CX Files (Mark Hillary and Peter Ryan)

Graham Brown is the Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Hinduja Global Solutions, also know as HGS. He is based in the UK.

I called Graham to ask him about the New Normal for BPO and CX - how can contact centres function in a world of social distancing?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/graham-brown-7433891/

https://www.teamhgs.com/

Mark Davies featured on this podcast last year when he was at PA Consulting. He recently joined Hunch, a strategic innovation consulting practice based in London - his own focus is strategic innovation. In this episode we catch up with Mark again to explore how innovation is closely connected to the customer journey and experience. Philip Clarke, the founder and managing partner at Hunch joins the conversation with Mark.

http://www.brillianthunch.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmdavies/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/philipjaclarke/

Wendy Shlensky is the Global Head of PR and AR at Hinduja Global Services (HGS), based in New York. Wendy was a speaker at the recent CXOutsourcers event in Windsor, UK, so I called to catch up on her conference takeaways and views on the future for BPO and CX in 2019.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendyshlensky/

https://www.teamhgs.com/

https://knowledge-executive.com/cxoutsourcers/

Jonas Dahlberg is the CEO and President of Transcom. He is based in Stockholm, Sweden.

Transcom has a team of over 26,000 people working across 22 countries using 33 languages. Jonas likes to say that they are big enough to really matter, but small enough to still listen to their clients.

In this episode Jonas talks about BPO and CX in the post-covid environment - will contact centers change in 2021?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonas-dahlberg-033b3925/

https://www.transcom.com/en

Michael Valdsgaard was until recently the senior VP of digital transformation at IKEA. He led the team that created the hugely successful IKEA Place app that allowed customers to see furniture in their home before they bought anything through the magic of Augmented Reality (AR).

His new company, London Dynamics, is on a mission to help retailers use AR more effectively to improve CX.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-valdsgaard/

Dave Rizzo is the President of the Asia Pacific region for Teleperformance. The CX giant just launched their Teleperformance Innovation Experience Center (TIEC) in Silicon Valley California. In this episode, recorded in California, Dave explains the need for innovation in CX and why they launched the TIEC now.

https://teleperformance.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-rizzo-7037763/

David Powers is the Chief Experience Officer at Rooter Hero. He is based in Los Angeles, CA.

David has written extensively on CX, including a book called 'The Blue Collar Call Center' and hosts his own podcast called 'Caffeinated CX.' 

David manages CX for Rooter Hero - a plumbing company that is expanding across the western US. When David's team get a call it is usually from a customer that has a crisis on their hands - they don't just want a chat. 

David talks about how to manage CX for an essential service like plumbing and also how he believes the BPO community needs to work with companies that are exploring CX outsourcing.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjpowers2/

https://rooterhero.com/

Book and Podcast link: https://linktr.ee/caffcx

Happy New Year!

Peter Ryan, Principal, Ryan Strategic Advisory (Montreal, Canada) and Mark Hillary, CEO of Carnaby Content (São Paulo, Brazil) explore some of the big picture CX issues for 2022.

https://ryanadvisory.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-ryan-montreal

https://www.carnabysp.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhillary/

In this episode of the podcast we are exploring the perception and reality of working in different global locations after the news this week that airlines such as BA and Lufthansa are not flying to Cairo because of "security concerns." How do executives working in BPO and CX separate perceived risk from reality?

Steve Weston and Peter Ryan discuss the Egypt problem and also explore other locations and how to evaluate risk.

Steve Weston is the Managing Partner at SK Weston & Co. He is based in Washington DC and is one of the leading US contact centre advisers, with particular expertise in global locations - in short he has advised many companies on where to locate their cx function either offshore or through working with a partner.

Peter Ryan is the founder and principal analyst at Ryan Strategic Advisory, based in Montreal Canada. He is well known globally as one of the leading authorities on Business process outsourcing and contact centres.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-weston-1843152/

https://www.skwestoncompany.org/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-ryan-2b39b71/

https://ryanadvisory.com/

https://ryanadvisory.com/flight-cancellations-highlight-perception-problem-for-egyptian-bpo/

Mark Walton is the CEO, of Sensée. He is based in Shrewsbury in the UK. Sensée is one of the leading work-from-home customer service specialists in Europe with 17 years experience of managing WFH customer service solutions.

