Past Chapter Event Recaps (Not Available For ALL Past Events)

January 2012

January 17: "SOCAP Great Lakes 2012 Kick-off Event"
The January 17th 2012 Kick-off for SOCAP Great Lakes was a major success with record attendance and a great indication for a big year in customer service discussion.

Featuring Director of Consumer Services for General Mills Jeff Hagen, the event was highlighted with COPC benchmark study findings and a terrific luncheon hosted by the Detroit Athletic Club. The afternoon was capped with admission to the 2012 North American International Auto Show,  a worldwide success in of itself.

January 11: "SOCAP Minnesota's Event at The Toro Company"
The speaker selections and overall event at the MN Chapter's SOCAP meeting hosted by Toro were excellent according to many attendees.  Sandy Hamer was as entertaining as she was inspiring, and she gave very valuable information to use for self-improvement and motivation – and the excitement to start right away!  

The tour of the Toro building and the follow up speaker, Jack Hensley were very interesting.   Jack gave some good insight into how Toro handles consumer contacts and it was interesting to see the different products and services Toro offers their employees.   It was a great way to start the year!

December 2011

December 14: "Northwest Regional Chapter's Annual Conference Recap & Holiday Networking Event"
This lunch networking event included a discussion of the 2011 SOCAP Annual Conference's breakout session content and material. Attendees included members from Clorox, EJ Gallo, SunRun, Interactive Intelligence, Microsoft, Interactions, and Astound Technologies. Attendee fees plus additional matching from the Northwest Regional Chapter were applied to make a $500.00 donation to the Second Harvest Food Bank. 

December 13: "Greater Philadelphia Chapter's 2011 SOCAP Annual STAR Awards"
Just Born, Inc., home of PEEPS®, Mike and Ike® candies, and Peanut Chews®,  (to name a few) hosted our annual SOCAP Top Achievement Recognition Awards meeting.  Lisa Guzzo, of Just Born, really deserves Kudos for her excellent work facilitating this meeting right down to the smallest details.  Not only did we dine on delicious food and cake, meet the PEEPS® Chick and HOT TAMALES® Flame characters, but the décor and special gift favors topped it all off!  We received 25 S.T.A.R. nominations and attendance exceeded 50 people.
 
David Rich, of Rich Ideas, entertained the audience with his presentation of “How to Click with Everyone Every Time!”  He talked about how today’s customer (and prospective customer) is more demanding, knowledgeable, and less loyal than any time in history. If you want to succeed, you must do more than contact them, you must connect with them. In short, you must “click.” And fast.  Attendees learned the following:
 
--How today’s customer is different from 15 and 25 years ago
--Why excellent customer service is no longer good enough
--Why motivation and attitude matters
--How to use your voice as a persuasion tool and connect immediately
--How to competition proof your clientele
 
Following David’s motivating and informative presentation, we honored our Top Achievers.  Wow – what an amazing group of S.T.A.R.’s!  Once their exceptional accomplishments were presented, each Top Achiever received a SOCAP appreciation gift and snapped photos with their manager and the beloved PEEPS® Chick and HOT TAMALES® flame.  A special thanks to Just Born, Inc., again, for their hospitality – truly a memorable meeting!a creature

December 8: "Northwest Regional Chapter's Annual Conference Recap & Holiday Networking Event"
This was a nice social event that included great wine & cheese and a great discussion of the SOCAP Annual Conference topics and trends. Attendee fees plus additional matching from Northwest Regional Chapter were applied to make a $500.00 donation to the Oregon Food Bank.

December 7: "Southwest Regional Chapter's 2011 Holiday Celebration"
 ‘Twas the night before our holiday event, when all through the club house and it's mighty timber, not a creature was stirring, not even a SOCAP member. The toys were stacked under the tree with care, in hopes that 90 SOCAP members soon would be there. Members were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of charity-giving, networking, Service Star Awards, great food and our annual meeting danced in their heads!

