UK Contact Centre Forum

Webinar Series: CX on the Frontier: Breaking the Rules of Human and AI Engagement

Editor — Mon, 18 May 2026 09:25:04 +0000

Webinar Series: CX on the Frontier

Breaking the Rules on Human & AI Engagement

4-Part Webinar Series created & chaired by Marianne Withers

Secure your place

One-Click Access: You only have to register once to unlock access to all sessions.

After the huge success and standout feedback from the 2025 webinar debate “AI Friend or Foe? Job Killer or Ultimate Solution?”, UKCCF is back with a powerful new four-part series, created in partnership with Marianne Withers.

Welcome to CX on the Frontier: Breaking the Rules of Human & AI Engagement, a trilogy that goes beyond theory and into the real-world frontier where customer experience, AI, and human connection collide.

The series is built on a concept originated by Marianne Withers, who is the Chair for this Trilogy, she also created the original idea behind last year’s highly praised debate, bringing a signature blend of sharp CX thinking, commercial realism, and future-facing challenge.

The Series Roadmap:

Session 4: It's a Wrap!

Date: 18th June 2026, 12:30pm

Guest panel: Elaine Lee, Danny Wareham, Martin Teasdale, Nicola Collister & Gary Gormley

What we will cover:

IT’S A WRAP – we are bringing together two key priorities that have emerged from each of the three debates. We’re consolidating these insights to shape a unified perspective on Customer Experience at The Frontier, part of our Breaking the Rules of Human and AI Engagement series.

This synthesis draws on the core discussions from The Human Limit, The Machine Mind, and The Frontier: Human-Like Enterprise, enabling us to distill the collective conclusions from all three. Together, they help us define what the future of CX looks like, where human capability, machine intelligence, and enterprise transformation converge.”

Session 3: The New Frontier

Watch the replay of this session here.

This webinar took place on the 14th May 2026

Guest panel: Elaine Lee, Abbi Fry, Jennifer Buffaloe, Paolo Righetti

What we will cover:

The New Frontier – Human Like Enterprise, the next best action for every interaction. Where human and AI collaboration redefines CX. We are entering a new era of customer experience where the goal is not just faster service or lower cost, it is more human, more contextual, and more effective interactions at scale. The “Human-Like Enterprise” is an organisation that can respond to customers with the speed and intelligence of AI, but the judgment, empathy, and nuance of humans.

Session 2: The Machine Mind

Watch the replay of this session here

This webinar took place on 16th April 2026, 12:30pm

Guest panel: Elaine Lee, Paula Brockwell, Nerys Corfield, Nicola Collister

What we wil cover:

The Machine Mind – This session explores how AI is increasingly shaping the decisions we make, the content we consume, and the systems that run around us, often without us noticing. We’ll debate what it means to live alongside “machine minds” that don’t just respond to human behaviour, but actively anticipate it, influence it, and automate it at scale.

Session 1: The Human Limit

Watch the replay of this session here

This webinar took place on: 12th March 2026

Guest panel: Elaine Lee, Danny Wareham, Dr Debashish Sengupta, Doran Gower

What we wil cover:

The Human Limit – Examining the Limitations of Human Empathy, Intuition, and Emotional Intelligence in CX the Next Generation

This debate is designed to explore a core question at the heart of next generation customer experience. How far can human capability realistically scale in modern CX, and where does it break down.

Meet our series creator and chair:

Marianne Withers

Consultant, Withers Jones

Website

Marianne Withers is a recognised leader in customer experience, operational transformation, and human-centred innovation. As Founder and CEO of The Verity Centre, and now leading Withers Jones, a boutique consultancy specialising in CX, EX, and AI transformation, Marianne is helping organisations reimagine how people, technology, and performance come together in a rapidly evolving world.

Known for combining strategic insight with deep operational expertise, Marianne has built a reputation for transforming organisations from the inside out. Her work spans financial services, healthcare, energy, and retail, where she has consistently delivered culture change, operational excellence, service innovation, and sustainable growth across complex environments.

At the centre of her approach is the development of Work Journeys, an intelligent convergence of Workforce, Workplace, and Workflow Journeys. This pioneering framework unites people, processes, and AI within one adaptive operating model, enabling organisations to create more connected employee experiences, more intuitive customer interactions, and more agile ways of working. It is where human insight meets AI intelligence.

