released their own study about the quality of customer service among cell phone carriers within the USA. They found that overall, T-Mobile offered the best customer service based on customer service within the store, web, phone and overall satisfaction.

Do you agree?


Rating the Carriers: Customer Service Showdown

NACCM Customers 1st Conference in 2 Weeks – Plus – Enjoy Complimentary White Paper and NYT Article Download

We’re excited to be heading to NACCM Customers 1st in just 2 weeks, November 2-5 in Phoenix, AZ. Hundreds of executives will be assembling to explore next steps to re-focus and rebuild in 2010 using customer-centricity as their key catalyst for business growth.

B2B and B2C Professionals from these outstanding companies will be present to exchange new ideas and strategies in areas of loyalty, customer-centric innovation, operational excellence, culture, the customer experience and strategic leadership:

AAA Arizona, Affinion Loyalty Group, Alliance Global Services, ALSAC/ St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, American Family Insurance, Arizona Public Service, Availity LLC, Baxter Healthcare Corporation, Bridgewater Bank, BrightSight Group, Burke Inc, Cablevision Systems Corporation, CACI International Inc
Carolina Biological Supply Company, CIGNA Healthcare, Cogeco Cable, Comcast Corporation, Compassion Canada, Conway Freight, Customers Rock!, CVS Caremark, Data Development Worldwide, Dell, ELCA Board of Pensions, Enumclaw Insurance Group, First Data Merchant Services, Freeman, Georgia Pacific, GFK, GlaxoSmithKline, Helzberg Diamonds, Hewlett Packard Company, Home Nursing Agency, Homestead Technologies, HSN, Intel Corporation, JC Penney Company, JetBlue Airways, LaCrosse Footwear, Landscape Forms, Level 3 Communications, LexisNexis, Martins Point Health Care, Methodist Hospital, NCO Group Inc, Nokia Inc, Norwegian Cruise Line, OnCURE Medical Corp, Pinnacle Financial Partners, Powerhouse Consulting, Pyramid, Quest Diagnostics, Regence, Results Companies, Rice University, RIM, San Diego Gas Electric, Sanofi Aventis, Sara Lee, Scotiabank, Scottsdale Insurance Company, SDN Communications, Sensory Logic, Setar, Sony Electronics, Southern California Edison, Southwest Airlines, Sportgiving.com, Tell Us About Us, TELUS, Thomson Reuters, Tobyhanna Army Depot, Towerbank International, Travelers, Travelocity, Ubercool LLC, Union Bank & Trust Co, Union Bank of California, United States Olympic Committee, Verizon Wireless, Wyndham Hotel Group, YMCA of the USA, Zappos.com

• Event Page: http://bit.ly/1EBpx9
• Brochure: http://bit.ly/Idgs9
• Registration: http://bit.ly/4bxTjM

Want to network with customer-minded professionals from these companies? You can, register today and remember, as a member of our LinkedIn group, you’ll receive an exclusive 20% discount off your registration.


NY Times Article:
In a recent study by the Journal of Consumer Research and referenced in a NY Times article "No Fury Like a Customer Mistreated" - found that keeping your customer happy is now more critical than ever. It will take a lot to win over customers who are unhappy with the service they receive, not to mention the rippled effect of damage that can be inflicted through negative emails, blog postings, tweets and word-of-mouth comments if not handled well.

Do you feel 100% confident that your company is doing everything it can to keep its customers happy, provide exceptional service and communicate true value?

New York Times Article, "No Fury Like a Customer Mistreated" : http://bit.ly/NYT_Article

We'd also like to direct to you a complimentary white paper from Forum. This piece, "Creating a Positive Organizational Climate in a Negative Economic One: Improving Organizational Climate to Transform Performance" by Tom Atkinson, Ph.D. and Henry Frechette, Ph.D. identifies six dimensions of climate3 that influence the work environment and employee motivation.

Read More: http://bit.ly/NACCM_Forum

See you in Phoenix!

