As we begin a New Year, SOCAP stands ready to support you in 2007! Our new Board Chairman, Tom Asher, along with the SOCAP Board, has set aggressive goals for the year, and the SOCAP staff is prepared to put these plans into action.

You will find this issue of Update literally packed with information that will enhance your SOCAP membership experience. SOCAP looks forward to partnering with you to create a membership experience that will increase the value of your membership dues dollar, enhance the professional resources available to you and build your career opportunities for the future.

In 2007, your SOCAP staff will be dedicated to better coordinating and communicating the many ways that you can take advantage of your SOCAP membership. We will increase your opportunities for involvement and improve our feedback channels.

Regardless of how you wish to participate in SOCAP—through committee work, chapter participation, SOCAP conference attendance, SANG membership or reading CRM Magazine—we are working to enhance the ways we connect with you. We will communicate these enhancements to you throughout the year.

In this issue of Update, you will read about some of the exciting SOCAP programs for 2007, including:

SOCAP Symposium: We have recently confirmed the keynote speakers for our highly anticipated Symposium in April in San Antonio, Texas. The meeting will focus on how customer care can be leveraged as a key differentiator in business strategy. Register today!

SOCAP Career Link: SOCAP’s online career site is new and better than ever! We have partnered with Boxwood Technologies to enhance your career and networking opportunities. Register with SOCAP Career Link today!

SOCAP Sourcing Study: This newly released report on sourcing practices has proven to be a “must have” for SOCAP members. We have received excellent feedback from many members who are already putting this data to good use!

Your membership with SOCAP connects you to the most successful customer care professionals in the world. I know this because I met many SOCAP members at the successful 2006 Annual Conference in Toronto and, most recently, at SOCAP chapter meetings in Los Angeles and New York. I am amazed by the camaraderie that exists among SOCAP members and by the open manner in which information is shared. If this has not been your experience, I challenge you to pick up your membership directory and connect with a SOCAP member today! In his chairman’s message, Tom Asher shares a personal story about how the SOCAP membership directory gave him access to this incredible network.

I encourage you to utilize the brain trust of our Association members, including members who support consumer affairs professionals through their products and services. Reach out to your colleagues! Also, be sure to maintain your current SOCAP membership by making sure that SOCAP has your most up-to-date information.

I look forward to communicating with you in 2007 as SOCAP continues to enhance your membership experience. Additionally, I invite you to provide us with your feedback through the SOCAP website, via email to me at and through the SOCAP Brand Marketing Survey that was distributed earlier this week from our partner, McKinley Marketing.

Your feedback and participation are critical to a strong SOCAP and vibrant profession. Happy New Year.

Matthew D'Uva
President

Tom Asher of Levi Strauss became the new SOCAP Chairman on January 1, 2007. Update interviewed Tom about his vision for the Association in 2007…

Update: What leading challenges and opportunities do you see for SOCAP?

Tom: Ultimately returning to our roots and getting better at leveraging our core DNA. SOCAP’s tag line really nails it—advancing customer care through education and networking. To that end, we need to grow membership by reaching out to new pockets of the customer care profession, strengthen our chapters by building better links between SOCAP staff and chapter leadership, develop more SANGS (Special Affinity Networking Groups) to address specific membership constituencies and strengthen relations with our international affiliates. Some specific initiatives already underway will help us meet these challenges such as executing SOCAP’s brand marketing study, creating a “buddy” program to better connect new members to SOCAP’s offerings, improving our website, installing a new database and developing a chapter “life stage” to more effectively support chapters.

Update: What leading challenges and opportunities do you see for the consumer affairs profession?

Tom: When I think about the companies that are winning in the marketplace—Toyota, Apple, Intel, Washington Mutual, Genentech, Starbucks and Google come to mind. These are companies (based on my own totally biased observation) that have an unrelenting external focus on the customer or consumer. They are willing to let go of long-held internal assumptions. They are deeply in touch with what consumers want. And equally important, they are able to anticipate consumers’ unexpressed needs and desires—and deliver products and services to meet them.

