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7:30 - 5:30 SOCAP Registration Desk and Bookstore Open
7:30 -8:30 Exhibits Open & Coffee Service
8:00 - 9:30
Plenary Session
Life Would Be Easy If it Weren't for Other People
Connie Podesta, Counselor, Therapist, Author
This humorous and entertaining yet bottom-line presentation, will offer a refreshingly honest look at dealing with difficult people and what successful organizations are expecting and demanding of its employees and leadership team today. Inside secrets for better relationships, being valuable to your company and the "power points to success" will help you gain a glimpse into the future workplace and a better understanding of the skills you will need to help yourself and your organization stay competitive. Podesta candidly explores issues such as: leadership, balancing home and career, change, attitude, performance, productivity, and communication. Living life successfully is definitely a challenge, especially when trying to juggle the increasing demands of an ever-changing and highly competitive workplace.the on-going responsibilities of family and friends.our personal needs for rest and relaxation (what's that?!). Once we understand the underlying rules of the game, we can more easily navigate through life's challenges with less stress and more fun. Life is certainly more important than any game, yet, do we truly learn the rules, practice hard to succeed, commit ourselves to our objective, and "play" with a sense of honor and good sportsmanship? Integrity, character, and fair play are indeed the values needed to maintain a positive attitude, even when life doesn't go as planned. Podesta is a counselor, a therapist and the author of How to Be the Person Successful Companies Fight to Keep.
9:30 - 10:15 Coffee Break and Exhibits Open
10:15 - 11:30
Plenary Session
Away Goes the Post-Information Society and In Comes the Uber Customer
Watts Wacker
We are now in the post-information society. Wacker will explore the most powerful emerging issues and take you beyond the current status quo and into the avant garde. the uber customer care! Discover what is driving the post-information society and how those changes will affect customer care in your company. Watts Wacker spent ten years as resident futurist at Yankelovich Partners, was the futurist at the legendary Menlo Park think tank and SRI International. His book, The Visionary's Handbook is required reading at many of the world's finest business schools. He writes for Fast Company Magazine, TIME magazine, the New York Times and the Harvard Business Review. He is one of the most celebrated and influential minds in modern business. In this presentation, tailored for the SOCAP audience, he will present the consumer agenda including lifestyles, media consumption, public relations, relationship management, the value chain and the social agenda as it relates to work, community, the search for values, aging, culture, and philosophy. He will also provide a future view of economics, globalization, business strategy, ethics and technology. This is a can't miss session that will give you plenty to think about and concrete ideas on how to plan for what the future holds.
11:45 - 1:15 Networking Luncheon
1:15 - 4:15 Exhibits Open
1:45 -2:45 Concurrent Presentations:
1) Putting it All Together: Making a Business Case for Service Leadership
This unusual presentation is provided by a SOCAP member who has used pieces of information and research results from several SOCAP conferences and studies, and assembled it to apply in his in-house business case for change in the global consumer care. Discussion will include the effect of Internet communications on customer satisfaction, application of emotional intelligence, the SOCAP Call Center Maturity Model, service leadership, and the latest 2004 SOCAP consumer contact study as well as content from internal studies on contact satisfaction. These learnings have allowed the speaker to drive the message home to individual markets that it is critically important to not just have a consumer affairs presence in each market, but to strive for service excellence and service leadership.
Speaker: Tim Biskup, Masterfoods USA
2) Strategic Benefits of Consumer Communications Management
Consumer communications management adds value to the organization by allowing it to retain more current customers, convincing new customers to buy, eliminate current problems and faults, strengthening weak spots in the company processes and giving the company the ability to exploit new market opportunities. This discussion will cover eight different functions of communications management. Four are reactive in nature and four are proactive focusing on problem prevention to generate preventive and corrective feedback for the entire organization. These value-added activities enable customer service managers to base their bottom line benefits not just on complaint recovery, but also on the added strategic value to the organization leading to increased internal partnerships and cooperation.