Cheers,
NACCM

Customer service and the holidays

MorningSun.net of Pittsburgh, Kansas recently looked at how companies can take the dismal customer service situations that arise during the holiday and make them manageable. They can begin by ensuring that they have a service quality system in place before the holidays begin. The most prevalent reasons customers are dissatisfied during the holidays are out-of-stock items, discontinued items, returns and shipping charges. Retail stores should make sure their employees are trained with how to respond to customers should these four things arise.

What do you do to prepare your employees for the holiday season?

A New Flight Pattern: Customer Service and Twitter

Customers with issues during their travel can tweet their respective airlines and within minutes their issues can be resolved, reports the Associated Press. Now that customer service representatives are using Twitter, fliers of low-cost airlines have another level of contact with the airline. The Associated Press article writes, discount airlines have traditionally outflanked the big network carriers in customer service and low fares, and it appears they're extending their advantage to social media. The discounters often respond with quick feedback to travelers' concerns on social networking sites, while traditional network carriers peddle last-minute fare deals but seem slow to embrace Twitter and Facebook to beef up customer service.

If you're interested in learning more about airline customer service, join Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airlines at NACCM 2009.

Facebook and it's customer service

We've heard many great thing about how online communities can strengthen and increase the value of customer service, but what happens with the online communities themselves have poor customer service? According to Caroline McCarty, many Facebook profiles have suffered from a recent outage. They've contacted both her and Facebook for a response, but little has come from Facebook in terms of customer support. After contacting Facebook, users only got back minimal responses that stated that their information was in no way compromised.

Is this acceptable? As one of the most highly trafficked web pages, should they work to support their customers better? I think so. Because to stay on top of the social networking world, they must continue to connect and listen to their customers, instead of leaving their questions about their accounts to go unanswered for days.

Call for Bloggers: Attend NACCM Customers 1st 2009 on Us!

That’s right, we’re offering a few exclusive all-access complimentary passes to NACCM Customers 1st 2009 – November 2-5 in Phoenix, AZ - and you could attend the conference – on us ($3,000+ value). We’re looking for experienced bloggers who are well-versed in customer management to begin blogging now and also at this year’s event. In return for your posts, you’ll be able to attend educational sessions and training seminars delivered by industry thought-leaders and corporate practitioners on the content areas of customer centric leadership, social media, loyalty, operational excellence, customer experience and more. Network and engage with speakers from JetBlue Airways, Disney, Dell, Cigna, FedEx, Southwest Airlines, Zappos.com and so many more at this exciting customer strategy event.

To apply to be a guest blogger, simply send your name, title, company and a few writing samples (a link to your blog is recommended) to our conference producer, Amanda Powers at apowers@iirusa.com no later than Oct. 15th. We will review the submissions and contact all winners directly with more details. This opportunity doesn’t come often and we encourage you to apply and join us next month in Phoenix.

For more information about the event, please follow the links below:

For more on the NACCM event, visit the website:
http://bit.ly/oASuw

Download the Brochure: http://bit.ly/4tXu9R

Remember, as a member of our NACCM Customers 1st LinkedIn group, you’re eligible for a 20% discount off the standard conference rate.

Cheers,
NACCM 2009

Building a loyal customer base

At MyCentralJersey.com, they look at ways small businesses can build value and create loyalty for their customers. While this is critical for businesses just starting, companies should always have their customers in mind.

Many companies want to continue to sell their products, however, forget that they need to keep their customers after they draw them in the door the first time. An easy way to do this is to thank customers after their purchases, which will also add value to a product when you sell it. Also, all customer touch points need to be operated with a customer in mind.

What do you think? How do you ensure your customer is taken care of at every touch point to ensure their future loyalty?

NACCM: Customers 1st will be holding a one day summit focusing on creating loyalty. "Creating Uber Loyalists: Cracking The Code On Next Gen Loyalty, Engagement and Advocacy." Jet Blue, Sony Electronics and Norwegian Cruise Lines will be among the presenters. Find out more about the full day symposium here.

