Conference-in-Focus: AQ Services International Customer Service Excellence Conference

We first came across this buzzword at the turn of the 21^st century – the term Experience Economy was described in a book written in 1999 by B. Joseph Pine and James H. Gilmore titled “The Experience Economy”. It is supposed to be that NEXT big stage to follow the agrarian economy, the industrial economy and the most recent so called service economy.

This is exactly the value we drive at Conference Bay – to design and orchestrate memorable events for our customers. We always say delightful conference experience, means conference without the hassle. Then that experience becomes our product! We offer conference going without the hassle commonly associated with it. For instance, we aggregate relevant conferences by topic and location and offer online tools to book conferences or alternatively to save on your conference seat by bidding for it. This, we submit is the natural course in the value added by our business over and above other things.

The experience economy is also considered as main underpinning for customer experience management. We have a classic example to show you here from AQ Services International with their Half Day Conference on Service Excellence.

Goods and services are no longer enough. To be successful in today’s increasingly competitive environment companies must learn to “stage experiences” for each one of their individual customers. Recollecting a delightful experience is remembering the product positively.

They have taken every innovative step to make this event a Conference apart from all their past offerings. First, they have put all bids up for sale. In an interview with Herman van Breemen, he says of this innovation “ At AQ-Services we think that customer service should be on everybody’s agenda. Yes we have put all seats up for bid ! I believe this innovative approach lets every company decide how much they think customer loyalty is worth instead of setting a fixed rate for a conference. With this approach we want to trigger companies to think about this. Yes, why not? It began as a curiosity and indeed, curiosity is fundamental to every achievement!”

Setting the price free is a smart way to persuade people to visit conferences even during an economic downturn. We see this as shaping the way conferences are organized and attended now and in the years to come. “All companies involved with rendering services have to realize that sharing experiences can provide knowledge to all. Knowledge to gain market share, to understand customer behavior, to recognize new marketing methods, to explore the market! Our approach, by setting the price ‘ free ‘ can only attract the real entrepreneurs. It’s not about the money…..it’s about the ideas …….it’s about backgrounds……it’s about sharing…….it’s about winning!”

In this conference, it will be discussed how front line performance can make or break a business in this experience economy. Services, for instance values such as hospitality, are intangibles, Herman van Breemen maintains they can they drive value for customers and grow profit for businesses in solid ways. “In today’s experience economy service excellence plays a major role for the customer. Poor service is the number one reason why customers turn to the competitor. Exceeding their expectation will lead to loyal customers and therewith, growth for your business.”

Herman maintains that the experience is everything and “Nowadays the experience is growing! Various researches show that the experience is considered more important than the product on itself. This is visible in restaurants, luxury stores, hotels etc. There is an incredible downfall when talking about customer loyalty. The customer expects a certain level of service and only exceeding the customer’s expectations can lead to more loyal customers. To benefit from this trend companies must offer the perfect customer experience to prevent them from going to the competition.

A lof other conferences are based on figures, percentages, martketshares, etc. This one is based on something else, something different! Namely people. No business without people! Customer loyalty is underestimated but still one of the major components to continue business relations. So let’s focus on this customer! How can we influence and understand their behaviour in order to learn and benefit from their loyalty. It used to be that “What you see is what you get… but experience goes beyond everything…!”

Serve Better, Sell More! Bid for this new conference experience! You get to meet like-minded, interesting people in this cool venue in Carcosa Seri Negara, Malaysia. How cool is this, no fixed rate, YOU decide how much loyal customers are worth! Make your bid now for the Service Excellence Conference Day.

Head on to Conference Bay simply register and placeyour bid by clicking ‘the service Excellence Button!’ Any reasonable offer will be accepted !

Way Out Auctions on eBay

Ian Usher came to Australia from England in 2001 with his young bride. They built a house in sunny Perth, found jobs, made several good friends, and led an enviable lifestyle of ease and comfort. Nice going, until their marriage broke up recently.

Today, Usher wanted nothing of the life that they once had. He is offering his job, furnished house complete with spa, car, motorbike, jetski, and friends — all these to the highest bidder in an online auction set to go live on eBay within the month.

“Perfect moment, perfect place, a view of the vast immeasurable shore…love my life?”

Say, what would you bid to take over this life?

The Perth resident told ABC News that all he wants to keep of his life in Perth is his wallet and passport. Well, talk about moving on. You may read more here.

Sounds way over the edge but indeed some weird, wooly auctions have been reported on eBay many times. The philosophy student from Wollongong offered his phone number, friends, six jokes and a training course on his life. An American student offered his soul? Now eBay is said to have ruled this item out, on the basis that “someone trying to sell their soul” is objectionable as “you can’t sell something that’s not actually yours”. Now hold it folks, before you spark a whole philosophical deliberation worthy of the Parthenon.