In the podcast, Mark looks to the future and the lessons Sensée learned long before the pandemic.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-walton-0627a74/

https://www.sensee.co.uk/index.html

Amit Shankardass is the Executive Vice President of worldwide marketing at Teleperformance. Teleperformance has over 300,000 people delivering CX services to 170 markets from 80 different countries.

In this edition of the podcast, Amit talks about the differences between a human and digital focus on CX and how brands can achieve the best possible blend of both. If 80% of customers prefer to speak to a human, why is everyone automating CX?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amitshankardass/

www.teleperformance.com

Ian Barkin is a well-known expert inside the BPO industry. He is an entreprenuer and investor, has founded 4 companies, has written popular LinkedIn courses on automation, is an external adviser to Bain & Company ... the list could go on. Most recently in the BPO world he was the Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer at SYKES until May 2021. Ian is based in Tampa, Florida.

Mark saw Ian recently contributing to a new feature of LinkedIn, collaborative documents. These resemble a wiki and allow several different experts to contribute ideas to documents and many of them were focused on BPO as an industry. 

Taking this as a start to the conversation, Mark called Ian to talk about BPO consolidation, AI, automation, and where customer experience specialists go from here?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianbarkin/

CX Outsourcers Special Edition: For the next two weeks CX Files will be published on both Monday and Thursday giving previews of the talks that will be taking place in Atlanta at the CX Outsourcers conference on May 1/2...

---

Paula Kennedy Garcia is an old friend of the CX Files. She has senior experience in several leading BPOs and is know as a leader in CX innovation and new delivery models. Paula is based in Belfast.

In this conversation with Mark Hillary she talks about her planned talk on digital CX to the CX Outsourcers conference in Atlanta on May 1/2.

Unfortunately, Paula has had to cancel her visit to Atlanta just before the broadcast of this epsiode (Peter and Mark recorded this about a week before broadcast), but it would be a shame to not hear the conversation so we have still published it here.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/paula-kennedy-garcia-1b90b81/

https://cxoutsourcers.com/

Michael DeSalles is a Principal Analyst on the North American Customer Care team at industry analyst firm Frost & Sullivan. He recently published a paper exploring how the BPO and CX industry is reacting to the Covid-19 pandemic. In the podcast, he talks about this article and the CX road into 2021.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-desalles-82519114/

https://www.frost.com/

Jens Butler is the Director of Services, CX, and Sourcing for Tech Research Asia, based in Sydney, Australia. He is one of the best known analysts focused on sourcing and CX in the region and is in demand as CX analyst and speaker globally. 

I caught up with Jens to ask for his views in CX trends in 2018 and what to expect in 2019. This is the final CX Files episode focused on looking ahead to 2019 - now we are living 2019!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jensbutler/

http://techresearch.asia/

Alistair Niederer is the EMEA head of TTEC. He is based in London in the UK.

Alistair has published several articles recently suggested that we need to redefine CX outsourcing - even dropping the term outsourcing. His argument is that CX requires orchestration, not outsourcing. CX suppliers should be genuine business partners.

In this episode of CX Files, Alistair takes some time to explain CX orchestration in more detail.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aniederer/

https://www.ttec.com/

Matt Sims is the President EMEA at Alorica. He is based in the UK.

Headquartered in the US, Alorica has recently been leaning into Europe so Mark Hillary called Matt to explore the differences between the European and American CX markets and how economic uncertainty may affect CX and BPO strategies.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-sims-7892542/

https://www.alorica.com/

The final CX Files of 2018!

Peter Ryan is Principal of Ryan Strategic Advisory, based in Montreal Canada. Peter talked to me about some of the big CX events of 2018 and what we can look forward to in 2019. Enjoy it and HAPPY NEW CX YEAR!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-ryan-2b39b71/

https://ryanadvisory.com/

James Dodkins is better known as the CX Rock Star. He recently launched his Accredited CX Specialist (ACXS) course online. It's great timing as many people have some extra time on their hands at present. In this episode, James explains why the ACXS course is different to other CX accreditation.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesdodkins/

Rockstar CX: https://www.rockstar.cx/

ACXS Course: http://j.mp/rockstarcx

Christine Bardwell is the Senior Principal Strategy for Oracle Loyalty and Commerce and she is responsible for all the global go to market strategy for Oracle Loyalty.

