Dubai is done, time to fly home

I had a terrific time with the delegates at the most recent GCCRM customer experience management training, which I did with fellow partners from Shanghai and Dubai (via Ireland). The folks in the room were bright, senior execs charged with either CRM or CEM responsibilities at their companies, confirming the trend I noted in London earlier this year that "experience management" is increasingly part of the title of senior managers. In fact, I'm seeing it more often in titles that I've seen CRM in titles.



This may be a sign that companies appreciate the strategic importance of CEM, while simultaneously demonstrating that their faith in CRM as a strategic initiative may be flagging. That's a shame, because CRM is indeed strategically helpful (except in rare instances where it's only a platform for sales efficiency).

I was particularly struck by the diversity of the companies. We had banking, oil, grocery retail, hospitality ... and by and large the evaluations were really positive, for which I am grateful.

I'll post a picture up here when I get a copy from Alice Tse, the coordinator, who as usual did a tremendous job with the event.

Now, I'm off to dinner, and then I hop on a plane back to DC sometime very close to dawn. I haven't slept well the last couple of nights because of jet lag. Now that I'm heading back, I can feel the double-whammy jet lag already!