The Sharjah Contact Centre, a subsidiary of the Sharjah Government Media Bureau, will be hosting the third Sharjah Contact Centres Forum under the patronage of Sheikh Sultan Bin Ahmed Al Qasimi, Deputy Ruler of Sharjah and Chairman of the Sharjah Media Council, on Thursday, (Jan.12) at the Oceanic Hotel in Khorfakkan. Themed “Interactive Services... Comprehensive Channels”, the Forum will see the participation of senior government officials, leading communication and technology experts and consultants from across the country.

The first of its kind gathering in the UAE, the Khorfakkan forum is a platform dedicated to deliberating on the future of call centres, service quality and standards, and effective communication with the public by government agencies and institutions.

Tariq Saeed Allay, Director General of the Sharjah Government Media Bureau, said: “The Sharjah Contact Centres Forum has been focused on improving customer service experience and call centres industry, year after year, by opening horizons of free exchange of opinions and viewpoints between call centre experts and specialists on the one hand and opinion leaders in society and senior management and officials of government institutions on the other.”

Allay added: “The Forum brings together all stakeholders including customer service employees, institutions specialising in customer relations and call centres, and technology experts in data centre systems enabling them to see the latest technological developments in the world of call centres.”

The Forum promotes the building of advanced work environments that rely on innovation and employ technologies to serve people, with the aim of improving performance, customer satisfaction and speed of response at the same time. It also introduces international best practices in the customer service sector and managing relations with them, emphasised the Director General.

The third Sharjah Contact Centres Forum will explore ways of employing Artificial Intelligence, cloud computing, and data integration in call centres, in ways that enhance the quality of services and support interaction with customers within comprehensive communication channels.

The forum is an exercise to keep abreast of industry trends and developments and build a knowledge base in the latest technologies and mechanisms to improve the level of services, in a manner that simulates the Emirate’s development journey and pace of growth.

Universal Service Channels

The first session of the forum, titled “Digital Communication and the Principle of Correct Routing”, will focus on the requirements of universal service channels in call centres and methods of correct routing to the customer in light of the high rate of self-service on the web and the employment of Artificial Intelligence. The second session will be titled “Contact Centre Transformations in the Era of Emotional Artificial Intelligence”, and seeks to extrapolate the future of call centres and their departments in light of the global expansion in investing in emotional Artificial Intelligence technology.