North West Call and Contact Centre Awards 2007

And the winners are…

The CallNorthWest 2nd Annual North West Call and Contact Centre Awards Ceremony and Gala Dinner took place at the Winter Gardens, Blackpool on Thursday 11th October 2007.

The aim of the awards is to highlight and reward ‘Excellence’ in North West Call and Contact Centres. The Awards are open to call and contact centres that operate any in-bound or out-bound customer management operation, employing more than 5 people.

Individual Awards
Agent of the Year – Simonetta Lunn Department for Work and Pensions DCS
Team Leader of the Year – Marie Shaw Friends Provident
Trainer/Coach of the Year – Helen Lloyd Friends Provident

Contact Centre Manager of the Year – Martin Moore Department for Work and Pensions DCS
Support Person of the Year – Christelle Phillips Glen Dimplex Home Appliances
Company Awards
Team of the Year – Helpline 42 Department for Work and Pensions DCS
Best Implementation of Technology – Revenues Management Services
Best Training Programme – Ai Claims Solutions (UK) Ltd

Contact Centre of the Year (under 50 seats) – Wyre Borough Council (Connect Wyre)
Contact Centre of the Year (over 50 seats) – O2 UK (Preston Brook)
Overall Contact Centre of the Year – Department for Work and Pensions DCS

Call Centre Helper would like to congratulate all of the finalists and winners.

Top honours went to The Department of Work and Pensions who scooped 4 awards including ‘Team of the Year’, ‘Agent’ and ‘Manager’ of the Year. The coveted ‘Overall Contact Centre of the Year’ award was the big one and all 20 of the departments staff that were present proudly went up to receive their Award. The judges described the centre, based at Warbreck House Blackpool as, ‘an organisation that has it right from the ground up, boasting a customer satisfaction rating of 99% and a staff satisfaction rating of 92% and still rising. A flag ship that leads by example’. The judges described Martin Moore, Contact Centre Manager as ‘inspiring, open and honest’ and was credited with turning the centre into an award winning ‘flag ship’.

Fiona Kinder, Contact Centre Manager at Wyre Borough Council, was singled out for praise on the way to picking up the Contact Centre of the Year’ Award for centres with under 50 seats. One of the judges commented, ‘the staff were bursting to tell us how great she is’, comments such as ‘Fiona can find a solution for everything’ and ’she is never afraid to challenge to make things better for our customers’. The judges went on to add that ‘not only does Fiona obviously inspire her staff she also has their up most respect.’

Other winners included Revenue Management Services, based in Preston who fought off stiff competition from the AA, picking up the award for ‘Best Implementation of Technology’ for their innovative use of SMS messaging which resulted in a reduction in customer churn. One judged described the technology as ‘a simple idea used to great effect’.

Finally Lancashire had more to be proud of with AI Claims Soloutions rounding off a great night for the county, picking up the award for ‘Best Training Programme’ for their focus on career progression.

O2, Preston Brook scooped the Over 50 seats category of ‘Contact Centre of the Year’. Winners in 2006 they kept their 100% record at these awards. In the 12 months from July 2006, O2’s Preston Brook team answered almost 5 million calls. Described by the judges as ‘having the customer clearly at the heart of the business’ and ‘dedicated to both customer and staff satisfaction’ the team beat off stiff competition from Bolton Borough Council and the Department for Work and Pensions.

Friends Providents, Marie Shaw and Helen Lloyd, celebrated in style after picking up the ‘Team Leader of the Year’ award and ‘Trainer of the Year’ award. The judges were in awe of the pair, describing Marie as a ‘pro-active individual that constantly goes the extra mile’, scoring top marks in the 1st phase of judging the first to do so in the 2 years that the awards have been running. Helen was described as ‘having a significant impact on business performance and culture, an excellent role model and simply outstanding’ by the panel of judges.

Glen Dimplex, based in Prescot triumphed at the first attempt scooping the Award for ‘Support Person of the Year’. Beating off challenges from O2 and Friends Provident, Christelle Philips was the judges choice for the service she offered to the 110 Service representatives and 140 engineers at the Prescot site. Described by her Manager as Glen Dimplex’s ‘real star’ Christelle was nominated and successfully short-listed which lead to meeting a panel of judges, as part of the process. In presenting the award, Fiona Kinder, Contact Centre Manager for Wryre Borough Council and one of the judges described Christelle as ‘an individual who has made a big difference with small measures, a genuine, very caring and passionate person from a company that obviously cares and values all staff’

Tom Kirby, Project Director, CallNorthWest said, “The evening was a fantastic success, all the finalists should be extremely proud of their achievements. CallNorthWest are proud to lead the way in recognising the significant contribution made by Call and Contact Centres here in the North West. They deserve the recognition and credit for these distinguished achievements in excellence.”

In the North West some of the largest multi national organisations have decided to locate call centres. These include Barclaycard, Bank of New York, MBNA and Marks and Spencer. Call Centres are the foundation of the North West economy employing 4.8% of the North West workforce (149,175). What’s more, despite the threats of offshoring, outsourcing and automation it is growing! In 2006 the Northwest experienced growth of 11% per annum, well above the national average of 5.3%. In the same period the North East and Scotland all failed to grow above 6%. This makes the North West of England the centre of excellence for Customer Management.