2021 Customer Strategy & Planning Speakers

For many organisations, outsourcing customer operations has historically been treated as a commercial transaction rather than a professional capability. Contracts are negotiated, suppliers are appointed, and governance frameworks are established to monitor performance. Yet despite the scale, complexity and strategic importance of these relationships, outsourcing is rarely managed with the same discipline applied to areas such as workforce planning, customer experience design or operational transformation. This gap is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

Outsourcing is a tricky balancing act. Get it right, and it can transform your business. Get it wrong, and it can turn into a never-ending headache. Companies outsource for many reasons, like saving money, gaining expertise, or increasing scale. But success largely depends on managing the relationship well. To make outsourcing successful, follow these tips and avoid common mistakes. Also, learn why some businesses choose multiple outsourcers to spread their risk.

OVO needed offshore support that felt like one team. Firstsource made it happen—quickly. Service levels jumped, response times improved, and culture thrived. They trained together, chatted daily, and built trust across borders. A great example of people-first operational change.

Steven Davison optimized public sector services at HGS. His data insights improved government decision-making, streamlined services, and enhanced efficiency.

Cheryl Whitfield developed Clive, an onboarding chatbot. Clive handled over 4,300 interactions in 11 weeks, helping new agents settle in quickly. He reduced managers’ workloads, improved information access, and boosted agent confidence. Cheryl’s work showed how simple automation can make a big impact.

Work-from-home CX specialist Sensée has launched an emergency response service for organisations needing extra trained personnel at short notice to manage spikes in customer contact.

Hammersmith, London. Sensée and Bupa are pleased to announce that their customer service homeworking team was named ‘Outsourced Contact Centre of the Year - Medium’ at the 2023 Northern Contact Centre Awards gala dinner on Friday night.

Calabrio, the workforce performance company, has announced that business process outsourcer (BPO) The Contact Company (TCC) has selected Calabrio ONE software to support the company’s ambitious growth plans. TCC plans to implement a broad range of Calabrio’s automated, data-driven solutions to support the contact centre complexity of its growing client base and hybrid-working in a multi-channel customer service environment.