Around the World in 80 Days- #ECCCSA18

So to the most prestigious event in the contact centre and customer service calendar. The European Contact Centre and Customer Service Awards.  Once again held at the Battersea Evolution, this years theme ‘Around the world in 80 days’ a fitting reflection with over 1,200 Customer Experience and Contact Centre professionals with finalists from 19 countries and with 28 winners.

The event, now in its 19th year was hosted once again by Fiona Bruce (Antiques Roadshow presenter, journalist and BBC correspondent.)

Fiona was joined on stage by Sir Ranulph Fiennes, ‘The Worlds Greatest Living Explorer’.

Of his many expeditions, including, being one of the first  to reach both Poles, first to cross Antarctic and Arctic Ocean and the Transglobe expedition, which was the first to travel around the globe, pole to pole, included a winter of 8 months in Antarctica, where Ran, his first wife Ginny, two colleagues and a dog lived in a  shelter made of thin cardboard and a single layer of insulation.

Ran talked of his drive to complete such difficult challenges his desire ‘to beat the enemy’ (the Norwegians) and determination to ‘not let down’ his late father and grandfather.

Ran reached the summit of Everest on his third attempt and also ran seven marathons in seven days on seven continents, only four months on triple bypass surgery, following a heart attack.  I could listen to his stories all day!

A fitting host for both the theme and for our finalists who have all achieved such great results within their working environments.

Douglas Jackson were once again proud sponsors and Michelle Ansell was delighted to meet Sir Ranulph, Fiona (pictured here with colleague Anna Denning ) and to present the award ‘Best Employer – A great Place to Work’ to EE.

So on to the Gold winners – A full list of all winners, Bronze Silver and Gold can be found here

Innovation & Technology Awards –

Most Effective Implementation of Technology – ICON Communication Centres s.r.o

Best Innovation in Customer Service – Haste

Best Implementation of Artificial Intelligence in Customer Service – Vodafone

Most Effective Business Transformation Programme in Customer Service – Shop Direct

Operational Effectiveness Awards – 

Most Effective Improvement Programme – Gousto

Most Effective Self Service Initiative – Acibadem

Best Risk/Fraud Management Initiative – Three and Tech Mahindra Business Services

Best Outsourcing Partnership – small – Royal Mail and CPM

Best Outsourcing Partnership – large – Aeroflot and Teleperformance Russia

Team Awards

Best Customer Service Team of the Year – small – Business Stream

Best Customer Service Team of the Year – large – The White Company

Best Complaints Management Team – Nissan

Best Quality Team – Sberbank

Best Contact Centre Support Team – Ascensos

Customer Experience Awards

Best Multi/Omni-Channel Customer Experience – RHP

Most Effective Customer Experience in Social Media – Microsoft

Best Customer Insight Initiative – Affinity Water

Best Cross-functional Customer Experience Initiative – NewDay

Organisation Awards

Most Effective Learning and Development Initiative – Team Knowhow

Most Effective Health and Wellbeing Programme – emovis

Best Voice of the Employee Programme – Tesco Mobile Capita Partnership

Employer of the Year – Great Place to Work – EE

Contact Centre Awards

Best Outsourced Contact Centre – Webhelp Falkirk

Best Small Contact Centre – Volkswagen Group Roadside Assistance

Best Medium Contact Centre – Virgin Holidays

Best Large Contact Centre – Booking.com

Best Multi-Lingual Contact Centre – Teleperformance Greece

Best Pan European Contact Centre – Booking.com

Many congratulations to all!

Also a big thank you and well done to Ann-Marie Stagg and her team for another fabulous event.

 

‘Delivering World Class Service With a Human Touch’ – UK National Contact Centre Conference 2018

Ann-Marie Stagg and the CCMA, held the UK National Contact Centre Conference 2018 at the British Library. The theme; Delivering World Class Service With a Human Touch.

The event sponsored by Genesys was an extremely well attended event. Free to CCMA members, the event is packed full of content ,with speakers having short sharp ‘no sales pitch’ 20 minute slots.

UK Customer Experience Awards 2018

This week we were back to the magnificent backdrop of Wembley Stadium for the UK Customer Experience Awards 2018.

Now in it’s 9th year, the event was, once again, a jam packed day full day of judging, with over 30 categories and 130 or so judges.

CXFO – What We Can Do Tomorrow

This week we joined The CXFO for their inaugural London Launch meeting, ‘What We Can Do Tomorrow’, held at The Pirate Castle; a community boating charity and multi-use venue for water-based activities on the canal, as well as offering spaces for meetings and events.

The event was an informal, casual event and hosted by chairman Don Hales and Chief Executive Isobel Rogers.

After introductions from Don and Isobel, Morris Pentel took to the stage with idea’s surrounding customer emotions, staff, customer happiness and do we lose all common sense when we slip into our business attire?

It’s not rocket science but it is science….

UK Digital Experience Awards 2018

Now in its 4th year, the UK Digital Experience Awards aims to reward excellence and innovation in using digital technology to improve the customer experience.