Marianne’s work is grounded in the belief that technology should enhance human capability, not replace it. By blending behavioural insight, service design, operational strategy, and emerging technologies, she helps organisations create emotionally intelligent, data-informed experiences that strengthen engagement, performance, and trust.

With more than 30 years of leadership experience, Marianne is widely recognised for her ability to align commercial outcomes with human impact. She is a trusted advisor to leaders navigating transformation, helping organisations modernise operations while building cultures that empower people to thrive.

Alongside her consultancy work, Marianne serves as Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Portsmouth, where she mentors founders and emerging businesses through strategic guidance, innovation support, and ecosystem development. She is a passionate advocate for inclusive entrepreneurship and for advancing women in business and leadership. Marianne also serves as a Non-Executive Director for The Road from Karachi, providing strategic counsel that supports the organisation’s long-term vision, operational maturity, and community impact.

Bold, authentic, and future focused, Marianne is recognised for challenging conventional thinking and shaping a more human, intelligent future of work and experience design. Her leadership brings together empathy, innovation, and execution to help organisations create meaningful change that lasts.

Meet our panelists:

Abbi Fry

Head of Complaints, NFU Mutual

Website

I currently look after the Complaints Department for NFU Mutual, having focussed my career in financial services on operational management and customer experience. I’ve always favoured a customer centric approach to decision making, driving change that is validated by customer data and insights.

NFU Mutual with CourtCorrect won Gold in the category Best AI Customer Experience of the Year at the 2025 UKCCF National Contact Centre Awards

Danny Wareham

Psychologist, Author, Accredited Coach, Psychometrician

Website

Danny believes that happy bees make tasty honey.
With a purposeful culture, strategy and support systems, high performance becomes a side effect.

He is a psychologist, author, accredited coach, and psychometrician whose work lies at the intersection of leadership, culture and personality, with a focus on individual differences – especially the “dark triad” traits of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism.

An expert in culture and leadership dynamics, Danny has been recognised among the Global Top 25 Thought Leaders on Culture and the Top 50 in Leadership and has spent nearly 30-years in contact centre, retail and fintech industries, designing cultures, leadership systems, and strategies in which energy, clarity, and collaboration multiply success.

He is the founder of Firgun, a consultancy whose Hebrew name captures his core motivation: “the genuine, sincere and pure happiness for another person’s accomplishment or experience”, whose clients include Worldpay, M&G Investment Bank, and LEGO.

Doran Gower

Chief Solution Architect, KMS Lighthouse

Website

I’m passionate about how knowledge is shared, structured, and made actionable—especially as Generative AI reshapes the way we find, deliver, and interact with information.

At KMS Lighthouse, I’ve spent the past decade helping global organisations improve customer and employee experiences through smarter knowledge management strategies. In recent years, that mission has expanded to include new tools like Microsoft Copilot, Claude, GPT, and Perplexity—AI systems that are rapidly changing expectations for access to information.

My role spans presales, solution architecture, and analyst engagement—ensuring that both the business case and the technical solution are aligned. I also stay active in the GenAI space, experimenting with real-world use cases and sharing insights where they might help others navigating similar questions.

📌 Interests & Focus:
• GenAI for Knowledge Management
• Analyst relations & insight gathering
• Microsoft Copilot + Office 365
• GPT-4, Claude, and Perplexity use cases
• Customer experience and content consistency Always happy to connect with others working at the intersection of knowledge and AI.

Dr Debashish Sengupta

Senior Academic, Award-winning Author specialising in Psychology and Generational Behaviour, University of Portsmouth, London

Website

Dr Debashish (Deb) Sengupta is a Senior Academic and Course Leader for the MSc International Business & Management programme at the University of Portsmouth, London Campus. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), an award-winning author, researcher and educator with over 25 years of international experience across the United Kingdom, the Middle East and India. His career is distinguished by academic leadership, teaching innovation, research scholarship and deep engagement with industry and professional practice.

An award-winning author, Deb has written nine books, including the acclaimed Penguin Random House title The Life of Y: Engaging Millennials as Employees and Consumers, winner of the DMA–NTPC Best Business Book Award and featured in the Stanford University Library collection. He is also the author of The Life of Z, a widely recognised book on Generation Z, alongside several other professional and business titles. His forthcoming academic textbook, Human Resource Management: Understanding Traditional Foundations and Modern Innovations, will be published by Routledge (UK). He is also co-author of Stumped: Life Behind and Beyond Twenty-Two Yards, published by Penguin Random House and launched at the House of Lords in June 2025.