Before Oracle, Christine was an industry analyst at companies including IDC and Ovum and therefore she has spent several years analysing the markets that she now works on for Oracle.

In the podcast we explored smart speakers, China, Google, data analytics and the question of human or digital CX - a complete omnichannel of CX.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cbardwell/

https://www.oracle.com/

Mark Walton spent the past couple of years as CEO of specialist work-from-home BPO company Sensée. He stood down in May 2022 and then launched Cloudbase Partners with the Flex@Home Workspace Health & Safety audit app as the intial product. This app helps companies to audit their WFH environment to ensure the business knows their employees are working in a safe enviroment and their wellbeing is being managed. It also helps the business reduce the risk of employee litigation, regulatory investigation, and criminal prosecution.

WFH hurridly introduced during the pandemic now has to become permanent and this means ensuring the safety of WFH employees. 

Mark explains what his new business is doing, how he believes WFH will develop in 2023, and how to build a team culture when nobody physically works together.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-walton-0627a74/

https://www.flex-home.app/

Mike Pipicello is the VP of Client Services for GlobalStep. He is based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

GlobalStep is focused on gaming and digital services so in this edition we are focused on games and player experience - is this hi-tech sector ahead of other industries for CX design?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikepipicello/

https://www.globalstep.com/

Michele Rowan is the founder and president of the Work From Home Alliance. She is based in Virginia in the US.

The CX Files talked to Michele over two years ago in 2021. At that time we were leaving the worst period of the pandemic - the lockdowns were over and a vaccine was just starting to roll out. Michele then predicted that WFH and hybrid working would remain a permanent feature of BPO and CX. The new normal would include WFH.

Mark Hillary caught up with Michele to see what the WFH Alliance has been doing in the past two years and what Michele thinks of her prediction from 2021.

Michele also contributed a foreword to the recent book 'GigCX: The Benefits of a Flexible Workforce' by Mark Hillary, Terry Rybolt, and Brian Pritchard - as featured on the CX Files episode from last week.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michele-rowan-6006516/

https://www.wfhalliance.com/

https://www.amazon.com/GigCX-Benefits-Workforce-Brian-Pritchard/dp/B0CJB9WV7N

Jim Farnsworth is one of the leading experts on designing work at home CX solutions globally. Based in Denver, Colorado, Jim is the EVP for Business Development at SYKES.

In this episode, Jim gives an update on how SYKES has handled the crisis and what CX executives need to do right now and as we start pulling through the immediate crisis - how will their team need to change?

https://www.sykes.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jifarnsworth/

BONUS EPISODE: Rob van Herpen is the Chief Customer Officer and North America General Manager of 5CA. 5CA is a CX specialist, based in the Netherlands. 95% of the 5CA workforce works from home so I called Rob to ask for advice on how this works and what advice he would give to managers who need to urgently get their team working from home.

Feel free to contact Rob directly if you feel that you could benefit from some work from home advice directly.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/robvherpen/

https://www.5ca.com/

Kelvin Plomer is director of player experience at Jagex, based in Cambridge in the UK. Jagex is well known for their classic RPG, Runescape, but they have several other games in their portfolio.

In this episode Kelvin talks about managing player experience and how this differs from traditional CX. He talks about supporting players and employees mental health and the post-Covid WFH experience. 

Gaming is a positive experience for most players, but where can problems develop?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelvin-plomer-a3142913/

https://www.jagex.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aymenismail/

https://media.smart.com/eu

Nate Brown is the Chief Experience Officer at Officium Labs and the co-founder of the CX community CX Accelerator. He is based in Nashville Tennessee.

In this episode, Nate talks about the people who work in CX. How do we fix the "minimum wage" reputation of CX and how do companies attract the best talent and start treating them like experts?

https://www.officiumlabs.io/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cxaccelerator/

https://www.cxaccelerator.com/

Ivan Kotzev is a research analyst at NelsonHall - he is focused on CX transformation. In this episode, Ivan looks to the future. How is CX transforming in the post-pandemic environment and which technologies and innovations should you be watching out for?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivankotzev/

https://research.nelson-hall.com/

Randy Arellano has a long history in CX - he has worked at several of the major CX suppliers. In 2018 he joined Auxillium with the mission of making high quality CX available to smaller companies and start ups. His mission was to take the standards and processes used by the big players and to apply this to smaller projects.