The consumer affairs/services profession can help more companies be successful in this endeavor. It’s about being humble, really listening, being empathetic, being bold, and being innovative. I feel that we, as customer care professionals, will be even more successful if we embrace these behaviors. And I feel that SOCAP needs to behave in the same way. With new leadership under President Matt D’Uva, SOCAP is in the midst of letting go of a lot of assumptions and ways of operating. Along with a strong and open minded staff, an active board, a broad base of enthusiastic volunteers, many solid chapters and some new SANGS, SOCAP is well positioned to embrace a new way of operating and evolve into a leading edge organization that demonstrates how these behaviors can drive success for SOCAP and for its members. Over the past few months, a remarkable transformation has already begun. We are communicating in a much more collaborative way, we are changing systems and streamlining process and procedures that will free up time and energy, and we are taking risks that we were previously reluctant to tackle…

Update: What do you want your legacy as SOCAP Chair to be?

Tom: Someone who worked effectively with SOCAP staff and membership to take the organization to the next level. And ultimately someone who helped SOCAP become a more visible presence in the market and a force for positive change.

Read the full text of Tom Asher’s 2007 Chairman’s Message.

SOCAP International is pleased to announce the following keynote speakers for the 2007 Symposium:

• Robyn Waters, former Vice President of Trend, Design and Product Development, Target, and Author of The Trendmaster’s Guide: Get A Jump on What Your Customer Wants Next
• Kelly Cook, Vice President, Employee and Customer Engagement, Waste Management
• Kelly McDonald, President, McDonald Marketing
• Eric Hutto, Vice President, Consumer Business Segment, Perot Systems

SOCAP is bringing in the New Year with some exciting details about its 2007 annual meetings.

The Symposium, to be held April 15-18 in San Antonio, will specifically address the theme “The Role of Customer Care in Business Strategy” and feature keynote speakers from the executive ranks of business and industry. Additionally, the Symposium’s breakout sessions will be organized around four major tracks: Change Management, Marketing/Market Research, Technology and Human Resources & Finance. Symposium attendees will learn practical strategies from top industry experts about the impact of customer care in these key business operations.

In contrast to the Spring Symposium, the 2007 Annual Conference (October 7-10 in Palm Springs) will retain its more general flavor, highlighting best practices in customer care. The conference will also feature a new professional development track with sessions on networking, communications, career planning and more.

Keith Ferrazzi will be among the keynote speakers for the 2007 Annual Conference. Keith is Founder and CEO of Ferrazzi Greenlight and Author of NEVER EAT ALONE: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time

SOCAP’s Special Affinity Networking Groups (SANGs) will also meet at both meetings.

For more detailed information or to register, please visit the SOCAP website.

SOCAP International has launched a new and improved interactive job board, the SOCAP Career Link. The job board offers an easy-to-use, highly targeted resource for making online employment connections in customer care and consumer affairs. Potential employers and job seekers can find everything they need with just a few clicks.

For job seekers, Career Link is a free service that provides access to employers and jobs in customer care and consumer affairs. Job seekers can conveniently post their resumes, browse and view available jobs, and save jobs for later review. Professionals can also create a search agent through Career Link that provides email notifications of jobs that match their criteria.

Employers using Career Link can post job vacancies to the site, set criteria for job candidates and get reports on the number of views to a particular position.

Jumpstart your career in customer care! Visit SOCAP’s Career Link today and post your resume!

Have you visited the SOCAP website recently? If so, you may have noticed a few changes in the website layout—new menu items, photos, member testimonials and an overall cleaner look.

