AutoNation, the largest Auto Retailer in the USA,[3] was founded by entrepreneur H. Wayne Huizenga,[4] also founder of Blockbuster and Waste Management.[5] The company, founded in 1996, is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The current Chairman and CEO is Mike Jackson, former CEO of Mercedes Benz North America. The current President and Chief Operation Officer is Mike Maroone; previously of Maroone Automotive Group of South Florida.

vice president of Alliance Research, Inc., Crestview Hills, Ky.
“Our work to increase customer satisfaction levels, along with our co-branding and new Long John Silver’s activities, proves that our strategy isn’t just to bring ourselves up to regular fast-food standards. It’s to bring our facility and customer service systems to a level that’s above and beyond the quality of other fast-food restaurants.” – Kevin Armstrong, president, Long John Silver’s Restaurants, Inc.

The directive from the corner office at Long John Silver’s headquarters was clear and straightforward: develop a program that would elevate the customer experience, measure performance, reward excellence and build business. With essential management support, a cross-functional team was assembled for the task. This included restaurant operations, marketing research and information technology personnel at Long John Silver’s, and Alliance Research as consultant and vendor for the measurement program.

Long John Silver’s, a quick-service seafood chain based in Lexington, Ky., recognized the simple but key drivers of its future success:

A typical heavy user spends $8,500 at Long John Silver’s during their lifetime.
A light user’s lifetime spending at Long John Silver’s is nearly $2,000.
Growth means serving valued loyal patrons, and a host of new, first-time customers.
Satisfied customers compound their value through word-of-mouth interaction.
A satisfied customer becomes a repeat customer; repeat customers become heavier users.
Every customer encounter represents a chance to accrue or to forfeit substantial future equity in the business.
To be actionable, the program had to be store-specific and to reflect Long John Silver’s organizational and geographic responsibilities across the 1,250-restaurant chain. From a measurement standpoint, this dictated large-scale and cost-efficient data collection. The plan also had to recognize stand-alone stores as well as a growing number of A&W co-branded stores with a different product mix, as well as franchise restaurants with different, or even the absence of, supporting technology.

Reinforcing the program was an incentive bonus plan for the Long John Silver’s store management force structured to tie financial reward to high customer satisfaction performance and error-free customer experiences. With the organization geared to the new incentive bonus plan, the demand for a steady stream of detailed information was predictable. Surprising in the evolution of the program was just how quickly and thoroughly the management force became engaged in and committed to the program, and how dedicated they became to leveraging every available nugget of information to achieve their goals.

Evolution
Long John Silver’s began by undertaking a rigorous review process of alternative methods, research designs, application concepts and vendors, through which Crestview Hills, Ky.-based Alliance Research was selected as its program development partner.

At first, the measurement task was framed in terms of traditional CSM evaluation, identification of strengths and weakness, and general scorekeeping for the program. Alliance Research was charged with designing and administering the CSM component using Alliance’s interactive voice response (IVR) technology. Automated graphic reports were generated monthly at the restaurant level and in a “roll-up” hierarchy through Long John Silver’s operations management levels. This extended from the individual store manager to local market DMA (designated market area) managers through regional and division vice presidents up to system-wide evaluation.

As a pilot program was launched in 300 company restaurants, it became apparent that while the measurement aspect of the program was well received, restaurant managers and higher levels of Long John Silver’s management wanted more than a report card. The program needed to better isolate the exact source of problems, and to provide ways to intervene in the event of a poor customer experience. To maintain occasion timeliness, two important methods of solving problems had to be deployed:

1. A focus on dealing with product, service and facility problems at the point of delivery, drilling down to the problem source, and;

2. Exercising proactive service recovery with dissatisfied customers, and those expressing any defect in their experience.

The program was re-engineered to provide a broader spectrum of information and a sophisticated set of mechanisms to fuel and reward proactive improvement, while at the same time maintaining the integrity of the measurement component. The restructured program puts Long John Silver’s operations personnel at the “controls” of the customer experience by:

focusing on ongoing and systematically gathered feedback from customers;
providing managers with the tools to understand the specifics of a product or service defect;
providing immediate information about a defective customer experience, in order to intervene to recover the customer.
Importantly, reports are available on an instant real-time basis through a password-protected Web site hosted by Alliance Research. This allows for instantly generated e-mail notification of DMA managers and restaurant managers each time a customer reports an unsatisfactory experience or, conversely, one in which they were “delighted.”



One in four (24%) Australians claim to have cancelled or postponed trips as a result of the recent floods according to custom research agency TNS.
The Flood Relief Report, which is being donated to tourism operators in affected areas along with proceeds from its sale, found that Queensland dominated national awareness of the 2011 flooding events, while awareness of New South Wales and Victorian floods was far lower.