Customers 1st 2009 Podcasts: A Conversation with Curtis Bingham, Predictive Consulting Group

As we get gear up for the 2009 NACCM: Customers 1st Event this year, we're going to be interviewing and getting to know the speakers and sponsors who will bring their perspectives on customer service to you. We recently sat down with Curtis Bingham, President of the Predictive Consulting Group. He will be participating in the keynote panel discussion, “The Ultimate in Customer Centricity: Chief Customer Officers Describe How Everyone Can be a Loyalty Leader” at this year's conference. Download the NACCM:Customers 1st Brochure to find out more about the program this year.


Subscribe Free
Add to my Page
Can you tell us how important it is that customer loyalty is a focus for the entire organization?
Curtis: You know this is a really important point here; because, if you imagine going into a hotel, Jenny, it absolutely beautifully appointed, people greet you by name at the hotel, your check-in is flawless and your room has a spectacular view. However, your TV is broken, the image is snowy. So you call the front desk, they apologies profusely and they promise to send someone right up and you wait, you wait, you wait some more. Finally the repair man bangs loudly on the door, you open the door and he’s standing out there. He is disheveled, smelly and rude. He barges in past you, blames you for having to work late, and complains about hotel management while he’s fixing your TV there. If you think about your experience, the damage is just irreparable. This unprofessional behavior ruined your entire experience. And it may have caused the company to lose revenue. Because research shows that disgruntled customers tell three and thirty people about their bad experiences. And their online ratings and reviews reach thousands or millions more. All of those people who were exceptional at the front end of this particular process; their good work is undone by a single person. We live in an experience economy, where everything is all about the customer experience. Just one person can sabotage the work of 100s. What we learn by this little vignette here, is that customer loyalty needs to be everyone’s job. It cannot be the job of just one person or one group.


How do you ensure that an entire corporation if focused on customer centricity?
Curtis: This is a real challenge, and its one that we are working with right now with the chief customer officer council, one that we are working with a number of chief customer officers from around the world. On resolving this particular issue or addressing this particular issue. I think there are three things that have come out of these discussions.

The first is modeled behavior from the top. The second is peer pressure; the third is rewards and incentives. I’ll talk about each of these for just a second. A couple of months ago I noticed that each of my three children were harrumphing in disgust if something didn’t go their way or they made a mistake. I was trying to figure out where they got it from. And one day I heard the tell-tale “harrumph” but without anyone around and I realized, shockingly, that it came from me. Similarly, employees will model behavior that they see in executives. The work ethic, the communication styles, the way that they run meetings, the way that they deal with difficult employees or difficult situations. And customer attitudes and focus is no different. Executives have to model behavior that shows how valuable customers are to the company.

The second thing that we want to look at is peer pressure. We often look at peer pressure as a bad thing; but it can actually be quite a powerful force for good. One chief customer officer in the council said that culture cannot be changed it can only be adapted. And he has been very successful creating culture change, very dramatic culture change by using positive peer pressure. What he did was this; he made it popular to serve customers better than the person beside you or the person in the next division over. And the results from this person’s culture change have been stellar. He’s taking a very hard charging, hard driving culture that was all about products and sales and turned it into a customer centric culture.

The last thing that is really important in getting everyone focused on loyalty is rewards and incentives. The bottom line is that you improve what you measure. You get what you inspect. And bottom line people are going to react in their rational self interest. If you measure in reward, then behavior changes; however, this type of change that is brought about through money, rewards and what not is not lasting. It should only be used after the previous two that we mentioned, the modeling behavior and then the applying of peer pressure.


