Seek to Satisfy Evolving Customer Needs
AAA CIO Brent Stahlheber is focusing the club on customers by looking at IT’s impact
CIO Executive Council — Our members’ high expectations of us evolve with outside influences.
I knew we needed to reposition ourselves to meet their new outlook for mobile access anytime.
AAA has an internal process, which we call the next best practice, for finding and sharing new ideas. As CIO, I look at emerging technologies and match them with potential business applications. The challenge for me as a business leader is to turn this examination outward, looking at opportunities from a consumer perspective.
As someone who loves to travel, I am of course familiar with wanting and expecting to be able to interact with companies online and through mobile devices. And leaders across AAA are aware that we have to adapt to that if we are going to move beyond being the travel adviser for Gen Y’s parents.
For our business, I know that walk-in locations and traditional websites have their place, but AAA clubs could offer our members more, with a new channel that connects the two through a bricks-to-clicks model. We have more than 3,500 travel agents and destination experts scattered across 1,100 locations. Members want to get in touch with those experts and their knowledge from wherever they are, whenever they have a question.
The idea that I pitched as a next best practice was to make all our local agents’ experience available anywhere, through any outlet. Looking at our offerings from an outside perspective, I realized that our customers appreciate our deep, trusted knowledge, but living in a connected world, they will expect more convenient access to it.
The idea, launching this month as iTravel Advisor from AAA, would provide this wealth of information and local expertise in a way that helps educate and entertain our customers, rather than forcing them to navigate the complexities of the Web. Whether they access our offerings online or through mobile devices or kiosks, travelers will be connected to the destination experts who can help them most with information, advice and a fully visualized travel experience.
Just knowing what you as a customer would want isn’t enough to provide the leadership focus needed to be a true business peer. To apply that perspective and focus to our business and marketplace—and generate more ideas like iTravel Advisor—I dedicated time to creating relationships with our customer-facing employees. You should take the time to hear and experience the everyday interactions of those people serving the customers. I have found it’s much easier to create this opportunity if you approach the business leads one-on-one and help them formulate new ideas around their business model.
