Not just another “Participant” trophy.
I’m not sure when the whole “Participant” trophy thing started, but I think it was probably in the very early 1990s when the first batch of millennials, born around 1982, were old enough to start participating in sports and other competitive activities. Not wanting to bruise the delicate egos of any of this overly coddled generation by something as horrible as not recognizing that every one of them was awesome, guilt-ridden parents came up with the Participant trophy.
The Participant trophy is typically “awarded” to all children for participation in an event rather than recognizing and rewarding those who achieved the best results. The wisdom behind the Participant trophy is that it builds the child’s motivation and confidence. Rather than forcing kids to recognize the cruel reality that someone might be better at something than they are, Participant trophies provide a reward for just showing up, usually inscribed with some innocuous phrase such as, “If You Had Fun, You Won!”
Curiously, there is a similar Participant trophy phenomenon occurring in today’s contact center industry. There seems to be a growing number of industry award programs that don’t seek to recognize outstanding achievement as much as they seek to recognize the equal awesomeness of every technology supplier in the industry. In other words, if you fill out an award application, pay the application fee and your check doesn’t bounce, you’ll get the award. Either no one has noticed, or no one cares, that dozens of companies get the same award simultaneously each year.
There are other industry award programs that do recognize the achievements of a single vendor company over others, but there’s usually a catch. One such program offers a prestigious award to technology solutions vendors, but the only way the winning company can publicize their win is to “license” the award from the conferring company at a substantial, typically five-figure, fee. In other words, if you wanna play, you gotta pay.
I admit that it’s taken me awhile to catch on to this trend, but the fact is, the contact center industry loves awards. Self-congratulatory industry award programs are all the rage so I’m jumping on the bandwagon with my company, Saddletree Research. But, we’re taking a slightly different approach.
Introducing the Saddletree Research Kachina Awards for Innovation in the North American Contact Center Industry. The Kachina Awards recognize a single technology vendor for innovation in a single technology category. For this inaugural year, we have chosen six award categories:
- Innovation in Workforce Optimization
- Innovation in Customer Self-Service solutions
- Innovation in Cloud Contact Center solutions
- Innovation in Voice of the Customer solutions
- Innovation in emerging technologies and/or new industry solutions
We tried to keep the categories manageable, along with the application fee. Every company in the industry, from the smallest startup to the biggest of the behemoths, can afford the application fee and that was the point. We want to make sure that everyone in the industry has a fair shot at a Kachina Award.
For those not familiar with Kachinas they are symbolic of the American southwest, home of Saddletree Research, and integral to the cultures of many Native American tribes in the region. Each Kachina represents a spirit in western Pueblo cultural beliefs. Although not worshipped, each Kachina is viewed as a powerful being who can use his particular power for human good. There are over 400 Kachinas in Hopi and Pueblo culture.
So we chose the Kachina to symbolize achievement and innovation among technology solutions providers in the North American contact center market. The Kachina we chose for this year’s award is the Sun Kachina, which represents strength of spirit, growth and abundance. The Sun Kachina was carved by Hopi Kachina artist Joe Duwyenie of Third Mesa, Hopi Pueblo, in Northern Arizona. We have commissioned Mr. Duwyenie to carve six of the Sun Kachinas to be used as the trophy, if you will, for the 2016 Kachina Awards. Each winning company will receive one of the six commissioned carvings for display.
If you’re a customer service professional, working in a contact center and not for a technology vendor, and I haven’t lost your interest yet, thanks for hanging on because here’s where I explain why you should care about this award. I’ve seen many requests for proposals (RFPs) and request for quotes (RFQs) in my career and they almost always ask the responding vendor to list any awards they have won. Many of the awards you’ll see in these RFP responses amount to the industry equivalent of Participant trophies and should be weighted accordingly. If any of the vendors responding to your RFP can state that they have won a Saddletree Research Kachina Award, count it among those awards that are meaningful.
Kachina Awards submissions will be evaluated by a panel of five independent judges with the winner in each category determined by consensus. Besides me, the other four judges are:
David Butler, Ph.D.
Professor, University of Southern Mississippi, and Executive Director, National Association of Call Centers (NACC)
Renee Maler
Principal, Philosophy PR + Marketing
Jim Lavery
Vice President, Contact Centers and Credit Services, Desert Schools Federal Credit Union
Linda Harden
Publisher, Contact Center Pipeline Magazine
It is our intent that the impartiality of this panel of judges will bring a high degree of objectivity to the evaluation process, further validating the legitimacy and value of the Kachina Award.
Submissions for the 2016 Kachina Awards are now being accepted and details regarding the submission process can be found behind the “Kachina Awards” tab at www.saddletreeresearch.com . It is our sincere hope that both the vendor and the end-user community will find value in, and throw their support behind, the Kachina Awards program. The Kachina Award will not be an easy award to win. It has to be earned, but those who do win will have the satisfaction of knowing that they have achieved something special. The Kachina Award isn’t just another Participant trophy.