http://www.technologyservicesworld.com

I’ve been in India for a few event-filled days. First was the 1/2 hour traffic jam at 1 AM in Mumbai’s airport — took that long to get from the 3rd floor to the road. Productive set of meetings with a client in Mumbai. Tuesday was a 4 hour early morning drive to Pune, and a full day with a second client. Wednesday was a way-too-early-for-humans flight to Hyderabad, for another day of meetings with a client.

Thursday, I’ll be delivering a keynote address to an influential group of India-based service executives that I mentor – the NASSCOM GEPS team. The keynote? The white-hot ‘Measures, Metrics & Madness’. Knowing the audience, I’m looking forward to the Q&A…

The keynote is based on the workshop coming up on March 18th in Boston.

http://su.pr/1fHGQO

Heading to London to do a keynote on ‘Impact of Culture on Support (and translation)’.

Interestingly enough the translation industry has headed to a race to the bottom in terms of pricing wars. I’ll sneak in some observations on moving to a trusted adviser rather than an expert for hire.

This talk is based on some of the research I did for IBM, and is available (for free) here.

Event was successful, it was the first time The Verghis Group, Inc. exhibited at a show. Next stop, San Diego to present a provocative keynote titled ‘Oops, Sorry you Died: Lessons from medicine, the FAA and NASA’ at the TSAnet event in San Diego.

A classic case of the wrong behaviors that result when management puts goals on activities….
New York Times article: Secret Tape Has Police Pressing Ticket Quotas

Take a look at your own organization — is it that different? Bring in your own metrics and let’s see on October 27th, the world premier of my new workshop: Measures, Metrics and Madness: the new world of Guiding, not Grading. (Only 7 seats left.)

Once again, I’m a co-producer and active participant at the 4th Annual Voice of the Customer Conference near Boston. Now in its fourth year, the First Wednesday Group’s annual conference has built a strong reputation as the place for leading-edge insights from the support world’s smartest people. Some of these smart people are on stage with microphones; others are part of our audience of hands-on support managers and professionals–people who are eager to share their ideas and experiences with their colleagues in an intimate, friendly retreat away from office distractions.

Find out more at: http://www.first-wednesday.com/conference/

After almost 4 weeks of travel (just crossed the 100,000 mile mark with United Airlines this past weekend), I’m back in Boston for a few weeks.

One of the reasons I’m back is the Third Annual Voice of the Customer conference hosted by the First Wednesday Group. There is a terrific lineup of speakers and participants. If the past two years were any indication, it should be a fun event with a lot of provocative ideas. I’m looking forward to seeing many friends, colleagues and customers there.

 (Disclaimer, I am one of the producers of the First Wednesday Group.)

The Voice of the Customer Conference 2009
Boston, November 3-4

 Some of the strongest, most active communities in the social media world are based on post-sale customer support relationships. User groups, online forums, advisory boards, expert networks, survey panels–a growing number of “voice of the customer” channels now provide a rich dialog between companies and their customers.

 A great place to learn more about how social media is influencing the support world is the First Wednesday Group’s annual Voice of the Customer conference, which will take place Nov. 3-4 at a conference center outside of Boston.

This is a boutique event–highly interactive, small in scale, with an impressive lineup of expert speakers and an audience of managers with a good deal of hands-on experience with social media in a customer support environment.

If you’re looking for great conversations and lots of real-world data, this is the place to be.

 Registration is $385/day. For speaker and program details, please visit

http://www.first-wednesday.com/support_conference.html

Boston, MA — Drawing on an impressive lineup of speakers, the 2009 “Voice of the Customer Conference” will focus on leading-edge issues in building end-user communities, improving satisfaction metrics, and creating customer-centric organizations. The conference, produced by the First Wednesday Roundtable, will take place in Bolton, Mass. on Nov. 3 with a day of optional workshops on Nov. 4.

Registration for the Nov. 3 conference is $385 per person. Additional information about the program and post-conference workshops can be found on the First Wednesday Web site:
http://www.first-wednesday.com/support_conference.html

Yesterday’s second annual Voice of the Customer retreat in Bolton was a nice affair, at the classy International country club in Bolton, just outside Boston. One of the most memorable quotes was from Marlene Bessette, VP for Strategy and Customer Loyalty at Xerox. “Culture eats strategy for lunch every time.” So true.

During the open mike session, I asked if anyone had success creating a common company-wide vocabulary regarding Voice of the Customer – even something as basic as who the most ‘important’ customer was. The answer was ‘no’ from all but the smallest (or single product) companies. Shows how long a way we have to go before we truly start embedding the Voice of the Customer into everything we do.