SSPA Conference in Silicon Valley in Early May

The SSPA Best Practices Conference in Santa Clara, CA (Silicon Valley) May 4-6 provides a stellar cast of company executives and industry experts.

See http://www.thesspa.com/Conferences/SantaClara/index.asp

AFSMI members receive the lower member registration fee because of the merger of the organizations.

RFID glossary helpful for field service and repair centers

If you are using or considering RFID for your field service or repair center, bookmark this helpful RFID glossary. More than 100 terms are included. Both single-page scrolling and alphabetical scrolling are provided.

http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/208

Hire to reduce service/support attrition

Two ways to hire in order to reduce service/support staff attrition:

1. Hire from unusual talent pools. CNN Money advocates hiring older workers, including 80-year-olds, as well as handicapped and very young people. Eager to prove their worth, these employees will produce and remain loyal.
   
2. Recruit the friends of your current workers. Both the referring and the referred workers feel a sense of obligation and community and will remain in the support organization longer.

Also, providing training improves both productivity and retention.

Customer Care & Services Forum, June, Las Vegas

Customer Care & Services Forum, June 9-11, Las Vegas

The "Un-Conference" in a retreat format including campfire story-telling, GroupThink, Brainstorming and Goal-Setting Sessions

Executives and Managers from 11 Industries. Speakers from Southwest Airlines, Boost Mobile, Lockheed Martin, JPMorganChase, Hyundai, British Airways, Jockey International, Convergys and more. http://www.iirusa.com/ccsfretreat

Call for Speakers November in California

Customers First Conference
Disneyland, Anaheim, California
November 16-19, 2008

Call for Speakers Submission Deadline April 28, 2008
Contact Amanda Powers for more information:
Amanda_Powers@xmr3.com
Senior Conference Producer
Institute for International Research
Direct Line: 646.895.7332

Speakers receive a free conference registration worth up to $3000.

Online Discussion of Value-Based Services Pricing

Service/Support Executives and Managers gathered in Silicon Valley this past week to discuss Value-Based Services Pricing.

An online opportunity to join the discussion will be available at 7:30am Pacific Time on April 24. If you are a service/support manager, please visit my website at www.bigtent.info and request an invitation.

Welcome to Managing Service and Support

Welcome to Managing Service and Support, a weblog of best practices and events related to the challenges of leading and managing the $21T worldwide services market, an invisible industry larger than products!