It was a GREAT conference in my personal view. My job has me conferencing to excess so I know the excellent ones when I see one. The TUANZ 2007 Contact Centre Conference buzzed!

There were parts I missed - the work of TUANZ has to go on alongside - but here are a few of my key insights:

- Nancy Tichbon. She and the Virgin Mobile brand and culture are inseparable - she walks and talks the corporate values.  
- New Zealand contact centres are well up with the world technology-wise, but not as good at extracting maximum value from it. This was a recurring theme and certainly an action point for everyone returning from the conference - what can I do to turn up the heat and extract greater value from the systems we have available?
- Our contact centres are also up there with the best in terms of the customer service ethic. The same goes for the professional development structure we have in place for contact centre leaders.
- First call resolution is the key to everything. The customer will forgive almost everything else - long waiting times, being put on hold, even transfer between agents - in return for FCR.
- Don't tell your people to treat customers how they themselves would want to be treated because different customers want to be treated different ways. Develop a sense of the desires of different people and respond accordingly.
- Don't tell the complaining customer "I understand how you feel." Say "If that was me I would feel that way too."

Leadership is what contact centre management is all about. I still remember the wonderful advice from an earlier Contact centre Conference speaker, Ian Hight, who told us: "You can't demand respect, all you can do is give it to other people and hope it comes back to you." A superb piece of leadership philosophy.

Thanks for your company the last two days - an awesome group! Thanks to my co-Chair the wonderful Gay. See you next year.