2016 Auscontact Award winners

All the winners of the 2016 Auscontact Awards

After a comprehensive judging process that awarded the highest honour in the Australian contact centre industry at a state level, the respective state winners converged at the beautiful Cloudland venue in Brisbane on Friday 14th October for the announcement of the national 2016 Auscontact Award Winners.

For those unaware, the Auscontact Association conducts an annual awards process that recognises the best in the contact centre industry for both individuals across a number of categories and for entire call centres, with categories for different sized contact centres.

The judging process consists of a range of phone interviews, online submissions, video conferences and a video submission depending on the category.

The judges (who spent a collective hundreds of hours judging!) for this year were:

Individual Award Judges: 

• Gail Murdoch
• Justin Tippett
• Matt Edwards
• Grant Elliott

Contact Centre Award Judges: 

• Garry Crane
• Anthony Dimo
• Phil McCarthy
• Dimitra Panagos

Innovation Award Judges:

• Scott Coleman
• Kim Magee
• Loretta Panayotou

As one of the judges this year, I’ve seen first hand the amazing passion, quality, professionalism and excitement that each of the winners has demonstrated and they all deserve the recognition this process affords to them!

So onto the all important information…

The National 2016 Auscontact Winners

Congratulations to the following individuals and contact centres who have been awarded the top recognition in the Australian contact centre industry.

Customer Contact Professional, Nora Piliae, Comminsure
People Champion, Stephanie Tzintis, Recoveries Corp
Operations Champion, Matthew Popple, Australia Post
Team Leader/Team Manager – Shannon Culey, Auto & General
Customer Contact Manager – David Fotheringham, Concentrix Services Pty Ltd
Centre <20 FTE – Brisbane City Council
Centre 21-49 FTE – Housing Authority WA
Centre 50-149 FTE – Smart Salary
Centre 150-499 FTE – Brisbane City Council
Innovation – Energex Ltd

The State 2016 Auscontact Winners

Each year the Auscontact Association holds state-based awards to recognise the best contact centre talent for each state.

The winners from each state are then flown to the National awards night where the national winner is announced.

Congratulations to all the state winners below which have been grouped into their prospective categories.

State 2016 Auscontact Award winners – People Champion

• Natalie Richardson, Auto & General Holdings (QLD)
• Anthony Portolesi, CommInsure Super & Investments (NSW)
• Kevin Davies, Department of Transport (WA)
• Stephanie Tzintzis – Recoveriescorp (Vic)

State 2016 Auscontact Award winners – Operations Champion

• Wally Lane, Super (QLD)
• Kristie Hawkins, Teachers Mutual Bank (NSW)
• Annahita Irani, Department of Transport (WA)
• Matthew Popple – Australia Post (Vic)
• Stephanie Nikas, Allianz Australia (SA)

State 2016 Auscontact Award winners – Customer Contact Professional 

• Shantel Wakeling, Auto & General Holdings (QLD)
• Nora Piliae, CommInsure Super & Investments (NSW)
• Rebecca Jackson, Housing Authority (WA)
• Emily Heyward, Concentrix (Vic)
• Laura Andrich, Philmac (SA)

State 2016 Auscontact Award winners – Team Leader/Team Manager

• Shannon Culey, Auto & General Holdings (QLD)
• Natalie Reynolds, CommInsure Life Customer Solutions (NSW)
• Kristy Swain, Housing Authority (WA)
• Melanie Wotton – Australia Post (Vic)
• Brendan Copeland, Allianz (SA)

State 2016 Auscontact Award winners – Contact Centre Manager

• Cloe Kernick, Energex Ltd (QLD)
• David Findlay, ING Direct (NSW)
• Laura Scougal, Department of Transport (WA)
• David Fotheringham – Concentrix (Vic)
• Vince Santamaria, Allianz Australia (SA)

State 2016 Auscontact Award winners – Contact Centre <20 FTE

• Brisbane City Council – Business Hotline (QLD)
• Clean Energy Regulator (NSW)
• Instant Windscreens & Tinting (WA)
• Royal Automobile Association of SA (SA)

State 2016 Auscontact Award winners – Contact Centre 21 – 49 FTE

• Queensland Urban Utilities (QLD)
• World Nomads Group (NSW)
• Housing Authority (WA)
• Adelaide City Council (SA)

State 2016 Auscontact Award winners – Contact Centre 50 – 149 FTE

• Australian Taxation Office (QLD)
• SmartSalary NSW TrainLink (NSW)
• UniSuper (Vic)

State 2016 Auscontact Award winners – Contact Centre 150 – 499 FTE

• Brisbane City Council (QLD)
• HSBC (NSW)
•  Energy Australia (Vic)
• Australian Red Cross Blood Service National Contact Centre (SA)

State 2016 Auscontact Award winners – Innovation

• Energex Ltd (QLD)
• UniSuper (Vic)

Congratulations to all the winners, the Auscontact Association and to the judges involved in the 2016 process.

The Auscontact Association CEO, Fiona Keough, has hinted at some exciting changes to the award program for next year so stay tuned!

Find all the latest winners of call centre and customer service awards here