Winners Announced at the UK National Contact Centre Awards 2023

The big winners at the UK National Contact Centre Awards 2023 were Direct Line Group, UK Power Networks and SSCL, who walked away with two Gold awards each.

The winners of the largest and most respected awards programme dedicated to the UK contact centre industry were announced at Old Billingsgate on the banks of the River Thames in Central London, hosted by TV presenter Claudia Winkleman.

The UK National Contact Centre Awards welcomed over 1,200 industry professionals – a 20% increase on 2022 – as the Gold, Silver and Bronze winners across individual, team and organization categories were unveiled.

• Levi Cheung from Hunstwood was recognized as Complaints Manager of the Year.
• The AA’s Katy Lyon was crowned Change Maker.
• Laura Fairbrother from TSB won Gold for Customer Champion.
• Chris Lee, Chase Banks’ Executive Director Head of Service Operations, took home the Contact Centre Leader of the Year award.
• UK Power Networks celebrated Gold in both Large Contact Centre of the Year and Leadership Team of the Year, demonstrating the importance of your people.
• Direct Line won their Gold awards for Trainer of the Year and Learning Manager of the Year.
• SSCL was recognized as having the Best Contact Centre Culture in a large contact centre and also won Outsourced Team Manager of the Year.

Outsourced Contact Centre of the Year went to Interact Contact Centres. Michael Pollock, Group Managing Director, said, “We are so proud to win Gold at the UK National Contact Centre Awards this year. Being recognized as having the best outsourced operation in the UK is incredible. A big thank you goes to the talented Interact team across our Wigan and Richmond contact centres for all their hard work and dedication, and to our incredible clients. We’ll be celebrating this for some time to come!”

Allstate Northern Ireland, Ascensos, Barclaycard, BT, Bupa, Dorchester Collection, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water, Emovis, Foundever, Hastings Direct, IG, Metro Bank, Nespresso, Novuna, npower, OVO Energy, Severn Trent, Shell Energy, Sigma Connected, Sky and Specsavers, STA International, Vodafone all came away with Gold awards from the evening.

“The UK contact centre industry is full of incredibly talented, patient and adaptable professionals, and it’s an enormous pleasure to be able to recognize the remarkable work they do serving their customers,” said Leigh Hopwood, CEO of the CCMA.

“These awards are all about the people, and we witnessed that throughout the evening – the atmosphere was warm and galvanizing. Congratulations to all the winners, Bronze, Silver and Gold. And huge thanks to all our judges for the time and professionalism that they bring to the process to identify the top individuals, teams and programmes. We will of course be exploring ways to share the stories of some of those that won.”

Guests were treated to a stunning evening with a drinks reception in the sunshine on the Terrace overlooking the River Thames before Claudia Winkleman entertained them as the winners were announced. Guests also raised over £1,000 for Cancer Research UK, supporting CCMA’s (Call Centre Management Association) Skipping Challenge where every member of the CCMA team is skipping 100 times every day in June for the charity.

Finalists took to social media to further celebrate their success:

• “A truly great achievement I will be proud of forever. Thank you for the opportunity to celebrate a year of hard work, along with peers from across the UK. Tough competition born from brilliant individuals and teams from our cherished industry” – Mark Hughes, Shell Energy, Gold Winner of Contact Centre Manager of the Year (Small)
• “Creating the best possible culture means the world to us. Thank you to the UK National Contact Centre Awards for a fantastic evening. What an incredible industry to celebrate” – Daniel Cohen, Head of Customer Relationship Centre at Nespresso UK&I, Gold Winner of Best Contact Centre Culture (Small).
• “Thank you for a truly epic evening, it was so good it knocked me off my feet. So proud to be a part of this and winning…wow thank you” – Naveed Hussain, Specsavers, Gold Winner of Rising Star Team Manager of the Year
• “Such a great night, thank you for the award too! Couldn’t be happier, and it’s a testament to all the hard work that we have done to improve the experience of all our customers at WEX” – Mark Donnelly, WEX, Bronze Winner of Customer Champion

Craig Pumfrey, VP of Marketing at Headline Sponsor, Sabio, said: “It is wonderful to be able to recognize those individuals whose hard work and dedication make the contact centre industry what it is today – a hugely successful and vibrant industry which has been especially crucial to the UK over these past few years.

“We are delighted to be headline sponsors once again this year, and we extend our congratulations to all the winners and highly commended individuals and organizations that have shown talent, resilience, and success throughout the last 12 months.”

For a full list of winners and photos of the event, please visit www.ukncca.com.

Author: Rachael Trickey