Speaker: Moshe Davidow, University of Haifa
3) Telecommuting That Works: Implementing a Remote Agent Strategy
Five case studies (JetBlue, Proctor & Gamble, AAA Arizona, VIP Desk, and Unum Provident) will be used to demonstrate the ability to match up the available workforce to address the peaks and valleys of call workload. Discuss will include challenges in retaining a call center workforce over the long term. Discover how these companies are finding that a remote staffing arrangement where some or all of the call center agents work from home is an effective solution to both these problems in addition to reducing office space. Learn how to build a business case for telecommuting workers, including a look at the advantages and disadvantages of remote staffing and cost implications. You'll receive a checklist of the ten components of setting up a successful telecommuting program.
Speaker: Penny Reynolds, The Call Center School
4) Managing a Successful Career in Customer Care
Learn how you can establish and brand your key attributes in managing your career. Discover what potential job candidates need to know: if your skills are competitive in today's market, why some resumes are noticed and why others are not, how your compensation ranks to industry benchmarks, and specific steps you should take to leverage your career progression in the industry. This session will provide tangible actions for participants to continue to succeed in their career progression. Case studies will be used and practical tips will be provided.
Speaker: Chad McDaniel, M.E.R., Inc.
5) Building a Strong Team: Recovering the Bottom-Line
This case study will feature how a facilities planning and management department recovered a large deficit due to errors in customer billing. A special task team was pulled together to address the issue. Managers from maintenance operations, facilities administration, inventory control and purchasing, construction, accounting, information systems, capitol projects and customer service worked together to implement a stronger team and more comprehensive billing description to customers. Discussion will including aging reports, computer software tools, work order requests, billing acquisitions and standardization.
Speaker: Hatsephi Kushma, Washington University - St. Louis
6) Every Customer Touch is a Sales Opportunity
In this post Do Not Call telemarketing world, every customer touch is a sales opportunity. DishPlanet, one of the largest independent providers of satellite television systems and services, handles over 50,000 calls each month. Calls range from sales to service to support and include both onshore and offshore traffic. And most importantly, every one of these calls represents an opportunity to sell new or additional services to the caller. The first course of action is to address the original reason for the call and then make additional sales offers.
Based on predetermined call types, customer service representatives can adjust their selling style - from offer once, get refusal, walk away to a much more aggressive approach.
Speakers: Robert Hopkins Vice President Customer Care, DishPlanet and
Mike Mattsen Vice President Business Development, LiveBridge
7) How Accurate is Your Data?
Is your data as accurate as you think? We are constantly issuing reports on consumer feedback to our internal customers. However, few have validated their data collection system. That data collection system is often tragically flawed because consumers, consumer service reps and the people who use the data often do not speak the same language. Learn how Schick identified the baseline accuracy of their data and succeeded in improving their data collection system. Discussion will include how to train CSRs, when to retest, how tools and ongoing calibration were implemented for the CSRs, and a roadmap for success.
Speakers: Andrew Bordley, Schick and Paul Makurat, Alta Resources
3:00 - 4:00 Concurrent Presentations:
1) Changing the Corporate Landscape: Cultivating Leadership Excellence
After a long career in consumer affairs, SOCAP past chairman Jean Otte created and now leads one of the most innovative personal development programs for women through WOMEN Unlimited. Inc.. In this interactive and humorous presentation, Otte will draw from her experience as well as those of executive women and men at such diverse Fortune 500 companies as American Express, Bank of America, IBM, Microsoft, Pfizer, Prudential and Raytheon. Learn how you can champion women who are developing their own leadership skills and facilitate the development of others. Explore compelling issues faced by women in every industry of business such as style, the imposter syndrome, risk-taking, being organizationally savvy, maintaining and developing strategic alliances, and effective communication and listening. Although the program focuses on helping women succeed in business, it is also useful for men who are responsible for developing women in the workplace. Otte's new book, Changing the Corporate Landscape: A Woman's Guide to Cultivating Leadership Excellence will be available at the Symposium.
Speaker: Past SOCAP Chairman Jean Otte, Women Unlimited, Inc.
