Nominations are invited from organisations who have successful deployed new technology within their contact centre/customer service centre. Nominations should outline the business benefits that have been realised including:

• The impact on the customer and colleague experience
• ROI achieved
• The results achieved
• The approach used to implement and integrate

The award is not for the technology solution itself, but how it has been implemented, deployed and maximised within your organisation. We are happy to accept joint nominations for this category from the organisation and technology provider. (The technology provider cannot nominate on their own.)

This category recognises innovative new ideas and developments that have enabled organisations to meet the needs of their customers more effectively. Innovative approaches may apply to any aspect of the customer relationship or methods to improve existing internal systems or processes supporting customer service.

Judges will be looking for:

• Evidence of innovative thinking and deployment
• A clear business reason for the deployment
• Demonstration of the benefits to the business, the customer and the user
• How the implementation has improved performance of the operation
• The reasons you believe that your idea is innovative and relevant to todays customer

Nominations are invited from organisations that are successfully implementing changes in their organisation, that are transforming the way that they work/their offering. Nominations are invited from organisations that:

• Have a clear vision of how to transform their organisation for the digital consumer
• Can demonstrate how they are aligning people, process and technology initiatives to their business strategy and vision.
• Have an effective transformation programme in place
• Can demonstrate their learnings from this implementation and the results achieved
• Outline how they are transforming the way they connect with their customers and colleagues enabling them to deliver a unique customer service experience

This category is for teams who have implemented a change in their business processes which brought about improvements in either the customer journey or the customer service operation. Judges will be looking for:

• A clear understanding of the objectives behind the strategy
• Evidence of how the strategy was planned, executed and monitored
• Effective use of internal communication channels to inform teams across the business about the programme and its aims
• Clear evidence of the impact of the strategy on customers, advisors and the performance of the centre within the business as a whole (including a demonstrable return on investment)
• What the team has learned from the process and any future plans

Nominations are invited from organisations that have developed and implemented an effective self-service solution. The solution can be at any point in the customer journey. The judges are looking for:

• An overview of the solution and a rationale for the deployment
• Evidence of the benefits realised for the business and the customer
• How the organisation gathers feedback on the customer experience.
• The effectiveness of the solution in creating ease of use for customers

Nominations are invited from organisations across all sectors that have developed and implemented an effective risk/fraud management initiative for their contact centre/customer service centres. The judges will be looking for:

• High level overview of any solutions deployed
• Evidence of effective implementation and delivery against objectives.
• Engagement with key stakeholders in the business
• Evidence that the programme achieves the right balance between managing risk and protecting the customer experience
• An outline of the benefits realised

Nominations are invited from organisations who have a great partnership with their outsourcing partner and can demonstrate results that show how the customer and employee is benefitting from the partnership. This category is a joint entry and must show both companies on the entry form. Nominations should outline:

• Evidence of an efficient, effective, customer and colleague focused operation.
• A clear understanding of the business aims and challenges and how the partnership has helped to meet them.
• Open, two-way communication channels between the outsourcing frontline and the client decision makers
• Evidence of effective integration and ongoing investment in the relationship
• Demonstrable progression or achievement of the original business objectives
• The value-add, outside of cost, that the outsourcer has brought to the relationship

This award is open to any customer services team who work with their customers via any channel. Nominations should outline:

• Evidence of a true customer centric culture
• Demonstrate how the team work together in order to deliver for the customer
• What improvements have been implemented to ensure that the customer experience is the best it can be
• How the team’s performance has impacted the organisation overall
• A recent initiative that the team have implemented/delivered that has delivered a great experience for customers
• Demonstrate how the team have listened and responded to customer needs
• Evidence the customer engagement/satisfaction results

This category is open to customer relations/complaints teams who provide support to the customer services/contact centre operation. The team will have a good understanding of their customer issues and the opportunities for improvement in their business. Judges will be looking for:

• A robust complaints management framework is in place
• A tangible passion for customer service and a positive team attitude
• Effective measurement of the performance of the team
• A keen sense of the importance of the team’s contribution to the organisation, and how improvements by the team have resulted in better customer service overall
• Evidence of follow up measures and checks to ensure customer complaints are not repeated

Nominations are invited from quality monitoring teams that support the contact centre in an organisation. Nominations should outline:

• The quality framework that has been implemented and the rationale behind this model
• The tools and methodologies deployed and the rationale
• The overall objectives of the team and how they are performing
• How the team have influencing different parts of the organisation in order to improve the overall quality of service delivered to customers
• How the model is evolving in order to support a true quality culture across the organisation

This category is open to internal facing teams that provide operational day to day support to the contact centre. This could include supporting teams from HR, management information, marketing, planning, IT, etc. Judges will be looking for:

• An overview of the operating model and how the team support the operation on a day to day basis
• A true partnership culture and how this is evidenced
• Examples of when the team have delivered ‘above and beyond’ in order to provide high standards of customer service
• Innovation and initiative when trouble shooting or problem solving
• Evidence of how the team’s work has improved the performance of the business areas they support
• Metrics that evidence the results achieved

Nominations are invited from organisations who successfully operate a multi/omni-contact strategy for their organisation. Nominations should outline:

• The channels that have been deployed
• The rationale behind each channel deployment
• What benefits have been realised
• Evidence how the customer experience has changed/improved
• Outline what results are being achieved
• Demonstrate how the capabilities of frontline advisors have been adapted to handle multichannel enquiries.

Nominations are invited from organisations who are maximising the use of their social media channel to support the customer experience. Nominations should outline:

• Demonstrate the rationale for deployment of social media
• Share how they have implemented the social media team and how it fits with other channels
• The business benefits that are being realised
• Key performance indicators for social media channels and how your organisation is performing against those measures
• How they are tracking and influencing customer usage of social media channels.
• How feedback is gathered from customers and examples of actions taken in response to this insight

Nominations are invited from organisations who have successfully implemented a robust model for collecting and analysing customer insight. We are happy to accept joint nominations for this category from the organisation and technology provider if relevant. (The technology provider cannot nominate on their own.)

Nominations should outline:

• The overall objective of your customer insight programme
• The framework you have deployed
• Your approach to collating customer insight data, including methodologies used.
• Examples of how the insight has been used to improve the customer experience
• How you are measuring the programme and the benefits are been realised
• How the model is evolving

This category acknowledges that the most successful contact centre teams work closely with other parts of the organisations in order to ‘do the right thing’ for the customer. This could be marketing, IT, back office, complaints, business change etc. Nominations are invited from organisations that have collaborated in order to create a great customer experience. Judges are looking for:

• Outline the business drivers behind the collaboration and the challenges that had to be overcome
• What were the overall objectives of the initiative and what were the outcomes
• Outline the approach that was taken and what controls and measures were put in place
• What were the key benefits that were realised across the customer experience
• How was the initiative measured and what results were achieved

Nominations are invited from organisations who strive to be an employer of choice for customer service professionals. Judges are looking for evidence of a supporting culture that enables people to grow and develop. Nominations should outline:

• How your organisation measures employee engagement and what results you are achieving
• What learning and development opportunities exist for people
• Your approach to diversity in the workplace
• How your organisation enables people to support community activities
• Any health and wellbeing initiatives that are in place
• How people are recognised and rewarded for doing a good job
• Any flexible working initiatives that are in place or being piloted
• How you enable employees to have a ‘voice’ in the business

This category is open to any Contact Centre or Customer Services internal Learning and Development Team. Nominations should outline:

• The overall framework and objectives of the programme
• How the programme links to the organisations culture
• The impact of the programme on the operation
• How the success of the programme has been measured and what results are being realised
• What methods have been used to develop and deploy the programme
• How the programme has been embedded