Our members sprang from their bed and drove to Coyote Hills Country Club to see what was the matter and upon arrival they heard all the chatter. Come Alta Resources, Toyota, Honda, Stamps.com, and ATA members to name a few, came all the laughter and fun with a wonderful view. We knew in a moment it must have been Christmas with the Spark of Love fire truck filled with 11 huge bags of toys,  and the seven STAR award nominee's cheerful noise and joy.

Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen! On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donner and Blitzen! To Alta Resources call center and hear busy calls, we dashed away, dashed away, dashed away all. We sprang to our cars, to the SOCAP members we gave a whistle, and away we flew like the down of a thistle. While the board members continue to delve, Happy Holidays to all and see you in 2012!

October 2011

October 13: "Northwest Regional Chapter's PacifiCorp.-Contact Center Tour"
This event featured a diverse group of attending companies-24 different firms! For the tour, there were 3 “stations” and the attendees were separated into 3 small groups rotating to each station which was a great way to accommodate the large group of attendees

Various topics covered at the event were Social Networking Strategies, Training/cost reduction by Consolidating Quality Assurance into operations and utilizing existing agents to monitor calls, mentor & coach, Combined Helpdesk and training functions, Work Force Management including an overview of the process & how to deal with adverse events and spikes in demand. An outstanding event all around. 

October 11: "Greater Philadelphia Chapter's Teambuilding Event"
The SOCAP Greater Philadelphia Chapter hosted what we hope will become an annual event – a member “Social” at Dave and Busters Restaurant, Bar and Arcade.  Everyone enjoyed a wonderful array of appetizers, beverages and some competitive games of pool!  Following the food and fun in our reserved room, everyone received a Power Card for the arcade area downstairs.  What an adult playground!  There were some serious air hockey, basketball, and skee-ball competitions going on and everyone walked away with a prize in their pocket and new found friends at their side. 

 September 2011

September 23: "Southwest Regional Chapter's Wine Tasting Event at Phone Ware"
San Diego was the place to be for the Southwest chapter social held on September 23. Proudly sponsored by Phone Ware, a provider of call center services to Fortune 500 companies since 1974. The afternoon started with a tour of Phone Ware's 305 seat call center. Attendees got to see first-hand how Phone Ware provides best-in-class customer care by experiencing presentations from their Operations, Human Resources and Corporate Training departments.

Their strong belief in providing the best possible care to their business partners and staff runs deep into the roots of their business. So deep that the owner's father, who is nearing 100 years old, continues to work there daily.  We then headed to The Wine Sellar and Brasserie to enjoy elegant wine-tasting and gourmet appetizers and networked into the early evening with top-notch customer care professionals. For our chapter, having so many big states, it was nice to branch out into another part of California and enjoy some of San Diego’s hospitality.  We look forward to reaching out to our other states to see if they would like to have a SOCAP meeting and showcase their business so our chapter will continue to grow.

September 22: "Tennessee Chapter's Nissan North America Event"
On September 22, the SOCAP Tennessee Chapter held its first meeting at Nissan HQ in Franklin, Tennessee.  The meeting was a great success!  What a terrific turnout for our new chapter!  There were attendees from all over Tennessee, and a few from neighboring states.  The networking and exchange of ideas was a true benefit to all. 

A special thanks to our speaker Keith Sanders who had us all on our feet and energized with his presentation on increasing retention, re-orders and mucho revenue.  We look forward to continuing our membership growth in the Tennessee area.  Announcements will soon be made appointing the Board of Directors for the Chapter.

September 21: "Northwest Regional Chapter's 'Every Monday Matters'"
Matt Emerzian the CEO of EMM is a great guy with an amazing personal story about founding EMM. He showed videos of EMM programs from schools and public service activities demonstrating the impact of implementing the EMM program.

Matt engaged the audience with his casual, interactive style and put the audience through a couple of group exercises.  Matt also discussed how the contact center can be vital to company participation in socially responsible events because often requests for support come through the contact center as the public facing portals. 