2) Customer Service Guarantee Program at PacificCorp
PacifiCorp is an electric utility serving 1.5 million customers in six western states (Oregon, California, Washington, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho). The foundation of PacificCorp's customer service guarantee program is: excellence is being there for our customers. Launched in February 2000, the program is a comprehensive set of guarantees and performance standards unmatched among U.S. electric utilities. The program establishes guidelines for employees to follow and demonstrates to customer that the company is listening to and addressing their concerns about issues that are important to them. The company received ISO 9001 quality certification of the program in March 2001. Learn about the eight guarantees that PacificCorp focuses on in this case study.
Speaker: Michelle Follette, PacificCorp
3) Creating a High Function Team Across Operational Areas
Thomson West is a legal and business information provider, primarily serving the legal and government markets. Due to the nature of the market and business, customer service issues are complex and involve the activities of many functional areas. Recently, they introduced a "One and Done" program to provide 24 hour resolution of 98 percent of all service issues, even those that involce multiple areas and sales staff. This presentation will review Voice of the Customer analysis as well as a greater focus on post sales service initiatives, line of sight goals and measure that continue to drive service improvements.
Speakers: Mark Witzany and Sue Denkinger, Thomson West
4) Going Global: Benefits and Challenges
Establishing consumer affairs call centers with global scope can yield significant competitive advantages for international corporations. To realize the benefits of operating global consumer affairs centers, organizations must first create new processes and address distinct implementation challenges. This case study presentation will highlight prime justifications for global consumer affairs call centers and examine key challenges and recommended approaches to achieve the desired benefits. Prime reasons for pursuing this goal include delivering integrated reporting for better decision making, creating corporation-wide consistency of issue definitions and codes, and achieving cost efficiency and maximum investment return. Learn how these companies successfully addressed requirements for multiple language support, time zones, calendars, hours as well as complex systems table administration.
Panel Speakers: Linda Pell, Kellogg Company; Cindy Van Grinsven, Kimberly-Clark Corporation; John Coughlin and Torben Dahl, Lego Systems
Moderator: Mike Wilke, Wilke-Thornton, Inc.
5) Benchmarking the Usability of Self-Service Systems
Much emphasis has been placed on design approaches and performance gains in the three heaviest customer touch points: Web, contact center and IVR. But a cohesive methodology for auditing and benchmarking is missing from most organizations. This discussion will include the top five measurement proxies: navigation, content, usability, interactivity and credibility. Become familiar with system auditing and benchmarking principles, understand how to adapt proven methodologies to your operation and gain ideas from real-world examples of IVR, contact center and Web benchmarks.
Speakers: Bryan Serinese, Sacramento Municipal Utility District and Ed Marguilies, Sterling Audits
6) Getting the Most from Generation X
Generation X (those born between 1966 and 1976) now make up a significant proportion of the customer service workforce. Faced with a work environment vastly different to that on which the majority of baby boomers cut their teeth, Xers are presenting with some interesting work traits. They may work hard and seek big dollars, but GenX is demonstrating loyalty primarily to themselves and their career, not the company, and consequently are creating anything from mild frustration to bemusement from management. Learn how you can bridge the gap. This session will provide an overview of the characteristics, attitudes and motivators of GenX with respect to employee loyalty, satisfaction and productivity. A range of strategies, tools and techniques will then be discussed to help managers and team leaders deal with the nuances of GenX qnd help motivate and manage Xers in the customer service environment.
Speaker: Jennifer Dalitz, Dalitz & Associations
7) Measuring and Managing Customer (and Employee) Satisfaction Upwards
The intuitive link between customer satisfaction and loyalty is one that some find hard to quantify. The fact that even satisfied customers defect has done more to drive companies to inaction than it has to demonstrate the clear business gains that can be derived from maximizing customer satisfaction. For many though, justifying investment in service continues to be a struggle. Using a combination of case studies, benchmarks and research, gain valuable insight into why satisfaction is important, and how to manage it upwards in your company. Discussion will include the links between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction and how to manage the upwards direction of the critical importance of customer care.
Speaker: Paul Linnell, CTMA New Zealand Ltd.
4:15 - 5:15 Concurrent Presentations:
1) Help! Marketing Hates Me!
