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Alison Owen

Alison Owen is a customer service solutions specialist with 20 years experience in the industry. Alison began her career in the hospitality industry before moving into banking and HR. During her banking career (with one of the ‘big four’) she helped set up and manage a telephone banking and direct loan facility – one of the UK’s first large contact centres.

Subsequently Alison joined the recruitment industry and ran a team of customer service account managers across the UK. Her work included developing recruitment and attraction strategies, also looking at relocation issues for many major brands. During this time in industry Alison won several awards for Business Development.
Alison Owen

In 1999 Alison set up her own customer service solutions consultancy – A&T Consulting. Her client list contains many household names and covers a wide range of industry sectors including Contact Centre Operators, County Councils, Finance, Insurance, Investment Agencies, Leisure, Manufactiring, Software Developers, Telecoms, Travel, Utilities and Universities.

Typical project work has included:-

  • Setting up customer service centres from inception to full operation, for several global companies

  • Project Management and co-ordination of various contact centre related projects in the UK and Europe

  • Working with companies outside the UK on cultural, quality and performance issues

  • Working on business improvement in Telemarketing and Sales environments

  • Project management of the tendering and implementation process for a client seeking new outsourcers

  • Mentoring of company directors in areas such as strategic planning, customer relationships, business development and outplacement support

  • Gathering technology solutions, market intelligence and competitor information for several types of business

  • Promoting Best practice within the industry and assisting with various Management issues

  • Supported the implementation of FSA requirements for a small customer service/print fulfilment company

  • Working with Government (Secretary of States for Industry – Patricia Hewitt, Alan Johnson) on the Global competitiveness review and retained for the forthcoming outsourcing review

  • Benchmarking of outsourcers and client specific business competitors

  • Relocation and setup advice for companies not only looking at the UK but also globally (e.g. Europe, America, India, Africa etc)

  • Chairing the Steering Committee of the first Government initiative for contact centres – CallNorthWest. Also acting as independent industry support to Project Director and Dean

  • Supporting the tendering process for technology for the customer service section of a global telecoms operator

  • Supporting e-skills (Sector Skills Council) on National Occupational Standards and Framework role out

  • Worked with a Microsoft technology developer to tailor a Total Capability Management product to the customer service industry

  • Working with Regional Development agencies to develop contact centre support strategies and implementation

  • Helping FE colleges set up and develop dedicated contact centre for training and internal use.

  • Supporting role out of a new e-learning program bespoke for the sector

  • Helping to develop university qualifications in Contact Centre Management – FD, PGC, PGD, MBA with special Customer Management streams and Masters.

  • Assisting a business relocating to a new area to understand the local community issues and develop appropriate attraction strategies

  • Working with Employment Services to screen applicants and further develop skills training

  • Setting up and running contact centre forums at both Manager and Director levels

  • Helping to launch the first Homeworking initiative in the UK that works with fully salaried agents

  • Supporting the project management of a GUI based system to bring together all customer touch points to the desktop

Alison is an Associate Lecturer in Customer Information Management and Customer Relationship Management at the University of Central Lancashire and speaks at various National and International conferences.

Alison is also an active caravanner and photographer and an associate member of the Caravan Writers' Guild.


© Alison Owen

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