UK - August 1, 2007 - Over 100 Contact Centre specialists were able to visit award-winning Contact Centres to see for themselves how key innovations have been achieved as part of the Best Practice programme organised by the Professional Planning Forum.
 The organisations, such as the AA, EDF, Alliance and Leicester and Kent County Council had all won or been shortlisted for the Contact Centre Innovation Awards 2007 hosted by the Professional Planning Forum, and were therefore a showcase for what can be achieved.
Limited in numbers, to enable the chance to break into groups for a side-by-side look at key systems or processes, they were very interactive and valued highly by attendees who could learn from seeing, first-hand, the challenges faced by different organisations and the tools and processes they use.
"Open to members and non-members alike, this is a great way to see and talk to the people on the front line – both those involved in making these innovative achievements happen and those impacted by them," explains Steve Woosey, Membership Director, of the Professional Planning Forum.
The AA described how they revised their resourcing processes and managed to increase call centre revenue and service at the same time – all this whilst simultaneously halving their planning team and delivering a £12M cost challenge. They explained that the key to their success was not relying on the technology, rather it was building a strong team who were able to utlilise the technology more effectively - not just in planning but across the contact centre. At EDF, delegates gained the chance for a first hand look at how a re-launch of the resource management function and their 3-phase holistic approach to resourcing, built on previous successes to reduce attrition by 5%, increase employee satisfaction by 20% and introduce a call causation analysis that is targeted to reduce calls by 26% in the short term. Mandy Bready, from RBS Insurance, highlighted the benefits of sharing and meeting - picking up in particular that the visit will help her to "drive forward changes that I have previously considered but now feel more strongly and confident about.”
The visit to Kent County Council showed local members and others how the skills development strategy at Kent's 200+ FTE call centre, together with a dedicated resource planning team and the use of a workforce management system, created basis for growth in call volume and complexity. Paul Burgess-Clements, from AXA PPP Healthcare was one of the visitors: "Great to see a different sector and the issues faced - that were similar whilst also different. We are able from the visit to reflect on own centres strengths and weaknesses".
These site visits continue throughout September and October, with organisations such as Barclaycard, Abtran, and Logica CMG, taking part. |