2023 Customer Strategy & Planning (Virtual)

Navigating a Customer Experience transformation

Customers increasingly expect brands to deliver support that helps them solve issues as quickly as possible and doesn’t require them to waste time on the phone with human call agents. To meet these rising expectations, many brands have undergone—or plan to undergo—a customer experience transformation, using lessons learned from evolving customer requirements to deploy tools that deliver on their demands.

Eight top AI use cases for contact centres

The contact centre is where the big opportunities lie for AI. Here, we have the perfect mix of business appetite, technology readiness and customer value. It’s a nobrainer. This run through should help any contact centre or CX leader understand where and how AI can help you improve customer experience and increase operational efficiencies.

Partner Article: Calabrio integrates its software with Avaya Experience Platform Public Cloud

Calabrio has announced that it has integrated another solution with Avaya as part of its longstanding relationship with the leader in customer experience and communications solutions. This one sees the award-winning Calabrio Workforce Management (WFM) solution integrate with Avaya Experience Platform™ (AXP) Public Cloud in a milestone collaboration that will revolutionise the landscape for contact centres looking to innovate and modernise in the cloud. 

2024 vision: a year of experimentation, data insights, and cloud challenges in the contact centre industry

As we step into a new year, the customer experience sector is gearing up for a transformative 12 months. It seems as though we talk about that every year – but I genuinely believe 2024 will finally live up to those expectations.

There’s been plenty of talking points in 2023; with the explosion of generative AI of course being the main one. However, this year we will see some real change in the industry.

How to win an award in less than 20 years!

In April 2007, Alison Conaghan and I attended The Forum’s annual Customer Strategy & Planning conference. Over the next two days we watched dozens of talks, keynotes, case studies, training events and, very importantly, the Innovation Awards ceremony. We learned a lot at that information-packed and inspiring event and walked away with our little  heads full of ideas to revolutionise WFM in our company. Above all though, that conference left us united by a single objective: to win the overall Innovation of the Year Award at the next Forum conference.

Shaping the future: Fear, Ageing, Technology, and Hope

In summer 2023 I was at a conference with other gestalt therapists. The topic of AI, its impact on the world, and all of us, and how we might move toward and with it as a community came up. The discussion included the relationship that ageing and getting older has to our attitude on AI. In my opinion, AI is a proxy for Change and in some ways for the shape of the future. There were a lot of emotions in the room, including my own. I felt my anger rise: these ‘kids’ who were being talked about as adversely impacted by ‘how the world is and the inevitable change in the world’ are not another species, they are my kids, aged 13 and 14. Amazing young people who will have to find their path through an uncertain future. I was surprised by some of the strong reactions and responses in the room.

Partnership perfection: Navigating the future together

Over recent years we have noticed a step change in how technology/service providers are working smarter with their customers to deliver excellent results. There is such a rich narrative now around the synergy between strategic alignment and practical execution. Using learning from our Partnership awards we can start to develop a comprehensive blueprint for what makes a partnership not just survive but thrive in today’s V.U.C.A world (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity).

Opening Keynote: How to Learn

Originally broadcast Tuesday 2nd July 09:30

How you can use this week to learn from our members. 

Innovation Winners: Indeed & OVO Energy

Originally broadcast Tuesday 2nd July, 10:30

Learn from overall Innovation of the Year winners, indeed on Leading Global Transformation and OVO Energy talking about their Service Transformation.

Award Winners: Planning Teams

Originally broadcast on Tuesday 2nd July, 14:15

Learn how Real-Time Team of the Year, eBay reintroduced Real-Time globally. Hear from Lloyds Banking Group on how they achieved a Best Practice Shift Review. 

Innovation Winners: Bank of Ireland & TSB

Originally broadcast Wednesday 3rd July, 09:30

Hear from Best Practice in Branch Planning winners Bank of Ireland and the Planning Team of the Year, TSB.

Best Practice Partnerships: Hear from the judges

Originally broadcast Wednesday 3rd July, 10:30

In this session our Partnership Awards Judges will share their highlights from this year's finalists stories. Sharing what has inspired them, and the learning that they have taken from the process. 

Award Winners: Planning Analysts

Originally broadcast Wednesday 3rd July, 13:15

Learn from Analysts of the Year; Michelle Adshead at VitalityHealth and Kristie-Leigh Armstrong from BT Group and our Rising Stars; Lauren Laycock at NFU Mutual and Kirsty Ritchie of Wheatley Housing.

Award Winners: Quality Individuals

Originally broadcast Wednesday 3rd July, 14:15

Hear from 2024 Quality & Improvement Rising Star, Jess Baldock at DAS, our Knowledge Management Professional, Alexandra Jordan from Zopa and the Quality & Improvement Manager of the Year, Susan Drape-Comyn. 

Award Winners: Quality Teams

Originally broadcast Thursday 4th July, 09:30

Learn from Benenden Health on Continuous Improvement Strategy, The Knowledge Management Team of the Year, Utility Warehouse and our Quality Team of the Year, ACCA.

Awards Winners: Planning Managers

Originally broadcast Thursday 4th July, 10:30

Managers of the Year; Alex Gold from OVO Energy and Steven Miller at Benenden Health share their stories. 

Partnership Perfection: Hear from our associate heroes

Originally broadcast Thursday 4th July, 13:15

Join our Associate Heroes as they share their key ingredients for the perfect partnership

Endnote: The 2025 Awards

Originally broadcast Thursday 4th July, 14:15

How you can gain recognition for your and your teams work through our Awards. Tips for entering.

Partner Article: Calabrio Enhances its Innovative AI-driven Business Intelligence Tools

Corresponding 2024 Summer Release free webinar offers in-depth Insights and Interaction Summary product demonstrations 

Time well spent: planning for annual leave

Annual leave is a frustration for employees, a key challenge for Resource Planners and a bigger hidden problem for organisations than they think.

Partner News: Sabio's latest news and resources

Navigating the AI Frontier

A roadmap for contact centre innovation

Playbooks: Structured decision making

Design your playbooks from operating model design, customer journey, colleague succession to on-the-day operational effectiveness. Whatever your role, take confidence in understanding the impact and interconnectivity of every decision.

Addressing early attrition: a fresh approach to recruitment and onboarding

Within the contact centre sector, the challenge of high attrition rates is widely acknowledged.

How Knowledge Management supports front-line colleagues

Francis Bacon said “knowledge is power” – and when it comes to your contact centre and the frontline of customer demands, knowledgeable agents are empowered agents, able to do their best work. 

The modern contact centre has arrived

Make sure your agents don’t get left behind

Consumer Duty: delivering the right outcomes

For many organisations Consumer Duty legislation is transforming the way we think about quality and customer service. Rather than thinking transactionally and breaking customer service into a series of tick boxes it focusses on customer outcomes.

Partner News: Calabrio Unveils Latest Innovations at C3 2024: Transforming Customer Contact Centres for the Future

Calabrio, the workforce performance company, this week announced a series of groundbreaking innovations at its C3 user conference. The annual event, including the ONE Awards, is known for bringing together industry leaders, customers and industry analysts, to feature the launch of new products, share insightful industry discussions, and recognise outstanding customers.