Professor Edward F. McQuarrie

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Consulting Services

Consistent with the Faculty Handbook at Santa Clara University, I have available up to one day per week to perform consulting services. Like many of my Business School colleagues, I value such consulting because it provides an opportunity to apply my scholarship in the real world of business. I learn from doing this, my students benefit from my real world experience, and industry gets the benefit of state-of-the-art thinking.

Specific consulting services include the following, all of which address the topic of customer visits:

• Workshops for teams who are going to undertake a program of visits.

• Presentations to executives
• Advice for team leaders on the design of particular visit programs
• Ten years experience--see client list

You may also find one or more of my books/articles of interest in this connection; they grew out of past consulting efforts. And, of course, they cost a whole lot less. Go to my home page, click on research areas, and then scroll down to the description of customer visits. From there you can link to specific articles.

Workshops

Available in half day, one day and two day formats. I can handle 12 to 30 participants. Topic coverage:

• Why do customer visits
• Where visits fit within the market research toolbox
• How to prepare for visits
  • Set objectives
  • Select customers
  • Create teams
  • Design a discussion guide
  • Construct good questions
• How to conduct visits
  • Proper attitude
  • Team roles
  • Interview management
  • Coping with difficult situations
• Debriefing visits
• Analysis of visit data
• Visit report structure

Call me at (408) 554-6960 to discuss pricing and possible dates

Executive Presentations

I generally present the rationale for customer visits, along with a discussion of why other firms have made it a practice to visit customers. I conclude with a review of best practices in customer visits. Sometimes these presentations occur to assist a team in getting support from management. Sometimes they takes place as part of a conference. Sometimes, the presentation serves as an initial "look-see" at what I can offer.

Advice

Here the purpose is to help a team design a specific customer visit program. I can help with hashing out the objectives, selecting the specific types of customers who will be included, reviewing the draft discussion guide, and suggesting modifications to the final report.

Some of my most effective engagements of late have combined a workshop or presentation with an advice session. Under this design, a broad group of people get trained in or exposed to general principles, while the team receives specific advice concerning a specific upcoming visit program.

Client List

Hewlett-Packard

Sun Microsystems

Apple Computer

Compaq Computer

Amdahl

Digital Equipment

Unisys

Sybase

Informix

Lotus

Motorola

Fluke

Varian Associates

Harris

Cadence Design

Plantronics

Western Multiplex

Milliken

Grace

Pitney Bowes

Trane

Network Equipment Technologies

Trane

Pitney Bowes

CIGNA

McQuarrie home page