This category is open to organisations who have created an internal programme that supports the overall health and wellbeing of their contact centre/customer service employees. Nominations should include:

• Evidence that the leadership team recognise the value of supporting their people to lead a healthy and happy life
• Evidence of a programme of activities and supporting mechanisms that recognise the challenges of working in a contact centre/customer service environment
• Health and wellbeing is embedded within the culture and there is active encouragement of positive lifestyle choice
• Evidence that the organisation actively supports/educates its people on mental health issues, enabling them to recognise the challenges that colleagues and customers, as well as themselves, may be experiencing

This category is open to organisations who have implemented an effective framework in their customer services operation that enables people’s voices to be heard and uses their feedback to create a better employee experience. Nominations should outline:

• A description of your employee feedback programme/initiatives evidencing how people’s voices are heard
• Examples of how this insight is used to create a better overall employee experience
• How the programme has improved culture, staff turnover, and increased quality and performance
• How you ensure key stakeholders in the business and ensure that the programme is sustainable
• How you ensure that the programme has integrity and is trusted by your people

This category is open to organisations that have demonstrated a commitment to a range of innovative flexible working policies and practices that reflect people’s lifestyles and how people prefer/need to work

• Outline the different initiatives that your organisation has in place to support flexible working
• Demonstrate how you are creating innovative working practices whilst still balancing the needs of the business/workforce management
• Examples of how your customer service operation puts flexible working hours into practice
• Evidence that acknowledges that different requests for flexible solutions may come at different life stages and how these are supported by your organisation

Nominations are invited from multi-lingual contact centres. Judges are looking for:

• Evidence of an efficient, effective, customer and colleague focused operation.
• An overview of the different languages and channels provided
• Examples of how the organisation embraces the different cultures in the contact centre
• An overview of the quality management programme in place
• A clear understanding of the contact centres role within the business at all levels, with appropriate resources and systems in place to ensure ongoing success
• Robust people processes including recruitment, learning and development and colleague engagement
• Clear targets and measures and your performance against each of these
• Evidence of how the centre has contributed to the wider business

Nominations are invites from organisations who have two or more contact centres operating across different European countries. Judging will be looking for:

• An overview of how the different Contact Centres collaborate in order to best serve the customer
• Evidence of an efficient, effective, customer and colleague focused operation.
• A clear understanding of the contact centres role within the business at all levels, with appropriate resources and systems in place to ensure ongoing success
• Robust people processes including recruitment, learning and development and colleague engagement
• A people-centric environment with effective communication vehicles
• Appropriate reward and recognition schemes
• Evidence that the frontline teams are involved in decisions that impact them
• Evidence of the positive impact of the centre on the company as a whole
• Clear targets and measures and your performance against each of these

Nominations are invited from Outsourced Contact Centres based in Europe. Judges will be looking for:

• Evidence of an efficient, effective, customer and colleague focused operation.
• A clear understanding of the contact centres role within the business at all levels, with appropriate resources and systems in place to ensure ongoing success
• Robust people processes including recruitment, learning and development and colleague engagement
• A people-centric environment with effective communication vehicles
• Appropriate reward and recognition schemes
• Evidence that the frontline are involved in decisions that impact them
• Evidence of the positive impact of the centre on the company as a whole
• Clear targets and measures and your performance against each of these

Nominations are invited from Contact Centres based in Europe. Judges will be looking for:

• Evidence of an efficient, effective, customer and colleague focused operation.
• A clear understanding of the contact centres role within the business at all levels, with appropriate resources and systems in place to ensure ongoing success
• Robust people processes including recruitment, learning and development and colleague engagement
• A people-centric environment with effective communication vehicles
• Appropriate reward and recognition schemes
• Evidence that the frontline are involved in decisions that impact them
• Evidence of the positive impact of the centre on the company as a whole
• Clear targets and measures and your performance against each of these