The 2019 Auscontact Association National Award Winners for call centre excellence in Australia have now been announced at a gala event in Brisbane on 18 October 2019.
Now in their 4th year, a panel of expert judges assess both individuals and centres to determine the best of the best within the contact centre industry.
The award process follows the same of previous years, with state winners announced first, and then from the state winners, the National Winners are announced at a gala event that will be held this year in Brisbane on the 8th October.
The judging process consists of an online application and a 30 minute phone interview with the judges for the individual awards, or a 30 minute presentation (via teleconferencing) followed by a 10 minute Q&A session with the judges for the organisational categories.
There are no face to face or on-site visits.
This year, the judges were:
Organisation Award Judges
- Darren Sutton
- Sally Forde
- Rachel Azix
- Kerri McCaw
Individual Award Judges
- Anthony Dimo
- Marie Andriopuoulos
- Malcolm Angel
- Ankit Poothia
The 2019 Auscontact National Award Winners and Finalists:
Below are each of the different award categories, with the respective winners for each state and the overall winner.
Customer Contact Professional
This category covers people who are using the voice channel as the primary method to communicate with customers. It includes frontline customer service representatives/officers/associates, sales consultants, help desk consultants, collections consultants, inbound and outbound roles.
| State | Winner | Organisation |
| WA | Kristy Botica | Department of Communities |
| SA | Brenton Kain | Philmac |
| Vic | Ankit Malhotra | RecoveriesCorp |
| NSW | Mark Francisco | HCF |
| QLD | Ross Gladwin | Auto & General |
| National Winner | Ankit Malhotra | RecoveriesCorp |
Digital/Omnichannel Professional
This category covers people who are providing/delivering ‘assisted service’ on the web or are communicating with customers via digital channels, for example, social media, chat, video, virtual assistant, chatbots or any other digital channel. The role has limited use of the voice channel in interacting with customers.
| State | Winner | Organisation |
| WA | No winner | |
| SA | Jess Kroll | Allianz Australia |
| Vic | Billie Lay | GM Holden / Aegis |
| NSW | Sean Macleod-Jones | Teachers Mutual Bank |
| QLD | Russell McNaull | Smart Service QLD |
| National Winner | Jess Kroll | Allianz Australia |
Operations Champion
This category covers people who support the business operations through analytics, projects, technology and business acumen. The roles include Reporting Analyst, Administration/Support Officer, Facilitates Manager, Telecoms Specialist, Business or Process Improvement Officer, Business Analyst, Compliance Officer, Scripting Analyst/Officer, Project Manager, Business Transformation Manager/Officer etc.
| State | Winner | Organisation |
| WA | Louis Pan | Spotless |
| SA | Iro Kupeckyj | MyBudget |
| Vic | Heny Modh | RecoveriesCorp |
| NSW | Michelle Pascoe | Prospa |
| QLD | Travis Toppin | Allianz Australia |
| National Winner | Travis Toppin | Allianz Australia |
Workforce Management Champion
This category covers people whose role matches, manages and delivers the balance of the business needs and employee needs to customer behaviours irrespective of the customer channel. Roles include Workforce Manager, Workforce Planner, Workforce Scheduler, Workforce Forecaster, Real-Time Analyst etc.
| State | Winner | Organisation |
| WA | No Winner | |
| SA | No Winner | |
| Vic | Bruce D’Costa | Australian Taxation Office |
| NSW | Emily Laugalis | Stellar |
| QLD | Lisa Mayer | Smart Service QLD |
| National Winner | Lisa Mayer | Smart Service QLD |
People Champion
This category covers people who are responsible for the development/growth of people within the business and do not have direct responsibility for the day to day leadership of frontline/customer-facing team members. Roles include Trainer, Learning and Development Officer, Team Coach, Human Resources Manager, Recruitment Officer/Manager, Employee Experience Manager or Officer etc.
| State | Winner | Organisation |
| WA | Joycy Ng | Spotless |
| SA | Kate Graney | Allianz Australia |
| Vic | Koimana Raea | RecoveriesCorp |
| NSW | Megan Maddigan | PeopleCare Health Insurance |
| QLD | Kristen Phillips | Brisbane City Council |
| National Winner | Kristen Phillips | Brisbane City Council |
Team Leader/Team Manager
This category covers people who have direct/key responsibility for the management, development and leadership of Customer Contact Professionals or frontline staff or traditional back-office, WFM teams, Digital/Omni Channel teams etc.