Deb’s research interests span generational behaviour at work, gender and entrepreneurship, sustainable consumption, the future of work and higher education transformation. His peer-reviewed scholarship has been published in international journals including the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Social Responsibility Journal, Fashion, Style & Popular Culture, and the International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets. He also contributes to sector publications on higher education strategy, employability and pedagogy, writing on curriculum reform, skills development and educational transformation. He has received multiple research honours, including the Best Research Project Award (2022–23) presented by the Education Minister of Bahrain. He holds dual PhD degrees and a Harvard University teaching certification.

Deb’s academic work is driven by a commitment to bridging theory and real-world application. His teaching philosophy centres on active blended learning, authentic assessment and industry-embedded education, enabling students to develop analytical rigour, professional confidence and employability skills. At the University of Portsmouth, he leads curriculum innovation through live industry briefs, simulations and civic-engaged projects, including a flagship collaboration with the London Borough of Waltham Forest on sustainability and decarbonisation feasibility. His Industry Educator model, which integrates global practitioners into classroom learning, has influenced teaching practice across programmes and campuses.

He has previously held senior academic leadership positions, including Associate Professor and HR Area Coordinator at the Royal University for Women in Bahrain, as well as Professor, Area Chair, and Director at Alliance University in India. In these roles, he led accreditation and quality assurance initiatives, including AACSB curriculum and assurance-of-learning standards, programme transformation and curriculum mapping. Beyond academia, Deb has designed and delivered executive education, leadership development, and professional training programmes for organisations across the UK, the Gulf region, and India, and serves as an international speaker, mentor, and advisor to startups and leadership teams navigating generational and organisational change.

Deb’s work reflects a sustained commitment to educational innovation, research-informed practice and meaningful partnerships between universities, industry and society.

Elaine Lee

Managing Director, Reynolds Busby Lee

Website

Elaine Lee is Managing Director at Reynolds Busby Lee, where she advises organisations on customer experience and responsible marketing. As the creator of the TRUST Vulnerability Guides 2026, she brings strategic insight and a practical, people-first approach to help brands improve communications, loyalty, and support for vulnerable customers. She also works with contact centre teams to effectively deliver those communications in personalised and engaging ways that ensure brand engagement and loyalty.

For more information on the TRUST Vulnerability Guides please e,ail: hello@reynoldsbusbylee.com

Garry Gormley

Founder, The FAB Group

Website

Garry Gormley is an experienced Contact centre professional with nearly 20 years in the Contact centre industry, having spent a lot of time in the operation he understands the dynamics and moving parts of the contact centre and what impacts customer experience first hand.

Having spent most of his working career in the contact centres industry, supporting and leading the delivery of key projects around, Quality Assurance, regulatory change, Sales transformation and people development, Garry took this experience and set up FAB Solutions and more recently grown the proposition to include FAB outsourced Solutions

As a contact centre Enthusiast Garry has featured on many Podcasts and speaker events evangelising about how operational leaders need help to spin all the plates they have to manage, to this end he also hosts his own thought leadership events through The Contact Centre Network a regular monthly event which brings the contact centre community together to tackle some of the key issues and topics impact operational leaders.

Jennifer Buffaloe

AVP, Customer Success, Callminer

Website

Jennifer Buffaloe brings over 30 years of experience leading teams and driving customer value across diverse industries. She’s passionate about harnessing AI, analytics, and automation to help customers unlock the full potential of their investments and achieve meaningful business outcomes. In her current role, she focuses on building and empowering a team dedicated to providing exceptional service, proactive support, and strategic guidance. Together, they partner closely with customers to understand their unique needs and align our solutions to help them grow, stay engaged, and realize measurable value.

Jennifer’s leadership approach balances big-picture vision with hands-on execution, fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous learning. She works closely across departments—including sales, product, systems, and support—to execute customer success programs that align with business goals and drive customer satisfaction. She’s deeply committed to advancing customer success initiatives that promote innovation, maximize retention, and ignite growth. Jennifer looks forward to building strong partnerships and delivering on our promise to put customers first.