At the conclusion, there was additional discussion about how social responsibility impacts the employees, their attitudes and the actual payback to companies for these kinds of initiatives. Thanks to E&J Gallo and Standard Register we had a fantastic wine and cheese networking session. 

September 14: "Chicago Chapter's 'Creating Meaningful Customer Experiences in a Mobile Society"
The morning session conducted by Orbitz (Lisa Diehl and Steve Sedlak), was a very worthwhile and timely presentation of what Orbitz currently has in place to manage the various social media related channels.  Lisa and Steve presented key metrics and facts behind social media, for example, the 90 – 9 – 1 rule: 90% of users are “lurkers”, they read posts but don’t contribute, 9% of users contribute time-to-time, while 1% of users participate often and account for most contribution.  Data presented included statistics that show mobile device sales to be much higher than desktop/laptops and how messages and communication from consumer affairs’ overall must keep this in mind. 

The key point is that information should be to the point and keep pace with this ever-growing constant availability by consumers.  The Orbitz social media team is having success in managing this function internally via a lean-mean-skilled team.  Other recommendations and points include how and why it is critical to speak the language of the particular medium.  For example, when working in SMS/texting, can we communicate to consumers in 140 characters or less?  We also must understand the immediacy of the communication and the expectations of this relatively new medium.  Some of the tips presented include how to “listen” and respond, no post or response can be ignored.  Clear understanding of one’s business model is crucial as strategies and steps are taken to communicate with consumers in this channel.  Whatever we think we know as consumer affairs professionals
 
The afternoon session was presented by John Cronce of Jockey on “WOW Service Deconstructed”.  John explained how consumer happiness is not necessarily related to a company’s brand, that individual “wow” service is the key, and what has been successful at Jockey.   Much of John’s recommendations focused on the role of the CSR and key points like “not letting stress define you, as a rep” and to be a positive influence on someone else and how it makes you (as the CSR) a true ambassador of goodwill on behalf of your company.  John also presented the importance of big ideas and the creative ways that the representatives at Jockey meet the needs of inquiring consumers through creative ways with the goal of “wowing”  each one.  Enroute to innovation, stay true to your respective company’s heredity as “nobody likes a me-too”.  

August 2011

August 30: "Ohio Chapter's Afternoon with Prof. Jay Kandampully Ph. D." 
On August 30, SOCAP’s OH Chapter held its first meeting of 2011. Approximately 30 Ohio SOCAP members met for an afternoon of networking and learning. The meeting was held at Easton Town Center, which is Columbus, Ohio’s premier destination for shopping, dining and entertainment. Following a networking lunch, chapter members settled down for an insightful presentation from Jay Kandampully, Ph.D. from The Ohio State University’s Consumer Sciences Department. Dr. Kandampully’s presentation was entitled, “What Role Should firms Play When Customers Become Marketers?” Several key points from the presentation that resonated with the consumer affairs professionals included:

•  In the 21st century, there are very few differences between competitive products. And when a firm does create a competitive edge, it’s typically short lived as competitors quickly catch up.
• Firm’s must constantly be asking questions and challenging themselves. With more questions, come more answers. With more answers come more solutions. Companies must ensure that their products are as unique as possible as this is the heart of creating a competitive advantage.
• The most successful firms are able to envision and create their future. They create their own standards because if they don’t, they are relegated to using someone else’s. Creating your own standards better positions the firm to take the leadership role in the marketplace.
• Due to the hyper-competitive world in which we operate, and the fact that competitive differences in products are typically slim, service superiority must become a firm’s core objective.
• Without service superiority, the firm will have difficulty creating a strong customer engagement value proposition. A well-defined service –oriented strategy is typically the main focus of the strongest, most successful companies.
• Leading companies like Amazon, Ebay and Best Buy are allowing customers to own the online service experience. It was very risky for these firms to abdicate control, but it has paid off well. These companies created a new service model, one that was very relevant for the consumers. These firms did not think like a customer; they thought for the customer, which enabled them to create a new standard for online customer experience.

