CCO Forum

July 2008

The 5th Chief Customer Officer Forum (CCO Forum) took place on 9th & 10th July at the Imperial Hotel in Cork. The meeting format was slightly different this time with two afternoon sessions on 9th July and a two morning sessions on 10th July: 

The July Forum’s themes were: 

• Lean - after all the best service is no service …
• Improving performance from the use of customer metrics and customer feedback (case study)
• The CEO’s perspective on business and people change programme at LeasePlan UK
• 21st century marketing – blogs, forums and communities are changing marketing and advocacy. But how?

There was a lively discussion in both the plenary and break out sessions on the differences between Lean in manufacturing production and Lean in customer experience, which concluded that Lean (and Six Sigma) can be too much of a science in some service organisations, using an ‘in’ language that becomes an end in itself. Lean and continuous improvement is much more effective as a value than a process. For Lean service, the ‘value piece’ is imperative. 

The case study session highlighted just how much value there is in reading the detail and the great sharing amongst CCOF members of best practice learning.

LeasePlan UK’s CEO, David Brennan, shared his perspective of the company’s business and people change programme. He also gave us some fascinating insights into how a CEO evaluates his priorities for the business.

The final session on how to use blogs, wikis, forums and communities in a 21st century world of changing marketing and advocacy generated intense interest and some useful ideas to take away. It’s a theme we’ll develop in future sessions. If you’d like to learn more how companies are using Wikis, download Bill Price’s whitepaper: “From Knowledge Base to Knowledge Sharing: Wikis in the Contact Center” from BuddLife.

Here’s some of the feedback from this event:

“Diversity of thought and challenge across differing industries”

“Particularly liked Lean session and lots of breakouts”

“Loved the CEO slot”

“Nice idea generation and good time for social networking”

“Still enjoying these very much - meeting others and re-energising”

We look forward to more lively conversations at the 6th CCOF event which is kindly being hosted by Porsche at Silverstone on 8th & 9th October 2008 - when there will also be an opportunity for members to enjoy driver experience, prior to the ‘official’ start of the CCO Forum with dinner on the evening of 8th October.

Membership is by invitation only for those who champion the customers’ cause in their business and want to mix with like minded people behind Chatham House rules. Contact us if you’re interested in learning more about this senior networking community.

Find out about the previous CCO Forum meetings