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  • 1.  Client Advisory Boards

    Posted 07-13-2015 05:20 PM

    What are the biggest challenges of running a client advisory board? What are some best practices to ensure that the boards are successful?

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    Annette Franz Gleneicki
    Director, Customer Outcomes
    Fidelity Investments
    Mission Viejo CA
    949-305-3944
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  • 2.  RE: Client Advisory Boards

    Posted 07-17-2015 12:28 PM

    I'll give you the top 3 challenges we continually seem to face Annette.

    1.  Keeping the discussions / presentations focused on gathering feedback as opposed to selling.  

    2.  Making sure our discussions are framed from the customers' perspectives rather than those of our product divisions.

    3.  Evolving our holistic board strategic to support specific line of business needs while resisting the desire to launch a thousand ships.

    Much like VOC programs, board success is primarily based, at least in our shop, on actions / decisions we make based on what our customers are telling us.
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    Robert Tangeman
    Customer Insights Manager
    Intel Corporation
    Folsom CA
    916-3778351
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Client Advisory Boards

    Posted 07-19-2015 12:12 AM

    Thanks, Robert!

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    Annette Franz Gleneicki
    Director, Customer Outcomes
    Fidelity Investments
    Mission Viejo CA
    949-305-3944
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Client Advisory Boards

    Posted 07-20-2015 10:05 AM

    Annette,

    I am personally and totally committed to the idea of establishing a Customer (or Client) Advisory Board (CAB).  I feel one of the biggest challenges is starting one up in the first place and getting the right people engaged.  From my experience, this has to start with the leadership team in the organization.  If they are not committed to it and engaged in it, then will become nothing more than an exercise and slowly disappear. 

    That was my experience in my former organization. We started a “council” with representation from all of the business units across the company. We had regular meetings and talked about a lot of things we wanted to do but when it came to making a decision, which usually included spending some money, it fell flat.  None of the leadership team from any of the businesses were involved.  If you can begin a CAB with leadership involvement and support from the start, you have a half a chance of it being successful.  They do have to see the value in advance or they will not be persuaded.

    However, all of the challenges that Robert has pointed out in his response are critical in keeping it alive.  You would think that the voice of the customer would be driving a CAB in all cases, but the reality of business as usual tends to redirect the best of intentions. 

    If you are in a product-centric company (like I was) where everyone is being evaluated and compensated primarily based on revenues, profitability, and market share and nothing much more, yet claiming that the customer is king, then you have a clear conflict of interest in place and a CAB is not only a challenge, it's essentially impossible to sustain.

    I realize this sounds bleak but, being the eternal optimist that I am, I know there are companies out there that have started and sustained a CAB for years.  Those organizations that had the vision and took the action will stand up as role models for others when the customer finally becomes the last bastion of differentiation and driving revenues and profitability.  Those organizations that don't see this now will be waving and weeping as that train leaves the station.

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    Karl Sharicz, CCXP
    Founder | Principal
    CX Partners, LLC
    Quincy, MA 02169
    508 989-7379
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Client Advisory Boards

    Posted 07-21-2015 02:46 PM

    Some great points here. I would add that a challenge I have run into when working with my clients is that CABs are often set-up and controlled by work groups outside of a VoC program (e.g., marketing). This often leads to many of the points Robert touched on, particularly a lack of feedback focus in lieu of selling the brand. Aligning with a central VoC program is essential, in my eyes, to getting the most out of a CAB.



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    Kyle Groff, Ph.D.
    Principal Consultant, CX
    Qualtrics
    Salt Lake City UT
    kyleg@qualtrics.com
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Client Advisory Boards

    Posted 08-05-2015 05:55 PM

    Annette,

    I agree with all the comments that have already been made.  

    To address these concerns I waited until I had C-Level buy-in before moving forward with launching ours - but I was still concerned about the following:

    1.) Managing what we needed or wanted from the day versus delivering value to the customer

    2.) Gaining actionable insight and understanding business outcomes

    3.) Removing bias and assumptions from the conversations

    4.) Execution on the insight if it was contrary to existing roadmaps.

    I had some specific critera that our CMO wanted from the meeting but I had the freedome to structure it as I thought best.  I utilized a co-creation design thinking workshop format with our product managers, developers, solutions marketing team.  The CX team helped to facilitate the discussions and we brought in some outside industry experts to participate in the workshop to provide an unbiased feedback. Overall the day was a success and we had the right people in the room who can take action on what they learned and they gained some really valuable insights.

    What I have learned is that even with the right people on board, executive level support and a will to take action, the outcome needs to be a clearly defined objective for everyone involved.  In other words, depending on how you compensate or motivate, the outcome and actions must be part of and included in how they will be measured for success.  If they are being asked to take action but already have a full plate of things that must be accomplished, then efforts will stall or take quite a bit of time to be implemented. 

    You also need to have a clear process for how you will take the insights and results from the CAB and put them into action within your organization.  Who will own, who will execute, what processes will they follow, how will it be prioritized and how will the status and updates be communicated.  The CAB itself is hard work, but the follow up is where the customer will see the ROI and benefit.

    While a lot of B2B customers expect a CAB - I would not recommend implementing the program unless you have a mature customer driven organization with the systems in place to execute successfully on the insight and measure the outcomes.  These are the companies that are able to sustain interest and build committment for the long haul.

    Laura

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    Laura Balentyne
    Founder & President
    Balentyne, LLC
    Bonney Lake WA
    253-750-4874
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    Original Message