Descriptions of the Breakout sessions at the 2007 Symposium are listed below:
Monday, April 16: 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
- Crisis Management 101: Preparing for and Surviving a Product Crisis—Beth Ziff, Premiere Response; CJ Stafford, Stafford Communications Group
It is Thursday evening and the telephone rings. The call informs you that a nationwide crisis has hit the company. What do you do first? CJ Stafford and Beth Ziff share a case study from their experience with the recent nationwide spinach crisis. Learn how to develop a crisis plan to enable the systems, resources and processes necessary to respond immediately to consumer calls and email. - Respect Thy Customer: Best Practices for Email Marketers—Jordan Cohen, Epsilon Interactive
More than with any other medium, consumers feel entitled and empowered to control what is delivered to their email inboxes. Permission and relevancy are paramount, and consumers expect nothing less from the companies they do business with. As leading ISPs develop improved filtering systems to block spam and reduce false positives, marketers must cater to consumer preferences and intensify their focus on minimizing spam complaints. In this session, learn how to leverage consumers’ increasing control to enhance—not undermine—the deliverability and ROI of corporate email communication initiatives. - The Consumer Service Representative’s Role in Managing Crisis and Protecting the Company in Our Litigious Environment—Douglas Besman, Nestlé
Consumer Service Representatives are often the “front line” with respect to crisis and large lawsuits. This session will discuss strategies to protect your organization in these critical situations. - Breaking Down Contact Center Silos via a Workforce Optimization Initiative—William Durr, Witness Systems
“Business as usual” is over—thanks to new drivers causing unprecedented change to both contact centers and enterprises. Customers have higher expectations than ever, coupled with more choices. Transactions are growing more complex, and contact centers are in the eye of the storm. The response to the new environment is Workforce Optimization (WFO), a strategic initiative that changes how each functional specialty in the contact center performs. Enabled by technology, workforce optimization examines fragmented processes, and determines how these processes can be reengineered to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. This session focuses on the ways each specialty must change.
Monday, April 16: 2:00–3:00 p.m.
- Leading Organizational Change… On Target, On Time and On Budget—Dutch Holland, Holland and Davis
The literature suggests that 70% of organizational changes do not turn out to meet management’s expectations. Why? Because most of us are very skilled at “Running the Business” but not skilled enough at “Changing the Business.” This session will describe change leadership techniques and mechanical formulas that will make change happen every time. Session participants will be amazed to discover they already possess most of the skills needed to make change happen on time—if they have the right mindset and perspective. After this session, participants will never look at organization change the same way again. It’s Showtime!! - Consumer Concerns in the U.S. Spanish Speaking Community: Creating a Targeted Customer Care Business Strategy for Success—Jeff Maszal, Customer Care Measurement and Consulting (CCMC)
With a current estimated purchasing power of more than 680 billion dollars, the Hispanic market is the most rapidly expanding market in the United States. This session will help you identify the customer care needs, expectations and contacting patterns of Spanish-speaking customers, and how these differ from those of English-speaking customers. The session will also provide insights into how companies can make it easier to do business with Spanish speaking consumers, whether companies should adjust hiring criteria and training programs for Spanish-speaking agents, and whether language-specific preferences (English/Spanish) impact the satisfaction and loyalty of the Spanish-speaking consumer. - A Case Study of Continental Airlines: Reward and Recognition Programs and Their Impact on Performance—BJ McDonald, Continental Airlines
Continental Airlines—named one of the Best Places to Work in America by Fortune Magazine for six consecutive years—has implemented creative and innovative reward and recognition programs that motivate employees and drive the right behaviors, results and performance. In 2005, 30% of Continental employees achieved perfect attendance and were eligible for a Ford Explorer drawing. Learn Continental’s strategies for retaining highly satisfied employees who enjoy coming to work every day. This session will discuss the Ford Explorer Perfect Attendance Program, flexibility programs through creative staffing, sales incentives, career developments for “TOP” performers, results and ROI. - Protecting Your Customer from Identity Theft—Sean McCleskey, U.S. Secret Service
What new trends in phishing and identity theft are federal investigators observing? This session will bring you up to date on the latest trends, how the government is responding to them and what measures your company can take to protect the customer database—and your customers’ privacy.
