We at Ignite are always pleased to provide tips and guidance to customer Advisory board (CAB) program managers and executive sponsors towards improving their programs, and even what to do if things go wrong. Thus, it’s great to see what can happen when a CAB program goes right – so well that you are provided industry recognition in front of your peers.

This is what recently happened to one of Ignite’s clients, Ryder, a Fortune 500 transportation and supply chain leader. Ryder was recently recognized for its cross-functional customer engagement programs – with customer advisory boards being core to its customer-centric approach. Ryder garnered several awards as part of the Loyalty360 Customer Awards event recently held in Nashville: A Gold Awards in Operational Excellence, and Silver Awards in the Brand Insights and Customer Experience and Engagement categories, along with the Silver Award in the comprehensive Brand 360-Degree Award category. Quite an awards haul indeed!

Ryder executive management cited its customer advisory board as a cornerstone of its customer engagement program. “We have leadership teams that sit down and truly listen to customers, sitting in on conversations about functional customer challenges,” said Samuel Johnson, VP Global Marketing, Customer Loyalty & Insights, Ryder System, Inc. “Getting customer feedback and insights that are relevant and timely to the right players at key touch points along their customer journeys with us helps to move the needle in terms of improving their experience with Ryder.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves – companies who are proactive in engaging with their customers can transform their organizations to become more focused and aligned on key business processes that can impact and improve the overall customer experience.

We at Ignite applaud Ryder for its commitment to its customer engagement programs, which are clearly making a positive influence on its overall operations and customer base. The awards also illustrate the true power and potential of well-managed customer advisory boards to make material changes to how companies can serve and delight its customers.

In addition, when a client advisory council program is this successful, it can be recognized by industry experts and have a “snowball” effect that not only provides additional momentum to customer engagement, but carries such goodwill to other customers – and potential new ones. Recognition for a successful client advisory board program is the eternal “Holy Grail” that all advisory board managers aspire – and can reach with dedication and operational excellence.

Congratulations to Ryder. We hope to see more customer advisory board programs recognized for their excellence in the years ahead. Want to take your customer advisory board program to the next level? Join us at our next Customer Advisory Board Training.