The professor’s keynote presentation was followed by a lively SOCAP panel discussion led by Ed Billmaier from The Scott’s Miracle Grow Company and Bonita Cleveland from Nestle USA. The panelists reacted to the professor’s key points as well as engaged the audience in a very thought-provoking Q&A session.Southwest Regional Chapter’s Leadership Summit Event on August 19th was a smash success!  Despite having to move the date

August 19: "Southwest Regional's Leadership Summit and Herbalife Tour" 
The Southwest Regional Chapter’s Leadership Summit Event on August 19th was a smash success!  Despite having to move the date due to “Carmageddon” (a major LA freeway closure on that very day) and Zappos having to conduct their presentation via WebEx vs. attending live as originally planned – the event was attended by 75 consumer affairs professionals! 

Jim Carrillo, Manager Zappos Customer Loyalty, and Christina Colligan, Supervisor Zappos Customer Loyalty, delivered an eye-opening and inspiring presentation on the ins-and-outs of how they approach managing their Customer Loyalty team.  Highlights included their Personal Emotional Connection (PEC) KPI that they encourage their team members to create with their customers via handmade thank you notes, cookies, and / or flowers – all at the discretion of the team member!  Zappos does not manage their team members to average handle times – they simply measure what percentage of their time they are spending with their customers.  These tactics, among many other cutting-edge concepts are among the things that make Zappos a Customer Service superstar and legend in the industry. 

Herbalife hosted the event in their lovely Torrance facility, complete with free health shakes, coffee/tea/H20, and an amazing lunch which the attendees enjoyed while connecting with peers on the sunny patio.  The afternoon speaker, Charlie H. Bishop, a former FEDEX executive and author of the book, Making Change Happen One Person at a Time, shared his wisdom and insights on how to impact change in the organization by keeping it simple and developing your top performers.  The day concluded with a tour of the Herbalife call center where attendees got to sample some yummy Herbalife product and see firsthand how they run their world-class customer operations.

June 2011

June 21-22: Greater Philadelphia Chapter's "Keeping Pace with Gen Z: CRM for Generation Next" 
The Greater Philadelphia Chapter hosted its 4th annual event at the Historic Hotel Hershey on Wednesday, June 22, 2011. The event featured a networking reception and dinner for those traveling to the event the evening prior. The next day attendees were driven by shuttle to The Hershey Story in downtown Hershey for an interactive museum experience telling the rags to riches story of Milton S. Hershey who used his personal wealth to enrich the lives of others and create a legacy within the town.

The group then took the shuttle back to the hotel where we welcomed everyone back for a delicious lunch and then began our main program. Jim Mollica VP, Digital Marketing and CRM from Viacom provided insight regarding Marketing and customer service for the next generation – Gen Z. 

After Jim’s presentation, Virginia Cooney, Senior Manager of Learning Solutions for Telerx, provided a thorough look at the various generations and what we should know in order to interact appropriately with each through her presentation entitled "Xceeding through Generational Differences."  Her presentation can be viewed at the Greater Philadelphia Chapter website (http://gphl-socap.org/).  The event concluded with door prizes and donations to our charity of the year - Ronald McDonald House of Southern New Jersey. To learn more about how you can make a donation, please visit http://www.ronaldhouse-snj.org/. 