Martin Teasdale

Founder , The Team Leader Community & Founder & Host, Get out of Wrap

Website

Martin Teasdale is the founder of The Team Leader Community, the world’s first online community dedicated to contact centre Team Leaders, now supporting hundreds of leaders across every industry sector and size of operation.

With more than 25 years of experience in contact centres, Martin started his career as an agent before progressing through leadership roles and seeing first-hand the critical impact Team Leaders have on performance, culture, customer experience, and employee engagement. His work today focuses on elevating the role of the Team Leader and helping organisations better support the people leading frontline teams.

Martin is also the host of Get Out of Wrap, one of the UK’s best-known contact centre podcasts and media platforms, where he interviews industry leaders, technology brands, and operational experts from across the customer contact world. Alongside the podcast, he regularly delivers keynote speeches, webinars, leadership sessions, and live events focused on contact centre leadership, coaching, engagement, and culture.

Known for his practical, honest, and people-first approach, Martin is passionate about helping organisations move beyond simply measuring KPIs and instead build environments where Team Leaders and frontline colleagues can genuinely thrive.

Nerys Corfield

Independant Contact Centre Consultant, Injection Consulting

Website

With over a quarter-century of hands-on experience in the world of contact centres – whether it’s running them, scrutinising their operations, or judging their performance – I’ve developed a keen understanding of what truly drives their success. This experience coupled with an obsession into the world of contact centre technology means that when I conduct my proven contact centre discovery framework the practical and actionable recommendations cut across People, Processes, and Technology.

My approach is tenacious, creative, pragmatic and unapologetically direct. I look to provide businesses with the clarity and conviction needed to bring about transformation helping them embrace meaningful enhancements and navigate a path to:

✔️ Heightened Operational Performance
✔️ Cost Reduction
✔️ Elevated Customer Experience

Nicola Collister

CEO & Founder, Custerian

Website

Nicola Collister is the CEO and Co-Founder of Custerian, a people-powered change agency that challenges conventional thinking about customer experience. With over 25 years at senior executive level across FTSE 100 companies and global organisations, Nicola has built a reputation as one of the industry’s most commercially minded disruptors — someone who delivers transformation, not just talks about it.

Her career has been defined by firsts: pioneering homeworking solutions at the RAC before remote work was mainstream, building one of the UK’s first self-employed home agent networks, scaling a home courier operation to over 3,500 people at Yodel, and delivering the UK’s largest customer experience transformation programme as Group CX Director at Shop Direct (now Very Group).

Today, through Custerian, Nicola works with organisations navigating the forces reshaping CX — from AI and automation to the fundamental rethink of how businesses create value through people. Her firm’s “People Experience” framework directly confronts the industry’s declining customer satisfaction scores, arguing that technology alone won’t fix what’s broken. Real transformation demands a commercially grounded approach that connects customer outcomes, colleague experience, and bottom-line returns.

Nicola is also a business mentor, investor in scale-up businesses, and a vocal critic of CX that prioritises buzzwords over business impact. She brings sharp, experience-backed views on where the outsourcing and CX sectors are heading in 2027 and beyond — and what leaders need to do now to stay ahead.

Paolo Righetti

CEO & Founder, Atombit

Website

With over 30 years of dynamic leadership in the AI and analytics industry, Paolo Righetti is a visionary trailblazer renowned for transforming businesses globally. His entrepreneurial journey began with the founding of a CX data analytics solution provider, lately being successfully acquired by Teleperformance, cementing his legacy in the analytics world. As Global Head of Analytics at Teleperformance SA for an impressive 15 years, Paolo scaled the business to unprecedented heights, delivering innovation at scale across 70 countries.

A passionate innovator, Paolo pioneered new solutions in customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) to drive unparalleled value. Their revolutionary concepts, including Proactive caring processes, pioneer programs in Customer Feedback Management and redefined employee engagement strategies from candidate selection to retention, have created value for dozens of enterprise clients and enhanced organisational efficiency and performance for over 500,000+ full-time employees globally.

Building and nurturing long-lasting relationships with key vendors and clients has been a hallmark of Paolo’s career. With a network spanning over 25 years, they’ve cultivated a deep reservoir of trust and expertise that continues to drive innovation and success in every partnership.

