INTERFACE ADVANTAGE
Your monthly window into the front office revolution!
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
In this edition: - JEFFREY RAYPORT PRESENTS MICROSOFT OFFICE LIVE MEETING ON TUESDAY, MAY 24
- Speech Technology Magazine's Q&A with Jeffrey Rayport, co-author of Best Face Forward
- 2005 Customer Champions, 1to1 Magazine
- Pump Up the Value, Catalog Age
- Who's Selling What on Amazon, The Wall Street Journal
- Southwest Airlines: Flying Low, Baseline
- New Computers Make Grocery Carts Smarter, USA Today
JEFFREY F. RAYPORT PRESENTS BEST FACE FORWARD: EFFECTIVELY AND EFFICIENTLY MANAGING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES FOR SUCCESS
Microsoft Office Live Meeting, May 24, 2005
Dear Interface Advantage subscribers, You're invited to join us for a free web seminar by Jeffrey F. Rayport on Best Face Forward delivered via web conferencing from Microsoft Office Live Meeting on Tuesday, May 24 at 12:00PM Eastern Time (9:00AM Pacific). All you need is a web browser and a phone in order to attend. Please follow the link below to register for this one hour seminar. Go to Microsoft Office Live Meeting We hope you'll join us. For further details, see below. Seminar Overview: In nearly every business sector, too many players with too many short-lived offerings are competing for too few customers. The focus of competitive advantage is now the customer interface: those points at which a company comes into contact with its customers. Since most companies have many interfaces with their customers, how companies organize those systems to deliver appropriate customer experiences will be crucial to success. The presentation by Jeffrey F. Rayport, co-author of Best Face Forward: Why Companies Must Improve Their Service Interfaces with Customers, will survey the technological and business changes driving what is, in effect, a front-office revolution. The presentation will then cover leading companies that are creating sustainable competitive advantage by turning from what they sell to how they sell it. Finally, the presentation will provide a methodology for and examples of the front-office reengineering required manage a company's interface systems effectively (at the strategic level of quality) and efficiently (at the right cost). Here's what you will learn: - Consumer behavior changes and technology trends driving the front-office revolution
- Key principles to build and sustain interface-based competitive advantage
- How some companies have met the challenge of putting their best face forward
- Learn the definition of "front-office reengineering" and how to do it for your company
SPEECH TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE'S Q&A WITH JEFFREY RAYPORT, CO-AUTHOR OF BEST FACE FORWARD
Speech Technology Magazine, April 26, 2005
We are at the beginning of a new period in the annals of human experience with technology. For the first time, we are encountering technologies -- what we characterize as "smart devices" connected to "intelligent networks" -- that are capable of performing higher order customer interactions or relationship management functions in business that, until now, have belonged exclusively to the province of human effort. With machines capable of doing more than merely speeding up rote service tasks, we are seeing technology finally do for services what previous waves of automation technology achieved in agriculture, manufacturing, and back-office data processing. It's an automation revolution that economists have long argued would never come to services, because of the human factor-dependency of service delivery. In an interview with Speech Technology Magazine, co-author of Best Face Forward: Why Companies Must Improve Their Service Interfaces with Customers Jeffrey Rayport talks about how technology plays an integral role on the front line of business. - Read the whole story...
2005 CUSTOMER CHAMPIONS
1to1 Magazine, April 2005
Sam Walton once said that a customer can fire everyone in a company, from the CEO on down, simply by spending his money elsewhere. That assertion is perhaps more germane today than it was when Walton first said it -- heady competition and the ease of moving from one supplier to another has organizations scrambling to retain and grow customers. Smart companies are meeting this challenge by appointing an executive to be the champion of the customer in their organization. - Read the whole story... (requires free subscription)
PUMP UP THE VALUE
Catalog Age, May 1, 2005
The days of multichannel marketing as an independent business discipline, dominated by just a few tech-savvy marketers, are over. Successful direct marketers now provide multiple response mechanisms -- mail, phone, store, Internet -- so that customers and prospects can make purchases via the channel of their choice. Multichannel has gone mainstream. The impact on the catalog industry is undeniable: There is no longer a catalog industry. A catalog is a dynamic promotional medium, a proven lead-generation tool, and certainly an effective order-taking device. - Read the whole story...
WHO'S SELLING WHAT ON AMAZON
The Wall Street Journal, April 28, 2005
Several months ago, Christy Serrato bought an iPod mini digital-music player through Amazon.com Inc.'s Web site. When it failed to arrive, she sent a number of e-mails to the seller, without a reply. Only after another round of e-mails did she finally get a refund, roughly two months after her purchase. The challenge for Ms. Serrato, a software saleswoman in San Francisco, was that, while she used Amazon's Web site -- the seller was actually one of the 925,000 independent merchants that sell through Amazon. When one of these purchases goes awry, consumers aren't always sure who is responsible, or even where to complain. - Read the whole story... (requires subscription)
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES: FLYING LOW
Baseline, April 10, 2005
Southwest Airlines is the only U.S. carrier to be profitable every year since 1972. Baseline spoke to CEO Garry Kelly about how he uses technology to help keep the airline turning planes around quickly and maintaining its primary advantage: low costs. - Read the whole story...
NEW COMPUTERS MAKE GROCERY CARTS SMARTER
USA Today, May 3, 2005
Supermarkets are trying out new computers that make grocery carts more intelligent. They won't take over your trip to the store, as HAL took over the mission in "2001: A Space Odyssey." But they will help shoppers find lemon cake mix or light bulbs, let them order ahead to avoid the deli line and keep a running tally of the bill. - Read the whole story...
|