This was my first time judging at the UK Digital Experience Awards and I thoroughly enjoyed the event from start to finish. The event was held at the prestigious Riverbank Park Plaza in London and the day consisted of the live entry presentations in the morning followed by the superb gala lunch and anticipated awards ceremony after. I met some extremely interesting people and was amazed by the effort made from all the finalists.

The Missing Link to Employee Engagement

In a world where customers and employees have an ever-growing number of platforms to discuss and rate your company, customer and employee experience must be at the forefront of every successful businesses strategy;

‘Businesses that have an employee, customer-centric approach are three times more profitable than their competitors on average’

A huge factor that affects customer experience, that every company can improve on and will really see the benefits from is employee engagement.

Maximising Productivity with AI

Tuesday 15^th May 2018 – A Great afternoon at the Brewery in London as Rebecca Lawrence and Kerry Gidziewicz attended the CCMA Seminar “Maximising Productivity with AI Solutions”, ahead of the evenings UK National Contact Centre Awards hosted by Ann-Marie Stagg.

Key speakers:

Ann Marie Stagg, CEO of the CCMA, Matthew Chatterton, Director and Head of B2B Customer Experience Ipsos MORI, Sue Preston, Director of Solution Sales at Microsoft, Mark Foyster, VP World Wide Sales and MD UK, VeriPark and Rishi Srivastava, Executive Digital Strategy Advisor at Microsoft.

Being Your Personal Best: Customer Strategy and Planning 2018

This week #TeamDJ were back in Harrogate, (who now have their very own Ivy restaurant for those foodies planning a trip), for the Customer Strategy and Planning Conference from The Forum.

The Forum are now in their 19th year, in a keynote from Clive Wilson of Primeast,  those in attendance gave a standing ovation to the team for all their work and inspiration over the years.

This years theme; Be your Personal Best.

Nicola Callan, Director of the Forum, talked about ‘being, not doing’; being your personal best, is not a moment in time but every moment in time’.  Bob Stella, Head of Best Practice and Insight asked ‘what if each of us were 1% better each day, and imagine, if as a community each of us shared that 1%, think about how much better and inspiring we would all be’.

Customer Experience – What Does it Mean to You?

 

What does Customer Experience mean to you?

It seems there is still a lot of confusion around Customer Experience.  In an article from  Beth Richardson of IJ Golding Customer Experience Consultancy investigates customer experience job vacancies.  Beth highlighted something we have experienced since the term ‘customer experience’ arrived. The fact that no two roles are the same and a job title does not a job make.

European Contact Centre & Customer Service Awards ECCCSA’s 2017

Wow, what a scene, it truly was a spectacular sight as we entered the grand hall at the Battersea Evolution for the ECCCSA’s, European Contact Centre and Customer Service Awards.

The Connected Customer Revolution: UK National Contact Centre Conference 2017

8th November 2017 and the UK National Contact Centre Conference from the CCMA, held at the British Library knowledge centre.

The event, free to members was sold out with a capacity crowd of over 250 in attendance.

One particular highlight of the day, was right before the start of the conference.  After taking my seat in the auditorium I introduced myself to my neighbours, on my right, two representatives from Lovehoney, Britain’s biggest online sex toy retailer, recently  awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade.  On my left, a representative from LV=.   Another hugely successful business brand, multiple award winner and one of the largest insurers in the UK with a DEFAQTO 5* rating and recently awarded Which? Insurance provider of the year 2017.    As I introduced both parties to one another, Paul from LV= said to Matt from Lovehoney, “yes, we are more green hearts as opposed to love eggs”.

What Is the Best Method To Gain Customer Insight?

Since working for Douglas Jackson and recruiting experienced leaders and practitioners for the Customer Insight, Analytics, CRM and Product industry, I am now far more aware of each interaction I have with organisations, contact centres and other areas of my customer touchpoints as a consumer.   I am conscious of what insight organisations are taking from each interaction and also what feedback I give to companies. This got me thinking, is there a more successful method of obtaining true customer insight?

UK Customer Experience Awards 2017

The UK Customer Experience Awards arrived at Wembley Stadium for this years judging and presentations.

Although the venue and use of the executive boxes meant for the judges and finalists we were spread around this impressive stadium and ground and for someone who is not a hard-core sports fan, having this as the view and backdrop for the finalist presentations made for an even more,  dramatic, fitting setting for what turned out to be some really hard fought categories.

New Horizons at Douglas Jackson

After 10 years at our previous home and despite upgrading offices four times over the years, due to continued expansion, we have finally outgrown the Lichfield Business Village and have moved into our new home, The Garrick Suite.  The Suite is situated in a historical, listed building on Market Street, Lichfield, with views to the glorious Lichfield Cathedral from the rear.

Homeworking and Social Media Best Practice with the CCMA.

May 16^th 2017, location: The Brewery EC1

Members of the CCMA arrived to a surprisingly sunny London to enjoy the Q2 Seminar on Homeworking and Social Media best practice.