June 14: New England Chapter's "Can Social Responsibility Impact Your Customer Experience?"
On Tuesday June 14th, the SOCAP New England Chapter gathered in Manchester NH at the offices of Stonyfield Farms to learn how social responsibility can benefit the bottom line of any business.  Sue Holden from Seventh Generation in VT shared the vision of her company and how doing the right thing has changed the lives of people all over the world as well as helping clean up the planet.  Brian Olsen and Jenna Bourne reported on the many environmentally conscious decisions that Stonyfield has made over the years that saved their company over $18 million while being environmentally responsible to the planet.  The group was treated to a delicious organic lunch provided by Stonyfield. During lunch we engaged in a lively discussion of best practices in the call center.  After a tour of the yogurt manufacturing facility, we ended the day with yummy frozen treats from the Stonyfield line of wonderful frozen ice cream and yogurt.  Thank you to all our speakers, tour guides and chefs who made our day memorable.

June 9: Great Lakes Chapter's "19th Annual SOCAP Great Lakes Golf Outing"
This event featured a presentation during the “Early Birdie” session by Ford Motor Company and 3CSI to discuss Managing and Measuring Consumer Interactions in Social Media. Liz Foley of Ford and Jay Wolcott of 3CSI presented an overview regarding the auto-manufacturer’s success in social media and online customer service. Describing Ford’s experiences bringing call center habits into effective online engagement, the presentation showcased a wide variety of learned lessons, performance metrics and roadmaps for success. The discussion shifted to topics ranging from agent training to optimal response time, with attendees from a variety of industries chiming in. After the presentation concluded, the weather accommodated for an afternoon golf scramble.
 
A special thanks to Chip Rohde of NCO and Tanglewood Golf Club in South Lyon, MI for organizing and hosting a tremendous event.

June 9: Georgia Chapter's "10th Annual Summer Social"
The SOCAP Georgia Chapter hosted an awesome 10th Annual Summer Social with around 300 attendees at the Retreat a spacious,  top-notch facility in Atlanta. SOCAP, along with fellow associations – ATA, ICSA, CRMA and CCNG – took the Summer Social to a new level. Bigger, not only in numbers but also in scope – 28 sponsors which, in effect, made it a mini-product and services showcase were there and the event raised $7,722.47 for The Atlanta Children’s Shelter. The chapter also stayed true to the original objectives of the Summer Social when it was founded 10 years ago of having a great networking event that was fun for all. SOCAP International President Matthew D’Uva was in attendance and was seen having a great time.

June 8:  New York Metro Chapter’s “Globalization: Looking Forward by Looking Back” 
The New York Metro Chapter’s second meeting of 2011 was a follow up discussion on the topic of globalization in the customer care industry.  Having first looked at this emerging model for delivering customer care within a global framework, we wanted to close the loop and see where our member organizations were today. Helping us do this were Chip Horner of Colgate-Palmolive Company, Sheila Sullivan of Coty Inc., Mike Wilke of Wilke Global and Jeff Winget of Johnson & Johnson.
 
During the five hour meeting held at Colgate-Palmolive’s global headquarters in Manhattan, the audience of 60 attendees participated in an informative discussion on topics ranging from delivering consumer centric service globally, addressing regional consumer expectations, and how global organizational structure and technology solutions help to meet global objectives. Attendee feedback included: “This program was completely on point – there were a lot of takeaways for those of us who are just embarking,” “Awesome!  A very professional, experienced and impressive panel,” and finally “I was very pleased with the session.  All of the speakers shared very valuable information.  I would love to visit this session again in a few years”.

March 2011

March 29: New England Chapter's "Spring Kick-Off: Crisis in the Contact Center--Your Action Plan"
The SOCAP New England Chapter held its first meeting of 2011 with the generous sponsorship support  of Wade Hauser and Litle & Co. at their spacious headquarters in Lowell, MA.  CJ Stafford of Stafford Communications and Beth Ziff of Premier Response presented Crisis Planning in the Call Center - providing attendees with a Crisis Planning Checklist.  Discussion was plentiful as many shared their past experiences in breach of security or recall situations.  Attendees included representatives from Dunkin’ Brands, Hannaford Supermarkets and Quest Diagnostics.  The event culminated when Litle rolled in hot and spicy afternoon snacks catered by Chili’s.  Thank you to all that attended, to our marvelous speakers, and to Litle & Co for being our host!

