LRA Worldwide Hires Robert Kaplan-Sherman as Managing Director of its Research Practice

HORSHAM, Pennsylvania; October 24, 2006 – LRA Worldwide, Inc., a leading consulting firm in the growing sector of Customer Experience Management (CEM), announced Robert Kaplan-Sherman would be joining the firm as a Senior Vice President and the Managing Director of its Research Practice. Kaplan-Sherman brings 12 years of experience in the design, deployment and analysis of customized qualitative and quantitative research studies for numerous Fortune 500 companies, with an emphasis on leaders within the Financial Services, Healthcare, Food & Beverage and Automotive industries.

Prior to joining LRA, Kaplan-Sherman spent eight years with Hase/Schannen Research (Princeton, NJ), beginning as a Senior Project Director and ultimately earning a position as Vice President. At Hase/Schannen, he specialized in consulting with executive level clients to develop research tools that addressed specific business problems, and then mapping the results to key business objectives and financial outcomes. Kaplan-Sherman also played a key business development role at Hase/Schannen, accounting for nearly $4 million in revenue in the past two years.

“We are very excited that Rob will be joining the LRA team,” said Rob Rush, Chief Executive Officer of LRA Worldwide. “We have only scratched the surface in the different ways that our research practice can help support our clients’ efforts to create and sustain innovative, customer-centric enterprises. Rob’s point of view and approach fit perfectly with our CEM methodology and his insight, expertise and passion will make our client project teams that much stronger.”

Kaplan-Sherman has extensive expertise in a variety of research methodologies and analyses, with a special focus on Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty, Six Sigma/Process Improvement, New Product/Service Development, Decision Modeling, Customer Segmentation, Employee Engagement and Brand Imagery studies. These areas of concentration nicely complement LRA’s view of Customer Experience Management, which holds that every time a company and a customer interact, the customer learns something about the company that will either strengthen or weaken the future relationship. CEM is about identifying each of these “moments of truth” and ensuring that the company and its people, products, processes and culture – both internally and externally - are aligned to best serve the customer, now and in the future.

"I’ve spent my entire career helping companies address business problems through research, and have observed that virtually all issues within a business ultimately relate to the customer and how the company is interacting with that customer,” Kaplan-Sherman said. “LRA Worldwide has been a pioneer in the ‘Customer Experience Management’ consulting arena and this is a great opportunity to focus my research on what really matters to every business, in every industry – the customer experience and how it impacts growth and profitability.”

Before his tenure at Hase/Schannen, Kaplan-Sherman worked for a number of other notable market research firms in the tri-state area, including Bruskin/Goldring, Ross-Cooper-Lund, Research International and Gallup & Robinson. He is also a frequent speaker at research industry events; he recently presented the topic “Internet-Based Survey Research: A Case Study Approach” at the Market Research Association National Conference.

Kaplan-Sherman attended Indiana University’s Graduate Program in Sociology, and earned his undergraduate degree cum laude in Sociology and Psychology from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY. A native of New Jersey, Kaplan-Sherman currently resides in Metuchen, NJ.

About LRA Worldwide
LRA Worldwide, Inc., is a leading consulting, organizational development and research company that specializes in Customer Experience Management (CEM). LRA helps companies and brands design and deliver the optimal customer experience across all key touch points using an integrated suite of services that measure and improve service quality, customer satisfaction, employee performance, loyalty, customer advocacy and profitability. LRA specializes in “operationalizing the brand” – turning brand promise and customer strategy into operational reality. LRA’s tactical CEM practice areas include Customer Experience Strategy Design, Standards Development & Content Management, Organizational Development & Training, Customer and Employee Research and Quality Assurance & Mystery Shopping; these are either deployed together in a strategic manner to continually monitor and improve the customer experience or deployed individually to address a specific client tactical need.

LRA’s clients include some of the world’s leading companies and brands in the hospitality industry and beyond, including Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Hard Rock, the PGA TOUR, Albertsons Supermarkets, the NBA and MGM MIRAGE. For more information, visit the company’s Web site at www.LRAworldwide.com.


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