Paolo Righetti is not only a leader but a change maker, whose career continues to inspire and redefine the future of AI, analytics, and customer-centric solutions worldwide.

Paula Brockwell

Founder & Lead Psychologist, The Employee Experience Project

Website

Paula Brockwell is a Chartered Psychologist and Founder of The Employee Experience Project. She works with HR leaders, executive teams and boards to make culture a strategic lever for performance.

Paula brings deep insight into human behaviour, motivation and organisational dynamics. She helps senior leaders understand what is really driving experience and performance in their organisations, and supports them to turn that insight into focused, practical action. Her work is grounded, evidence-based and commercially aware, helping organisations create workplaces where people can do their best work and deliver meaningful impact.

Secure your place

One-Click Access: You only have to register once to unlock access to all sessions.

The post Webinar Series: CX on the Frontier: Breaking the Rules of Human and AI Engagement first appeared on UK Contact Centre Forum.

UKCCF North East Networking Event, 11th June 2026, Bingley, West Yorkshire

Editor — Fri, 15 May 2026 08:48:15 +0000

Yorkshire Networking Event

hosted by:

Damart, Bingley, Yorkshire

11th June 2026, 9am – 12:15pm

Spaces are limited so book your place today!

The UKCCF would like to invite you to join us for our next networking session on the 11th June 2026 from 9.00am – 12.15pm.

Agenda

9.00am – 9.30am
Coffee & Registration

9.30am – 9.45am
Trevor Butterworth, Founder – UKCCF
Welcome & Update 2025

9.45am – 10.15am
Grant Counsell & Martin Armstrong – Maintel
The Rise of the Super-Agent: Humans and AI in Perfect Balance
Making Every Human Interaction Extraordinary with AI
We are entering a new era of customer engagement – one defined not by automation alone, but by augmentation. As AI becomes increasingly embedded in everyday operations, the organisations that stand apart will be those that use technology to elevate human potential, not diminish it. This presentation explores the rise of the Super-Agent: a future-ready professional empowered by AI to deliver richer, more intelligent, and more human interactions. The session will give delegates clear guidance on how to decide which interactions should be automated versus handled by Super-Agents, not just why the balance matters.

10.15am – 10.45am
Gail Mawson – Associate Director – Global Client Solutions – CCA Recruitment Group.
Recruitment & Retention – current trends and ‘helping you to get it right’
We’ll provide a current market overview. We are still seeing many considering their next career move whether they are an agent, manager or director But, if you are recruiting can you attract them? This session helps you to have the tools to attract and retain the best talent in today’s market.

10.45am – 11.15am
Coffee Break

11.15am – 11.45am
Nicola Callan – Founder & Director at Bootst HR – Advisor Engagement
Research and Insight on retaining great people.
Discover the proven link between leadership and engagement, the surprising truth about AI adoption and the skills needed in your contact centre most. Also, meet ‘Ellie’, a customer advisor working in your organisation and hear what she wants most from her leaders.

11.45am – 12.15pm
Damart
Damart will deliver a case study on how they run there estate of contact centre to deliver excellent customer service to their customers both by phone and on-line.

12.15pm
Meeting Closes.

If you have any further questions , or would like to register for this event, please contact Trevor Butterworth on 07932 669 299 or email trevor@uk-ccf.co.uk using the form below

Venue

Damart UK
Bowling Green Mills
Lime Street
Bingley
BD97 1AD

Register your place below

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UKCCF/Atombit Supper Club, 11th June 2026, London

Editor — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 11:14:57 +0000

As part of the Trilogy of Debates, we are delighted to host a very special Supper Club in London, 4^th June 2026, inspired by the theme “CX on the Frontier: Breaking the Rules of Human Engagement.”

Join us for an intimate evening of provocative conversation, bold thinking and exceptional company awaits.

Should you wish to join us for this special gathering, please register your interest below. As places are limited, attendance will be confirmed via mail by Atombit.

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UKCCF Roundtable Discussion Group in partnership with Mitel, 17th April 2026 – London

Editor — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 09:42:34 +0000

UKCCF Roundtable discussion group in partnership with

17th April 2026, 9am – 12pm – CGI Offices, London

Spaces are limited so book your place today!

The UKCCF would like to invite you to join us for our next UKCCF – Mitel Event at the CGI offices in London.

