By
Neal Topf
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Date Published: December 03, 2018 - Last Updated January 02, 2019
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Comments
For the past five years, Callzilla has participated in the ICMI Global Contact Center Awards. In 2017, Callzilla had one of its proudest moments as a company when we won our first award for Best Outsourcing Provider. We attribute this to a couple of things: one, we honestly had an amazing year of success for our clients to represent and two, all our experience in applying for these awards have lent us some fantastic learnings. Participating in the ICMI Global Contact Center Awards is the yearly culmination of the previous year's work in benchmarking, learning, planning, and recognizing the things that are worthy of valuable celebration in our organization. Here are some key points to consider during the application process each year.
Stay Connected to Industry Experts
When attending the prestigious ICMI Demo and Expo, I've often shared a small bit of learning with other attendees and industry colleagues - it's not only about what you do and learn and who you meet at ICMI events, it's about what you do during the other 350+ days of the year. Participating in the weekly #ICMIChat, tuning in to ICMI webinars or simply talking offline with people through ICMI, provides the groundwork to understanding what you do well and what you need to do better. Having access to some of the brightest minds in our industry gives us the insights we need to inspire best practices and layout the proven roadmaps to get there.
Applying for Awards is a Contact Sport
When applying for the Best Outsourcing Provider award, you must go into as much detail as you possibly can and give vivid examples of your wins. To fully substantiate the answers you're providing, it's imperative you really dig into your responses and communicate with all the involved stakeholders. At the very root of it all, we're here to share our experiences and stories that went the extra mile for the customer, and you can expect a lot of highly invested time and energy will go into this. It's essential that you are "all in" every step of the way.
Yearly Participation Takes Extraordinary Teamwork
Leading the Call Center Award efforts is more than a one-person job, it takes company-wide collaboration in the organization to get the stories out, document them, and express them in a way that is shareable and appropriate. From the management staff to the QA team, everyone's valuable insights are what brought our submission one step further. Since so many employees touch different pieces of the puzzle, it's important to gain their unique perspectives to bring each answer to life.
You Need to Quantify the Qualitative
Having compelling user experience stories is a start, but you also need to back them up with solid facts and statistics. At a high level, we knew what we wanted to highlight, but we had to work with our training managers to dig into the hard data. Digging back into our historical data was a way to illustrate the improvement of our performance over time and demonstrate the growth we knew we were influencing.
Celebrate the Big Wins All Year Long
In a contact center environment where so much can go wrong and so many fires need to be put out, there is a whole world of good that we do. As you're pushing team members to think back and reflect on past enterprise accomplishments, make sure to celebrate them, and not just during award season. Living in the moment and taking the time to honor our big wins when they actually take place is a meaningful way to keep spirits high and remember why we're here.
In the end, each company will deliver their own unique approach. When Callzilla started digging deeper to find the impact of our services on the contact world, we were much more successful than attempting to produce the most expensive video or guessing what types of media formats the judges wanted to see. While applying for the ICMI Global Contact Center Awards may not be an easy undertaking, participating is one of the most rewarding experiences your team can have.
Bonus tip: Download our entry Toolkit to get organized! The deadline to apply is 1/31, but you can save 50% on entry fees if you submit your applications by 12/21.