CUETS Shines Brightly at Contact Centre Awards
November 24, 2005

The biggest night on the Manitoba contact centre calendar in Winnipeg was aglow last Thursday, as the industry feted its stars at the annual Manitoba Excellence in Contact Centre Achievement Awards (MECCA) banquet. Hundreds of professionals from more than 60 contact centres joined forces to applaud the industry's leading lights in a wide range of categories.

CUETS once again earned a number of awards this year, despite moving up to the medium-sized contact centre category. The hardware collection started with top honours in Training and Performance Management, followed by the awards for Best Workplace Environment and Community Citizen. “All three of these are defining features of our organization, so we've very pleased that the contact centre industry recognizes the efforts and success our employees have achieved,” beamed Contact Centre Director Melanie Swenarchuk

The highlight of the night was when attention turned to the brightest stars of the evening, the People Award recipients at various organizations. Matthew Gaudry was honoured as CUETS choice for the outstanding call centre employee and he shared centre stage with Angela Filbert, CUETS outstanding call centre management nominee.

Matthew joined CUETS just under three years ago as a Customer Service Representative, relying on the advice of a few friends who worked for CUETS and found the organization an outstanding place to work, particularly for people with his ambition and focus on self-development. Since then, he's earned the role of Escalation Support Representative, an advancement he credits to his love of learning.

“I knew there was strong support for learning and development at CUETS and I'm making good use of that support. When the University of Manitoba and the Contact Centre Association announced the Customer Contact Centre Management program last year, I knew it would be a good program to take and I was right. So far, my classes have focused on operations management, human resources and effective supervision, so it's all very useful to me in my career,” Gaudry explains.

Looking at the next step in his career path, Matthew has his eyes firmly on a people management role like the one Angela Filbert is in. “I like being able to help people so the escalation desk is great for me, but I'm also ready for the challenges of managing people, especially the caliber of the people I work with every day. You couldn't find a better bunch anywhere, and they do a great job for our customers. Being selected by them for this award is very rewarding and really means a lot to me.”

Filbert agrees. “It's really quite an honour to be recognized by team members. I do my best to treat every team member as an individual and maintain as much equity as I can, and I try to be as supportive of their individual needs as well.”

The other obvious characteristic Gaudry and Filbert share is the even, cheerful disposition they both demonstrate. “Their colleagues can count on them to adopt a positive outlook at all times and wear a smile on their face every day, which is contagious in any work environment,” adds Swenarchuk.