And Breathe! Reflecting on Peak Periods

In the fast-paced world of contact centres, navigating peak periods is an art in itself. Explore lessons learned from past peaks, where we’ll unpack the strategies that helped contact centres meet high demand, avoid pitfalls, and create resilient teams. By sharing real-life examples and discussing sector-specific challenges, we aim to inspire new ways to handle peak pressure effectively.

Hosted by Kate Law, Membership and Learning Director at CCMA, this CONNECT event is designed to help you breathe, reflect, and refine your approach to peak planning.

Here’s what to expect:

Reflect on recent peak challenges and successes in an open mic session led by Kate Law. Share strategies, explore tech-driven solutions for handling high volume, and gain actionable insights to strengthen team adaptability.
Discover the strategic edge in peak planning with Steve Woosey, resource planning expert. He’ll dive into the success factors that set top contact centres apart and reveal common pitfalls to avoid, highlighting how strategic resource allocation is key to peak performance.
Gain insights into UCAS’s Clearing process, where contact centres handle high-volume surges, balancing automation with a personal touch to ensure service quality. Discover their team training and support strategies for managing intense demand effectively.

As always, this is a great opportunity for you to network with your peers and take away ideas to implement in your contact centre.

Agenda

09:30	Registration and Networking
10:00	Welcome Hear the latest news and updates on the CCMA and what to expect from the day.	Kate Law, Membership and Learning Director, CCMA
10:15	Open Mic: What we Learnt from the Last Peak Getting the contact centre ready for peak is so important to achieving your goals. Get it wrong and it can negatively impact your people, customers and be brand damaging. During this open mic session we will reflect on how different contact centres tackled their last peak, the successes as well as the lessons learnt, how technology enabled a more manageable situation and how contact centre teams were given the skills to adapt.	Kate Law, Membership and Learning Director, CCMA
11:00	Keynote Speaker: Planning for Peak – It’s More Than Just Recruitment Steve Woosey experienced resource planning professional and lead judge of the Planning for peak demand awards category shares why planning for peak is so much more than simply recruiting the right number of people. Good planning plays a huge part in successfully handling peak demand, but it’s the strategic element of the planning teams role that drives the best results. This session will focus on the strategies used by finalists over the last few years, the key ingredients of success, and the pitfalls to avoid.	Steve Woosey
11:30	Break
11:50	Case Study: Dealing with High Emotions Through Clearing UCAS is an environment that epitomises the concept of ‘mass contact’ through the annual Clearing process, where the contact centre team can receive ten times as many contacts daily over the space of a month compared to a typical day outside of peak. Discover: Their strategies to maintaining personalised interactions across multiple channels How they balance automation with the human touch Their approaches to training and supporting frontline colleagues during intense contact periods	UCAS and Route 101
12:20	Panel Discussion: Peak in My Sector is Different Each sector experiences their own challenges when preparing for peak demand, whether this is forecasted or not. Our panel will bring to life how they tackle the balance of servicing customer demand, supporting employees in the contact centres and managing regulatory expectations. Throughout this discussion we will share how technology plays a role in this balancing game.	Hosted by Kate Law, Membership and Learning Director, CCMA with: UCAS Met Police Monzo TUI
13:00	Lunch with optional site tour
13:30	Close

About the Speakers

Ryan Rubertazzi, Head of Consumer Sales & Care, Vodafone

With 20 years’ experience in the Telecoms sector Ryan currently leads the consumer sales & care operation within Vodafone UK. Prior to this he has held a number of leadership roles across Technical, Marketing and Commercial teams.

Matt Rumins, EMEA Head of Consulting, Intradiem

Matt works alongside Intradiem’s customers to maximise their returns from using their Intraday Automation platform, understanding their challenges, and delivering tailored solutions that improve key metrics – Engagement, Efficiency and Experience.

Mel Lomax, Awards & Accreditation Manager, CCMA

As the Awards and Accreditation Manager at the CCMA, Mel brings over 26 years of contact centre industry knowledge to support members in elevating their contact centre operations.
Prior to joining the CCMA, Mel was Head of Learning & Development for Acorn Insurance, responsible for the L&D strategy across the group. Prior to this Mel was a Consultant, working with numerous contact centres across Financial Services, Telecommunications, Local Government, and Retail to deliver cultural and transformational change through the lens of Leadership and People Development.

Kate Law, Membership and Learning Director, CCMA

As the Membership and Learning Director at the CCMA (Call Centre Management Association), Kate is drawing on her 20 years’ working in the contact centre industry in order to further support its members.

Prior to the CCMA, Kate was working at Assurant for ten years and in her last role as Customer Services Director, she was responsible for two contact centres and multiple outsource partners across Europe. Kate’s experience also includes time working in the contact centres at Vodafone and Advantis Credit, and also working for contact centre recruiters and training providers.

Nerys Corfield, Contact Centre Consultant, Injection Consulting

Before setting up her consultancy, Nerys spent 18 years in some of the UK’s most responsive outsourcers managing contact centre services for clients like Volkswagen, Vodafone, British Gas, the National Apprenticeship Service and Sky. Since setting up Injection Consulting, Nerys has immersed herself into the contact centre technology space and is an advisor, a consultant for, and an assessor of vendor technologies. This 8-year immersion into the world of contact centre technology coupled with extensive operational experience has existed as the backdrop to carrying out regular Contact Centre audits, delivering transformation programmes, judging prestigious awards like the European Contact Centre and Customer Service Awards, chairing the DMA Contact Centre Council for 3 years and being a regular on the webinar, keynote and podcast circuit talking all things Contact Centre.

For the last 5 years Nerys has worked hand in glove with Atos Unify as a Contact Centre Consultant for their global client base bridging the gap between the operational needs and the contact centre technologies available in the market.

Steve Gush, Head of Solutions EMEA, Foundever

Steve has over 20 experience of designing, building and managing customer experience solutions. Steve’s early career was focussed on managing technology across global BPO contact centres, migrating thousands of contact centre agents voice platforms, implementing new contact centres across Europe, North America, Africa and Asia Pacific. Migrating technology services to cloud and implementing cx solutions to enhance customer experience from process to conversational automation, driving value through analytics and AI.

Today Steve focuses on designing contact centre solutions of the future bringing together people, process and technology to drive value to global brands through enhanced customer experiences.

About the CONNECT event series

Hosted on CCMA member sites around the country, the CONNECT event series aims to bring our members together again, at a local level, as we start to emerge from the restrictions of the pandemic. They aim to deliver insights, enable talking points and give you a chance to hear the views and experiences of others.

Each event will take place in a different town or city around the UK and will cover different relevant topics appropriate for contact centre leaders and those that run contact centre operations.

Agenda

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