Judges

Paul is the owner and Managing Director of PBA, a specialist ‘Contact Centre’ consultancy company that focuses on people and labour market related issues. Over the last 11 years he has led transformation projects looking at recruitment, retention, motivation, training and development, reward and recognition programmes for many leading contact centre based businesses both in the public and private sectors. A number of these projects have been in the North East and with his economic background Paul has also completed a number of labour market studies in the region. Paul has worked recently with a number of public sector Contact Centres on developing key KPI’s that relate to customer satisfaction and then driving through the organization methodologies to deliver on these.

Alex Coxon has been reporting on contact centres and customer service for nearly a decade. She started working in the industry when she was made deputy editor on Call Centre Focus (CCF) magazine back in 2000, and was promoted to the role of editor in 2001. She stayed with CCF until 2005, when she embarked on a freelance writing and editing career which has included the editorship of online contact centre magazine Call Centre Helper. Her specialist areas are quite diverse nowadays; she's a travel writer when she's not reporting on charities or gritty urban regeneration stories.

Alex believes the contact centre sector will always be in her blood however, and she continues to write for both CCF and its sister title Customer Strategy. She also works alongside professional bodies such as the Professional Planning Forum, the Call Centre Management Association and the Contact Centre Council at the Direct Marketing Association, undertaking various copywriting activities.

Alex has been a regular judge for the North East Contact Centre Awards since they were launched in 2003.

Shona Harper is founder and director of Contact Centre Professional, one of the North East’s leading contact centre consultancies and training practitioners, servicing a wide range of blue chip and public sector clients both across the region and nationally.

Recognised by the Adult Learning Inspectorate as being one the best training providers in the UK, CCP won further recognition, when they were awarded a prestigious national award, presented by Bill Rammell MP.

Shona is recognised across the UK for her expertise in developing innovative qualifications and training programmes as well as for leading edge consultancy, research and people development solutions. A regular judge for north eastern and national business awards, Shona also sits on the judging panel for the European Contact Centre Awards and is a regular contributor to industry press.

Claudia has worked on CCF magazine for more than 5 years. In that time she has built up a wealth of knowledge and has spoken about contact centre issues at a number of industry events, as well as on national television and radio. Claudia’s main interests include public perception of the industry, agent empowerment and the use of alternative media to enhance the customer experience.

David Payne is Managing Director and a Senior Consultant within Maia Consulting, one of the UK’s leading customer management consultancy practices. Specialising in the delivery of excellence in Customer Experience, David has spent the last 20 years working at both strategic and operational level within some of the UK’s largest corporate companies and major outsource operations. Often quoted in the contact centre and customer management press, David’s opinions are valued by many as a thought leader within the contact centre and customer experience marketplace.

After working in banking for 21 years, Peter had a number of posts including Business Development & Marketing Manager for Tyne & Wear Development Corporation. Later Peter joined Northern Development Company, working on inward investment and NDC then became part of the Regional Development Agency in 1998. Peter’s present role is Sector Manager for Knowledge Intensive Business Services, which includes contact centres.

Graham is a recent addition to the RXP consulting team in 2008. Over the past six months he has been involved in:

• Leading a project to setup a Customer First contact centre for a major Housing Association;
• Reviewing and improving a sales and service contact centre for a major UK fashion catalogue company;
• Supporting a feasibility review for a major facilities management company – who were looking at ways to rationalise 70 different customer help desk operations.

Previous to joining RXP, Graham worked at Sunderland City Council. Prior to this public sector role, Graham setup, improved and developed a range of private sector call centres including One2One as Business Operations Manager and DCM Optical Clinics as Head of Customer Services.