March 25: Georgia Chapter's "AirTran Airways Call Center Tour"
On March 25, SOCAP Georgia sponsored a tour of AirTran’s Reservation center in Atlanta, GA. Approximately 50 members of the local customer service/call center community participated in the event which included a brief overview of the call center operation, a Q & A session and a guided tour through the center. The Q & A session turned-out to be the highlight of the event as participants asked about every possible aspect of the call center operation. SOCAP member Pamela Teamer-Yisrael from Coca Cola said of the tour, “I very much enjoyed the AirTran call center tour!  It’s always a pleasure to benchmark your own consumer care operations with that of another renown consumer services company to understand what you’re doing well and where opportunities lie.” 

After the tour, which ran long because of the extended Q & A session, the group headed over to Joe’s on Sullivan for some lunch, announcements of upcoming SOCAP events and excellent networking.

March 24: Wisconsin Chapter's "Creating a Culture of Caring"
On March 24th the Wisconsin SOCAP Chapter partnered with the Southeastern Wisconsin Ronald McDonald House for a meeting focused on “Creating a Culture of Caring”.  Approximately 35 attendees were present to hear featured speaker Barb Myers share her experiences of leading a customer service revolution at AirGas.  

Creating a consistently caring culture during difficult times of change is something familiar to both our speaker and the team at the Ronald McDonald House.  Both require a strategy, focus, employee engagement, mentoring and above all a caring attitude towards others in the environment. Members toured the Ronald McDonald House and brought items from the McDonald House “wishlist” to support the families during their stay.  

Those who attended all left with new perspectives of how to lead and create positive culture for change in their business environment.  They also left with an appreciation for those who work hard every day at the Ronald McDonald House to make a caring environment for families during their own times of transition and life changing experiences.

March 23: Southwest Regional Chapter's "Automotive Roundtable and New Consumer Product Safety Commission Database"
March 23, 2011 was the date to be saved and saved it was. Fifty attendees were on hand and world-class discussions took place at the Southwest Chapter Automotive Summit, in Torrance, CA.

With last minute schedule changes due to unforeseen circumstances, our sponsors and chapter worked harder than ever with proven results. Toyota generously sponsored the event location at their beautiful, new automobile museum. King’s Hawaiian graciously sponsored lunch that was so delicious you could not help but go for second and even third helpings.

Discussion topics included recall handling, quality monitoring practices, outsourcing, agent productivity and efficiency, tier one empowerment, social media staffing models, customer satisfaction survey and agent training. Comments received from across all industries were “best event I ever attended”, “we were surprised how much we benefitted even though we are in a different industry”, “we took a lot away from each other”, “truly a networking event”, “really good engagement from all attendees”. Our brains were exhausted with all the knowledge shared. March 23 was a great day for SOCAP members and colleagues and provided endless opportunities to all.

March 11: Heartland Chapter's “Puting the Quality back in Quality Monitoring, Coaching and Employee Appreciation”
The Heartland Chapter which covers the Midwestern states of Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Western Missouri held its 1st 2011 Chapter meeting. The interactive session focused  on panel discussions lead by a variety of industry leaders. The all-day event was met with such overwhelming response that a larger location was needed to host those who registered. Several new attendees were recruited and attended the session.

The morning panel discussion focused on Quality Monitoring and Coaching. Local businesses comprised the panel speakers. Numerous benchmarks and best practices were shared amongst the panelists after a scripted question and answer session. Attendees were encouraged to share their monitoring scorecards. To supplement the morning session, a guest speaker presentation was provided by idealresponse and focused on Verbal Coaching Management.

The event continued into the afternoon after a catered lunch. This session focused on Employee Appreciation and again was an exchange of best practices. Three local business leaderships participated in the panel and provided how each of their organizations recognizes their associates. Several non-monetary ideas were shared as well as celebratory events that each company hosts.

