North East Contact Centre Awards

Questions and Answers

If you would like to submit a question please use our online Enquiry Form

Is there an entry fee?

No! The North East Contact Centre Awards are FREE to enter for all.

Is there a limit to the number of entries an organisation can submit per category?

No, there is no limit to the number of entries organisations can submit for each category, except for categories 8 and 9 which are limited to one entry per stand alone site.

I am looking at promoting the Awards within our contact centre, is it possible for me to use the Awards logo on in-house promotion?

Yes that is fine, please send us your email address and we will forward the logo on to your for internal use.

Are call recordings an essential requirement of supporting evidence as we would not be able to supply these under data protection laws?

Yes but only for category 1. We are fully aware of data protection laws and we'd expect call recordings to be supplied in accordance with those laws i.e. without personal details. In the past, all call recordings we've received have been edited so the customer is in no way identifiable. This is usually achieved via editing the WAV or sometimes the recording only starts say 15 seconds into the call once customer identification is complete. Where a contact centre is unable to edit or record the calls in this way, then we may be able to look at alternatives.

The purpose of the call recording approach, is to really give the advisers the best chance to succeed, as what we want to judge is their ability to manage customer interactions day to day, rather than under pressure because a judge is sitting next to them in a quite unique scenario.

Is it possible to request additional application packs to distribute within our organisation?

Yes, just let us know how many application packs you require and we will be happy to post them out to you.

Are testimonials included in the word count?

If testimonials are required as part of the judging criteria they will be included in your total word count.  We would suggest a way of getting around this would be to include one or two good examples as part of the main body of your application and then include more testimonials in the appendices, making sure you cross reference this so the judges know where to look. 

How strict are the word limits?

We have increased the word limits for this year's Awards.  Individual categories (1 to 4) are limited to 1500 words, team categories (5 to 7) are limited to 2000 words and contact centre of the year categories (8 & 9) are limited to 2500 words.  There is a 10% tolerance on these limits.  There is no word limit on the supporting evidence that can be submitted.

What is the deadline for applications?

The deadline for all applications is Friday 3rd September 2010.  All completed applications should be accompanied by an Awards entry form (which can be found at the back of the application pack) which must be signed by the nominee's proposer.

Can you advise what is the period that supporting evidence can be drawn from?

The evidence of achievements sited in the submission needs to be current, i.e. from within the last twelve months at the date of submission (June 09 to June 10).

Is it possible to submit a call recording without breaking any data protection laws?

Yes, all call recordings must be submitted in line with data protection laws. This may involve starting the call recording once personal details have been collected for example or removing any personal details from the WAV.

Can public sector contact centres place entries or is it restricted to private or voluntary sector contact centres?

The North East Contact Centre Awards is open to contact centres of all sectors including the public sector. We often have entries from councils and government departments and have had both winners and runners-up from the public sector. We are also very keen to encourage new contact centres to get involved each year so for the first time we are introducing a new category 'Public Sector Contact Centre Adviser of the Year' which is specifically for public sector organisations.

What are pull quotes?

Pull quotes are small, bite-sized pieces of information (sometimes a direct quotation from an individual, sometimes a piece of data or a sentence that succinctly captures what the writer is trying to convey) that make text more visually appealing. This is typically done by making the type font bigger than the rest of the text. (You can find an exact definition of the phrase 'pull-quote', together with a visual example, at the following site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pull_quote)

Essentially, the idea of pull-quotes is to draw the readers' attention to a specific point... to emphasise a particular strength, for example, or to quote an individual who has something particularly interesting to say. Because they are so short and a design feature more than anything else, they should NOT be included in the wordcount.

There's a great document online about pull-quotes that gives you pretty much all the info you need on them and how to use them! It can be found at: http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/pagelayout/ht/pull_quotes.htm