Support, educate and engage

An impressive line-up of speakers shared their knowledge and experience with the delegates and a hall full of exhibitors displayed the latest Contact Centre solutions available. The number of people attending the annual conference doubled on last year, which is on the back of a fast growing CCiNZ membership base.Common threads throughout the conference included the evolution of the at-home agent and heightened sensitivities around business continuity in light of recent events. An emerging trend is for Contact Centres to lead the wider organisation in the measurement of customer satisfaction and engagement. The convergence of communication channels means the Contact Centre is becoming the central hub for information on customer engagement.Shona Macdonald, Customer Care Manager, CourierPost, took us through her journey of bringing the Contact Centre back in-house from three external sites. The project was completed ahead of schedule and the Contact Centre now boasts higher grades of service, text to speech for job bookings and the performance of the team has lifted with at-home agents bringing greater shift flexibility and lower absenteeism. Trish Keith, General Manager Customer Services, Telecom, took us through the experience of leading her team through the dream start of the XT launch followed by the key challenges facing the Telecom Contact Centre during the XT Network outage. The media interest was unprecedented with the hours of TV coverage in one month nearly double that of Shortland Street! Trish talked about the amazing response of her staff, the establishment of triage teams and the people resilience plan they built, shortening shifts to help staff deal with the highly emotional customer response.The day finished in style with the winners of the inaugural CCiNZ awards announced at a gala ceremony in the evening. The winner of the 2010 Contact Centre Manager of the Year – over 50 seats was Carolyn Gower of Westpac. Carolyn not only focuses on improving individual coaching and empowerment for her team, but also mentors other managers and people in the business, helping develop them for their next role.  Taking out the 2010 Contact Centre Manager of the Year – up to 50 seats was Alex van der Leij from TNT Express Worldwide (NZ) Ltd. Alex leads, motivates and empowers staff through effective and open communication in pursuit of best practice. His team exceeds customer expectations to achieve growth, loyalty and retention, all the while ensuring financial integrity and internal control.   The 2010 Contact Centre Team Leader of the Year is Stacey Nicholls from ANZ. Stacey is results oriented with a strong focus on the outputs of her team. Stacey is mentoring other peers in the business and has directly impacted the high morale within the business.All three winners displayed terrific levels of dedication and hard work in supporting their teams to deliver quality customer outcomes. It has been an enjoyable and rewarding experience for CCiNZ to witness the quality of work being produced in some of the leading Contact Centres around NZ.The CCiNZ Committee is exceptionally proud of the organisation’s achievements to date and is extremely thankful for the overwhelming support from our members, sponsors and exhibitors, making this year’s conference a professional and worthwhile experience for all involved.