An Overview of the 2010 SOCAP Australia Symposium

 

SFI International was part of SOCAP's 20th Annual Symposium held in Melbourne in August. The key theme was to review 'How the game has changed' in consumer affairs over the past 20 years.

 

Major topics covered included:

 

●The Consumer protection provisions that have been significantly expanded with the Senate passing the Trade Practices Amendment (Australian
Consumer Law) Bill.

 

The first phase was released in July 2010 which saw new civil penalties and enforcement powers for the ACCC and ASIC significantly change the regulatory environment for Australian businesses and the Unfair consumer contract provisions.  Phase 2, due for release on 1st January 2011, will include the implementation of a national consumer product safety regulatory regime.

 

Key changes include:

-Extending the scope of product safety regulation

-Requiring that permanent product bans and mandatory safety standards can only be made to apply nationally by the Commonwealth Minister

-Implementing a national sales regime dealing with direct selling, door-to-door selling and telesales marketing

-Changing the name of the TPA to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and introducing a new system of statutory consumer guarantees to
replace the current implied terms regime

-Enhancing the ACCC’s enforcement powers in relation to compliance with consumer goods and product related services

-Prohibitions against specific types of conduct. The Law incorporates equivalents to the existing TPA provisions and will include additional provisions
agreed by the Minister Council on Consumer Affairs (MCCA)

-New provisions dealing with direct selling that will replace existing State and Territory regimes that apply to unsolicited sales

●Showing how social media is now part of consumer contact. Business needs to have in place monitoring of all forms of social media and also be
prepared for the way social media can spread comment both good and bad. According to SFI research 8% of consumers expect companies to have a
Twitter presence, 14% expect a Facebook page, 55% of customers expect a response to an online complaint within a day, 10% within hours

●Justin Hyams, head of Qantas Customer Care, recapped the challenges for Qantas in minimising the impact on customers during a crisis. What was
key was that Qantas had in place a very well orchestrated crisis management plan that dealt well with processes and customer satisfaction, however
the one area that it did not deal with well, was actually looking after the Qantas staff and managing them during a crisis. Business can learn a lot from
this in making sure that any crisis plan also includes your internal customer – your staff

●SFI presented a workshop on the challenge for Consumer Departments in getting visibility in the boardroom as a 'Profit Centre as opposed to a Cost
Centre'. Most forward-thinking organisations agree that focusing on the customer has a direct effect on:

-Bottom–line performance

-Profitability or more efficient use of resources

-Retaining customers and earning their trust

-Lower costs per customer

-Customer endorsements and recommendations

-Staff satisfaction and turnover

-Reputation

SFI International conducts research into consumer trends and emotions and use these findings to drive greater value with their customers.

 

Contact us today to learn more about the latest trends or to receive further information on the latest customer research.