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Communications, empowerment, adaptability-buzzwords of the 1990s workplace--are the topics of ENCORE, a two-day executive seminar, June 22 and 23, sponsored by Syracuse University's Graduate School of Sales Management and Marketing.
The seminar features insights of those who have reshaped their work forces, those who have witnessed the reshaping, and those who are helping chart the evolution of the workplace. Gary Brown, vice-president and director of human resources for Springfield Remanufacturing Corp. (SRC); Bo Burlingham, editor-at-large of Inc.; Fred Allegretti, assistant vice-president of Allstate Insurance Companies, who revamped the company's training programs and agent-support services; Jagdish Sheth, Ph.D., Kellstadt Professor of Marketing at Emory University; and Charles Gibbons, president and COO of Tascor, Inc. will all offer the bulk of the information.
The first day of the conference is devoted to customer service, with Sheth helping participants expand their understanding of customer service. Sheth believes that few realize the potential of well-planned and executed customer service as a competitive advantage. And, he points out, it can be a revenue generator, not simply an expense, as most businesses classify it now.
"It is not just the quality of the product, but the quality of the customer contact that firmly establishes a company's position in the customer's mind," Sheth explains. He draws on the J.D. Power customer satisfaction survey in the auto industry. He notes that Ford's Taurus is consistently a top seller but never tops the customer-satisfaction survey. GM's Saturn, on the other hand, has consistently been on top of the Power survey.
"What is the difference? The buyer's experience at the dealership." Sheth stresses.
He takes his lesson a step further-preaching that service can actually generate business. Whirlpool Corp., for example, maintains an "800" telephone line for customer-service calls. While Whirlpool expected most of the calls to be complaints, Sheth says, it actually found that most were for technical and for other information.
"Whirlpool gets more than a million calls a year, and what the company has found is that many callers are looking for advice on repairing a machine. If someone is making repairs, that means he may need replacement parts. That, in turn, sparks business for parts distributors," Sheth explains.
And in some businesses, the quality of service is virtually the only way...