This week, three members of Education at Work’s business development and marketing team had an exciting opportunity to attend and present at the SOCAP Symposium in Nashville, Tennessee. As an organization, SOCAP has members worldwide and through events such as the annual Symposium offers consumer affair professionals the opportunity to learn the latest developments in people, process, technology and strategy.

At this year’s learning event, Education at Work had the opportunity to lead a session titled: “How a College Student Workforce Solves Common Contact Center Challenges and Contributes to a Greater Mission”. It was our opportunity to teach how we married our mission to reduce student debt to the business challenge of staffing 2-4 hour peaks commonly found in call center arrival patterns through the use of a part-time college student labor force. We enjoyed the opportunity to engage with and learn from our audience, especially around perceptions regarding hiring, teaching and motivating the Millennial and Gen Z generation. One member of our audience mentioned our message is so important that everyone from the SOCAP organization should hear our story and consider the impact.

Another highlight of the event was the opportunity to hear Craig Dubitsky, Founder and CEO of Hello Products present. The message of marrying “friendly” and “customer care” right from the start truly resonated with our team. Our millennial team member especially liked the messaging around “authenticity,” a value she lives daily and believes her generation wants from an employer. At Education at Work we work hard to create an environment that stresses the value of getting to know your co-workers, learn what makes them tick, know what they do for fun, where they go to school, etc. We use a TV in the lobby of our headquarters to highlight individual students and tell their stories.
Finally, although the Symposium was chalk full of ways to improve the customer experience, “The Fred Factor” session led by Mark Sanborn showcased even more ways Education at Work can ignite the passions of the talented college student workforce who serve our clients and benefit from our mission. As a non-profit we already believe that experiences are more important to the current generation than monetary incentives and we offer internships and engagement opportunities to write for our newsletter, conduct photo shoots for our website and create videos for our Facebook page. Passion and creativity are abundant in the work our students deliver.

The Symposium may have been all about people, process, technology and strategy but for Education at Work it was and is all about people: our clients who support our mission, and our students who come to work everyday building for themselves a debt-free future while learning invaluable work skills through the discipline of providing excellent customer service!