The envelope, please

This week, some big award shows are gearing up to recognize the cream of the crop in the industry. Kicking things off this awards season, nominees for the European Call Centre Awards were announced by organiser CCF Magazine on Friday.

The European Call Centre Awards are sponsored by Garlands Call Centres for the purpose of honoring “the excellent and innovative work done within the customer contact community throughout Europe.” Categories include Best Use of Technology within a Contact Centre, Best Contact Centre Culture, Team Leader of the Year, Best Global Strategy and European Call Centre of the Year. First Direct leads the field with ten nominations, while Lloyds, Sitel, Carphone Warehouse, LEGO and AXA Lite all received multiple nominations.

The European Call Centre Awards has been called “the most prestigious night out of the call centre social calendar.” And, indeed, the 1300 invitees will be dressed up for a black-tie affair.

The list of finalists includes:

Accor Customer Contact Centre

Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank

Associa Limited

AXA Life

Barclays

British Gas Business

buw Unternehmensgruppe

Capita BBC Information

ClientLogic

Competence Call Center

ComXo

CPM United Kingdom Limited

D+S europe AG – Kabel Deutschland GmbH

EDF Energy

Enterprise Rent-A-Car UK

first direct

Future Travel

Gallions Housing Association

Garlands Call Centres – Vodafone Quality Team

Global-Bilgi A.S

HBOS GI

Hertz Europe Service Centre

Homeserve GB Ltd

Ion Group Ltd – Fiat Auto UK

Kingston Communications Contact Centres Ltd – Powergen

Leeds City Council, Customer Services

LEGO Group

Lloyds TBS Business Banking, Dudley

Lloyds TSB, Dudley

Lloyds TSB, Sunderland

London Borough of Barking & Dagenham

London Borough of Islington

Merchants Limited NL

Metro

Mondial UK

National Rail Enquiries / Ventura / BT

Northern Ireland Electricity, TFCC and Eckoh

Orange P&O Ferries Ltd

Parcelforce Worldwide

Portman Building Society

Premier Travel Inn

RBS Credit Cards Operations – Southend Sage (UK) Ltd

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Coucil

Screwfix Direct Ltd SITEL GmbH – GMAC

SITEL Iberia

SITEL UK

SITEL Paris

SITEL Sevilla

Telecom Service Centres

The Camping and Caravanning Club

The Carphone Warehouse

T-Mobile Deutschland

Toyota Financial Services

Vodafone, Cheshire

Vodafone / Conduit

Wunderman

Yell

The European Call Centre Awards will take place as part of Call Centre Expo on October 3, 2006 at the Hilton Metropole in Birmingham, the seventh annual show.