According to director of travel research at TNS, Jo Farquhar, almost all Australians were aware of flooding in Queensland, with 87% correctly identifying Brisbane as an affected area and around one in two identifying Central Queensland and rural SE Queensland as affected.

"It’s a different story when we look at New South Wales and Victoria however, with 35% and 22% of Australians unaware that any flooding hit those states respectively,” said Farquhar.

“Areas such as Northern NSW, which were quite hard hit by flooding, have fallen under the radar, while the largely unaffected Tropical North Queensland was identified as affected by 60% of Australians.

“Similarly the Gold and Sunshine Coasts have suffered from being incorrectly associated with the flooding.”

The perception versus reality battle for operators has been felt most heavily in Queensland, with 20% of Australians claiming to have cancelled or postponed trips to Queensland, compared to 8% for regional Victoria and 6% for Northern NSW.



TNS’ Flood Relief Study was conducted online in February 2011 with a nationally representative sample of 1,000 Australians. The heat map was generated from respondents selecting areas on the map shown using their mouse during the online survey.

“Media concentration on Queensland during the floods appears to have overshadowed other states in the minds of the Australian public,” said Farquhar.

“The findings from our Flood Relief Study point to the knock on effect also being more severe for Queensland – more Australians state that they’ve cancelled or postponed trips to Queensland than to other affected areas.

“Many operators have done an excellent job at providing the information consumers want in the wake of the floods and Cyclone Yasi, by communicating that they’re open for business.



“To reach Australians still uncertain about travelling to affected areas, operators need to roll out the welcome mat and tell travellers they want them back.

“Personal stories and pictures or other vivid examples of ‘fun in the sun’ are the best way for operators to get the more rational message of being open for business across.”

Other noteworthy findings
* Impact on intention to travel flood affected areas in the future is limited

* The majority of Australians correctly identified the areas affected by Cyclone Yasi, apart from 7% who identified Brisbane as affected

* 61% of Australians made a donation towards helping the flood affected areas in Australia

* 19% of Australians have been involved in any fund-raising activities to help flood affected areas

TNS’ Flood Relief Study was conducted online in February 2011 with a nationally representative sample of 1,000 Australians. The heat map was generated from respondents selecting areas on the map shown using their mouse during the online survey.
 
AutoNation, the largest Auto Retailer in the USA,[3] was founded by entrepreneur H. Wayne Huizenga,[4] also founder of Blockbuster and Waste Management.[5] The company, founded in 1996, is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The current Chairman and CEO is Mike Jackson, former CEO of Mercedes Benz North America. The current President and Chief Operation Officer is Mike Maroone; previously of Maroone Automotive Group of South Florida.

vice president of Alliance Research, Inc., Crestview Hills, Ky.
“Our work to increase customer satisfaction levels, along with our co-branding and new Long John Silver’s activities, proves that our strategy isn’t just to bring ourselves up to regular fast-food standards. It’s to bring our facility and customer service systems to a level that’s above and beyond the quality of other fast-food restaurants.” – Kevin Armstrong, president, Long John Silver’s Restaurants, Inc.

The directive from the corner office at Long John Silver’s headquarters was clear and straightforward: develop a program that would elevate the customer experience, measure performance, reward excellence and build business. With essential management support, a cross-functional team was assembled for the task. This included restaurant operations, marketing research and information technology personnel at Long John Silver’s, and Alliance Research as consultant and vendor for the measurement program.

Long John Silver’s, a quick-service seafood chain based in Lexington, Ky., recognized the simple but key drivers of its future success:

A typical heavy user spends $8,500 at Long John Silver’s during their lifetime.
A light user’s lifetime spending at Long John Silver’s is nearly $2,000.
Growth means serving valued loyal patrons, and a host of new, first-time customers.
Satisfied customers compound their value through word-of-mouth interaction.
A satisfied customer becomes a repeat customer; repeat customers become heavier users.
Every customer encounter represents a chance to accrue or to forfeit substantial future equity in the business.
To be actionable, the program had to be store-specific and to reflect Long John Silver’s organizational and geographic responsibilities across the 1,250-restaurant chain. From a measurement standpoint, this dictated large-scale and cost-efficient data collection. The plan also had to recognize stand-alone stores as well as a growing number of A&W co-branded stores with a different product mix, as well as franchise restaurants with different, or even the absence of, supporting technology.

Reinforcing the program was an incentive bonus plan for the Long John Silver’s store management force structured to tie financial reward to high customer satisfaction performance and error-free customer experiences. With the organization geared to the new incentive bonus plan, the demand for a steady stream of detailed information was predictable. Surprising in the evolution of the program was just how quickly and thoroughly the management force became engaged in and committed to the program, and how dedicated they became to leveraging every available nugget of information to achieve their goals.