In this episode, Randy describes how he managed to achieve this goal and how a CX supplier can serve a client even when they are only working with a few agents. 

Randy is based in Denver, Colorado.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/randyarellano/

https://auxilliumusa.com/about-us/

Daniel Hong is VP & Research Director, Digital Customer & Collaboration Practice and Healthcare Practice at Forrester Research, based in San Francisco.

In this episode Daniel explores his thoughts on RPA, AI, automation more generally, and how roles and responsibilities are changing in the CX environment. He also looks ahead to CX trends worth watching in 2020.

http://forrester.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielhong1/

Alex Mead is the CEO of Total CX. He is based in Bahrain.

Alex is a long time friend of the CX Files and he has featured before talking about the need for better CX advice and expertise across the industry. In this discussion with Peter he is talking about Bahrain and the opportunity for this region to emerge as a nearshoring BPO destination... Bahrain may not have been on your radar before, but listen to Alex and it may well be! 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexmead/

https://total-cx.com/about-us/

Atul Vashistha, is the Chairman and CEO of Neo Group. Neo Group was founded in 1999 and is a US-based consulting and advisory firm focused on global services and sourcing. Atul has written three books about globalisation and sourcing and he is on the US Department of Defense Business Board - an advisory body that provides the US government with private sector expertise.

In the podcast Atul talks about managing the risk of working with other companies who deliver services to your customers.

http://www.neogroup.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/atulvashistha/

Alex Mead has a long track record in CX director roles in various brands. He is presently based in Bahrain and is the Executive Director of Customer Service Experience for a new Middle East startup that is still in stealth mode - brand to be revealed in a few months.

Alex has been vocal about the sheer number of lists of top 50 or top 100 CX gurus so the CX Files contacted him to find out if there is a better way for us to all judge who are the real experts in CX?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexmead/

Chris Hague is the head of marketing at Yoummday. He is based in Prague in the Czech Republic. Yoummday is based in Germany and offers a platform-based approach to CX that resembles the GigCX we have often talked about on CX Files, but in the interview Chris explains how Yoummday differs from the classic gig approach.

Mark Hillary called Chris after reading an article Chris published asking if the traditional BPO model - contact center and customer service employees - is dead...

Chris argues that there is a more positive and flexible future where agents can choose the brands they are working with, choose their working hours, and choose to work from home. They get more flexibility and also earn more - and this flexible approach costs the brand less.

Is this flexible model of CX going to replace traditional BPO? Listen to Chris and decide for yourself...

https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-hague/

https://www.yoummday.com/en

Cathy Jooste is the CCO and US Nearshore director at Atento. She is based in Florida in the US.

Nearshoring is a strategy that is changing fast, especially because of the Covid experience where long distance travel became extremely difficult. Cathy talks to Peter Ryan about interesting new locations and how nearshoring is evolving.

https://atento.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathrine-jooste-a218663/

Claas van Delden is the Chief Growth Officer of Yoummday. He is based in Munich, Germany.

Yoummday is a highly flexible work-from-home CX specialist that has recently purchased Icon, the Prague-based BPO. In this episode, Peter Ryan asks Claas about flexible BPO in Europe and what the acquisition means for Yoummday and Icon.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/claas-van-delden-b7b3b2/

https://www.yoummday.com/

An electric vehicle (EV) is plugged into the ChargePoint network every 2 seconds, but is the charging infrastructure for EVs being upgraded fast enough for drivers? The UK will ban petrol and diesel vehicle sales from 2030 and many countries have similar deadlines so what will the future driving experience be like?

Tanya Sinclair is the UK and Ireland policy director of ChargePoint - Tanya is based in London, UK. In this episode Tanya talks about the future of EVs and the user experience we can expect.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanyasinclair/

https://www.chargepoint.com/

Syamant Sandhir is Director of learning and technology at Futurescape, based in Gurgaon, India.

Futurescape is focused on helping companies meet Environmental, Social and Governance goals (ESG), with a focus on how issues such as sustainability affect the customer experience.

