On The Way to SOCAP Annual Conference

I’m on my way to San Francisco for the annual conference of the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals (SOCAP). Historically, the content of this conference, and the attendees, has been very focused on in-the-trenches issues that consumer affairs – a unique band of customer service people – professionals deal with day to day. Such topics…
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Things Aren’t Always What They Appear

When presented with a new problem, an unknown entity, it’s human nature to compartmentalize that new quantity under a heading that is well known and familiar. This process helps us make sense of things. It helps us apply our experience and existing knowledge to the problem in an effort to simplify and solve. But, bucketing…
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Channel Your Energy

Again the dynamic, fast-paced, wild and informative #custserv chat on Twitter last week is bringing me here to see if I can sort through an issue in a slightly lower gear. If you’ve ever participated in these chats on Tuesday nights, you know the speed at which the tweets fly by; allowing for a mere…
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Does Influence Matter In Customer Service?

No. My opinion of that was solidified last week thanks to a band of real smart folks led by Wim Rampen. Wim tossed some tweet chum out there last week with this: This whole search for influencers and influence doesn’t sit right with me…what are your thoughts? I took the bait. And, this started a…
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Tree Frogs & The Social Ecosystem

Ok, this post has nothing to do with tree frogs, biology or ecology. But, unlike Seth Godin, my brain only has a limited capacity for catchy, pun-filled blog titles. I hope you can forgive me for that one. In my last post here, I outlined the strategic considerations that the social enterprise needs to address…
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Social Media in the Contact Center – Beyond the Tools. Before the Tactics

As an integral topic, I thought I’d reflect on day one of the SOCAP Spring Symposium in Atlanta. The overriding theme from members and vendors alike is focused on the impact of social media on our customer service business. Not surprising. Much of the buzz is around the various technology platforms available to monitor, analyze and…
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