The event concluded with results from a membership survey. Each of the attendees was provided an opportunity to respond to a series of on-line questions prior to the event. Content of the survey included best practices for quality coaching, systems and associated processes and associate recognition. The results were met with strong interest in benchmarking with other local organizations. The Chapter hopes to keep the membership momentum going for 2011 and further engaging fellow SOCAP Heartland Chapter members.

March 9: Minnesota Chapter's "Customer Experience: Future Trends & Insights"
On March 9th, the Minnesota SOCAP Chapter met for breakfast and welcomed Colin Shaw, the Founder & CEO of Beyond Philosophy®, a global thought leader in customer experience. Colin led attendees through the many ways they can build great customer experiences by:

• Creating a deliberate customer experience, instead of having the outcome be an accident
• Using a Johari window as an exercise to help understand interpersonal communication
• Choosing the words they use (which send subconscious messages to the people they are communicating with)
• Understanding their customers in order to create the type of customer experience that meets both their expectations and the customers'
• Remembering that people are self-regulating
   

Colin challenged attendees to ask themselves why they build an experience based on the negative 2% of customers, and then impose it on the other 98% as well.  This theory can be applied to managing employees also.  Colin offered this nugget of insight:

“A customer’s experience is an interaction between a customer and an organization as perceived through a customer’s conscious and subconscious mind.  It’s a blend of an organization’s rational performance; the senses stimulated and emotions evoked and intuitively measured against the customer’s expectations.” 

Attendees walked away with real-life examples and ideas on how to get started, including reminders about how they can work smarter.

March 2: Indiana Chapter's "IVR Best Practices & Dialer Strategies"
SOCAP Indiana’s first meeting of 2011 featured Dr. Richard Feinberg, Professor of Consumer Sciences and Retailing at Purdue University.  Dr. Feinberg spoke to a group of nearly 65 attendees about IVR best practices, offering key insights and recommendations to maximize this contact center tool.  Afterward a panel of five contact center professionals discussed their organizations’ IVR and Dialer strategies.  The panel fielded a variety of questions on topics such as virtual hold, IVR design, chat support, and blended environments.  The event was well attended with representation from 32 organizations including local, national, and global companies and local, state, and federal government employees.

February 2011

February 24:  Dallas/Ft. Worth Chapter's "Leading World Class Online Communities"
The Dallas/Ft. Worth chapter held its first meeting of 2011 at Monitronics in Dallas where there were 20 attendees.  Rob Howard, founder and CTO of Telligent, led the group through a presentation of how organizations can leverage the power of enterprise social networking and online communities.  Rob provided two case studies of how these online communities have been effective, using a humanitarian effort after the earthquake in Haiti and Texas Instruments as his examples.  

Representatives from Texas Instruments were present at the event to provide additional customer testimonial and participate in an interactive discussion with the group.  TI shared how they use online communities to interact with their internal engineers, and also how they engage their external customers and the general public.  Overall the event was a success, and we’re looking forward to our next meeting, tentatively planned for the end of April.

February 24: Georgia Chapter's "Hiring For Success & Customer Fit"
SOCAP Georgia had a lunch meeting on February 24th that featured Kelly McQuiston who is Product Manager Americas for KellyConnect, the arm of Kelly Services that focuses on call center hiring and staffing. Kelly spoke to a group of 25 attendees about “Hiring for Success and Customer Fit” where she discussed upfront demographic examination and testing to determine if the persons being hired fit the profile of your most successful agents.

Afterward, Chapter President Dan Valentine and Greg L’Amoreaux hosted a session for job-hunters in which principles and techniques of successful job searches were discussed. Also at the meeting, Mark Palmucci, Director of Programs and Education, announced that the chapter's next meeting would be a call center tour at AirTran on March 25th.