In this episode we explore CX and sustainability.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/syamant/

https://www.futurescape.in/

Peter Ryan is the Principal Analyst at Ryan Strategic Advisory. He is one of the best-known commentators on CX and contact centres globally. Peter is based in Montreal, Canada.

In this episode, Peter talks about WFH going permanent, the development of GigCX, and what we might expect in CX in 2021.

https://ryanadvisory.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-ryan-montreal/

Peter Ryan, is the Founder of Ryan Strategic Advisory. He is one of the most respected CX analysts in the world today and is constantly on the road, either advising clients or speaking at conferences.

In this interview, Mark Hillary speaks to Peter about CX and automation. How are tools such as AI and RPA affecting CX and how are companies pricing all these new technologies?

Erin Broecker is the Senior Director for Global Content Strategy at Teleperformance. She is based in Sacramento, California.

Erin is focused on content. How it is created and how it is published. She is endlessly thinking about how people within our industry learn about CX strategies. Erin plans which organizations Teleperformance can work with to create greater insights into the industry and how the company can publish this information.

Erin talked to Peter Ryan about content creation and how to use networks like LinkedIn to publish it for a global audience.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-b-411150a/

www.teleperformance.com

Peter Ryan is the Principal Analyst at Ryan Strategic Advisory and is a great friend of CX Files. On Monday March 25th he presented the latest RSA research - the 2019 Front Office BPO Omnibus Survey. This outlines the most popular locations for contact centres globally. In a CX Files exclusive this episode is being released earlier than usual so it is published simultaneously with his live speech at the CX Outsourcers conference in Windsor, UK.

https://ryanadvisory.com/

https://knowledge-executive.com/cxoutsourcers/

Neal Topf is the founder and President of Callzilla. He is based in Miami, Florida.

Callzilla is a CX specialist based in the US, but also with delivery centers in Colombia and South Africa.

Peter Ryan called Neal for a conversation about corporate culture - in particular culture inside the BPO environment. Neal recently posted on LinkedIn that a prospective client was impressed with the Callzilla technology and their business proposal, but he wanted to meet the team.

Seeing the team at work and learning about their daily on-the-job culture was really important to this company - he wanted to build a rapport with the Callzilla team. 

Neal has often written that prospective clients today are less interested in contact center metrics and much more interested in how the team can help with both sales and service or how engaged the team is and how this will translate into great CX.

Clients today are looking for a BPO to have solutions to business problems - not just AHT statistics.

Tune in for the latest CX Files where Neal talks about culture and why it is more important than ever for BPOs to have a positive answer when a prospect suggests visiting their team.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nealtopfcustomerexperience/

https://www.callzilla.cx/

It's CX Files featuring your host, Mark Hillary. This podcast will feature the best thinkers and leaders in Customer Experience (CX) globally. There are no ads, just great content, so subscribe today.

Dr Julian Raabe is an expert partner at McKinsey & Co, based in Munich, Germany. He leads the McKinsey customer operations practice for Western Europe.

In the podcast, Julian talks about recent McKinsey research in hyper-personalization, omnichannel, innovation, digital transformation, and the 'next normal' for BPO and contact centers.

http://mckinsey.com

www.linkedin.com/in/dr-julian-raabe

Miya Knights is the Director and publisher of Retail Technology, possibly the first dedicated retail technology trade journal in the UK. She is based in Brighton, in the UK.

Miya is also the global content strategist for Poq, a platform that enables retailers to build apps extremely quickly and she has written several books about the retail industry including one on omnichannel and one focused entirely on Amazon.

In this episode we discuss the future for retail in the new normal.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/miyaknights/

https://poqcommerce.com/

https://www.retailtechnology.co.uk/

Rod Jones is a legend in the CX industry.

Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, Rod is now a speaker, trainer, and coach - focusing his experience of contact centers and CX on the next generation of managers.

Rod was 75 a few days back and he started his first business in 1972 - so he has experienced CX and customer service processes up close, or as an advisor, for over half a century. There are very few people in the industry with this level of experience so Mark Hillary and Peter Ryan called Rod to wish him a happy birthday and to ask for some background on how he started out and what has changed in CX in all that time... Rod also takes a look forward to the future, applying his experience to some ideas around what might be coming next.

We hope you enjoy this 75th birthday conversation with Rod - do go to his LinkedIn to leave him a happy birthday message!

