Contact centres invade Old Trafford

Record number of contact centre leaders and specialists descended on Old Trafford last week, as it played host to a national event to raise standards in contact centre practices.

Run by the Professional Planning Forum, an industry forum set up to promote professionalism in planning and analysis across all customer contact operations, the National Best Practice Seminar was attended by over 230 delegates with organisations such as Barclaycard, British Gas, Cooperative Banking Group, Everything Everywhere, HMRC and npower.

The seminar included case studies, workshops and round-table discussions in topic areas such as Flexibility, Speech Analytics, Outbound, MI in the Back Office and Planning, together with time for networking and to talk to suppliers in the Expo area.

Feedback from delegates was excellent with Rachel Lane, Resource Planning Manager at Barclaycard, commenting, “Really enjoyed the day – met some new contacts to visit and some excellent takeaways”.

Keith Ridley, Forecasting, Planning and MI Manager, NHS Business Services Authority, reinforced this explaining that “… it refreshes the mind and was good to share different challenges, ideas and issues with others”.

“Really useful,” says Andrea Murphy, Contact Centre Manager, Slater and Gordon Lawyers, “I am currently on the contact centre planning course and this has really backed up and supported my studies. It’s a great opportunity to speak to other planners.” 

 “This event really stood out for me due to the strong sense of community that prevailed,” explains Steve Woosey, Chief Executive of the Professional Planning Forum.

“Despite a welcome number of new faces, our members know each other increasingly well and this creates an environment where participants are not only committed to raising standards in their organisations and improving their customers’ experience, but are open and honest with each other and share what is happening in their world and work together on each other’s challenges”.

The next event is Customer Strategy & Planning on 29-30 April 2013.