Request Expert

Expert R. Expert has been involved in the wireless communications industry for over 20 years, starting when he co-founded Celutel, Inc., the initial co-licensee for the southern Arizona market. As president of Celutel (AMEX:CLTL), he helped acquire its FCC license, established its long distance division, and helped lead its IPO. Celutel, which also had cellular operations in the Gulf Coast area, merged with Century Tel in the 1990s. As CEO of Celutel, he supervised all operations and administrative functions, and focused in particular on marketing, sales and customer service issues. Expert has led marketing and strategy consulting assignments for a number of wireless and other telecom companies, including British Telecom, SBC, Verizon and US Cellular. His assignments have focused on Customer Relationship Management (CRM), customer acquisition and retention, churn reduction, customer profitability, and alternative channel strategies. He has written and spoken extensively on cellular issues, in publications such as Cellular Business, and in forums such as the Global Telecommunications Summit in Bangkok.

Expert has conducted pathbreaking competitive analysis studies for over two decades, in both consulting and senior corporate roles. As Senior Vice President at PSI Energy (NYSE:PIN), he managed a team conducting a comprehensive operating and financial analysis of over a dozen neighboring utilities, which helped lead to the subsequent merger with Cincinnati Gas & Electric to create Cinergy, now one of the nation's Top 10 utilities. Expert has also led competitive intelligence and competitive analysis assignment for companies across a number of industry sectors, including telecom (e.g. SBC, Verizon), technology (Allied Signal, UTC), financial (Citigroup, CFN), and beverages (Jim Beam/Fortune, Miller Beer). His competitive analysis studies have addressed such issues as market share trends, new product development, customer profitability, account management, management and organization structure, international management, growth strategy, pricing and margin analysis, economic value analysis, competitive position mapping and sources of competitive advantage. He has spoken on competitive analysis and competitive intelligence issues in forums sponsored by such groups as the American Marketing Association, Canadian Electrical Association, Center on Quality and Productivity, Edison Electric Institute, and Internet World.

Expert is a leading expert in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems and strategies. Formerly a leading Partner with Peppers & Rogers Group, the worldwide CRM consultancy, he developed and implemented a pathbreaking system of CRM metrics, focusing on the profitability of end-customers. While in the telecom industry heading up Celutel, Inc. and Peoples Phone Company, he created the first "Frequent Caller" loyalty and customer retention system in the telecom industry. As SVP-Marketing at PSI Energy, he championed a new customer management system designed to build loyalty and reduce churn in advance of electric utility deregulation. Expert has conducted customer management assignments for a host of clients across industries, including projects for Arizona Public Service, Bayer AG, Citigroup, Crutchfield Electronics, GTE/Verizon, Lowe's Home Improvement, NiSource Energy, SBC Communications and US Cellular. Expert has spoken widely on Customer Management and CRM issues, in both trade and broader business forums, ranging from New York and Los Angeles, to Tokyo and Hong Kong. He is widely quoted on customer behavior, customer satisfaction, customer attrition and customer growth strategies, in the service industry, and general business publications.

Expert has over 20 years of experience in measuring, managing, and maximizing customer satisfaction, and has implemented customer satisfaction initiatives both as a consultant and as a senior executive in key service industries. He pioneered customer satisfaction measurement while an executive in the telecom and utility industries in the 1980s and 1990s. As President & CEO of Celutel, Inc. and Peoples Phone Company, he created among the first Consumer Advisory Boards in the telecom industry. As SVP-Marketing at PSI Energy, he championed the development of longitudinal customer satisfaction measurements, and helped raise PSI’s satisfaction levels to industry-leading levels. As a consultant, Expert has created a pioneering system of customer-focused metrics, in assignments for clients ranging from GTE/Verizon to Lowe's Home Improvement. He has written and spoken on customer satisfaction issues in a variety of trade and other forums, ranging from a cover article in the Journal of the American Marketing Association to keynoting DCI's Customer-Centric Organization conference in February 2005. In March of 2005 he spoke on key customer planning and retention issues at the annual conference of the Newspaper Association of America.

Expert has been active in the electric utility industry for a quarter century. He was an official in the Utilities Office in the U.S. Department of Energy in the 1970s, and is formerly SVP-Marketing and Corporate Development of PSI Energy, now Cinergy, and President of PSI International, the holding company for PSI's unregulated operations. At PSI, he conceived the Smart$aver family of energy-efficient products, created the first "magalog" direct marketing initiative in the industry, and negotiated a pathbreaking joint venture between PSI and Tokyo Electric Power. He is a specialist in utility marketing, customer service, new business development, and growth strategies. He has testified as an expert witness in utility rate cases in over a dozen states, on issues including rate design, demand forecasting, need for power, conservation, and load management. Expert has conducted marketing and customer-focused strategy assignments for utilities across the country, including Arizona Public Service/Pinnacle West, Columbia Energy, Edison Electric Institute, Entergy, NiSource, PGE, PP&L, Tennessee Valley Authority, Wisconsin Energy, and United Illuminating. Expert has written and spoken widely on utility marketing, customer service, deregulation, and international development issues, in publications such as Public Utilities Fortnightly, and in forums such as the Edison Electric Institute, EMACS (Energy Marketing and Customer Service), and the Global Energy Development conference in Tokyo.