Evolution
Long John Silver’s began by undertaking a rigorous review process of alternative methods, research designs, application concepts and vendors, through which Crestview Hills, Ky.-based Alliance Research was selected as its program development partner.

At first, the measurement task was framed in terms of traditional CSM evaluation, identification of strengths and weakness, and general scorekeeping for the program. Alliance Research was charged with designing and administering the CSM component using Alliance’s interactive voice response (IVR) technology. Automated graphic reports were generated monthly at the restaurant level and in a “roll-up” hierarchy through Long John Silver’s operations management levels. This extended from the individual store manager to local market DMA (designated market area) managers through regional and division vice presidents up to system-wide evaluation.

As a pilot program was launched in 300 company restaurants, it became apparent that while the measurement aspect of the program was well received, restaurant managers and higher levels of Long John Silver’s management wanted more than a report card. The program needed to better isolate the exact source of problems, and to provide ways to intervene in the event of a poor customer experience. To maintain occasion timeliness, two important methods of solving problems had to be deployed:

1. A focus on dealing with product, service and facility problems at the point of delivery, drilling down to the problem source, and;

2. Exercising proactive service recovery with dissatisfied customers, and those expressing any defect in their experience.

The program was re-engineered to provide a broader spectrum of information and a sophisticated set of mechanisms to fuel and reward proactive improvement, while at the same time maintaining the integrity of the measurement component. The restructured program puts Long John Silver’s operations personnel at the “controls” of the customer experience by:

focusing on ongoing and systematically gathered feedback from customers;
providing managers with the tools to understand the specifics of a product or service defect;
providing immediate information about a defective customer experience, in order to intervene to recover the customer.
Importantly, reports are available on an instant real-time basis through a password-protected Web site hosted by Alliance Research. This allows for instantly generated e-mail notification of DMA managers and restaurant managers each time a customer reports an unsatisfactory experience or, conversely, one in which they were “delighted.”



One in four (24%) Australians claim to have cancelled or postponed trips as a result of the recent floods according to custom research agency TNS.
The Flood Relief Report, which is being donated to tourism operators in affected areas along with proceeds from its sale, found that Queensland dominated national awareness of the 2011 flooding events, while awareness of New South Wales and Victorian floods was far lower.

According to director of travel research at TNS, Jo Farquhar, almost all Australians were aware of flooding in Queensland, with 87% correctly identifying Brisbane as an affected area and around one in two identifying Central Queensland and rural SE Queensland as affected.

"It’s a different story when we look at New South Wales and Victoria however, with 35% and 22% of Australians unaware that any flooding hit those states respectively,” said Farquhar.

“Areas such as Northern NSW, which were quite hard hit by flooding, have fallen under the radar, while the largely unaffected Tropical North Queensland was identified as affected by 60% of Australians.

“Similarly the Gold and Sunshine Coasts have suffered from being incorrectly associated with the flooding.”

The perception versus reality battle for operators has been felt most heavily in Queensland, with 20% of Australians claiming to have cancelled or postponed trips to Queensland, compared to 8% for regional Victoria and 6% for Northern NSW.



TNS’ Flood Relief Study was conducted online in February 2011 with a nationally representative sample of 1,000 Australians. The heat map was generated from respondents selecting areas on the map shown using their mouse during the online survey.

“Media concentration on Queensland during the floods appears to have overshadowed other states in the minds of the Australian public,” said Farquhar.

“The findings from our Flood Relief Study point to the knock on effect also being more severe for Queensland – more Australians state that they’ve cancelled or postponed trips to Queensland than to other affected areas.

“Many operators have done an excellent job at providing the information consumers want in the wake of the floods and Cyclone Yasi, by communicating that they’re open for business.



“To reach Australians still uncertain about travelling to affected areas, operators need to roll out the welcome mat and tell travellers they want them back.

“Personal stories and pictures or other vivid examples of ‘fun in the sun’ are the best way for operators to get the more rational message of being open for business across.”

Other noteworthy findings
* Impact on intention to travel flood affected areas in the future is limited

* The majority of Australians correctly identified the areas affected by Cyclone Yasi, apart from 7% who identified Brisbane as affected

* 61% of Australians made a donation towards helping the flood affected areas in Australia

* 19% of Australians have been involved in any fund-raising activities to help flood affected areas

TNS’ Flood Relief Study was conducted online in February 2011 with a nationally representative sample of 1,000 Australians. The heat map was generated from respondents selecting areas on the map shown using their mouse during the online survey.

Hey netra, i read your report on Diebold, Inc and i can say that it contained very nice and important information about AutoNation. Well, if you want some more information then you can download and check my presentation.
 

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