The 2020 Auscontact Association National Award Winners for call centre excellence in Australia were announced in a live streaming event held on the 13th November 2020.
Now in their 5th year, this year the Auscontact Association has taken a different approach with the decision made to have no awards for contact centres.
Rather, the focus is on individuals.
And this year’s panel of expert judges assessed a number of individuals to determine the best of the best within the Australian contact centre industry.
The judging process consists of an online application and a 30-minute phone interview with the judges for the individual awards.
State Award winners are announced first, and then the overall national winner was announced on the live streaming event.
There were no face to face or on-site visits.
This year, the judges were:
- Frances Southward
- Craig Deitrich
- Rebecca O’Brien
The 2020 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 | Tyler McOmish | Department of Communities |
| SA | Aaron Collins | Allianz Australia |
| Vic | Sheran Perera | RecoveriesCorp |
| NSW | Luke Mongan | NIB Health Fund |
| QLD | Sharon Prickett | Brisbane City Council |
| National Winner | Tyler McOmish | Department of Communities |
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 | Glenn Knight | APM |
| SA | Megan Godfrey | Sweat |
| Vic | No winner | |
| NSW | No winner | |
| QLD | No winner | |
| National Winner | Glenn Knight | APM |
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 | Eleanor Hughes | Bankwest |
| SA | Mary Turbill | Allianz Australia |
| Vic | No winner | |
| NSW | Paris Blackwood | Aussie Home Loans |
| QLD | Nicci Sugden | Allianz Australia |
| National Winner | Nicci Sugden | 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 | Alex Chandler | Department of Communities |
| SA | No Winner | |
| Vic | Michelle McGuire | Eastlink |
| NSW | Madeleine Bollard | Teachers Mutual Bank |
| QLD | Joshua Walton | Allianz Australia |
| National Winner | Joshua Walton | Allianz Australia |
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 | Andrew Neale | Department of Communities |
| SA | Mandy Cutting | BGIS |
| Vic | Susy Del Giudice | RecoveriesCorp |
| NSW | Katharine Smith | Aussie Home Loans |
| QLD | Sharon Cartwright | Allianz Australia |
| National Winner | Andrew Neale | Department of Communities |
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 | Seethal Sagar | Allianz Australia |
| Vic | Jordanna Kunou | Recoveriescorp |
| NSW | Dyarne Olguin | Teachers Mutual Bank |
| QLD | Patrick Watkins | Allianz Australia |
| National Winner | Seethal Sagar | 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 | Tayla Orchard | Department of Communities |
| SA | No winner | |
| Vic | No winner | |
| NSW | Simon Van Zanen | StatePlus |
| QLD | Tammy Zammitt | Allianz Australia |
| National Winner | Tammy Zammit | Allianz Australia |
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 | Stephan Dargan | Bankwest |
| SA | Mandy Cutting | BGIS |
| Vic | Farhan Hossain | recoveriescorp |
| NSW | James Birchall | StatePlus |
| QLD | Joshua Ellis | Relationships Australia |
| National Winner | Farhan Hossain | recoveriescorp |
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 | Allianz Australia |
| Vic | recoveriesCorp |
| NSW | Aussie Home Loans |
| QLD | Allianz Australia |
| National Winner | Department of Communities |
Hero Award
The Hero Award is designed for anyone in your contact centre and/or organisation inclusive of business partners e.g. IT or HR to recognise their extraordinary efforts with respect to the world in which we operate in 2020/2021 with natural disasters and the pandemic. This is to recognise people that have gone above and beyond their normal day to day responsibilities.
| State | Winner | Organisation |
| WA | Melissa Vincent | Synergy |
| SA | Amy Rowse | Allianz Australia |
| Vic | Stephanie Lehmann | ANZ |
| NSW | No winner | |
| QLD | Zacahry Lohrisch | Allianz Australia |
| National Winner | Melissa Vincent | Synergy |
Congratulations to all the winners!
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