Does Your Company Need a Grand Poobah of Customer Service ...

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?I dub you King (Queen) of customer service! Now go forth and rally your troops to make our company the best in how customers are served.?

Chief Customer Officer (CCO).

Or so goes the new executive title behind what I?ll argue is a very dumb idea. Is this yet another gimmick in which to punt the customer service football farther down the field to a future date?

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You bet!

I personally can?t think of a better way to distract people?employees and stakeholders?from the real issues facing a company?s survival in a brutally competitive world. Yet it?s global competition that?s driving this new fad with an increasing number of companies, which naively believe that creating a CCO position will fix poor customer service.

I?m reminded of the fad back in the early-mid nineties which saw senior executives being appointed to chief change management poobah. What was poorly understand back then was that by isolating one position as being responsible for driving the organization?s change process that managers could respond by saying, ?That?s Frank?s problem!?

All that did was pass the buck to the sucker sitting in the executive window office, erroneously believing that his job was to inspire and lead the organization?s managers forward into an unknown yet exciting future. This fad quickly died, and so rightly.

Other dumb fads have since come and gone. And now another one has entered the corporate realm, spinning off the never-ending customer service conveyor belt of hyperbolic ideas and concepts.

Give it a break, fellas.

For some inspiration, watch this two minute clip of customer service guru Tom Peters letting it rip at a conference.

Customer service in an organization, whether in business, government or the non-profit sector, is EVERYONE?S business. Each and every manager in an organization must live and breathe customer (client) service. For if you?re not, you have no right being in a management appointed position. Lead, follow or get the heck out of the way!

So let?s drop the pretense and stop the bullshit.

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For those of you are keen on building a strong customer service experience in your organization, check out Harley Manning?s and Kerry Bodine?s new book?Outside In: The Power of Putting Customers at the Centre of Your Business. This book is receiving hugely positive reviews, reflecting the reality that while consumers continue to suffer from bad customer service that customers are growing in power. It?s a bizarre dichotomy, but that?s what?s happening in our economy. Companies such as AOL, Dell and Sears have been whacked as a result of poor customer service. But we still suffer from frustrating experiences with supposedly solid companies.

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If you?re leading a company, large or small, or a public sector organization, think twice before you jump on the CCO Grand Poobah wagon. Ask yourself this simple question:

Is parking the responsibility for executive leadership in customer service the role of one person?

Don?t fall prey to yet another fancy management fad. Use your common sense. Save your money. Enroll your full management team and all employees, from top to bottom, to create a corporate culture where everyone owns customer service. And take a moment to read a recent post I wrote about employee self-empowerment and customer service:?Do You Have a Fred Working for Your Company?


It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.

? Charles Darwin

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Source: http://www.theleadershiphub.com/blogs/does-your-company-need-grand-poobah-customer-service

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Katy Perry, Carly Rae Jepsen get Billboard honors

"Woman of the Year" honoree, singer Katy Perry, attends Billboard's "Women in Music 2012" luncheon at Capitale on Friday Nov. 30, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

"Woman of the Year" honoree, singer Katy Perry, attends Billboard's "Women in Music 2012" luncheon at Capitale on Friday Nov. 30, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

"Rising Star" honoree, singer Carly Rae Jepsen attends Billboard's "Women in Music 2012" luncheon at Capitale on Friday Nov. 30, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

"Woman of the Year" honoree Katy Perry, left, and "Rising Star" honoree Carly Rae Jepsen pose together at Billboard's "Women in Music 2012" luncheon at Capitale on Friday Nov. 30, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

"Woman of the Year" honoree, singer Katy Perry, attends Billboard's "Women in Music 2012" luncheon at Capitale on Friday Nov. 30, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

"Rising Star" honoree, singer Carly Rae Jepsen attends Billboard's "Women in Music 2012" luncheon at Capitale on Friday Nov. 30, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

(AP) ? Billboard named Katy Perry its woman of the year, but the pop star thought her year was 2011.

"I felt like my year was last year ... I thought my moment had passed," Perry said in an interview with Jon Stewart at Billboard's Women in Music event Friday in New York City.

Perry released "Teenage Dream" in 2010, and the double platinum album sparked five No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart that spilled over to 2011. She tied the record Michael Jackson set with "Thriller" for most hits from a single album.

She re-released the album this year, which launched two more hits and a top-grossing 3-D film.

Perry thanked her fans, who stood outside of Capitale hoping to catch a glimpse of her.

"I don't really like to call myself a role model for my fans, but I hope I'm an inspiration, especially for young women," she said when she accepted the honor.

Perry also thanked her mom at the event, which honored women who work in the music industry.

In like fashion, newcomer Carly Rae Jepsen also thanked her mom ? and stepmom ? when accepting the rising star honor. The "Call Me Maybe" singer said she's happy and surprised by her success.

"It was sort of the key to unlocking the rest of the world for me and was something that none of us were expecting," she said, in an interview, of her viral hit.

British singer Cher Lloyd performed Perry's "E.T." at the luncheon, which also featured a performance from rising country singer Hunter Hayes.

Perry, who wore a fitted pink dress, joked about recording a follow-up to "Teenage Dream."

"Have you heard it? I haven't," the smiling singer said on the red carpet.

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Online:

http://www.billboard.com

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Follow Mesfin Fekadu on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MusicMesfin

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-11-30-Billboard%20Women%20in%20Music/id-b98164609f1046de8e2d31f1e53b7445

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Producer sues Pythons over 'Spamalot' royalties

LONDON (AP) ? It's no joking matter.

A producer of the film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" is suing the British comedy troupe over royalties from the hit stage musical "Spamalot."

Producer Mark Forstater wants a bigger share of proceeds from the show, which is based on the Pythons' 1975 movie spoof of the legend of King Arthur.

Lawyers for Monty Python are contesting Forstater's claim and will present their arguments later. Python members Eric Idle, Michael Palin and Terry Jones will give evidence during a five-day hearing that began Friday at London's High Court.

Forstater is suing the trio and the two other surviving Python members, John Cleese and Terry Gilliam. The sixth member of the troupe, Graham Chapman, died in 1989.

Forstater's lawyer, Tom Weisselberg, said that under an agreement made when the film was produced, "for financial purposes Mr. Forstater was to be treated as the seventh Python" and entitled to the same share of "Holy Grail" merchandising and spin-off income as the other members.

But the lawyer said Forstater had not received his fair share of royalties from the stage show, which has been a hit around the world. It ran on Broadway for almost four years to 2009 and is still playing in London's West End.

Weisselberg said Forstater, who was declared bankrupt earlier this year, had been forced to go to court because of his "difficult financial circumstances."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/producer-sues-pythons-over-spamalot-royalties-140607723.html

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