Agency of the Year 2007: Contact Centre Agency of the Year - Best of the rest

This has been brought home to companies by the failure of some Indian
off-shore ventures. More and more businesses are recognising that while
low-cost operations are fine for back office, they are decidedly risky
for customer contacts.

As a result, several agencies have made strong running for this year's
Agency of the Year award.

Close behind The Listening Company is Omnicom-owned CPM. The winner in
2005, the agency added £5m to reach £15.6m in its most
recent financial year, an increase of 47%.

CPM has consolidated its success in the automotive market with a
contract to provide multichannel inbound and outbound services for
DaimlerChrysler UK/Mercedes-Benz Corporate. Other new contracts included
Royal Mail, Kia, Barclaycard and Diageo.

The agency has also grown its account with British Gas, quadrupling
outbound calls to existing and lapsed customers over the past three
years.

CPM particularly stood out for its environmental initiatives this year.
It is promoting a 'share a lift to work' scheme, recycling facilities,
and initiatives to promote lower levels of paper use, as well as
carrying out regular energy audits. It also plans to replace its staff
vehicles with more environmentally friendly models.

Teleperformance was another strong contender, with new wins in excess of
£10m, including utilities e.on and Centrica, Vodafone, Peugeot and
the Training and Development Agency for Schools.

Testament to the high regard in which the agency is held is the fact
that 13 major clients retendered this year, including NHS Blood &
Transplant, Sainsbury's and Renault, and all were retained. The most
recent was the Identity and Passport Service, whose tender took 12
months and started with more than 50 suppliers.

Teleperformance found itself on the front line in crisis management,
with its admired Floodline service handling calls throughout last
summer's flood emergencies. 'I have confidence in Teleperformance's
ability to relay the right messages regardless of the volume of calls
that come through,' says Paul Hyatt, national flood warning leader at
the Environment Agency.

Boosting its community links, Teleperformance has been championing the
industry as a career choice. This year it helped City of Bristol
University launch a foundation degree course for contact centre agents
and team leaders, and it is planning a similar venture with Ulster
University.

Also among the high-flyers was Garlands, whose sales rose by 12% to an
estimated £49m this year. Virgin Media was one of several new
business wins this year.

'Garlands is a very proactive partner, constantly questioning, reviewing
and finding new ways to improve processes and enhance customer
experiences,' says Clare Lindsey, head of contact centres and customer
service at Virgin Media.

The agency is cementing a reputation for best practice in the industry,
with owner and managing director Chey Garland's profile on the rise. She
was awarded a CBE for services to business in the North East and named
Direct Marketing Business Person of the Year at the 2007 Connect awards.
The agency also won Outsourced Contact Centre Provider of the Year at
the 2007 National Outsourcing Association's awards.

Broadsystem, too, has had a good year, with new business including the
outbound telemarketing activity for British Gas Business and SMS
response-handling for Christian charity Toybox. The agency provided one
of the best examples of 360 degs thinking in its work to back this
year's relaunch of the Financial Times. It used SMS to handle responses
to press and TV advertising, delivering callers' mobile numbers to live
agents to call and set up a trial subscription. The agency then used
direct mail to maintain relationships.

Broadsystem demonstrated its multichannel capability with its own
campaign to create new business. It offered a luxury holiday prize for
taking part in a multichannel treasure trail, by SMS, the internet and
telephone. This resulted in 25 new business appointments.