I’ve just been informed that anyone who registers for the webcast Measures, Metrics and Madness: The New World of ‘Guiding, not Grading’ will get the slides and audio sent to them.

Join us to hear from TSIA’s VP of technology research, John Ragsdale, as he interviews Phil Verghis, founder of The Verghis Group. Phil is not only a brilliant strategist and innovator, but also a long-time TSIA community member and a founding member of TSIA’s Expert Alliance Partner program.

Register now for this informative webcast.

If you want to hear a complimentary one hour (webinar) version of what I will be covering at my next workshop, register for the August 5th TSIA webinar at: http://bit.ly/bc6R0T

While it is tailored for service & support executives,  it will be useful for any senior manager wrestling with measures, and looking for new ways to motivate people.

Free white paper (no registration needed) on which the workshop is built: http://bit.ly/cpFoMv

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

While in Bangalore, I did a keynote session for NASSCOM’s GEPS forum on Saturday, for whom I have been an advisor for a few years. The turnout was great, with senior executives Avaya, Infosys, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP Labs, ValueLabs, Yahoo and more participating.

In May 2009, I flew to Bangalore and Hyderabad, India to do four sessions (four hours each!) for a client. This covered a number of topics that were custom done for them based on requirements from the client (senior executive in support in a global company) and their HR team.

The talks went pretty well and I did them with no notes. About 60% of the content was common, the rest of it varied based on the audience and the feedback during the interactive homework sessions.

I lead a discussion for the SSPA’s Small and Medium Business (SMB) Community of Interest session in late May. Despite audio problems for the first 15 minutes, only 4 people dropped out by the end of the hour. We re-recorded the session for the SSPA to post, but once again there were audio problems on the SSPA end.

Sean O’Driscoll and I will be presenting as ‘experts’ for the SSPA Talent Management Community of Interest webinar on May 10th. We will be focusing on the big trends impacting service and support, and how communication and collaboration fits in to recruiting, retaining and developing talent. If you are interested in participating, and are a SSPA member, let me know if you want an invite.

Every five years, the National Intelligence Council provides the President of the United States and senior policymakers with analyses of foreign policy issues that have been reviewed throughout the (US) intelligence committee. (Those of you who have heard my talk on ‘Possible states of the support world in 20XX’ know that I have tapped into research from the NIC and scenario planning in general.)

A few days ago, they released  Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World with four preliminary assessments. (Don’t worry, this well written report is declassified.)

• The whole international system—as constructed following WWII—will be revolutionized. Not only will new players—Brazil, Russia, India and China— have a seat at the international high table, they will bring new stakes and rules of the game.
• The unprecedented transfer of wealth roughly from West to East now under way will continue for the foreseeable future.
• Unprecedented economic growth, coupled with 1.5 billion more people, will put pressure on resources—particularly energy, food, and water—raising the specter of scarcities emerging as demand outstrips supply.
• The potential for conflict will increase owing partly to political turbulence in parts of the greater Middle East.

What does this have to do with service and support? A lot. I’ve always advocated that in order to be the ‘Ultimate Customer Support Executive’ you have to know a lot about groups that you don’t normally think about, but are crucial to the customer experience. It is the same with geopolitics. The more you know about possible scenarios of the world in 2025, the better you can help your organization’s strategic planning.

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.