How have the roles of Chief Customer Officers changed the roles of customer centricity and loyalty today?
Curtis:You know, it used to be, that as I mentioned before that we were in a product culture or product environment, where products were the most important thing. As products became more commoditized, then it became more an issue of service—how great was your service that followed on to a great product. Now service as become event more commoditized and we’re now in an experience economy and going back to our example of modeling behavior from the top -- the chief customer officer does exactly that. He/she sets the standard for the entire organization on how customers need to be treated. And more importantly, going to this experience economy here, they’re the ones that are able to map out the customer experience, from start to finish, cradle to grave. And all of the different touch points and look for these disheveled repairman to make sure that there aren’t any negative experiences, to work with your organization to find where these bad experiences are, these bad influences are and figure out how to change those in such a way that the company is still profitable and yet the customer experience is still stellar. So they can measure the customer experience and refine it across all of the traditional business silos to make sure that experience is very carefully planned executed measured and refined. So the chief customer officer here, in general, is the go to authority on customers. They are the ultimate authority for customer issues; they are ultimately accountable for customer issues. And as their, in their role as the customer executive, they are not only accountable to the customer to the customer but they are able to drive customer-centric change across your organization. So before the chief customer officer, unless you have a very customer centric CEO there is often no one in a position of authority that could take a customer issue that was outside of their division or department or business units and track down other processes that were causing a poor experience in other business units or other groups. So the chief customer officer is this glue that holds all of these different, disparate processes that impact the customers together and the one that can drive the strategy across all of these different processes and make sure that the customer experience is stellar, and needs to be in this experience economy.


Can you tell us a little about the keynote panel you’re participating on at this year’s NACCM: Customers 1st Conference?

Curtis: I am really excited about this panel here, because loyalty, relatively speaking is fairly new. There has been a lot of talk about it; there has been a lot of research done on it. And yet, bottom line is that it’s new. There are a lot of people out there experimenting with loyalty in different programs, different ideas, and different methodologies. For the first time, we’ve got a series of customer centric executives that are at the top of well known corporations that have been doing this for years. And they are sitting with everybody to share what has worked for them, what kinds of things that you need to do as a loyalty leader to get buy in from the executive board for your loyalty programs. What kinds of things do you need to do to ensure that your loyalty programs achieve the desired results? How to you prioritize different loyalty opportunities and possibilities and programs that you could implement? What do you need to measure, how do you measure these loyalty programs and how do you prioritize these so that you get the most out of them from your business results from your customers. There is just a wealth of information here from both a b2b and b2c perspective. Bob Olsen, was mostly recently from Intuit, and he was with GoDaddy, a very well-known internet hosting service. They turned their call centers from a call center from being a cost center to a revenue center. They’ve just done phenomenal things in driving customer loyalty and yet still dramatically increasing profitability. He worked with very closely with Bob Parsons in order to do that. Rudy Videll is a brilliant expert on customer loyalty; it’s a customer loyalty program that he developed while at Panasonic. I had a chance to talk to him in great detail in ways that you can measure and drive customer loyalty and some of the things that he’s talking about leading indicators and lagging indicators are brilliantly simple to execute. So, I’m very excited about that. The other panelist it Tammy McLeod from Arizona Power Systems and she has taken an approach much like Disney, going back to our question earlier, to make sure that loyalty is everyone’s job. She meets personally with every new hire, so that they understand how important customers are, that the customers are the ones who are signing the paychecks. And that whenever the repair people are out in the community, they are the face of Arizona Power, that they are expected to create a good experience, a loyal following from all of their other customers. So we have a broad variety of people that are on the panel and a huge variety of experiences here that I think is just going to be a fantastic combination, and people are just going to walk away from there with some very practical, tangible hands-on approaches. How can you make loyalty everyone’s job? How can you measure it and improve it? How can you make sure that you’re focusing on the right aspects of loyalty? I’m really excited.

Airlines seeing increase in better customer service

According to the LA Times, many airlines are seeing an increase in quality of customer service. Through the first seven months of 2009, 79% of US flights were on time, as opposed to 75% during the same time in 2008. The claims to lost luggage also dropped 1 bag per 1,00o people from 4.87 last year to 3.89 this year. One factor contributing to the increase in customer service could be because there are fewer flights in the skies, which means more fewer customers for the airlines to work with.

What do you think about the increase in customer service? As a frequent flier, customer service may have improved, but has the general experience of flying increased? While fewer bags were lost, how much of an impact did airlines new charges for checking bags decrease the number of checked bags?

JetBlue will be joining us at NACCM: Customers 1st to present the keynote speech "Fueling Loyalty within a Mile High Customer-Centric Culture" on Tuesday, November 3. Find out more about the speech here.