SOCAP Membership Is a Good Deal For You
By Cheryl Holtzen, Omaha Steaks, 2011 Membership Committee Chair
When I attend a SOCAP International event, I am always amazed at the wealth of knowledge and experience within our membership. As the Membership Chair for 2011, I envision a SOCAP of the future with a large and growing membership, made up of the leading companies and service providers in our profession. I invite you to join me in making this vision reality.
Our 2011 goal is to grow SOCAP membership by 10%. That is achievable if each of us spends just a few minutes each month thinking about bringing another customer care expert into SOCAP. I am not asking for a lot of your time – just a few minutes to call a prospect and ask them to join. If you need help, just call the national office at 703/519-3700.
A real key to our growth in 2011 will be in the SOCAP Chapters. I hope everyone is attending chapter events on a regular basis. Chapters are a critical ingredient to what makes SOCAP special, and for that reason, each chapter has a representative on the SOCAP Membership Committee. These valuable volunteers will support our grass roots efforts and improve coordination between local chapters and the national membership efforts. Each chapter and every member is important to the future of our professional assocaition.
Another key to our future growth is our industry communities. You will have the opportunity to attend an industry community meeting at the 2010 SOCAP Symposium, May 1 – 4 in Las Vegas. I participate in the Food & Beverage Industry Community which is one of the strongest communities. The SOCAP Board and I are committed to growing the other industry communities in 2011. The Board started by establishing a New Member Markets Task Force to form a new community in financial services and to strengthen the communities we now have. Are you involved in an industry community? Do you have a colleague at another company that should be involed? If so, reach out and invite them to participate in your professional association, SOCAP. As we network and learn from each other, our companies reap the benefits of new ideas and, each of us benefits personally by continuing our customer care education.
2010 was a very good year for SOCAP. Our corporate memberships allowed us to increase our reach within member companies and welcome many new faces. We will continue to build our membership as we grow the number of corporate members. Think about a corporation with which you would like to interact, find the person at that company who is in charge of customer care and send their name to the SOCAP National Office. Give them a call if you feel comfortable, share your SOCAP expereince and invite them to a chapter meeting. This gives you another company to network with, provides SOCAP a potential new member and moves the customer care foward as a profession. All in all a good deal for everyone!
I ask each of you to make membership growth part of your 2011 plan. SOCAP belongs to each of us and a stronger SOCAP means more professional development for you, more new ideas for your company and more clout for customer care as a profession. Let’s take ownership in 2011 and make our SOCAP even stronger. With your help, I look forward to reporting our successes through-out the year.
Cheryl Holtzen is the Director of Inbound Sales & Consumer Services for Omaha Steaks International. She is responsible for the Customer Contact Center including Customer Care, Inbound Sales, Quality Assurance and Operations. In addition, Cheryl has Corporate responsibility for overall Customer Satisfaction and Social Media monitoring and reporting. Prior to joining Omaha Steaks in 2001, Cheryl’s 20 years of experience included various customer care, operations and project management roles in hospitality and insurance. She is currently serving as the Chair of the 2011 Membership Committee.
