Over 2500 attendees, 200 sponsors and 250 expert speakers have descended on The Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas for the opening of the 19th annual Customer Contact Week (CCW). Started in 1999 as Call Center Week, CCW is the world’s largest customer contact event series. CCW focusses on customer care, CX, and aims to bring contact centre leaders together. Sin City’s bright lights and 24 hour entertainment offer supplementary attractions to those who are focused on CX and enhancing their provision with innovative platforms.
Vendors and attendees are welcomed to examine the industry and look at new technology platforms, and practices, to enhance and improve global customer service. Premium sponsors include Genesys, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Five9, Microsoft, Vonage Business, IBM Watson, Avaya, Zailab. The event, which is managed by the Customer Management Practice, comprises a two day exhibition, conference, interactive discussion groups and an awards dinner. Gahwui Kim, Marketing Director at Customer Management Practice spoke to UC Today to discuss this year’s event.
“Our customer retention increased by 10%, from last year. We started small and we’ve been growing it, we still have more room for growth and try every year to make the event better than the last. The interactive discussion groups were a new addition to the show this year, aiming to create that intimate environment for customers to learn about over 60 different topics.”
One of the event’s biggest attractions is the wealth of speakers attending all focussing on CX related topics. This year’s speaker roster includes Barbara Corcoran, Best Selling Author, Business Mogul and Leading Shark on ABC’s “Shark Tank”; Jeanne Bliss, President of Customer Bliss and Author of “Would You Do That To Your Mother?”; Shep Hyken, Chief Amazement Officer at Shepard Presentations, LLC; Kelli Durkin, VP Customer Service at Chewy.com; Janelle Sallenave, Head of Customer Support North America at Uber and many more.
The highly anticipated CCW Excellence Awards evening and gala, hosted by Five9, recognised participants in over 13 different categories. A prestigious judging panel decided the winners based upon the full spectrum of customer contact operations. Entertainment at the event was provided by renowned ventriloquist and America’s Got Talent Season 10 Winner, Paul Zerdin.
Award Categories
Customer Contact Leader of the Year
Winner: Ann Moreth – UPMC Health Plan Member Services
Runner-Up: Tarun Gupta – Adobe
Honorable Mentions:
Scott Stavretis – Acquire BPO
Deb Brown – Guardian
Timothy Miller – Sitel
Alan Winters – Teleperformance
Best in Class Contact Center (under 99 seats)
Winner: Gant Travel
Runner-Up: Sign-Zone LLC.
Honorable Mentions:
Liberty Utilities Central
MDwise, Inc.
Nationwide
Best in Class Contact Center (100-199 seats)
Winner: Pier 1 Imports
Runner-Up: ezCater
Honorable Mentions:
Horizon Services
NexGen Agency
Valvoline
Best in Class Contact Center (200+ seats)
Winner: UPMC Health Plan Member Services
Runner-Up: UPMC
Honorable Mentions:
Hunter Douglas
Kromtech
Prudential
Best Training & Development Program
Winner: Samsung Electronics America, Inc.
Runner-Up: Barclays Bank Delaware
Honorable Mentions:
Calendly
Hotwire
Newegg Inc.
Best Contact Center Culture
Winner: UPMC Health Plan Member Services
Runner-Up: DISH – Direct Sales & Retention
Honorable Mentions:
Crisis Response Network
Dollar Shave Club
Marina Bay Sands
Best in Class Omnichannel Experience
Winner: Adore Me
Runner-Up: Newegg, Inc.
Honorable Mention: Calendly
CRM Provider of the Year
Winner: Astute Solutions
Runner-Up: Teleperformance Portugal
Honorable Mentions:
Gluru
iQor, Inc.
Omnichannel Provider of the Year
Winner: Interactions
Runner-Up: Lionbridge
Honorable Mentions:
Astute Solutions
Genesys
Jacada
Noble Systems
Twilio
Outsourcing Provider of the Year
Winner: InfoCision, Inc.
Runner-Up: GC Services, LLP.
Honorable Mentions:
Acquire BPO
Gatestone & Co. International Inc.
The Office Gurus
Workforce Optimization Provider of the Year
Winner: OpenText
Runner-Up: dvsAnalytics
Honorable Mentions:
i2x
Monet Software
NODA
Verint
NextGen Innovation of the Year
Winner: Verint
Runner-Up: Genesys
Honorable Mentions:
Gluru
NewVoiceMedia
ProcedureFlow
Talkdesk
Vonage Business
Best Training & Development Program
Winner: Alorica, Inc.
Runner-Up: Teleperformance Portugal
Honorable Mentions:
Etech Global Services
InfoCision, Inc.
West Monroe Partners
TTEC
The overall theme of the event is obviously for the participants to focus on improving their customer service provision and in-turn customer’s own experiences. The gathering of so many industry professionals enables that progression, whether that is achieved by innovative technology platforms or by ideological change.
“There is so much energy on the floor and so many ideas, we hope to inspire people and set that tone for the CX industry which is really rewarding.”