| State | Winner | Organisation |
| WA | Tracy Mullally | Department of Communities |
| SA | Matt Bradbrook | Allianz Australia |
| Vic | Grant Evans | GM Holden / Aegis |
| NSW | Totolua Lemalu | Service NSW |
| QLD | Jarryd Formosa | Auto & General |
| National Winner | Matt Bradbrook | Allianz Australia |
Customer Experience Champion
This category covers people who are responsible for driving the customer experience, typically they do not have direct leadership of the people delivering that experience. Roles include Chief Customer Officer, Customer Experience Officer, Quality Manager/Analyst/Advisor, Voice of the Customer, Customer Experience Manager etc.
| State | Winner | Organisation |
| WA | No winner | |
| SA | Steven Bailey | MyBudget |
| Vic | Culum Grieve | GM Holden / Aegis |
| NSW | Sakshi Sharma | Service NSW |
| QLD | Kate Thorley | Smart Service QLD |
| National Winner | Sakshi Sharma | Service NSW |
Contact Centre Manager
This category covers people who are responsible for the management, development and leadership. They are the leader of leaders and have overall responsibility for the business unit’s operation. Titles include Contact Centre Manager/Director, Call Centre Manager, Help Desk Manager, Operations Centre Manager, Collections Manager, National Manager, Executive Director, Digital Operations Manager etc. Direct reports are typically Team Leader/Team Managers.
| State | Winner | Organisation |
| WA | No winner | |
| SA | Amelia Zander | Philmac |
| Vic | Luke Jamieson | First State Super |
| NSW | Nick Rumpff | Prospa |
| QLD | Duncan Graham | Allianz Australia |
| National Winner | Duncan Graham | Allianz Australia |
Best Talent
Entry into this award is automatic. For organisations with less than 50 FTE in the business unit, three (3) nominations in any of the individual categories need to be made for entry. For organisations with more than 50 FTE in the business unit, five (5) nominations in any of the individual categories need to be made for entry. The individual nominations must be from the same state.
| State | Organisation |
| WA | Department of Communities |
| SA | Philmac |
| Vic | RecoveriesCorp |
| NSW | Service NSW |
| QLD | Auto & General |
| National Winner | RecoveriesCorp |
Operations
This category recognises excellence in operational performance demonstrated across one of 3 core functions, including Workforce Optimisation, Performance and People Capability. People Capability includes L&D, Leadership Practices, Succession Planning and Employee Engagement.
| State | Organisation |
| WA | Department of Communities |
| SA | Allianz Australia |
| Vic | Yarra Valley Water |
| NSW | NIB Health Fund |
| QLD | Allianz Australia – Workforce Optimisation |
| National Winner | Allianz Australia (SA) |
Change, Innovation & Improvements
This category recognises excellence in the implementation and results of change initiatives or improvement programs, and innovative approaches to business-as-usual activities. This category is judged on the impact of the change to your business, not the size, scale or complexity of that change.
| State | Organisation |
| WA | Department of Transport |
| SA | MyBudget |
| VIC | First State Super |
| NSW | Peoplecare Health Insurance |
| QLD | Smart Service Queensland |
| National Winner | Smart Service Queensland |
Customer
The customer category measures excellence in customer outcomes including approaches to deliver and drive customer experience inclusive of evidence of customer-centricity. The customer is defined as the end-user.
| State | Organisation |
| WA | Bankwest |
| SA | Bendigo & Adelaide Bank |
| VIC | Probe Group – Coles |
| NSW | Service NSW, Parammatta contact centre |
| QLD | Brisbane City Council, Customer Services Team |
| National Winner | Brisbane City Council, Customer Services Team |
Outstanding Achievement Award:
For the first time since 2013, the judging awarded a discretionary award for outstanding achievement – congratulations to Ankit Malhotra, Recoveriescorp for this prestigious honour!
Congratulations to all the winners! To see photos from the awards nights please visit the Auscontact Association Facebook page.
You can find previous award winners and details on the other call centre and customerservicee awards in Australia here.
If you’d like to nominate next year get involved with the Auscontact Association and if you’d like a hand geting your individuals or organisation in good shape to win an award search our business directory for specialist call centre consultants that can help.
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