The inaugural Contact Centre Global Forum is due to kick of in Cannes next week. Mouthpiece’s correspondent at the event is Datacraft CIS business solutions consultant Paul Goode, who is taking a group of New Zealand managers. Here’s his first installment in what will be an ongoing account of his travels:
We left NZ at ‘stupid o’clock’ on Monday morning, three from Wellington and one from Auckland. The plan was to meet in Sydney and then travel the rest of the way together via LA, Washington and eventually to London (I didn’t do the routing). We met in Sydney, then the LA flight was delayed, this meant we could no longer make our connection and there was a real problem with empty seats out of LA, so we all started our negotiations with the staff at United.
It quickly became apparent this was not going to be a straight forward task. At this time we offered a little wager among ourselves that the first to land in London would get the first round in. To cut a long story short, two went from LA via Chicago, one travelled via San Francisco and the other one went direct from LA to London – it would be another 26 hours before he realised that his bag had decided to go a different route and do some sight seeing in Chicago!
So the amazing race started, we all met up in our airport hotel within a couple of hours of each other and it was the via Chicago route that proved quickest, except for the bag which decided on a longer stop over in the windy city. So it was the clients who bought the supplier a drink!
To help recover from the flight and the change in time zones we went and did the touristy bits in London. Lots of photos, lots of beer, including Marstons Pedigree, London Pride, Timothy Taylor Landlord, and fantastic steak and ale pies in The Black Friar pub which is (surprise, surprise) in Blackfriars.
First impressions are that the pies are really good, the beer could be colder (from the Kiwi contingent, the ex UK part (me) thought it was fine) and London is great (to visit).
Wednesday morning we all squeezed in (including the luggage, which is considerable) to the hire car and headed down the M3 to Dimension Data HQ in Fleet. Di Data laid on a fantastic day - the highlight was a discussion on the Global Benchmarking report findings (to be premiered at the Global Forum) and a quick overview of some of the results and the trends that are showing up. Feeling from what was seen today is that our client will definitely participate in the report next year and can’t wait to get their hands on this year’s report. From the small part we were able to get a sneak preview of, it was felt that the issues facing us in NZ are certainly not unique; everyone is driving in the same direction. There were a couple of surprises around some of the Asia Pacific figures and we all decided it will become a major part of our reference reading. Lunch was also great, thank you all at Di Data.
Back to the hire car, to the airport, check in for our flight to Leeds, arrive in Leeds on time. Heathrow is really busy, managed a quick pint of Bishops Finger in airport bar. Four people and six bags get on the plane – four people and five bags get off. We get to our Hotel and decide to sample some of Leeds finest, starting with Black Sheep, then the favourite so far - Timothy Taylor’s Tam Ram, quite a dark beer with a really hoppy taste. The chef in the pub had gone home, so no pie option tonight, had to sink a beer or two then off for a pizza.
This brings us up to date, we’re visiting Leeds City Council contact centre today and will update soon.
Signing off, your Global Contact Centre correspondent in Leeds UK.
PS: Current status is one bag missing and jet lag hell.