Countdown begins to Middle East Call Centre Show 2008

High on the agenda are the enormous potential to improve the quality of remote customer interaction in the Middle East and how professionals in the call centre community can help each other to overcome common challenges.

According to Dominick Keenaghan, president of show organisers INSIGHTS: 'Our research shows that the region continues to enjoy a robust growth rate both in terms of new sites and the expansion of existing facilities. However it is clear that much of the growth is 'defensive' in the sense that companies are playing 'catch up' in response to customer-driven demands for better service; the quality of individual customer interactions offer enormous scope for improvement.'

Continued Keenaghan: 'Many senior purse-string, decision makers still don't get it. They see the call centre as a cost to be borne and not a golden opportunity to build the lifetime value of a customer, improve upsell and cross-sell returns and gain referral customers. Understanding and improving the call centre's value proposition for all the key stake-holders is really what the call centre is about and at MECC 08, we have a multitude of expert-led sessions that will tackle this issue explicitly.

Other features of MECC '08 include an expanded exhibition floor featuring many of the new technology innovations that are appearing in the customer interaction space such as real time performance management and working Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) in Arabic; plus a new, low-cost conference format that is designed to help companies cope with rapidly emerging, new forms of communications.

Another major development in the region, and signifying the sector's coming of age is the formation of a Middle East Call Centre Forum. One key aim of this association is to represent the region at international events but more urgently, it's goals are to help raise the profile of the profession in the region, support the achievement of internationally recognized qualifications, help proliferate call centre best practice and provide a networking forum for members to learn and share ideas with each other. A major recruitment drive for membership of the Forum will take place at MECC
'08 and all call centre professionals are being encouraged to join.