February 23:  New York Metro Chapter's "Measuring Consumer Satisfaction"
The New York Metro Chapter's first meeting of the new year was focused on CSAT--a timely topic in this era of hyper-competition in the marketplace. To help the audience of 45 attendees understand the importance of listening, analyzing and acting on customer feedback, was Judy Ottenstroer.  Having more than 15 years of experience conducting research for globally recognized brrands, Judy was able to share best practices with the other panel members: Lynn Reilly of Pinnacle Foods, Bob Weis of Barnes & Noble and Beth Ziff of American Customer Care/Premiere Response.

During the three-hour meeting, the panel members discussed the approaches they take in collecting customer feedback as well as how that data is used throughout their organizations.  Framing this lively exchange was the overarching theme of customer relationships and the importance of cultivating them for a strategic advantage.  Attendee feedback included: "This program delivered more than I expected--the different viewpoints were very helpful," "The panel was very informative and gave some great insight into their current practices," "I thought the program was wonderful--each panelist had a distinctive skill," and "I thought the program was wonderful--each panelist had a distinctive skill."

February 10: Southwest Regional Chapter's "Chinese New Year Networking Event"
About 50 members from SOCAP, FIBR (Food Industry Business Roundtable), RFP (Roundtable for Food Professionals) and SCAFP(Southern California Association of Food Protection) met on Thursday February 10 for a great networking event.

The event included a great buffet dinner and as attendees finished their meals, the president of FIBR passed the mic around for everyone to introduce themselves. This was very helpful because attendees were able to find the people they were interested in networking with afterwards.

FIBR's President then called on one individual from each organization to tell a little about their respective groups. This was very effective in enabling attendees to meet a few new people to expand their network of business professionals.

FIBR is a nonprofit business association dedicated to promoting the growth of the ethnic and specialty food processing industry in Southern California. RFP are students interested in Food/Beverage who are being mentored by a California-based organization of food service professionals, devoted to providing educational, mentoring, and networking opportunities. SCAFP is a group of food professionals interested in learning more about food safety methods, technologies, research and best practices. They meet quarterly to exchange information on protecting the food supply. 

January 2011

January 18: Great Lakes Chapter Kickoff Meeting
The SOCAP International Great Lakes Chapter met at the historic Detroit Athletic Club (DAC) for it’s 2011 kickoff meeting on January 18. New Chapter President Sue Hren presided over the meeting, attended by 35, which included a presentation by Ted Gillary, the Executive Manager and COO of the DAC. Ted shared his internal processes that have helped make the DAC one of the nations leading clubs for membership customer service.

In addition, Jason Rosser and Aaron Meek from Abercrombie & Fitch presented their rollout and metrics for the home agent program they launched in January 2010. Jason had done an initial presentation on the up and coming rollout last year and we asked him to come back to share with the chapter how it went. The chapter also awarded the prestigious Esther Shapiro Award for Outstanding Leadership in Customer Care at our meeting. Esther Shapiro was in attendance and presented it to this year’s winner, Ted Gillary, for his excellent leadership & performance at the DAC. All in all, an excellent meeting full of good information and lots of networking.

January 12: Minnesota Chapter Holiday/New Year Kickoff Meeting
On January 12th, the SOCAP Minnesota Chapter held its annual Holiday/New Year Kick-Off breakfast meeting. Thirty-two attendees were on hand as Halina Stefans from Positive Order and Lisa Wendt from Homes That Work helped us ring in the New Year with plans to organize our workplaces and homes for a better year; reminding us that organizing our lives helps us lower stress and allows us to find our work-life balance. Afterwards, one gleeful attendee said, “I loved how it brought our entire life into the plan for organizing, not just at work but at home too. And it was presented so well, breaking it up into simple steps we can all take or better organize our lives!” Attendees also carried on the chapter’s tradition of choosing a charity to focus their giving to by bringing new stuffed animals to donate. We collected more than 50 new stuffed animals that were donated to Women’s Advocates, Inc.--an organization that allows each child staying at their shelter to pick out a new stuffed animal of their own.