Here are just some of the recent upgrades to the SOCAP website:

• A 2007 Board of Directors page with new photos of Board Members
• Recent photos taken at the 2006 Annual Conference in Toronto
• A message from Tom Asher of Levi Strauss, SOCAP’s 2007Chairman
• A history of SOCAP
• A page devoted to the SOCAP purpose
• A “Meet the New Members” page containing information on each new member’s company, membership type and Chapter affiliation
• New Committee charges added to the Committees page
• New Conference web pages for the 2007 Symposium, including an online registration form
• A revised section on SOCAP Chapters, including a new Chapter locator map, contact information and Chapter events
• A more user-friendly member login page

Look for additional website improvements in the coming months. SOCAP welcomes your feedback on these website upgrades.

Are you thinking about outsourcing? Or are you just interested in learning about sourcing practices? If so, then order your copy today of Sourcing the Contact Center, the new report from SOCAP International. Filled with detailed analysis and case studies, Sourcing the Contact Center addresses the following crucial topics:

• What Customers Expect from Service
• Best Practices for the Contact Center
• People and Process
• Telecommunications
• Computer Systems Support
• Field/Organization Support
• Preventive Analysis
• Steps to a Successful Outsourcing Decision
• Quantify and Analyze Workload
• Understand Current Contact Quality
• Ensure Efficiency of Current Operations
• Ensure Current Processes are Well Documented
• Examine Potential Outsource Structures and Locations
• Analyze What to Send Where
• The Outsourcing Selection Process (and Backsourcing Considerations)
• Some Practices that Lead to Success

In addition, the report provides an easy-to-use scoring system to help contact center managers evaluate their centers against the key factors used in making sourcing decisions—then explains the resulting scores in terms of the various sourcing models.

To order your copy of the sourcing report, visit the SOCAP website. Cost is $95 for SOCAP members and $150 for non-members.

The Southwest Regional Chapter held its annual holiday luncheon and “Spark of Love” Toy Drive on December 13, 2006 at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA. With 40+ in attendance, there was plenty of opportunity for networking, catching up with old friends, and making new acquaintances.

At the meeting, Eric Thomas was recognized as winner of the SRC Chapter STAR award and newsletter award. SOCAP had previously awarded the newsletter the SOCAP International Chapter Newsletter award at the Annual Conference in Toronto.

Matthew R. D’Uva, President of SOCAP International, served as special guest speaker. In his address, Matthew shared his vision for the coming year, followed by a Q&A session. He encouraged everyone to get involved with SOCAP at the local and national level.

SOCAP International welcomes the following 2007 Chapter Presidents:

Chapter	President	Company
Chicago Chapter	Nancy Manypenny	School Health Corporation
Dallas/Ft.Worth Chapter	Linda Dickey	BillMatrix Corporation
Florida Chapter	Nate Battle	Network Direct , Inc.
Georgia Chapter	Wade Hauser	Prosodie Interactive
Great Lakes Chapter	Doug Tanoury	Percepta
Greater Philadelphia Chapter	Luci Asenjo	Telerx, Inc.
Heartland Chapter	Paul Radtke	CommNet, Inc.
New York Metro Chapter	Patrick Ennis	Colgate-Palmolive Company
Northwest Chapter	Karen Vaughn	HyperQuality, Inc.
Ohio Chapter	Kelly Woodard-Doty	Bob Evans Farm
Southwest Regional Chapter	Brian Giannini	RQA, Inc.
Washington D.C. Chapter	Sofie Lorenzo	Federal Citizen Information Center GSA
Wisconsin Chapter	Ann Shah	U.S. Cellular

Q. What is included in my SOCAP Membership Directory?

A. The Membership Directory is one of SOCAP’s premiere networking tools. The Directory includes comprehensive alphabetical listings of current members and a listing of members by company. Additional networking tools include information that will help you get in touch with your local Chapter, an International Affiliate, a Past Chair or a member of a SOCAP Committee or the Board of Directors.

The Membership Directory is also a sourcebook of SOCAP information. The 2007 Directory will include information on publications and upcoming conferences, highlights of the member needs assessment survey, a SOCAP staff listing, Chapter awards, the SOCAP bylaws and more.

The Directory ships to SOCAP members within the first quarter of the year.

Have a question? Ask Update!