Fix the Friction – Human‑Centered CX in the AI Era

Join us on 17 April at the CGI Building, London, for an executive roundtable exploring how organisations can design customer experience transformation in the age of AI while keeping the human experience at the centre of decision making.

Many organisations continue to invest heavily in CX technologies, automation, and AI platforms. However, customer frustration and employee burnout remain common. This event challenges leaders to rethink CX transformation by starting with human experience design rather than technology.

This half‑day session, hosted by UKCCF, Paul Hughes from Mitel, and Katie Stabler, founder of CULTIVATE Customer Experience by Design, to discuss how leaders can:

Fix Friction Before Features: identify journey breakdowns and organisational silos.

Human-Centred AI: use AI to augment human judgement and reduce effort.

Measure What Matters – link CX outcomes to revenue, retention, trust and cost-to-serve.

Agenda

9:00 – 9:30am – Arrival, Coffee and Registration

9:30am – Welcome: Trevor Butterworth, UKCCF

Mitel Session:
Session 1
Why CX transformation fails when technology comes first

Designing AI around Human Experience (HX)
Measuring CX value beyond CSAT and NPS

10:45 – 11:00am – Coffee Break

Session 2
Customer Case Study: Real World Transformation
Paul Hughes, & Katie Stabler – Panel Discussion – CX Reality Check

12:15 -13:00 – Lunch

If you have any further questions , or would like to register for this event, please contact Trevor Butterworth on 07932 669 299 or email trevor@uk-ccf.co.uk using the form below

Venue

CGI
14th Floor,
20 Fenchurch Street,
London,
EC3M 3BY

Map & Directions

If you’re focused on elevating CX while navigating the impact of AI, this is a session you won’t want to miss. Secure your place.

Register your place below

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Webinar Series: Vulnerability on the Line – What happens when risk, responsibility and human emotions collide?

Editor — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 10:46:56 +0000

Vulnerability on the Line – What happens when risk, responsibility and human emotions collide?

UKCCF 6-Part Webinar Series chaired by Elaine Lee, Managing Director, Reynolds Busby Lee

Secure your place

One-Click Access: You only have to register once to unlock access to all 6 sessions.

The old playbook for customer vulnerability is officially obsolete.

For years, businesses have treated vulnerability as an “edge case”—a flag to be raised or a specific script to be read. But in today’s reality, vulnerability isn’t an exception; it’s structural. When cost-of-living crises, mental health challenges, and housing insecurity collide with corporate KPIs, the result is often a messy, high-stakes friction that traditional systems simply aren’t built to handle.

UKCCF would like to invite you to join us for our new webinar series: to Vulnerability on the Line – What happens when risk, responsibility and human emotions collide? , a 6-part webinar series chaired by Elaine Lee, Managing Director of Reynolds Busby Lee. For each session, Elaine will be joined by a different industry guest to share their unique perspective and engage in an in-depth discussion on the challenges at hand.

Over six sessions, we are moving past the “tick-box” exercise of compliance to explore what happens when risk, responsibility, and raw human emotions collide on the front line.

The Series Roadmap:

Session 1: When Vulnerability Walks In: Stop Pretending It’s an Edge Case

When: 18th February 2026 – 12:30pm (45 min session)

Guest speaker: Sophie Cotton, Chief Customer Officer, Newstel Worldwide

What we wil cover:

The Volume Reality: Why debt, health, and housing insecurity are now core business drivers, not outliers.
Moving Beyond the “Flag”: The hidden dangers of treating human struggle as a mere checkbox or script.
The Leadership Blindspot: What decision-makers consistently underestimate regarding the frequency and intensity of customer needs.
Systemic Redesign: How to stop building for the “average” and start building for the actual.

Session 2: The Double Bind: Supporting Vulnerable Customers with Vulnerable Staff

When: 15th April 2026 – 12:30pm (30 min session)

Guest Speaker: Claire Dobson, Head of Operations, HGS UK

What we wil cover:

The Absorption of Risk: Why frontline staff end up carrying the emotional load that organisations fail to categorise.
Beyond Burnout: Understanding the mechanics of emotional contagion, empathy fatigue, and cumulative trauma.
The Resilience Myth: Why “wellbeing apps” and “resilience training” are failing to fix systemic damage.
The Hidden Cost of Care: How the drive to “support the customer” can quietly erode the mental health of the agent.

