The Voice of the Customer
A First Wednesday Roundtable Retreat
October 7, 2008
8:00am–5:30pm
Agenda
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8:00-8:45
Breakfast and networking
8:45-9:00
Welcome
9:00-9:45
Creating Customer Passion
Presenter: Marlene Bessette, VP Strategy,
Xerox
Your ideal customers aren't just satisfied-they become
evangelists for your company. In this keynote presentation,
Xerox's top customer loyalty manager will discuss the metrics
and processes that her company uses to identify and cultivate
customer champions.
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Marlene Bessette is vice president of strategy and
customer loyalty for Xerox Services United States Solutions
Group, where she is responsible for defining the long-term
strategic direction and road map for services delivery, and
ensuring robust processes, which capture and react to
customer feedback.
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10:00-10:45
Turning Satisfaction Scores Into Service
Quality Improvements
Presenter: Tina Taylor, VP Global
Customer Care, GE Fanuc
By using Net Promoter "willingness to recommend" scores, GE has
developed a continuous improvement process for support and
company-wide business practices. Tina will describe how this
approach has helped identify subtle shortcomings in GE's
internal processes and has helped enhance the company's
reputation among customers.
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Tina Taylor is vice president of global customer care
for GE Intelligent Platforms, where she is responsible for
overseeing her organization's worldwide support operations.
She has a background in engineering and operations, and has
held management roles in several major GE
divisions.
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11:00-11:45
Compensation and Customer Satisfaction
Presenter: Harvey Wigder, President,
Fulcrum Resource Group
A growing number of companies now tie support and services
bonuses to satisfaction scores. Drawing on data from several
research studies, a compensation expert talks about how to
structure these incentive plans for maximum results—and
how to avoid unpleasant surprises.
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Harvey Wigder is president of Fulcrum Resource Group, a
human resources consulting firm that specializes in "gaining
a talent advantage" by improving organizational performance,
designing incentive plans, and recruiting top-level
executives.
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12:00-1:00
Lunch
1:00-1:45
Brainstorming: The Customer as
Innovator
Presenter: Matt Tippets, Parature
Earlier this year, Parature launched an idea-sharing forum on
the Web to encourage feedback about new product features and
development directions from the company's customers. The new
forum, which lets users comment and vote on suggestions,
provides a valuable framework for tapping the innovative spirit
of Parature's customer base.
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Matt Tippets is a product manager for Parature's
on-demand customer support solutions. He focuses on
translating customer requirements into ongoing product
enhancements and coordinating product releases. He holds
an MBA degree from the University of Maryland and has worked
as a product manager for two other on-demand software
companies.
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1:45-2:30
How to Develop a True Dialog
Process
Presenter: Ann Walker, MathWorks
Why don't developers listen to customer requests? To address
this frustrating problem, the support team at the MathWorks
built a sophisticated process for integrating customer feedback
into the company's product development calendar. Here's what
they learned.
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Ann Walker has been a support team manager at the
MathWorks since 2006. Ann had previously spent over six
years in quality engineering at the MathWorks, and she has
leveraged this experience within the development organization
as the liaison between technical support and
development.
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2:45-3:30
Listening Outside the Box
Presenter: Peter Holt, Progress Software
Often, the most valuable customer feedback challenges
assumptions about the "right" way to deliver support. Progress
Software's support group has developed important process
improvements by listening creatively to feedback that doesn't
always reflect conventional wisdom about what customers are
supposed to want.
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Peter Holt is director of worldwide technical support at
Progress Software. A UK native, Peter has spent 25 years in
the IT industry, mostly working with software companies, but
also with telecom and hardware vendors.
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3:30-4:15
A Single View of Everything We Know
Presenter: Renee Bochman, Endeca Technologies
The ultimate goal: Finding a way to integrate all the internal
and external sources of support knowledge in a single portal.
Technology can help, says Renee Bochman, but it's equally
important to create a company and community culture that will
keep up the momentum.
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Renee Bochman is senior director of global customer care
at Endeca Technologies. With over ten years of support
leadership experience, she specializes in transforming
support teams into strategic knowledge resources that
clearly differentiate companies from their competitors.
Previously, she managed technical teams at several startups
and at the U.S. Air Force.
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4:15-5:00
Open Mike: Ask the Experts
Our speakers return to the stage for a
lively discussion of "Voice of the Customer" issues and ideas
that particularly engaged our attendees during the day.
5:00-5:15
Wrap-up
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Sponsors
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