Expert has some 25 years of experience in marketing, in both service and technology-focused industries, and has served as Chief Marketing Officer of a Fortune 500 company. He is also formerly a Partner with Marketing Corp. of American, the marketing strategy and research subsidiary of Interpublic Group (NYSE:IPG), one of the world's three largest marketing and advertising companies. He has specialized in developing and implementing marketing strategies designed to create sustained competitive advantage and build profitable growth. Expert has pioneered new channel strategies, e-commerce initiatives, low-cost customer acquisition strategies, and customer retention metrics and methods. His unique expertise is in building customer-focused growth, through methodologies developed while an executive in the telecom, retail and energy industries, and in consulting assignments for Fortune 500 companies such as Entergy, Lowe's and UTC; and for entrepreneurial or smaller firms such as CFN, Crutchfield Electronics, or Celutel. Expert has published a variety of articles on marketing issues in Marketing Management, the Journal of the American Marketing Association, Cellular Business, Chain Store Age, Internet Retailer, the New York Times, and Public Utilities Fortnightly. He has spoken on advanced marketing and customer strategy issues worldwide, in forums from New York and Toronto to Hong Kong and Bangkok, sponsored by organizations ranging from the American Marketing Association and Internet World to British Telecom.

Expert is a widely quoted and published authority on retailing issues, both domestically and abroad. He has conducted substantial research on consumer shopping patterns and behaviors, for shopping mall developers such as Simon Group and Westfield America, and for retailers ranging from J.C. Penney and Lands' End/Sears to Toys-R-Us and Williams-Sonoma. His operating retail background includes experience as VP-Marketing with a regional Video chain, and with a major apparel retailer. Expert has conducted marketing and research assignments for a number of retailers, such as BJ's wholesale, Crutchfield, Lowe's Home Improvement, and Signet plc, and for the retail arm of Citigroup. He is formerly head of the e-Commerce Practice while a Partner with Peppers & Rogers Group, and founded the e-Retail Practice at Marketing Corp. of America. Expert is a frequent contributor on retail topics to CNBC, and has appeared on the BBC and CNN. He has published articles or research studies in retail journals such as Chain Store Age, Internet Retailer, and Stores Magazine, and is regularly quoted in publications such as the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

Expert is a leading authority on marketing in service industries, his expertise gained through over 20 years of experience as an operating executive in key service industries and as a consultant to a host of service sector clients. He specializes in customer-focused strategies and Customer Relationship Management (CRM), under which service companies can leverage their service function to maximize the earnings each customer generates. Expert has an outstanding combination of experience in three industries that have undergone deep structural change: energy, retail, and telecommunications. He has focused in particular in cost-efficient new customer acquisition, customer growth strategies and customer retention initiatives. He created the first formal customer loyalty program in the telecom industry, Peoples Phone Company's "Frequent Caller" program, and established what may have been the first Consumer Advisory Board in the industry. While in the utility industry, he served on the Edison Electric Institute's Marketing Advisory Committee, and created a host of industry innovations, including PSI Energy's pioneering Smart$aver line of energy-efficient products. He is a proponent of creating recurring-revenue streams built around new and ongoing service products, and has developed automatic replenishment programs. Expert has spoken and written widely on service marketing issues, in key service industries such as Energy, Finance, Gambling, Retail, and Telecom, and has conducted dozens of service marketing and customer service projects for clients in these industries. He recently published a seminal article “Creating the Customer-Focused Organization” in the journal of the American Marketing Association, and has spoken widely on his research in customer service issues both in the U.S. and abroad.

...

For two leading retail mall operators, Expert analyzed the changes in consumer shopping patterns from 1994-2004, focusing on the nation's 100 largest retailers. The analysis addressed changes in consumer behavioral drivers and purchase preferences, real estate trends, and the role of e-commerce.For one of the nation's largest home improvement retailers, he led a team that revitalized growth by calculating the most profitable of its 30 million-plus household database, and then developing a marketing and organization plan to address those customers.For a leading integrated energy utility, Expert created a new product development program, identifying over 20 new product and service concepts, instituted a screening process to winnow the concepts down to three to four high priority initiatives, and created a business case for top management review and decision.For a diversified service firm with some 4 million accounts, he developed a marketing and sales cost reduction program by analyzing end-customer profitability and determining the ROI of alternative marketing and customer service initiatives.For one of the nation's largest telephone companies, he developed a new product strategy to rebuild lagging growth, focusing on new value-added services, and creating a strategy for deploying those new services selectively to the most likely consumers and businesses.