Session 3: Empathy Isn’t Enough: Where Good Intentions Make Things Worse

When: 10th June 2026 – 12:30pm (30 min session)

Guest Speaker: Sarah Birch, Head of Business Development, G4S

What we will cover:

The Empathy Backfire: Why emotional alignment without boundaries leads to “rescuing” behaviors and escalation loops.
Containment vs. Connection: Learning the vital distinction between feeling with a customer and holding space for them.
The High-Performer Secret: Analysing what skilled agents do differently to stay calm and effective under extreme pressure.
Closing the Drain: How to prevent agents from over-identifying with trauma and carrying the “emotional debt” of their shift home.

Session 4: Judgement Calls Under Pressure: What Agents Are Really Deciding

Date: 16th July 2026 – 12:30pm (30 min session)

Guest Speaker: Marianne Withers, Founder & Director of Withers Jones Consulting Ltd

What we will cover:

The Hidden Decision-Tree: A look at the split-second choices agents make that never show up in your CRM data.
Compliance vs. Compassion: Why forcing agents to choose between “the rules” and “the right thing” creates a culture of invisible risk.
The System Failure Trap: Why inconsistent outcomes are rarely a “performance issue” and almost always a design flaw.
The Psychology of Fear: How uncertainty about “getting it wrong” fundamentally changes how agents handle vulnerable callers.

Session 5: When Silence Creates Risk - Why Vulnerable Customers Are Failed When Staff Don't Speak Up

Date: 23rd September 2026 – 12:30pm (30 min session)

Guest Speaker: Vicki Mercer, Head of Customer Service, Charities Aid Foundation

What we will cover:

The Cost of Silence: Why staff hesitation is the single greatest unseen risk to your most vulnerable service users.
The Debriefing Gap: How poor (or non-existent) post-call debriefs ensure that harm is repeated rather than used as a tool for learning.
Psychological Safety at the Frontline: What stops an agent from saying “this process is failing this customer,” and how that silence compounds over time.
Emotional Signals as Data: How to transform the “gut feelings” of your staff into a proactive risk-management strategy.

Session 6: Vulnerability with Backbone: Designing Centres Fit for Reality

Date: 11th November 2026 – 12:30pm (45 min session)

Guest Speaker: TBC

What we will cover:

Vulnerability by Design: How to embed vulnerability considerations directly into your policy, workflow, and leadership DNA.
The Standardisation Balance: Identifying exactly what should be automated/standardised and what must remain protected as a human interaction.
Empowerment vs. Infantilisation: How to provide robust support for agents without stripping away their professional agency and autonomy.
Leadership Competence: Why vulnerability management is a core commercial and operational skill, not just a “wellbeing add-on.”

Meet our series chair:

Elaine Lee

Managing Director, Reynolds Busby Lee

Elaine Lee is Managing Director at Reynolds Busby Lee, where she advises organisations on customer experience and responsible marketing. She brings strategic insight and a practical, people-first approach to help brands improve communications, loyalty, and support for vulnerable customers. She also works with contact centre teams to effectively deliver those communications in personalised and engaging ways that ensure brand engagement and loyalty.

Meet our Guest Speakers:

Guest Speaker: Part 1

Sophie Cotton

Chief Customer Officer, Newstel Worldwide

Sophie is an accomplished, time-served leader in e-commerce, with deep expertise across contact centres and customer experience. She brings a pragmatic, commercially grounded approach to delivering insight-led service in fast-moving, omni-channel environments.

Throughout her career, Sophie has aligned contact centre operations and CX strategy to support rapid corporate growth, always underpinned by a strong understanding of the three critical pillars: people, process and systems. She has extensive experience in scaling teams, leading change programmes, embedding fit-for-purpose processes and selecting and implementing key SaaS technologies to drive meaningful Voice of the Customer insight.

A passionate advocate for customer-first cultures, Sophie is known for challenging organisations to act on CX insight — particularly where it can improve outcomes for customers who may be vulnerable or at risk of detriment.

Sophie is a recognised industry speaker. She is also a Silver Winner of the UKCCF Awards in Director of the Year.

Guest Speaker: Part 2

Claire Dobson

Head of Operations, HGS UK

Claire is a dynamic Head of Operations with over 17 years’ experience in retail, operations, and change management.

