SOCAP Responds to Business Week

The March 3, 2008 issue of Business Week includes a series of special reports focused on consumer issues. SOCAP international issued a response to the Business Week articles, discussing the value of the customer care profession in transforming and building business operations and greater customer loyalty.

Read the Business Week articles online.

Offer Your Comments About SOCAP Response.

Dear Business Week:

 The series of articles in the March issue of Business Week shine the spotlight on the importance of good customer care and its impact on the success or failure of a company. These articles not only highlight the unfortunate challenges and frustrations customers experience, but they also raise a larger issue about the critical role that customer care professionals can play in transforming and improving business operations.

As the president of SOCAP International, a professional society representing the global profession of best-in-class customer care experts, I am approached regularly by SOCAP members who express frustration about the disconnect between customer care and the C-suite. Customer care professionals want their ideas and insights about the consumer to be leveraged more in C-suite decision making. As the Business Week article on Sprint points out, call centers should be viewed as more than cost centers but rather as “opportunities for strategic advantage.” We couldn’t agree more.

Part of the conversation with the C-suite must also include leveraging “consumer listening”—the very DNA of customer care professionals—to build a holistic, sound marketing strategy that supports better decision making by corporations in regards to meeting customer needs and demands. The pounding that companies experienced at the hands of frustrated or dissatisfied customers in the Business Week articles can be remedied in part through stronger connections between the marketing and customer care functions. This point was brought home by Peter Blackshaw, Executive Vice President at Nielsen Buzzmetrics, at SOCAP’s 2007 Annual Conference. Blackshaw reminded SOCAP members that they are uniquely qualified—as customer care experts—to embrace Consumer 2.0 and to offer their expertise to other departments addressing consumer issues.

Customer care professionals are responding to this call-to-action. The question of how to build consumer loyalty is more than just a customer service issue. It’s about ensuring that customer care professionals are knowledgeable about the relevant business topics that not only improve and positively impact the consumer experience, but also help to advance a company’s competitive advantage and the all-important bottom-line. At SOCAP, we are helping our members to better understand the important, timely business issues raised in these Business Week articles, such as Consumer Generated Media, globalization and customer satisfaction. We offer this education through SOCAP conferences, our magazine, networking and other professional resources. Being knowledgeable on business issues reaches far beyond daily call center operations. It also extends to the C-suite where customer care professionals are ready for a seat at the corporate decision-making table. We are ready to connect the dots with marketing and any other department seeking to build greater consumer loyalty and better brand identity.

The Business Week articles remind us that the balance of power has shifted from companies to consumers and that companies must be more closely attuned to customer needs and expectations. Companies that integrate customer care professionals into their planning will find a competitive advantage. They will also transform their business operations and build greater consumer loyalty.

Sincerely,

Matthew R. D’Uva, CAE
President
SOCAP International