The VOC Innovation Showcase consists of eight presentations that will be part of the First Wednesday Group’s annual Voice of the Customer Conference, November 7-8. If your company has developed a leading-edge “voice of the customer” support program, we invite you to share your experiences with our audience.

Here’s how the Showcase process works:

1. The first step is for you to send us a brief proposal (about two pages) that describes your VOC innovation. Please follow this outline:

o  Who are you and who are your customers?
o  What was the problem you were trying to solve?
o  What was your solution and how did you implement it?
o  How did you measure your results?
o  What useful lessons did you learn?

2. Focus your proposal on a single innovation or short-term program. The Showcase is not a good forum for describing multi-faceted projects or complicated strategies.

3. Bear in mind that we’re looking for innovations that primarily address customer support issues. These innovations might include online forums, chat, social media, wikis, blogs, advisory boards, feedback surveys, webinars and training programs, and other forms of customer communication and engagement.

4. Presenters should have actual hands-on implementation experience. You may talk about tool vendors and service providers who helped you, but this is your story, not theirs.

5. The deadline for submissions is May 31. The conference Advisory Board will review all submissions, and we’ll contact you by June 15 to let you know if you made the cut.

6. The presenters we select will have a half-hour time slot (including Q&A) during the Voice of the Customer Conference and may bring one guest. There are no conference fees or charges. We will provide a standard presentation template that covers the same topics as your proposal outline.

7. For more information, contact any of the co-producers (Jeff, Phil, or Fred) or drop us a short note using the Contact Us form and we’ll get back to you.