Call Center Services Featured Article

British Gas Wins Two Prominent Awards for Customer-Centric Initiatives

By Mini Swamy
TMCnet Contributor

According to Aspect, which builds customer relationships through a combination of customer contact software and Microsoft (News - Alert) platform services/solutions, British Gas was honored in the Gartner (News - Alert) & 1 to1 Media Customer Relationship Management Excellence Awards 2011 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa with two prominent awards. 

In a press release, Mark King, senior vice president European Sales, Aspect (News - Alert) applauded British Gas and said that the awards clearly demonstrated the breadth of possibilities with the right team members in place King added that Aspect looked forward to what British Gas would do next.

With the help of Aspect's performance management capabilities that provided near real-time insights, British Gas, the largest supplier of domestic energy and appliance cover in the United Kingdom, was well positioned to enhance the data capture results and customer experience of its contact center operations.

The efforts of the contact centers, which handle customer service and sales for 1.7 million customers per month, duly paid off when British Gas was first named winner in the Customer Analytics category and overall Best CRM Initiative. Nearly 500 attendees at Gartner's European CRM summit held in London, March 14-15, voted live.

Category award winners were chosen by a panel of judges who assessed CRM initiatives against the eight Gartner CRM Building Blocks defined as critical for a successful implementation, as well as 1 to1's approach to building profitable customer relationships based on understanding customer needs, behavior and value.

The Gartner & 1to1 CRM Excellence Awards recognizes organizations that witness exceptional results as a result of adopting a customer-centric approach.

Guy Benham, business improvement manager, British Gas spoke of how by adopting new technologies and applying them to the company's business strategy, the company witnessed real and sustained agent behavioral change that resulted in better customer experience and better bottom-line results. Customer service and sales was an inherent component of the culture within British Gas and as such it looked for every opportunity to maximize its efforts to give exceptional service.

In a related news release, Aspect announced that it has been named a Leader in the Workforce Optimization Suite category of CRM Magazine’s 2011 Service Leader Awards announced in the publication’s March issue for the fourth consecutive year.