Rod will also be at the CX Outsourcers conference in Atlanta on May 1/2 - all of us hope to see you there if you will be attending.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodjonessouthafrica/

https://cxoutsourcers.com/

https://rodjones.co.za/

Mark, Peter, and Rod all together:

https://www.instagram.com/p/C4gpH4Gvn9I/

Vit Horky is the co-founder and CEO of Brand Embassy, based in Prague. Brand Embassy is focused on helping companies move to digital customer service. He recently published a book titled 'Customer Service in the Transhuman Age' and this podcast is focused on learning more about the book... Where is CX going in 2019 - and beyond?

www.brandembassy.com

https://hubs.ly/H0g5tND0

www.linkedin.com/in/vithorky

The CX Files episode for July 10 with Dr Julian Raabe of McKinsey will appear in your podcast app on Monday July 13. Sorry for the delay, but it will be with you soon!

www.mckinsey.com

www.linkedin.com/in/dr-julian-raabe

John Dinardo is the CEO and president of Nordia, a Canadian CX specialist with over 10,000 employees on the team. Nordia is the largest BPO in Canada.

Peter Ryan and John are both based in Montreal, so this is a local Canadian edition.

Bell Canada created Nordia back in 1999, but a quarter of a century on they are now looking at many new opportuntiies and areas of business. John talked about expansion beyond Canada and also about the complexities of managing customer service processes in both English and French.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-dinardo-nordia/

https://www.fr.nordia.ca/

Annelien Marcus is director and recruitment manager at Clarion People, based in London. In this episode she talks about the changing nature of CX recruitment and the skills needed to be a  modern CX professional.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/annelienmarcus/

https://www.clarion-people.co.uk/

Adrian Swinscoe is an adviser, writer, and speaker with a focus on CX and customer service. He writes regularly about CX in the business journal Forbes and he has published several books on CX, including Punk CX in 2019.

In the podcast we explore Adrian's view on Punk CX and how to plan for a back to basics strategy.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianswinscoe/

http://www.adrianswinscoe.com/

It's that time of year again - the 2023 Ryan Strategic Advisory Front Office CX Omnibus Survey is being revealed by Peter live in Poland at exactly the same time as this episode drops - so if you are downloading this on April 20th 2023, then you are one of the first to hear the results!

Which are the most favoured offshoring locations around the world for CX and BPO?

This is probably the largest annual study in the industry and is updated annually. In this episode, Peter explains how the research was conducted, what it means, and where are the top 5 global locations that are seen as the best for CX services?

https://ryanadvisory.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-ryan-montreal

Are you remote-friendly or remote-first? What's the difference? Trust and transparency to start with. Zoom Happy Hours are not going to make a difference if you don't build a culture that embraces everyone in your distributed team and measure them by output - not hours at the desk.

5CA is almost 100% WFH - all the agents are WAHA. Their B2B sales head Marcel Stroop talks to CX Files about how you can embrace remote working and how it can improve CX.

www.linkedin.com/in/marcelstroop

www.5ca.com

Nerys Corfield is the founder and director of Injection Consulting. She is based in South Wales, close to Newport.

Nerys posted on LinkedIn recently about how a retail bank is using digital non-voice customer service channels - it wasn't a compliment. Peter called Nerys to discuss why so many organisations are getting voice right, but are not paying attention to chat, email, and texting... why are so many companies dropping the ball when it comes to digital channels?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/neryscorfield/

https://www.injectionconsulting.co.uk/

Peter Ryan is the principal analyst at Ryan Strategic Advisory, based in Montreal Canada. Peter is well-known globally as a leading expert on CX and he is almost always on the road visiting companies all over the world. In this end of year episode Peter talks about 2019 and what to look for in 2020 - happy new year!

https://ryanadvisory.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-ryan-montreal/

Giovanni Tavani is the director of Global Customer Care and Social Media at Royal Canin, based in France. He recently joined Royal Canin and was previously the head of social customer care at Dell - a company he stayed at for 17 years.

