Jeff Hagen of General Mills and Helen Horsham-Bertels of Starwood Hotels & Resorts offer a preview of what to expect from their highly anticipated Spotlight Session at this year’s Annual Conference: "Take Charge of Your Senior Management." Hagen and Horsham-Bertels will be joined by Publisher Clearing House’s Chris Irving and Denise Coll of Starwood Hotels & Resorts for this in-depth discussion.
As a prelude to their Spotlight Session, two of the four panelists—Hagen and Horsham-Bertels—spoke to SOCAP about some of the highlights of their upcoming event:
"One of the frustrations that I hear frequently during SOCAP gatherings is that Consumer Affairs leaders have difficulty getting more than one or two areas of their company interested in the consumer data they can provide," says Conference Spotlight Session panelist and Director of Consumer Services at General Mills, Jeff Hagen. Jeff has headed General Mills’ customer care operations for 13 years though he says he still faces the day-to-day challenges of communicating the value of his department to senior executives.
For Helen Horsham-Bertels, the Director of Consumer Affairs for Starwood Hotels & Resorts, the key to earning a seat at the table with top managers is to become a constant proactive source of information. Helen, who will join Jeff as a panelist for the Spotlight Session "Take Charge of Your Senior Management," believes customer care professionals must find ways to be the “emotional voice” of the customer at the corporate and executive levels.
Throughout their careers, Jeff and Helen have found several successful approaches to making breakthroughs with key company leaders. According to Jeff, "Delivering the voice of the consumer, both positive and negative, in the context of a particular senior manager’s goals and objectives," is one of the most effective ways to showcase the value of customer care. "In essence, offering insights from the consumer data we gather during our daily interactions that the manager will find useful and timely for their decision-making at that time," he adds.
At Starwood Hotels, Helen has harnessed reporting and analysis tactics that have helped her communicate effectively with the company’s top brass. As a result of findings that Starwood’s North America Division was fielding nearly 80% of the company’s total unsolicited consumer feedback, Helen made a point of establishing a direct line of communication to provide constant updates to company leaders. She says, "The partnership has yielded a renewed focus, specific goals for our field management to meet, a reduction in overall volume and improved results."
For the upcoming Spotlight Session at the Annual Conference in Tucson, Helen plans on discussing the importance of creating partnerships with other departments as a means to build influence within an organization. She says relationships with the legal, public relations, operations, risk management and field management teams can provide great support to the customer care department.
Jeff says the "Take Charge of Your Senior Management" Spotlight Session will be an eye-opening event for attendees in person and listening in on the web. "In this session, participants will hear from peers who have successfully communicated the value of the Consumer Affairs function throughout their organizations and from their Senior Executives who will offer their insights on how that value has been effectively communicated to them." He adds, "This Spotlight Session will look beyond the basic functions of focusing on the number of complaints received or the difficulty faced with growing contact volume and cost reduction pressures. Our goal is to make it so that when a senior leader has a conversation about a consumer matter, he immediately thinks to contact Consumer Affairs for validation of the assumptions used to make decisions."
Posted September 17, 2009
SOCAP Blogs Trend Hunter's New Book
When it comes to forecasting the next big thing in strategic development, market appeal and consumer tactics, SOCAP Annual Conference Keynote speaker Jeremy Gutsche is an unrivaled expert. As Founder of Trendhunter.com, Jeremy leads a massive network of more than 20,000 reporters who stay tirelessly focused on identifying industry shifts before they hit the mainstream. Working hand in hand with clients ranging from billionaire executives to small business leaders, Jeremy has been the go-to person for hot and hip new innovative breakthroughs. On August 17 SOCAP began blogging for the early release date of Jeremy's new book Exploiting Chaos: 150 Ways to Spark Innovation During Times of Change. Don’t miss your opportunity to join the conversation and take part in this special event.
Posted August 11, 2009
The SOCAP Annual Conference will feature a Spotlight Session, “Leveraging Social Media to Monitor Consumer Feedback." The moderator for this session, Myra Golden of Myra Golden Media, recently sat down for a short Question and Answer interview to talk about social media and the panel she will lead at the SOCAP Annual Conference.
Q: As a Spotlight Session presenter at this year’s SOCAP Annual Conference, what are some key messages or ideas you hope to convey to attendees?
A: My goal with this session is to equip customer care professionals with the ability to listen to online conversations, get involved in those social media discussions and use social media tools to engage customers and resolve problems. We are still in the early phases of social media’s influence in the customer care world, but we have also come a long way and learned a lot. I want to fast-track SOCAP members by helping them avoid the pitfalls I have experienced firsthand and sharing the methods it has taken professionals like me years to figure out.
Q: Social Media is clearly a hot issue within the customer care profession but can we expect this buzz to be a passing trend or will it become an integral part of the business approach to customer care?
A: Social media is a hot issue and I don’t think it’s a passing trend. A recent report from Nielsen found that Twitter is the fastest growing “member destination community" on the Web, with an annual growth rate measured at a staggering 1,382%! FaceBook also continues to more than triple its annual membership as consumers are turning to social media to gripe about brands, create trouble-shooting forums and reach out to companies directly. Cutting-edge organizations like Comcast, JetBlue Airlines, Starbucks, and Cox Communications realized this early on and are now reaping the benefits of well-developed social media contact channels. We can definitely expect more consumer-brand interaction on social media outlets and higher expectations from consumers on brand responsiveness through social media. I envision the day when social media's use as a customer contact channel is as crucial to companies as email is today.
Q: What significance do you see for customer care professionals in having a Spotlight Session on this topic at this year’s SOCAP Annual Conference?
A: Even before the economy took a downturn at the end of 2008, social media was emerging as a leading tool for integrating multiple sectors of the customer care profession. But now, the need to cut costs, combine operational tasks and offer new customer services has made social media that much more important. This Spotlight Session will hone in on the power of social media to cut costs while still building, restoring and strengthening customer relationships.
Myra Golden’s Spotlight Session on “Leveraging Social Media to Monitor Consumer Feedback“ will also include insight from industry experts Richard Clancy, formerly of Sony Electronics and Frank Eliason of Comcast Corporation. Be sure to attend this exciting Spotlight Session and take advantage of all the other outstanding activities at this year’s Annual Conference in Tucson, Arizona by registering today.
Posted August 4, 2009