Sharjah 24: The Sharjah Contact Centre of the Sharjah Government Media Bureau organised Thursday, in Khorfakkan, the third edition of the Sharjah Contact Centres Forum under the slogan "Interactive Services... Comprehensive Channels", under the patronage of Sheikh Sultan bin Ahmed bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Deputy Ruler of Sharjah, and Chairman of the Sharjah Media Council.

The forum presented specialised and future visions to improve the quality of call centre services, as it witnessed discussions among a group of prominent officials and consultants, which resulted in constructive recommendations.

The forum’s third edition shed light on the most important creative communication tools and how to build an innovative digital environment to serve customers by employing artificial intelligence and cloud computing, and moving towards data integration. Speakers from the Arab Gulf and the Middle East also discussed future prospects for emotional artificial intelligence in call centres, in the presence of officials and directors of government agencies and a number of communication and customer service employees.

Speaking at the event, Tariq Saeed Allay, Director General of the Sharjah Government Media Bureau, affirmed "the forum is an addition to Sharjah's renaissance march, and through the discussions and exchange of expertise and experiences, the forum achieves communication strategies we aspire to achieve, which will have a positive impact on contact centres locally, regionally and globally." 
He added, “The forum reinforces the path that we envisage in providing instructions, facilitating transactions between government agencies and the public, and shortening time and distances by using interactive and comprehensive communication channels.”

Eng. Khaled Omar Al Naqbi, Director of the Sharjah Contact Centre, stated "service quality standards have become dependent on the ability to keep pace with technology and innovation transformations in light of artificial intelligence, cloud computing and social media platforms, which necessitates effective communication with customers by upgrading call centre services and enhancing strong and smart infrastructures.”

In this context, the first discussion session, "Digital Communication and the Principle of Correct Guidance", highlighted the role of artificial intelligence in communication mechanisms and the most efficient tools in guiding customers. Speakers at the event including Sheikha Dr. Alia bint Humaid Al Qasimi,  social development expert; Al-Binkhalil, CEO of the National Contact Centre in the Kingdom of Bahrain; and Osama Al-Johary, Head of the Information and Decision Support Centre in the Egyptian Council of Ministers; stressed the need to apply advanced technologies capable of understanding the public, its behaviour and its needs.

The second session, "Transformations of Contact Centres in the Era of Emotional Artificial Intelligence", discussed the concept of emotional cloud computing and its application areas and their impact on the quality of services and operations. Speakers including  Dr. Noura Al-Houti, Assistant Professor at the College of Communication at the University of Sharjah; Dr. Abdullah Al-Maghlouth, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Information for Communication in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; Dr. Khaled Al-Munif, a writer specialising in psychology and self-development, stressed the need to build social thinking in dealing with artificial intelligence and providing academic programmes that keep pace with the requirements of the labour market in the era of emotional computing, while Iman Al-Roudhan, CEO of Zain in Kuwait, in her inspiring speech “Innovation in the Digital Environments of Contact Centres,” referred to the role of digital innovation in facing challenges and supporting the efficiency of operations and services that enhance institutional reputation.

The agenda of the forum included holding two interactive workshops, the first titled "Data Analysis Skills in Call Centres", in which trainer Tamer Khader, Customer Success Manager at the "ziwo" Cloud Call Center, stressed the importance of cloud systems to improve the quality of customer service quickly and effectively, and the role of data and its analysis in preparing accurate reports that enable the most successful decision-making in conducting the process of communicating with the public and providing its requirements.

In the second workshop, "Mechanisms of Effective Communication in Customer Service Centres", Dr. Ahmed Tahlak, Head of Teleservice, explained that high quality in dealing reduces transaction time, which is required in call centres, and in order to achieve this, it is necessary to know how to deal with different types of customers through verbal and non-verbal communication skills and possessing the capabilities of personality management, knowledge management, skills management, as well as behaviour and ethics management.

The Sharjah Contact Centre Forum concluded its activities by honouring the speakers, government agencies and participating institutions. Its discussions resulted in recommendations, the most important of which is enabling communication staff with data analysis tools to improve the level of services, working to expedite the inclusion of academic programmes specialised in artificial intelligence in a more comprehensive way, and the need to invest in psychological studies to determine trends of programming emotional artificial intelligence.