The normal reaction when you hear reports like these is — how weird! Way out! But guess what’s even more strange? People actually do scour and battle for the purchase of these weird merchandises up for bids. Yes, the madness can go over the edge. Makes you think sometimes, why not ” a used husband for sale”? Or maybe a “mean granny’s cursed amulets can be yours”. Take a walk. How about bidding for “the last shred of my patience”!?

Seriously, now. if bizzare is what you want, we don’t carry such on our site. Some people get the notion though that Conference Bay is to conferences as eBay is to these tangible, at times, weird items up for bids. Indeed, the only similarity is : you name the price you are willing to pay. And that’s where the comparison ends.

Conference Bay is meant to be that only place online where you can get the right seat, for the conference of your choice, at the best price you are willing to pay.

The whole booking and bidding process is conducted online with results within two working days. You would like to find out why, it is getting the raves as the smartest, coolest new way in conference-going.

At eBay, winner takes all. We offer a lot more flexibility when you make a bid with us for your next conference seat. Conference Bay is not an auction where the highest bidder gets the ticket. Based on your bid details, conference organisers can decide to accept or to reject each bid individually.

At Conference Bay, we drive value for our customers, saving them a lot of money off their seat at some of the best conferences worldwide. Our Terms & Conditions state very clearly that the conference organiser who accepts a bid has to treat the bidding customer exactly the same way as regular full paid delegates. Nothing to lose and so much to gain!

Click to see how it works here. Have an awesome conference experience !

Conference Bay goes global with new look!

The long wait is over! Conference Bay has launched a new website to celebrate the fact that we will from now on list conferences worldwide. In the first months of our existence we focused on Asia Pacific, mainly to test the concept and improve the website further, but we have received so many requests from places like the US, Europe and the Middle East that we have opened up completely. The number of conferences on our site is now increasing rapidly. This gives our customers more choice and helps Conference Bay live up to our promise to provide a complete high quality overview of conferences worldwide.

The bidding for conferences is now also well under way. People are starting to realise that making a bid for a conference is a great way to save money and organisers are delighted to sell some additional seats they otherwise would not have sold.

We have started to get noticed by some influential blogs out there; Killer Startups is one of them. Click on the button below to vote for us so that we can become ’startup of the week’ on this site.

Please keep sending us your feedback and comments. We know that there is still a lot we can add to the site to make it even better and we always try to act quickly on suggestions we receive. If you have not already done so, please register with us so that we can keep you up to date on new developments on our site.

Stay tuned for more soon!

“How much should I bid then?”

It’s amazing, if you offer people the chance to name the price they are willing to pay for something, many actually ask for guidance. They are so used to someone telling them what something costs that they will often ask: “So how much should I bid then?”

Of course, what they want to know is what the minimum price is that the producer of the good or service will accept, something that is often related to the costs the producer has had to incur to develop the product. However, what to do if the producer has already covered his or her costs and will accept any price, as this will generate pure profit? This is what often happens in the conference industry, where the costs are mostly fixed, especially in the last few days before a conference. The organiser has already paid for his marketing campaign, the venue, the speakers and his own organisation, so adding some additional people to the conference room is not going to cost him a cent extra. If he can get these extra delegates to pay even a small amount of money, it will directly benefit his bottom line. Just remember that next time you get this pesky call centre operator hassling you at work trying to get you to sign up for a conference. (See also: “What is it with conference organisers?). At Conference Bay, we offer people the opportunity to make a bid for a seat at a conference, and therefore we often get the question how much one should bid.

So if you get a bit unsure about making a bid, does it make sense then to book your seat very early? Most people know that in the airline industry booking early can get you better rates. In the conference industry these discounts are called Early Birds. Nowadays we even see Super Early Birds and Extended Early Birds. (We are still waiting for the Unhatched Egg discount…). All these discounts are meant to bring in a nice amount of cash for the organiser so that he can guarantee the event to the venue, his sponsors and speakers. Once the sponsors have committed as well, the organiser in many cases reaches his break-even point. This means that from this moment on every dollar is pure profit and hence we think that bidding should be interesting for the organiser as it reveals the “willingness to pay” of the customers. Better to capture this money than keep charging high prices and end up with empty seats once the event takes place.

Buying a seat during the Early Bird period makes sense if you’re sure that you will be attending the conference. If you are not sure, or you decide at a later stage that you want to attend, remember that bidding for a seat is an easy way to show that you are willing to be a serious and valuable participant to the conference – it is better for the organiser to have someone who at least paid something than give the tickets away for free to people who may not turn up and who are unlikely to increase the value of the networking sessions for paying customers.

For an interesting case study on how bidding was used iin the music industry, read this story:
The Radiohead case