APPOINTMENT

ULSTER Bank’s Joanne Wilson has been appointed as chair of the industry body for contact centres in Northern Ireland.

The body – Contact Centre Network Northern Ireland (CCNI) – represents 45 members including BT, Allstate, Ulster Bank, Danske Bank, Santander, Firstsource and Concentrix, who collectively employ more than 15,000 contact centre staff.

It offers innovation and support for all contact centre professionals across Northern Ireland. It aims to raise awareness of the industry and its good work, encourages the sharing of ideas and best practices and enhances skills and professional development.

Joanne, who is Customer Experience Lead for Ulster Bank, succeeds Grainne O’kane of Firstsource as chair of CCNNI. She will chair the organisation’s board and lead its engagement in Northern Ireland for a two-year period.

The contact centre industry is one of Northern Ireland’s fastest growing sectors, incorporating a range of centres of excellence that service customers, employees and stakeholders across the world.

Joanne said: “Working in the contact centre industry allows you to develop a wide range of critical life skills including resilience, emotional intelligence and people skills. It also very often provides entry into large global organisations with the opportunity to build a real career within them.”

She added: “I am very much looking forward to the next two years as chair of CCNNI and working closely with Director Jayne Davies and the CCNNI board. The contact centre industry’s key importance to businesses and people has really been underlined during the last year so it is a challenging and exciting time to be taking on the role.”