2021 National Conference

Looking back on 2021

2021 was our year for Unlocking Opportunities. Doing more of what we do well is a great opportunity that we don’t always fully exploit. One of the most valuable things we can do is put time aside to reflect on what has gone well. When things go wrong we are quick to review, so that we can learn from our mistakes. We are not so good at learning from our successes. If we can repeat and build on our successes then that has to be a good thing. As we come to the end of 2021 it is time to look back on what we have done well, so that in 2022 we can do it again only better.

Moment of Truth: Confident to Succeed

Our actions, or inaction, will define us. We are the key to our own success. During 2021 we focused on unlocking opportunities and the part each of us can play in helping to shape the future. For 2022 we want to focus you on your Moment of Truth and being confident to succeed.

Keynote: Your Moment of Truth

Originally broadcast Monday 4th April 2022, 09:30

Confident to Succeed Every day we practice living versus an ever-changing world and environment. Those who strive to learn and improve can adapt better. Those who are contempt with how they are or refuse to accept the changes around them will find it hard to catch-up as the change required to survive and thrive becomes bigger.

Your Moment of Truth: confident to succeed

For our 22nd year, we focus on the opportunity we have, as professionals, to drive successful improvements, whether in planning, insight, or customer experience. This Best Practice theme for 2022 represents the next stage of this coming of age for our professional disciplines.

So, we invite you to consider your moments of truth. What makes you confident to succeed?

Liquorice Consistents – Does somebody at Bassetts not like me?

At our Customer Strategy & Planning Connections conference in Newcastle on 26th April ‘22 we explored probability using Liquorice Allsorts.

Questions to consider for annual leave

As the world reboots after the firm reset of the Pandemic, we have the opportunity to revisit, redefine and reshape how we have done things. 2020 was a strange year, especially for annual leave, as lockdown restrictions changed how we used annual leave and the Government stating leave can be carried over, firmly “kicking the can” down the road, to give us a problem for another day (or year).

Insight Keynote

Originally broadcast Wednesday 16th November 2022, 09:30

Hear from Rob Hanrahan, CEO of miPerform.

Community Learning Keynote

Originally broadcast Friday 18th November 2022, 12:30

Hear from a Forum Hero and organisations who have taken a team approach to learning.

Partner Article: Improve Contact Centre Operations with Robotic Process Automation

Alvaria Automate™ Attended and  Alvaria Automate™ Unattended allows centres to optimise normal and repetitive operational activities and automate error-prone tasks through robotic process automation (RPA) —improving accuracy, efficiency and consistency, while helping maintain compliance. 

Partner Article: Majority of UK businesses still ill-equipped for a hybrid working future according to new survey

UK businesses are firmly committed to a flexible working future but the majority are still in the planning stage of their hybrid working projects according to a new industry survey of contact centre industry professionals.

Partner Article: How to set the right service level goal in your call center

What is your contact center service level goal? Odds are, some or all of the groups are at either 80/20, 70/30 or some combination of those. They are extremely common. Do you use average speed of answer (ASA)? If so, is it 20 seconds or 30 seconds? Those are by far the most utilized ASAs. But what do these actually mean and how do you know if you have the right measure?

Strength in numbers the value of community

We build strength when we focus on how we collaborate and who we do this with. When we bring together trusted data, analysis and insight alongside a group of people with a collective desire to improve, we can achieve greatness.

2023 Planning Awards: Planners have interrogated their data to thoroughly understand issues at Hoover Candy

2023 Planning Awards: Planners have interrogated their data to thoroughly understand issues at Hoover Candy
Challenging their software vendors uncovered issues that also impacted other customers. They’ve built relationships with stakeholders, who now trust the information provided. And a new Pathway to Planning offers advisors new career choices. Participants have even become informal planning champions in their teams!
 

2023 Planning Awards: See how data scientists are transforming customer journeys at Legal & General

2023 Planning Awards: See how data scientists are transforming customer journeys at Legal & General
Gathering information form front-line staff has mode possible automated workflows for 27,000 customers per month and led to greatly improved customer journeys. This has increased engagement with the operation. And it’s reduced repeat contacts, increasing the value that advisors can add to each call.
 

2023 Planning Awards: Tabitha Cantrell at Hoover Candy

2023 Planning Awards: Tabitha Cantrell at Hoover Candy interrogated the data supplied by their systems to uncover errors and gained the trust of both operations and the supplier.

2023 Planning Awards: Vanessa Jossi at Lifeplus

2023 Planning Awards: Vanessa Jossi at Lifeplus has focussed on her learning. She learns from others in her organisation and network groups at The Forum, as well as from industry articles. She has redesigned many reports and dashboards across Lifeplus.

