Show and sell

Customer Experience Center helps explain why Boeing is best

BY KATHLEEN SPICER

There's something to be said about "seeing is believing."

At the new Customer Experience Center in Renton, Wash., Commercial Airplanes' airline customers will see for themselves why Boeing products and services are world-class in innovation, technology and lifetime fleet support—and how choosing Boeing will strategically advance their business plans.

The main purpose of this facility is to establish a business case for customers to buy Boeing airplanes, said Klaus Brauer, director of Passenger Satisfaction and Revenue for Commercial Airplanes and the person who helped conceptualize and develop the center.

"The Customer Experience Center sets the stage to engage in a dialog with customers and build upon their product knowledge so they become a more discriminating consumer," Brauer said. "It's one of many tools we use to show that Boeing is the better buy."

The center is unique, Brauer said, because of the compelling and dramatic way it showcases Boeing products and services as the better choice.

"During customer briefings we share the Boeing product strategy—our successes, our plans for the future and reasons why," Brauer said. "Providing this history and telling of how our products have evolved to meet customer expectations is an important part of the Boeing story."

The new location offers a more professional presentation and includes several new elements, compared to the previous facility—which was smaller and offered a more limited look at airplane cabin accommodations and support services.

Displays feature interiors of the Boeing 787, 777 and 737 airplanes, with plans to add a 747-8 passenger mockup. Additional product features include the premium ceiling and signature seat interiors from a 777-200LR during last year's "Going the Distance" world tour and a 777 overhead crew rest display.

In addition to product mockups, a state-of-the art Customer Solutions Studio will show how Boeing partners with customers to provide business solutions throughout the product life cycle—from acquisition to operations and maintenance, and beyond.

"Our goal was to make our total business offering come to life for customers and convey to them, 'we are here for you,'" said Diana Klug, director of Marketing, Brand Promotion and Creative Services in Commercial Airplanes. "An airline's success depends upon several factors, such as how well they maintain and operate their assets. The Solutions Studio provides a great place to discuss with customers their needs and the many ways Boeing can contribute to their business model."

The new Solutions Studio comes online at a time when airlines are showing great interest in a group of e-enabled Boeing products and services such as the Electronic Flight Bag, Airplane Health Maintenance, and the Maintenance Performance Toolbox, which are also featured in the display.

Other highlights inside the studio include an interior arch of a Boeing 767 that projects enhanced interior retrofits, a creative showcase of RFID (radio frequency identification) technology that allows content to be tailored to the airline customer, and a section that tells the story of Boeing converted freighters. There's also an area that describes new ways to service airplanes, managing parts through the supply chain and the benefits of e-enabling a fleet.

Klug said the studio is designed to be flexible and accommodate briefings ranging from a 60-second overview to 60 minutes or longer.

The Customer Experience Center is equipped to host customer meetings and has dedicated space for research rooms and offices for visiting customer executives. The facility was completed and opened for business in December; Teague and Associates, Boeing's consultant for airplane interiors, manages the site. The schedule for completion of remaining exhibits in the facility calls for finishing the Solutions Studio this month, the 777 exhibit in May, and the 787 exhibit in the second half of 2006.

kathleen.m.spicer@boeing.com