Tuesday, April 17: 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
- Managing Remote Agents to Provide a Consistent Customer Experience in a Changing Environment—Tim Houlne, Working Solutions
Today’s best-known companies and brands are leveraging a high quality, remote agent workforce to provide a positive impact on the customer experience. This session will present a case study explaining how to use agent selection, training, management, security and technology to leverage this next generation workforce in a multichannel call center world. - Weathering the Winds of Change: A Case Study on Leading Your Organization through Transition—Galen Thomas, DBS Communications
It’s not the change that does you in. It’s the transition. Effective leaders make strategic changes, but they don’t stop there. They work hard to anticipate transitions, or the human impacts of change, and address them constructively and honestly. Helping people navigate these transitions so that they embrace change is an art. Learn the phases of transition and some strategies for moving people through them successfully. - Dancing With Megaphones: The Consumer Generated Media (CGM) Revolution—Pete Blackshaw, Nielsen BuzzMetrics
The fastest growing media is being designed and styled by consumers. Thanks to the explosion of blogs, message boards, online review sites, camera phones, podcasts and online video, consumers all over the world can vent their opinions, attitudes and feelings about companies, products and brands with a never-before-seen force and presence. But what digital “stars” and “scars” are consumer-generated media (CGM) leaving on corporate brands, corporate identities and brand equity? This session will help you unpack how CGM is changing the game, which consumer segments and business verticals are most impacted by CGM and how CGM and word-of-mouth can be used as influencers by marketers and business leaders. - Translating the “Voice of the Customer” into Measurable Performance Improvements—Jody Lewis, ConvergysCorporation; Don Semonick, Convergys Corporation
Most companies have established a process for measuring customer satisfaction with a contact center experience. But many companies still struggle with translating that “voice of the customer” feedback into measurable process and performance improvements. Learn how Convergys transformed a Fortune 500 company’s client satisfaction program from one that simply measured the customer to one that proactively managed the customer experience. Learn what continuous improvement techniques Convergys used to identify areas of opportunity and implement effective improvement strategies that led to measurable results.
Tuesday, April 17: 2:00–3:00 p.m
- Customer Experience Performance Management: Utilizing Technology-Driven Measurement to Drive Coaching Success in Your Contact Center—Tom Hammond, The Hartford Group
This session will highlight The Hartford’s delivery of outstanding customer experiences, while controlling costs. Hear a discussion of The Hartford’s technology investments in its quality, performance and coaching methods resulting in the implementation of an emerging quality model. This model has helped the company achieve its business objectives inside the contact center and throughout the enterprise. The presentation will cover customer interaction capture architecture, online score carding, after call surveys, results and returns. - Creating a Culture of WOW —Andre Harris, Westfield
With 60 shopping centers in the United States, Westfield welcomes more customers annually than the NFL, NBA and MLB combined. This session will outline Westfield’s unique 5-step approach to WOW customer service and Westfield’s culture of WOW. Learn how to hear your customers and turn feedback into action, hire WOW people who enjoy working with and serving people, train WOW and the 16 Standards for Success, measure WOW through mystery shoppers and other customer metrics and reward WOW with innovative programs that drive a focus on the customer. - Leading Customers through Change: A Survival Guide to Persuasive Marketing to Your Customers—Peter De Trempe, Clarke American
Developing targeted and relevant communications with your customers has always been challenging. In a highly competitive, fast-changing market, your communication quickly goes from challenging to nearly impossible. Effectively segmenting your audience is the first step toward creating meaningful and persuasive dialogue with prospects and customers. In this session, you will learn how Clarke American helps customers compete in the highly volatile banking industry—using sophisticated analytical and CRM tools to design/develop/deploy proven direct marketing campaigns. Learn how you can use these same techniques to improve your own customer dialogue, no matter how fast your industry is changing! - Telework Makes Good Business Sense—Ilene Morris-Sambur, Creating Opportunity by Recognizing Abilities (CORA)
70% of the 59 million Americans with disabilities are unemployed—not including disabled veterans and military spouses. The stress severely wounded soldiers experience in learning to live with a disability is magnified by not knowing how they will be able to contribute to the financial well-being of their family. Military spouses are often 24/7 caregivers and cannot work outside of their homes. Learn how your company can help increase telework opportunities for disabled veterans, military spouses and individuals with disabilities.
For the full Symposium schedule, Click here.
