Taking place on the 18th and 19th April 2016 at the outstanding Radisson Blu Hotel, London Stansted, the Call Centre & Customer Services Summit returned for its 13th year this 2016. The event brought the industry’s most-sought after product and service providers, prominent industry influencers and senior decision-makers together for two days of ideas, inspirations, tools and tactics to help businesses succeed in today’s fast-paced environment.

Differing to trade shows and exhibitions; the Call Centre & Customer Services Summit is purposely smaller; focusing on quality over quantity. Exclusively inviting senior professionals and handpicking suppliers that provide a sought-after product or service; the Call Centre and Customer Services Summit ensures attendees leave with plenty of business contacts relevant to their current and forthcoming projects.

Hosting a selection of senior decision-makers from some of our biggest household names; Addison Lee, EE, Expedia, Legal and General, Ocado Group, Premier Inn, Sky, amongst many others, the Summit has established itself as the principal place in the industry for contact centre professionals to get their fix on the latest industry updates and innovations.

Suppliers are carefully handpicked to ensure the products and services they provide are relevant to attending delegates. This year’s suppliers covered a wide range of the most sought-after products and services in the industry; agent coaching and monitoring, staff incentives and motivation, social media, webchat, amongst many others. This April we hosted Ctalk, our headline sponsor, Ogilvy Change, Premier CX, Randstad, Real Results Training, Scorebuddy and many others to showcase their latest products and services to senior decision-makers.

The Call Centre & Customer Services Summit uses a unique formula to match like-minded delegates and suppliers together for a series of face-to-face meetings. A fundamental component of Forum Events’ core philosophy; face-to-face meetings provide the opportunity for like-minded delegates and suppliers to get to know one another on a personal level – after all evidence confirms we are more likely to do business with companies that we have met face-to-face.

We kicked off this year’s event with an opening presentation with the Telephone Assassin, Anthony Stears. Anthony joined us to discuss the secrets to telephone success and the future of the call centre industry in this day and age. Touching on how businesses can adapt their customer service to drive sales and the latest industry changes and regulations, Anthony started the day off with an all-encompassing day.

After an engaging opening presentation, it was time for a set of two seminars with prominent industry influencers; Richard Farrell, Chief Technology Officer at Netcall and Susannah Richardson, Marketing and Account Director at mplsystems.

Richard presented a group session on the effectiveness of multi-channel tactics; he touched on myths and best practice in order to enable businesses to improve productivity, profitability and transform customer experience. Susannah joined us to discuss the future of self-service and automation. For businesses to remain competitive self-service and automation are an inevitable part of the evolution of contact centres. Susannah covered the most effective options and how businesses can offer a true Omni-channel experience through the use of virtual assistants and automation.

After a set of seminars, delegates and suppliers got together to discuss the latest innovations to help tackle the challenges facing the contact centre industry today through a series of face-to- face meetings and over a delicious networking lunch at the Radisson Blu’s Filini Restaurant.

To finish the day off, we had a choice of two seminars the first with Head of Ogilvy Change, Richard Chataway and the second with Derek Corcoran, Managing Director of Scorebuddy. Derek shared his expertise a new framework for extracting more real value from a well-designed and collaborative quality assurance process in today’s multi-channel environment. Richard presented Ogilvy Change’s latest findings on the way the brain works and the impact this has on call centres.

After a busy day and a short break, it was finally time for some fun! With a handful of relaxed networking opportunities over our gala dinner, drinks and some evening entertainment; we ensure attendees get to know each other that little bit better. We had a fun-filled evening in store for our guests; a fun money casino, a reaction board and to top it all off an F1 simulator competition. Everyone had a great time and got stuck, all in battling to win a bottle of champagne!

The next day, we were all up bright and early – ready for another productive day. To start the day off, Carolyn Blunt from Real Results Training discussed how to liberate contact centre professionals to create a human touch.

After a thought-provoking seminar, it was time for another set of face-to-face meetings and some much-needed coffee breaks! A lot of positive interaction went on during the final business meetings of the day and everyone was pleased with the contacts they had made.

We ended the day with a case study with Spectrum CX’s Executive Chair, Alan Pennington. Alan advised us on the rise in customer experience on the world of customer services and how businesses can innovate by approaching the two differently. Finally, to close the show, Andrew Stears, the Telephone Assassin gave a few closing remarks along with some tips for success.

We had a final networking lunch and before we knew it, it was time to go back to the office but this time armed with a handful of useful contacts.

After another productive two days, the Call Centre and Customer Services Summit has yet again confirmed its position as market leader. Featuring keynote speakers, leading brands and the biggest brains in the industry, the Summit is the ideal place for industry professionals to learn, share, network and engage amongst the biggest brains in the industry.

AllClear Insurance comments on the event;

“I cannot believe that for the access to contacts and wealth of information that this event provides, that it is free for delegates to attend! It’s a no brainer; it is worth its weight in gold – highly recommended.”

The next Call Centre and Customer Services Summit will be taking place on 19th-20th September 2016 at the Whittlebury Hall Hotel Northampton. For the next event we can expect even more delegates in attendance. To book your place onto this event or to register your interest, please click here.