The Call Centre Management Association (CCMA) is marking a quarter century at the forefront of the UK contact centre industry.

As the industry’s longest serving association, the CCMA says it has hundreds of members representing many of today’s leading brands, hosting both the UK National Contact Centre Awards and the UK National Contact Centre Conference.

In recent years, the CCMA also adopted the European Contact Centre & Customer Service Awards (ECCCSAs), the longest-running and largest awards for the customer contact sector in Europe.

Today there are 6175 contact centres in the UK employing 1,292,165 people, according to the latest figures from ContactBabel, with many industry analysts predicting 2019 will be a profitable and high growth year for the contact centre sector.

Ann-Marie Stagg (pictured), Chief Executive at the CCMA, said: “Contact centres have consistently found ways to grow, adapt and revolutionise themselves since the 1990s. We are proud to have been on that journey with them and look forward to continuing to support the industry by providing the guidance, network and recognition that our members need.”

Peter Ryan, Principal Analyst for contact centres and BPO at Ryan Advisory, said: “Without a doubt, the stellar growth of the contact centre industry over the past two decades has been a major source of interest for industry players and observers alike. The history is marked with significant technological and operational milestones that changed the caller experience such as ACD technology developed to manage huge numbers of calls and IVR which offered a number of options to route calls quicker.  Which is why today, with consumers looking to engage with enterprises across a variety of channels and the pressure to meet and exceed expectations at an all-time high, organisations like the CCMA are so important.”

Peter Ryan added: “2019 is looking like the year companies choose to invest in the technologies now available to further automate low value activity to allow advisors to spend more time resolving difficult queries and higher value transactions. We will see omnichannel, AI powered contact centres giving instant and real time support radically transforming CX and it is only at the beginning of its journey.”

To commemorate its anniversary the CCMA has put together an infographic (see below) depicting some of the events of the last 25 years in the industry.

An e-book and video will also be available soon.