A popular thing to talk about at the moment is Customer
Experience, and I posted recently about a CX event at Oracle and now I have a
recent example to share with you.
Every year Fujitsu has their own conference, Fujitsu Forum held in Munich each November.
150 people including 85 customers travelled from London to Munich aboard the
Fujitsu Flyer, or rather a chartered plane from Harrods Aviation. This was the
only problem I encountered the whole trip, if you drove to Stanstead it was
fine and they even had free parking but if you travelled by Train the Harrods
terminal is nowhere near the main airport and the only taxis available were airport
taxis who charge the earth. But from then on it was excellent.
Harrods have a brand reputation and that meant quality and
service. I goggled the Harrods’ brand and discovered the best CX ever,
delivered when they gave customers brandy to calm their nerves when they
travelled on the very first shop escalator - but I digress……
John Walker our Oracle Alliance Director |
No queues, personal service and time to relax. Fujitsu staff
had luggage labels ready and check in was as simple as having your passport
checked and ticking you off on a list. Security was normal but again only us so
no stress. I was hoping for a plane marked Harrods but actually it was a
Monarch Airways plane, but once onboard it was back to the Fujitsu Flyer which
the headrests adorned with the Fujitsu logo, and each seat back contained the conference
program, a welcome letter from our CEO and a copy of the award winning Fujitsu CIO magazine.
From a company perspective it was cost effective to charter a flight and whilst
on that flight the customers are a captive audience literally, but how the experience was
delivered was what mattered and it was excellent.
I fly a lot and the lunch served was one of the best but I
guess Harrods have better food than some of the better known airlines. And all
washed down with some nice wine served on Fujitsu drinks coasters.
On landing just 2 hours later, buses waited to whisk us away
to our own arrivals lounge complete with passport control. After collecting our
bags off to more coaches to take us to the hotel. The coach I was on was for
the local football team Bayern Munich but they had not even taken arrival of it
yet.
On arrival at the hotel Fujitsu had their own desk and everyone
had an envelope with their hotel key and conference badge, two more queues
avoided. Excellent. It was also an excellent hotel right in the centre of the beautiful city.
Then after an hour to freshen up it was off to the Augustiners Brewery for dinner.
The next day after breakfast buses went as shuttles to the
conference. In previous years I thought the conference was too hardware focused
but this event did come out of the
Fujitsu Siemens partnership; however this year Services had a good showing
this year, with Cloud and Managed Services
having large areas.
I was there in two capacities, the Oracle stand and as an
ExpertTalk.
Oracle are a big sponsor and there was a great turnout for
their entire stack. Our Global Alliance Manager was over from the US and our UK
Alliance Director John travelled over with us on the Fujitsu Flyer. We had the
Athena server with us out from Japan that we had on show at Oracle Open World.
Great to show this partnership from both sides.
The ExpertTalks are something not necessarily unique to Fujitsu
Forum but not something I have seen anywhere else. There were 30 rooms
available throughout the conference where customers could select an expert who
had declared the topics they would talk about. I offered Consolidation of Your
Oracle Estate or Oracle Applications Strategy and I did 7 ExpertTalks on the
first day. It is a great idea and something I think User Groups who have the
space should consider.
Hofbrauhaus |
I sat with two customers who wanted to walk back to the
hotel, so ever the good hostess I went with them but we got a little lost. I suspect
my roaming charges will be great but in the theme of great CX, I the Fujitsu
representative deferred to the iPhone Maps (I have not upgraded to iOS 6 yet);
it was a lovely walk and a nice end to a great evening.
The next day was again spent at the conference and then return
via the Fujitsu Flyer, however I had to make my way to Edinburgh for my next
appointment so missed out.
Well done to Fujitsu Marketing, you did us proud and the CX
was great. I know all the customers I spoke to had a great time and all seem to
agree it was well worth the trip to find out what else Fujitsu does.
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