Balancing AI with Humans in your Contact Centre

In the current landscape, AI stands out as a pivotal and transformative force. Acknowledging its inevitable impact on our work dynamics, particularly in contact centres, prompts us to consider the balance required between technology and human resources.

This CONNECT event is designed to delve into the strategies employed by contact centre leaders in harnessing AI’s potential while maintaining an ethical balance between people and technology. This is a great opportunity to gain insights from industry peers, fostering a platform for the exchange of innovative ideas.

How can AI support customers, colleagues, and your contact centre operation? Does AI fit with your brand values? Let’s explore this further during this half day in-person CONNECT event hosted at STA International’s contact centre in Glasgow.

Hosted by the CCMA’s Membership & Learning Director, Kate Law, the agenda is a mix of interactive sessions, learning and insight where you’ll:

Explore AI in the contact centre
Discover how organisations are balancing AI with the human touch
Hear from our panel of industry experts including Paul Egan, Operations & HR Director at STA International, Paul Mazoyer from Heineken, Sean McIver, Product Owner at MaxContact and Ben Booth, CEO at MaxContact as they uncover the ethical balance between pushing AI with supporting your people
Take a tour of the STA International contact centre after lunch – optional

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

09:00 – Arrive and Networking
09:30 – Welcome Hear the latest news and updates on the CCMA and what to expect from the day.	Kate Law, Membership and Learning Director, CCMA
09:45 – Open Mic: AI successes and lessons learnt With AI adoption in the contact centre moving at pace, during this open mic session, we will discover where contact centre leaders are on their AI journey, where success is being seen, what the lessons are and what the future looks like. We’ll be asking how can AI support customers, colleagues, and your contact centre operation? And how are organisations balancing AI with the human touch?	Kate Law, Membership and Learning Director, CCMA
10:30 – Navigating the Age of AI: Cultivating Agility in Customer-Centric Cultures In a world rapidly transformed by AI, businesses are urged to adapt, or risk being left behind. However, amidst the hype and confusion, it is essential to recognise that the monumental shift isn’t just about technology – it’s about people. Julie McCann and Stephanie Orme from Masters in Minds will delve into the crucial aspect of cultivating agility within organisations, particularly in the realm of customer contact. They will discuss that while developing an AI strategy is imperative, true success lies in integrating technology seamlessly with a culture centred around customer satisfaction. By fostering agility at the organisational, team and individual levels, businesses can effectively navigate the ever-changing landscape of the AI era while staying true to their customer-centric purpose.	Julie McCann at Masters in Mind
11:00 – Break
11:20 – Case Study: Using AI-led speech analytics to find the balance One area where AI is proving to be powerful in supporting frontline performance is the use of AI-led speech analytics. Not only can you drive better call quality and compliance, it is possible to identify potentially vulnerable customers and the insights can be groundbreaking for service delivery. Find out how Connectivity CX, a MaxContact client, is using AI-led speech transcription and analytics to make a real difference to their frontline and customer experience.	Sean McIver, Product Owner, Max Contact
12:00 – Panel debate: The ethics of AI AI is really challenging human ethics. Scare stories are rife and it’s hard to determine what to believe. We’ll be asking the panel their informed views on how best to deploy AI ethically, the stakeholders that are critical to engage in your AI programme and how regulation and compliance is keeping pace, or not. They will also discuss where AI adds the most value and share their views on what needs more thought.	Hosted by Kate Law, Membership & Learning Director, CCMA with: Paul Egan, STA Ben Booth, CEO, MaxContact
12:45 – Lunch
12:45 – Optional Site Tour

About the Speakers

Julie McCann, Founder and CEO, Masters in Minds

Julie is Founder and CEO of Masters In Minds, previously a successful board director, change leader and facilitator who spent over twenty-five years responsible for delivering results in business development, sales and service in the BPO outsourcing, consultancy and training market. She had spent much of her time leading transformation and change, collaborating with clients and colleagues to design, implement and deliver results that help both the people and therefore the organisation to thrive. Having specialised in this field through practical hands-on business leadership whilst studying for an MSc in Change Strategy and Facilitation Skills, business realities and academic theory have been truly tried, tested and optimised.

Paul Egan, Operations/HR Director, STA International

Paul boasts a rich background of 30 years in financial services spanning across Banking Finance, Insurance, Collections, and Recoveries. Having commenced his journey at STA nearly 5 years ago as the Head of Contact Centre in Scotland, Paul was entrusted with the responsibility of overseeing the call centre in Glasgow, driving performance and ensuring results. His exceptional performance led to a well-deserved promotion to Operations/HR Director, where he set out to replicate his successes from Glasgow at the company’s Head Office in Maidstone. An integral part of Paul’s strategy was the implementation of Company Values, aimed at unifying both sites under a shared vision. These values, emphasising staff engagement, interaction, sharing best practices, and enhancing team morale, have been instrumental in embedding the company’s core values into the operation. Paul’s proactive approach reflects his commitment to fostering a cohesive and high-performing work environment across all branches of the organisation.

Paul Mazoyer, Head of Customer Care, Heineken UK

Paul has over 20 years’ experience in the FMCG market. He has been leading the Customer Care team for the last 3 years on a transformation journey from a traditional telesales operation to a focused issue resolution contact centre. With experience across On & Off Trade sales roles working with clients such as Costco, Nisa and Asda, Paul strategically oversees the contact centre and has led the successful introductions of both Salesforce Case Management and Genesys Cloud tools whilst delivering customer service performance improvements and NPS growth.

Sean McIver, Product Owner, MaxContact

With over 15 years experience in various roles and industries within the contact centre industry, from the front lines to looking after teams and systems, Sean has a wealth of industry knowledge. Now a Product Owner at MaxContact, Sean focuses on delivering the vision and objectives of MaxContact’s customer engagement platform, including leading on the creation of MaxContact’s new AI-led product, ensuring the customer voice is at the heart of every decision. Sean is also the host of MaxContact’s podcast, Talktime, where he chats with contact centre professionals about the latest industry news and insights.

Ben Booth, CEO, MaxContact

Ben Booth co-founded MaxContact in 2015 after working together for 15 years with his co-founders at a contact centre software reseller. After becoming frustrated with providers that over-promised and under-delivered on features, support and resilience, they built their own platform and MaxContact’s journey began. Since then, MaxContact has grown to 70+ staff and has been ranked one of the top 50 fastest-growing technology companies in the North by the Northern Tech Awards consecutively from 2021-2023. Ben leads the MaxContact team to deliver a pioneering CCaaS platform, redefining the contact centre experience. With a proven record of innovation and growth, MaxContact is delivering unparalleled value to its clients.

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Where and when?

Date: Thu 27 Jun 2024

Time: 09:30 - 13:30

Location: STA International, Glasgow

Who is it for?

Contact centre leaders and those working through how to get the best out of AI in their contact centre. CCMA members only.

Why should you go?

Network with peers and learn from others around how they are balancing AI with humans in the contact centre.

How much is it?

Free of charge.