by Mark Kirby, Managing Director - GoResponse Ltd
View my profile and connect with me here
I have entered several different awards over the last 5 years, and although we have had some moderate success I always felt that the selection process was open to scepticism.
GoResponse first entered the Contact Center World Awards from ContactCenterWorld.com in 2007. We won a silver and a bronze in two different categories which we were delighted with. Since then we have also obtained recognition in other awards processes but decided that the the Contact Center World awards were more real and practical in how they were formatted.
Mark (center) holding winners Award for best Contact Center Leader in Europe, Middle East & Africa.
We entered the awards for several reasons
a) for validation that what we thought was 'great' translated the same way to other experts in the field,
b) to show our team that they really are great at what they do and
c) to have the third party endorsement of our passion and efforts that we provide to our customers.
Many might not feel comfortable with the format of having to present to dozens of industry peers and be judged by several of them! Being the one that conceived the business and has been sharing the Vision with team embers all the way through its growth, for me passion and pride take over the nerves and it is actually exciting to share Best Practices which are often Eureka moments that myself or team members have had - so it is great to have a platform to be able to share them.
Preparing for the event is always difficult as we are always working on a dozen things at one time. I learnt from the first time we did the awards to is to not to try and cover every thing in a machine gun fashion, but to pick half a dozen of the key Best Practices that we have introduced and to give the story behind them.
For me I was not reeling on fancy videos and animations, but telling a story which is one you are so close to - it is easy to share. I also was very mindful that the story has to be one that the audience can, at the worst connect with, at best learn from.
The Awards Ceremony was in a fabulous location - Madame Tussauds. Let's be honest - virtually everyone that goes to awards dinners just wants to know if they have won or not! The whole process leading up to the announcements normally seems like a long, formal drawn out affair.
The setting of Madame Tussauds, with it's 'Party Room' with waxworks of many A-listers give a welcome distraction to the normal formal pre-drinks affair and created a relaxed environment.
I am a big fan of the way that the awards are structured with Gold, Silver and Bronze. Awards processes are not cheap and they are also very resource hungry. By providing recognition not just to the winners but also to those that came close behind means that there is much more 'value' that can be gained for the investment in such a process.
This is the first time that we have out-and-out won the top prize - and for us that was winning Best Call Centre (small centre) 2012 EMEA. Not only that, we gained gold for Best Executive and bronze for Best Design - far more than we hoped for. Quite simply the feeling was euphoric. From starting a business 9 years ago with £5000 to then end up being recognised as one of the best is very rewarding and all the team quite rightly should be proud of themselves. We have celebrated with a company BBQ and Pimms since!
We have had fantastic reaction from staff, clients and prospects, and without doubt this achievement will gain us more business as a result. New recruits have also commented that they wanted to apply for positions influenced by the fact they would be working for a Best In Class!
We will be wearing the honour with pride in all our communications for the next few years!
For more information on entering the Contact Center World Awards click here
About Woven:
We’re redefining connected services.
Why? Because the conventional outsourcing model is broken.
Customers are not commodities and service is not a number on a balance sheet.
This is a brand new approach.
Where people matter and technology is intuitive.
About ContactCenterWorld:
# ContactCenterWorld
ContactCenterWorld is The Global Association for Contact Center & Customer Engagement Best Practices. Today we have over 215,000 corporate 'individual' members have joined the association's website 'ContactCenterWorld.com'. We were established in 1999.
www.contactcenterworld.com
Published: Sunday, September 30, 2012
4.) | Commence Corporation Commence CRM Comprehensive solution for automating sales, marketing, customer service ticketing and project management. |
5.) | Comvendo Inbound, Outbound, Backoffice |
6.) | FinCRM FinCRM - CRM Software FinCRM holds expertise in providing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software and Full Stack Office Management solutions. The company possesses prowess in developing tailored CRM software solutions with integration of advanced features to empower your workforce and lead to the pathway of lucrative business opportunities. It also offers CRM integrated Office Management Software to streamline your internal operations, improve marketing proficiency, and upsurge productivity. FinCRM is developed to serve several industries, including insurance, bank, NBFC, education, e-commerce, auto dealership, and more. The software is developed in such a way that any industry player can customize it... (read more) |
11.) | Pointel Customer Relationship Management Solution Pointel has a several years of experience in implementing Customer Relationship Management solution to maximize customer lifetime value and profitability. Pointel Specializes in Salesforce, Clarify, Oracle and SAP suites of products. Pointel has implemented CRM solutions for many industries including financial institutions, banks, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, insurance and telecom companies. Pointel's unique methodology guarantees 100% success. Customer Relationship Management solution improve the efficiency in managing the customer-facing business process from end-to-end. This includes Marketing, Sales, Customer Service and Support. The overall goal is to improve the customer experience and... (read more) |
I am checking out all the amazing and daily updated content on ContactCenterWorld.com and networking with professionals worldwide
Send To Friends Post On My Wall