Top 50 Conference | When: 19th November 2009
Where: Glaziers Hall, 9 Montague Close, London, SE1 9DD [map]
Contact: Aarti Parmar for more information on 020 7234 8754 Thank you to all the members who attended the Top 50 Conference, which took place on 19 November at Glaziers Hall. The conference programme was filled with speakers from the best performing Top 50 Call Centres, all of which were sharing practical hints & tips and secrets to success. The day was characterised by high level networking and this enabled the members to interact with their counterparts face to face while sharing more ideas and best pratice strategies on how outstanding customer service can be a standard for all call centres. Once again, a big thank you must go to our expert panel of speakers and all the members who took the time to participate in this highly successful launch. We look forward to welcoming next year. | Sponsored by
 | | | Speakers | Martin McCourt, CEO, Dyson
Martin joined Dyson in 1996, holding various positions, including Chief Operating Officer in 2001. In this time, Dyson has grown from a UK business to a global company that sells machines in 48 countries. More than two thirds of its business can be attributed to overseas markets.
Martin oversaw the move of Dyson’s vacuum cleaner assembly to Malaysia in 2001, bringing it closer to its suppliers. The following year he introduced Dyson to the US. In less than two years Dyson became the leading vacuum cleaner manufacturer. The US is now Dyson’s most successful business.
In October 2006, Martin took Dyson into the commercial sector with the launch of Dyson Airblade™ hand dryer. Since then the machine has been launched in 24 new markets worldwide.
Prior to joining Dyson, Martin worked at Mars, Duracell and Toshiba.
|  | Cheryl Robertson, Director, Retail Client Services, F&C Investments
Cheryl has worked in fi nancial services for over 20 years. Originally from a compliance and operational background, she has been managing customer facing operations for the last 10 years.
At F&C she is responsible for the design and implementation of the customer experience and servicing strategy. Based in Edinburgh and with a small team of specialists, she oversees all customer contact in the UK. Operating an outsourced business model with multiple suppliers, her team manages all aspects of F&C’s service delivery.
Cheryl is passionate about service excellence and delivering great customer experiences and recently completed the University of Warwick Diploma in Service Leadership. Click here to download Cheryl's presentation
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| Andrew Firth, Director of Insight, GfK Mystery Shopping
Andy has been with GfK (previously NOP) for all of his working life having worked previously in GfK’s market research division focussing on Customer Satisfaction, Qualitative and New Product Development. For the past three years Andy has specialised in mystery shopping covering all industry sectors both globally and domestically.
As Insight Director, Andy’s main role is the delivery of strategic insight presentations, providing clients with actionable recommendations aimed at business improvement. And developed and wrote the Top 50 Call Centre Benchmarking reports. Click here to download the GfK keynote presentation Click here to download the GfK workshop |  | Julian Hartley, Operations Director, ING Direct
Julian Hartley joined ING Direct shortly after its launch in 2003 and has been responsible for Sales and Customer Service since that time becoming Customer Service Director in 2008.
Prior to joining ING Direct Julian ran his own business providing call centre consultancy to clients such as Sainsbury’s, 3, Scottish Power and ING Direct. His career has spanned a variety of marketing, sales and customer service functions working with household names including The Post Office, Disney, The Telegraph and O2. Click here to download Julian's presentation |  | Jonathan George, Head of Call Centre Services, Specsavers Optical Superstores
Over the past 14 years Jonathan has been involved in the establishment and development of call centres. More recently working he has been working for General Electric launching new call centre services on behalf of major retailers including Harrods, House of Fraser, Debenhams and Asda. Over the past three years Jonathan has established the Call Centre Operations for Specsavers, supporting the retail and eCommerce channel.
The Centre has grown to also incorporate Sales, Customer Service and Retention and supports both the UK and parts of Europe. The success of the operation was recently recognised by the ‘Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service’, with the Centre achieving 9th position in 2008. Due to his extensive experience Jonathan has been able to create innovative approaches for many commonly encountered contact centre challenges and as a result has been sought out as a thought leader within the contact centre industry.
|  | Simon Collinson, Project & Process Manager, Specsavers Optical Superstores
Simon has worked in a variety of Contact Centre cultures and environments including working in the UK and Australia. Simon’s expertise is in Contact Centre business process improvement having qualified as a Green Belt in 2008. Simon was instrumental in implementation and development of the Specsavers Contact Centre which has grown to be a UK award winning Centre.
His expertise in process improvement has lead the Centre to achieve 20% efficiency improvements whilst improving the customer experience. This varied background has given him exposure to all elements of Contact Centre management. Click here to download Jonathan and Simon's presentation
|  | Paul Cooper, Director, Customer Plus
Paul is one of the UK’s leading speakers on all matters to do with Customer Service.
For over 10 years, he has had a very active speaking and chairing programme at seminars and conferences in the UK and overseas. He has also appeared regularly on radio and TV, on such programmes as Watchdog, You and Yours, the Today Programme, Working Lunch, Five Live, and many others, and he has written numerous articles for newspapers, magazines, and books.
Paul began his career with Ford and from 1981-1992 was CEO of Ford Credit Italy, then Australia/Asia-Pacific, plus a year in US. He returned to UK in 1993 and moved to UDT as Regional Director and from 1998 – 2009 Paul was a Business Development Director at the ICS. He continues to be involved in all aspects of customer service as an independent consultant and has recently become a director at Customer Plus Ltd.
|  | Graham Hardy, Head of Customer Care, Boots UK Ltd.
Although he has been at Boots for 36 years, Graham’s CV is as varied as the next person’s. The customer has always featured strongly. Early on he managed Timothy Whites and Boots stores and spent time in logistics and central operations.
Now Graham has one of the best jobs around, looking after the people who look after Boots customers. But that’s only half the role, as he is in the unique position of being able to represent Boots customers at the Company’s support offices in Nottingham – acting as the conscience of the customer in everything we do. So supported by the customer feedback his team gathers, Graham can influence almost everything that happens at Boots. Click here to download Graham's presentation
|  | Peter Mooney, Head of Operations, Holiday Extras
Peter has 15 years of customer service experience gained across a wide variety of industries, from banking, food and beverage, insurance and more recently travel. This has allowed him to gain a very good insight into the importance of the customer to any industry and this is always at the forefront of his thinking and working methods.
His call centre specific experience is a decade long and he has grown into his current role as Head of Operations for Holiday Extras. Peter has driven a comprehensive improvements programme that has delivered greatly increased performance, higher team morale and motivation and an improved customer experience. The Top 50 initiative has been a key part of this and the winning of their category in 2008, followed by becoming a Top Ten call centre this year, has added to their existing list of awards and accolades. He constantly drives improvements and does not allow complacency to creep in. This has given Holiday Extras call centre a reputation as one of the best in the business. Click here to download Peter's presentation
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