CCO Forum
Oxford and Silverstone

February 2010


The 10th Chief Customer Officer Forum (CCO Forum) took place on 3rd and 4th February in Oxford and Silverstone.

Here’s some of the member feedback at productive, sharing event:

“Other attendees were engaging and open enough to really add value”
“Great event as always”
“It enabled us to drive out some real learnings”

The February Forum’s main themes were:

  • CEO slot with Kal Samra, M.D. comparethemarket
  • Achievements - sharing your best work of 2009

Kal Samra The CEO slot with Kal Samra of comparethemarket was insightful. Kal shared how the company developed the top advertising campaign of 2009. Key factors for success were: a highly specific brief to the advertising agencies - focused on the brand name; the simplicity of the winning campaign which personalised the brand using meerkats; a campaign aligned to the values of the business, which has the power to emotionally engage customers week by week. All of which has strengthened staff engagement and motivation too.

The main morning session was a high value, in-depth sharing session of what people were working on in 2009 - things they were proud of which had significantly impacted the business and improved customer experience and/or employee engagement.

Some highlights of best practice learning …

  • Importance of consistency of your agreed approach - in line with objectives
  • Understand what ‘value’ means in the customer’s context… it’s ‘horses for courses’. One ‘value’ doesn’t fit all - even in similar lines of business
  • Imaginative formats for road shows with employees can dramatically change employees’ perception of the business and the role they play in it.
  • Don’t treat company sessions with employees in ‘too corporate’ a way - “If you’re creative with communications you can achieve your objectives.”
  • Highly effective training doesn’t always require a training manual! You can achieve radical changes in employees’ thinking about customers by making the message simple, ‘take-aways’ memorable and actionable (every day)
  • Putting yourself in ‘both the customer’s shoes and the business organisation’s shoes’ helps in achieving a sensible and objective view of customer service
  • Align thinking about customer service by gaining emotional engagement of employees
  • The effective way a company thinks about ‘customer effort’ and its response to that is at the heart of delivering high quality service to customers

The format was changed this time and the afternoon session was spent gaining an understanding of the investment Porsche (our hosts on the day) has made in a physical Customer Experience centre - as part of their building the brand touch beyond the channel and helping to change people's perception of an iconic brand from "not for me" to something much more approachable.

The next forum (back to the usual format) will take place on 2nd and 3rd June, 2010 in Slough. Take a look at what being a member means or get in touch if you’d like to discuss what it means to be a Chief Customer Officer.

 

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