2026 Customer Strategy & Planning Virtual

Opening Keynote: Customer Strategy & Planning, Reset | Redefining

Originally broadcast on Monday 16th March, 10:30

Customer Strategy & Planning, Reset | Redefining
This keynote challenges leaders to press reset on outdated planning, metrics, and behaviours, and to start redefining what excellence in customer operations truly means. 

Verint Technology Showcase

Originally broadcast on Monday 16th March, 12:30

The Real-Time Workforce, Realign the Moment: How Real-Time Insights Reshape Performance
Our Gold Sponsors Verint explore how moving beyond traditional WFM unlocks a new era of performance and employee experience. We’ll walk through the journey to Reset, Redefine and Realign—resetting long‑held assumptions about coaching, redefining performance through real‑time behavioural insight, and empowering agents to realign instantly with live coaching, instant EX scoring, and flexible scheduling tools. 

Hiya Technology Showcase

Originally broadcast on Monday 16th March, 13:30

Join Hiya for a focused session on Branded Calling and how verified, identifiable outbound calls are transforming customer communication. As trust becomes critical to engagement, branded calling helps organizations improve answer rates, reduce call hesitation, and build confidence at the moment of contact. We’ll explore why it matters, how it aligns with evolving customer expectations, and practical ways to strengthen voice engagement.

Workshop: Benchmarking

Originally broadcast on Monday 16th March, 14:30

This keynote will bring our latest benchmarking to life, not as a set of “industry standards,” but as a catalyst for insight, challenge and learning.

Keynote: Redefining Workforce Planning

Originally broadcast on Tuesday 17th March, 09:30

This keynote challenges outdated thinking in Resource Planning and redefines forecasting, insight, scheduling and Real-Time as a single system of strategic intelligence.

Forecasting, Capacity Planning & Budgeting Workshop

Originally broadcast on Tuesday 17th March at 10:30

Strategic, long-term, budget and near-term forecasts are not separate activities. They are layers of the same thinking system. AI, analytics and language models amplify that system. Human leadership gives it meaning, ethics and direction.

Aspect Technology Showcase

Originally broadcast on Tuesday 17th March, 12:30

From Excel to Execution: A New Way to Plan Capacity
Most contact centres still rely on spreadsheets to plan capacity and staffing, even though the pace of change has outgrown static models. In this 45-minute joint technology workshop, Aspect and Cinareo will show why moving beyond Excel is no longer optional, and what good capacity planning discipline looks like in practice.

Workshop: Redefining Scheduling

Originally broadcast on Tuesday 17th March, 13:30

To prepare for the future of AI-driven scheduling, organisations must shift from control to design, from discretion to governance, and from firefighting to readiness, developing planners as system stewards, leaders as culture architects, and employees as responsible participants in a shared, transparent workforce ecosystem

Workshop: Redefining Real-Time

Originally broadcast on Tuesday 17th March, 15:30

Organisations that invest only in automation will create faster operations. Organisations that invest in people + AI + learning cultures will create smarter, fairer, and more resilient systems.

Keynote: Redefining Operational Improvement

Originally broadcasted on Wednesday 18th March, 09:30

Resetting Improvement explores how Quality, Learning, Knowledge and Continuous Improvement must evolve for a new era of customer operations, moving beyond legacy habits and outdated metrics toward adaptive frameworks, evidence‑based readiness and human‑centred performance that can thrive in the complexity of 2026 and beyond. 

Technology Showcase

Originally broadcasted on Wednesday 18th March, 12:30

Join QStory's David Preece for a tech showcase of our Back Office solution, Work Item Manager. This session will demonstrate how the system acts as a "Back Office ACD'" to accurately capture true handling times, measure agent productivity, and replace gut-feel planning with reliable, data-driven metrics.

Workshop: Automated Quality

Originally broadcasted on Wednesday 18th March, 15:30

Automated Quality gives us the chance to reset what QA exists to do. This session looks beyond automation as efficiency, and instead explores how redefining the QA role can unlock greater value, shifting focus from checking interactions to shaping performance, insight and outcomes.

Keynote: Redefining Data, Analytics & Insight

Originally broadcasted on Thursday 19th March, 09:30

Resetting Insight explores how data, analytics and AI are moving from reporting to responsible, autonomous decision-making, and how organisations can embed insight directly into the systems that shape customer and colleague experiences.

Workshop: Data Principles in a CCaaS World

Originally broadcasted on Thursday 19th March, 10:30

This session highlights the essential principles needed to manage, govern, and activate data in a cloud‑native environment and discussed the differences from how data is presented from on premise platforms. 

Workshop: Opensource Tooling & Methods

Originally broadcasted on Thursday 19th March, 13:30

Whilst Excel remains the original example of “Open Source Tooling” in our industry it does come with its limitations. In this session we will discuss how tools such as “Python” “R” and “Shiny” can be utilised within planning and insight and the benefits they can bring. This session will feature expert input from Phil Stubbs from Atlantic insight.

Workshop: Why a ‘reset’ in vulnerability customer service is necessary now

Orginally broadcasted on Thursday 19th March, 14:30

In this session, Helen Pettifer will explore why traditional approaches to vulnerability are no longer fit for today’s customer landscape. Vulnerability has not simply increased — it has changed in nature, complexity and visibility.

Understanding the people puzzle

Originally broadcast on Friday 20th March, 10:30

Thought Leadership followed by a discussion, with recently awarded Coach of the Year, Lee Houghton, Improvement Coach, Get Knowledge.

Endnote

Friday 20th March, 13:30

Conference Summary
Hear from Phil, Chris and Dave as they talk about their main takeaways from a packed week of learning.