2023 Innovation & Transformation Awards: Unlocking the power of data and actionable insight at Firstsource

2023 Innovation & Transformation Awards: Unlocking the power of data and actionable insight at Firstsource
Maximising the power of data to build a capability providing insight and foresight into risks that would otherwise disrupt the operation. Information is no longer dealt with in isolation as the platform brings different teams together to discuss and plan jointly. 
 

2023 Innovation & Transformation Awards: Creating time for meaningful conversations at Water Plus

2023 Innovation & Transformation Awards: Creating time for meaningful conversations at Water Plus
At the heart of the Innovation & Centre of Excellence is an internal talent growth programme driving improvement through automation and robotics. This isn’t about replacing people, this is about releasing mundane tasks that shouldn’t take a human to do, so the humans can add real value to customers. 

2023 Planning Awards: Tom Hammond at Aviva

2023 Planning Awards: Tom Hammond at Aviva devised an Allocation Framework that works as a structure for all the transformation modelling he has undertaken. The framework has really improved messaging with key stakeholders who may not be data orientated.

2023 Planning Awards: Darren Harvey at Firstsource

2023 Planning Awards: Darren Harvey at Firstsource works on very varied accounts but always looks to deliver proactive plans to improve performance across these clients. He has worked closely with them to improve efficiencies and standardised reporting which has delivered significant savings.

2023 Insight Awards: Focussing MI on what matters most to do more with less at FedEx

2023 Insight Awards: Focussing MI on what matters most to do more with less at FedEx
Resource challenges made the team think differently about MI. Making life simpler for their audience, they have removed the noise and produced automated Power BI Dashboards. This allowed the team to do more with less resources.

2023 Insight Awards: Desktop analytics in the back office at Firstsource

2023 Insight Awards: Desktop analytics in the back office at Firstsource
The team have leveraged data analytics for back office operations. They have integrated many data sources with existing desktop analytics tools. This allowed them to identify many opportunities for improvement. Small transformations are delivering significant benefits.

2023 Insight Awards: Empowering people to help themselves at NFU Mutual Agencies

2023 Insight Awards: Empowering people to help themselves at NFU Mutual Agencies
Connecting data to processes has allowed the team to drive insight-led improvement. Understanding variation across their network is highlighting opportunities. Projection based dashboards then allow stakeholders to do “What if?” analysis to predict the outcomes of their decisions.

2023 Insight Awards: Automation delivers a step change in customer service at Water Plus

2023 Insight Awards: Automation delivers a step change in customer service at Water Plus
Using robots, the team are simplifying processes for their advisors and their customers. Automating time consuming processes is removing the risk of human error and freeing up time to focus on the customer. This has helped to improve efficiency, reduce complaints and increase customer satisfaction.

2023 Insight Awards: Maritza Soto Vasquez at Legal & General

Maritza Soto Vasquez left a successful career as an astrophysicist to join the team at Legal & General. She identified transferable skills and introduced a scientific approach to insight. Maritza is now sharing her skills training her colleagues in tools such as Python. 

2023 Insight Awards: Holly Smith at Macmillan Cancer Support

Holly Smith used skills she had developed to automate reporting at Macmillan Cancer Support. Building simple excel based robots, she is making it easier for her colleagues to log and update work, saving time and reducing errors.

2023 Insight Awards: Lauren Magee at North Yorkshire County Council

Lauren Magee has used data to tell stories and bring together colleagues at North Yorkshire County Council to work towards a common goal. Regular collaboration sessions pulled together different skills, knowledge and ideas, to develop a self-service portal and chatbots, driving a channel shift for their customers. 

2023 Insight Awards: Megan Hutchens at L&Q

Megan Hutchens looked outside planning for solutions to a planning challenge at L&Q. High handle times meant that they were unable to answer calls within agreed service levels. Analysing the data identified opportunities to improve and effective coaching has improved efficiency, reduced costs and improved service levels.

2023 Insight Awards: Isha Saxena at Firstsource

Isha Saxena has been a driving force behind the team success at Firstsource. Setting up the right data architecture and frameworks has enabled her to quickly produce automated Power BI dashboards. This has built trust and helps business leaders with strategic decision-making. 

2023 Insight Awards: Stuart Marr at RSA

Stuart Marr has played a key role in introducing Interaction analytics to RSA. Aligning to company values and putting equal emphasis on speech and text he has built an automated QA model. This allows the QA team to focus on coaching and improvement.