Well, they probably don't hate you. But sometimes it can be a rocky relationship - no doubt about it. There are reasons for that. You know how it seems from where you sit. You might be surprised to hear however how it seems from where your marketing vice president sits. You might even find yourself sympathizing! As the corporate communications manager, Cronce is an objective outsider who is able to hear both perspectives. When he became Jockey's consumer relations manager, his status as an objective outsider gave him a special opportunity to probe the marketing department for candid insights and opinions about consumer relations. In doing so, they helped him understand what is was that they really wanted consumer relations to do for them and for the company. Discover in this interactive session what you can do - and what can NOT do to ensure that your department enjoys a harmonious relationship with marketing that will benefit your company's bottom-line.
Speaker: John Cronce, Jockey International
2) The Best of British Customer Service
Eight years of the very best of British customer service will be distilled down into a simple framework that can be applied to any business. Williams will highlight some of his favorites including the world's highest retail sales per square foot, the world's largest menswear store, a freight company with more than 25,00 fan club members. Review old thinking with a new twist: don't reinvent the wheel - just make it run smoother and grip the road better. Using learnings from his own company, The WOW! Awards which has won five UK awards for customer service, hang on to your seats for this fast-moving look at practical examples.
Speaker: Derek Williams, Chief Executive, SOCAP UK
3) Dealing With Today's HIPAA Regulations
HIPAA and Part 11 Compliance issues have changed the face of call centers within both Pharma companies and the companies that they outsource with. This presentation will offer a brief history of the changing regulations and a detailed review of what steps are needed to meet today's regulatory environment.
Speaker: Mary Anne Sabogal, Alliance Healthcare Information
4) Customer Service By Decree
For regulated monopolies such as the local gas or electricity distribution company, the regulating entity serves as a proxy for competition. Under the theory that a monopoly provider lacks any real incentive to provide excellent customer service to captive customers, utility regulatory commissions may require utility companies to meet pre-established customer service targets. This "customer service by decree" often includes financial incentives that can take the form of rewards for achieving customer service target levels, penalties for failing to achieve established targets, or some combination of the two. In this case study session, explore one utility's experience with the growing trend toward customer service regulation, following the evolution of its customer service performance incentive mechanism over time and its impact on the utility's own customer service improvement and voice of the customer efforts.
Speaker: Jonathan Gruchala, National Fuel Gas
5) Using Technology to Hire More Efficiently and Cost Effectively
Providing the best customer service requires hiring and retaining the best people. Learn about a new online employment application and screening process that allows companies to only interview the most qualified candidates. No more wasting time with unqualified applicants or candidates that don't meet specific requirements. Each applicant can create their own profile and attach a resume. The password protected file can be updated or changed by the candidate for different jobs. The applications pass through a customized screening process which saves money and time by only talking with the most qualified people for the job opening. Learn how you can raise retention and lower your hiring costs.
Speaker: TBD
6) Regulatory Compliance in an Evolving Customer Contact Environment
Is your contact center in compliance? Is the technology and reporting system up to date? This interactive session will pose the facts and answer questions about the FTC and FCC most recent contact center regulations. He will also discuss new technologies that allow your company to maximize representative productivity while still complying with the new federal and state legislations. Discussion will include transmission of caller ID, touch on the do not call registry, abandoned call restrictions and compliance reporting. Learn what key questions to ask your legal and IT departments and gain critical updates on federal and state rulings.
Speaker: Tom Rocca, KPI Group, LLC
7) An Internal Public Relations Approach for Contact Centers
As managers we must find ways to drive internal significance within the company. Most contact center managers struggle to receive funding for employee motivation or additional training. However, with the right kind of planning and reporting, an internal PR approach, the contact center can move to a value position, and be seen as the most important customer channel within the company. Learn what contact center PR is all about, why it matters and what it will mean to your center. Gain an understanding of how to identify what needs to be communicated, how to report information in a positive and value-based format that will garner executive support, how simple yet effective change in what you report and how you report it can make a huge difference in the way others view your value within the company and how to bring to light the people in the contact center that help maintain the lifeline of the company - your customer. The presentation will take participants on a behind-the-scenes view of how BellSouth and FedEx are using contact center PR to transform their image and importance within the company.
Speaker: Donna Wiss, Wiss Communications
6:30 - 10:00 SOCIAL EVENT
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