She is passionate about people, committed to developing talent, and creating positive, safe working environments where employees can achieve their potential.

She has extensive experience of large scale development through innovation (up to £3.2bn), leveraging expertise to translate complex growth programmes into measurable KPIs, programme steps, and actionable outcomes. Claire has led multi-site operations, compliance programmes, and new brand launches, and has a proven record of delivering transformation across public and private sector clients.

Operational leadership across large, complex organisations
Change management and business transformation
Public sector service delivery (health, citizen services, regulatory)
Multi-site operations and governance
Talent development and people leadership
KPI driven performance improvement
Stakeholder and client relationship Management

Secure your place

One-Click Access: You only have to register once to unlock access to all 6 sessions.

The post Webinar Series: Vulnerability on the Line – What happens when risk, responsibility and human emotions collide? first appeared on UK Contact Centre Forum.

Enhancing Customer Experience within Local Authorities

Editor — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 12:19:57 +0000

Enhancing Customer Experience

within Local Authorities

27th March 2025, 13:30 – 16:00, London

Hosted by:

The UKCCF and CGI would like to invite you to join us for at an exclusive event on Thursday, 27 March 2025, where we will be exploring strategies to enhance customer experience within Local Authorities (LAs).

Delivering exceptional service to your citizens, whilst simultaneously lowering the cost to serve and freeing up resources to better support the most vulnerable in society is more important than ever, and this event will bring together experts from across the sector to share insights, best practices, and practical solutions to these challenges.

Guest Speakers

Kevin Giles – Crown Commercial Services
How CCS can support Local Authorities

Trevor Butterworth, Founder, UKCCF
UKCCF – An overview of the UKCCF Accreditation Programme and how it helps to drive excellence across citizen and agent experiences.

Debbie Coveney – Royal Borough of Greenwich
A fireside chat on her journey through accreditation and its impact on her operations.

Freshdesk
An art of the possible live demo on how their contact centre platform can help Local Authorities improve citizen experience and interactions

Networking Drinks – After the event, please join us for networking drinks at the Sky Garden

We do hope that you can join us for this session, if you have any questions regarding this session, please contact:

Trevor Butterworth
E: trevor@uk-ccf.co.uk
T: 07932 669 299

Register

Complete your details below and we will send you the full agenda as soon as it is released.

[contact-form-7]

Venue

20 Fenchurch Street
London
EC3M 3BY

If you have any further questions about this event, please contact Trevor Butterworth on 07932669299 or email trevor@uk-ccf.co.uk

The post Enhancing Customer Experience within Local Authorities first appeared on UK Contact Centre Forum.

AI Executive Club – 6th February 2025, Duck and Waffle, London

Editor — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 17:27:49 +0000

UKCCF Executive Lunch:

AI in Finance

6th February 2025, 12:00pm GMT

Hosted by: NICE at the Duck & Waffle, Bishopsgate, London

Spaces are limited so book your place today!

We are delighted to extend an exclusive invitation for you to join the UKCCF and NICE, at our focused CX Roundtable Lunch: “Explore the Future of Gen AI in Finance”.

Gain invaluable insights on how robustly secure Gen AI, purpose built for CX, can seamlessly transform your organisation, ensuring compliance and data privacy.

Don’t miss the opportunity to network with your peers and NICE experts, at the stunning Duck & Waffle, for our first CX Finance Roundtable luncheon.

Places are limited, secure your spot now.

12.00pm – Arrival Drinks and Networking.

12:30pm – Lunch.

13:30pm – AI in Finance Round table discussion.

Register

Complete your details below and we will send you the full agenda as soon as it is released.

[contact-form-7]

Venue

Duck & Waffle
40th Floor
110 Bishopsgate
EC2N 4AY

If you have any further questions about this event, please contact Trevor Butterworth on 07932669299 or email trevor@uk-ccf.co.uk

The post AI Executive Club – 6th February 2025, Duck and Waffle, London first appeared on UK Contact Centre Forum.

3rd December 2025 – Outsourcing Webinar Series

Editor — Tue, 03 Dec 2024 13:25:05 +0000

17th September 2025 – Outsourcing Webinar Series

Editor — Tue, 03 Dec 2024 13:24:13 +0000

14th May 2025 – Outsourcing Webinar Series

Editor — Tue, 03 Dec 2024 13:23:17 +0000