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Announcing the Third Annual
Voice of the Customer Retreat
November 3 - 4, 2009


Dear colleague,

In tough economic times, customer retention almost always pays bigger dividends than chasing first-time buyers.

If you'd like to explore the latest and smartest concepts for building a more engaged and enthusiastic customer base, we've created an event you'll love—our third annual "Voice of the Customer" conference (Nov. 3) and post-conference workshops (Nov. 4).

This highly-focused forum will bring together a great lineup of speakers, hands-on experts in building customer communities, improving customer satisfaction, and creating a more customer-centric company culture. And for those who want to a truly in-depth experience with "voice of the customer" implementation methods, we've added five post-conference workshops (separate registration).

We've kept the cost way down—$385 for the main conference, and $385 for the workshops—but we haven't cut corners on quality. Once again, the setting is The International, a first-class conference center and resort in Bolton, Mass. This is a small-scale, intimate event where you'll find plenty of opportunities to talk with the speakers and other attendees, to ask questions, and to share your own experiences.

Take a look at this year's agenda and ask yourself whether there's anything more important than this conference on your calendar for 2009. This is a year when you'll need all the loyal and enthusiastic customers you can get—and we'll tell you exactly how.

See you in November!



         Fred van Bennekom


        Jeffrey Tarter

  
     Phil Verghis


Speakers & Schedule                   Registration



The Producers



Fred Van Bennekom
Principal
Great Brook Consulting




Jeffrey Tarter
Executive Director
Association of Support Professionals



Phil Verghis
Principal
The Verghis Group


Post-Conference Workshops
November 4
(Workshops will run concurrently from 8:30 to 3:30. Registration, $385 per workshop. Limit of 25 attendees per workshop.)

o Building a Customer Feedback Program [WK#1]
Presenter: Dr. Fred Van Bennekom, Principal, Great Brook Consulting
How to move from islands of survey data to a fully-integrated view of customer touchpoints.

o Services Marketing for Technology Companies [WK#2]
Presenter: Jeffrey Tarter, Executive Director, ASP
How to build high-impact marketing campaigns based on customer pain points and trusted relationships.

o Getting to the Rainbow: A Roadmap to Change [WK#3]
Presenters: Phil Verghis, Principal, The Verghis Group; Sean O'Driscoll, Principal, Ant's Eye View
Here's a detailed process for introducing customer-centric thinking into a traditional corporate culture.

o Moving the Needle on Customer Satisfaction [WK#4]
Presenter: Rich Gallagher, Principal, Point of Contact Group
Training, coaching, measurement, and team leadership methodologies that create real, substantial changes in customer satisfaction levels.

o Tools & Technology for Customer-Created Content [WK#5]
Presenter: Melissa George, Program Director, Consortium for Service Innovation
Independent advice on the infrastructure you need for support forums, blogs, wikis, knowledge management, and social media.

Registration




Conference Agenda
November 3
(One-day registration, $385)

Creating a Committed Customer Community
Presenter: Sean O'Driscoll, Principal, Ant's Eye View
At the core of every successful community are the influencers, those highly engaged individuals who lead the conversation about your products, services, and brands.

How to Build Insanely Great User Groups
Presenter: Maria Arguello, Apple Computer User Group Regional Liaison
There's no substitute for the shared energy of live community events, and Apple's user groups have always set the standard for "insanely great" events. This session will offer a behind-the-scenes look at how Apple makes the magic happen.

Why We Do It
A panel of third-party community influencers discuss what really inspires them to answer tough forum questions, write books and blogs, and create services that help support your customers.

Lunch

Short Topics: Satisfaction Metrics and Management
Three hands-on experts will look at tactics for collecting customer feedback and using this data to influence corporate decision-making.

o Benchmarking Web Support Satisfaction
Presenter: Tom Sweeny, Principal, ServiceXRG
How to compare Web support scores against phone and e-mail benchmarks.

o Creating a Satisfaction-Driven Culture
Presenter: Craig Adams, Director of Customer Experience, Akamai Technologies
Making sure that satisfaction performance isn't just another operating metric.

o The International Context
Presenter: Don Frye, The Mathworks
Cultural differences are often an important variable in collecting and analyzing survey data.

Unspoken Needs
Presenter: Barry McPherson, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Support, McAfee
By listening carefully to the "unspoken needs" of different customer segments, McAfee has built a valuable portfolio of differentiated services.

Open Mike: A Look at the Futures
Our speakers return to the stage for a lively discussion of "Voice of the Customer" issues and ideas that they predict will transform the support world.