Royal Canin is one of the leading premium pet brands globally. If you have a dog or cat then you probably know of their food and associated products. They supply food mixed for each individual breed and have a great reputation for high quality.

https://www.royalcanin.com/

Chris Gillen is the CEO of A Closer Look. He is based very close to Atlanta, GA, so the CX Outsourcers conference is a local event for him. In this conversation he gave Mark Hillary a preview of his CXO keynote speech on CX and AI and keeping humans in the loop

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisgillen/

https://a-closer-look.com/

https://cxoutsourcers.com/

Mike Aoki founded Reflective Keynotes almost 20 years ago. The company is based in Toronto Canada and is focused on customer service and sales training as well as advisory work.

Mike has a strong focus on helping teams to blend customer service with sales so in this episode we focused on some of the issues this can cause.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeaoki/

https://twitter.com/mikeaoki

Keith Gait is the CEO of the CX Foundation. He is based in the UK. The CX Foundation publishes research, blogs, a podcast, and hosts many different events focused on CX. Member organisations are drawn from across the industry.

In this discussion Keith talks about the work of the CX Foundation, his new book "Definitely CX", and looks to the future of CX - managing the cost of living crisis and predicting how the role of the agent may be about to change.

https://www.cxfo.org/meet-the-team/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-gait-mba-ccxp/

Yoni Epstein is the founding chairman and CEO of itelBPO, based in Montego Bay, Jamaica. ItelBPO has become a leader in the nearshore BPO industry in recent years with a move into Mexico, the Bahamas, work from home agents in the USA itself, and a new centre under construction in St Lucia.

I called Yoni at his home to catch up on the effect on his business, the nearshore market in general and what he is advising his clients to do right now.

https://itelbpo.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoni-epstein-94213831/

Jeff Toister founded Toister Performance Solutions in 2005 to help companies improve employee performance. The company focuses exclusively on helping companies develop customer-focused cultures. Jeff is based in San Diego, CA.

In this episode Jeff talks about metrics, building great relationships and the one big mistake behind every failed CX strategy.

https://www.toistersolutions.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jefftoister/

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/instructors/jeff-toister

Alistair Niederer is well known on the CX Files - he was a guest just a few months ago, but was invited back as he has now changed role and he published an important new white paper on ESG.

Most leaders are now concerned about their Environmental, Social, and corporate Governance (ESG) measures - but are they really focusing on change or just how to score well in the audits? Alistair has been focused on exploring ESG in CX and BPO and he talks about his recent research in this episode.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aniederer/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/needlerock/

https://www.intelligentsourcing.net/esg-essential-to-bpo-competitiveness/

BPO Guide to ESG

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aniederer_bpo-guide-to-esg-activity-7069295941454835713-XVe_?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Everyone is familiar with South Africa as a CX destination. Maybe you have also worked with Egypt and a few others too, but Martin Roe, the CEO of CCI Global, is on a mission to build far greater customer service capabilities in many other African nations. Martin is a Brit based in Dubai and Peter Ryan called him to talk about the development of many emerging CX destinations in Africa.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-roe-55a4724/

https://www.cciglobal.com/

Bruce Winder is the president at Bruce Winder Retail. He is a leading analyst focused on the retail sector, with a long history of senior management roles in the retail industry. Bruce is based in Toronto, Canada.

Bruce talked to Peter Ryan about trends and challenges for CX in retail in the 2020s.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brucewindermba/

www.brucewinder.com

The CX Company has been designing chatbots and conversational AI systems for 15 years. Their software engages over 4 million customers every day. 

Simon Foot is the UK and Ireland Director of The CX Company and he talked to me about the opportunities for chatbots and why there are so many disappointing chatbot implementations.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonfoot/ 
https://www.cxcompany.com/ 

Audrey William is a Principal Advisor at Ecosystm, based in Sydney, Australia. She recently published a research paper on the contact centre industry in 2019. 

In this episode Audrey talks about contact centres, apps, personalisation, and the importance of great customer journey analytics.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/audrey-william-3a4a04/

https://www.ecosystm360.com/

Ian Barkin is the Chief Strategy and Marketing Office at SYKES, based in Tampa, Florida. He has a long history in innovation and automation strategy and if you have taken an RPA course on LinkedIn then he probably wrote it.

In the podcast Ian explores RPA, innovation, and the future development of customer experience processes where technology blends with more traditional human customer service.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianbarkin/

https://www.sykes.com/

In this edition of the podcast I’m really pleased to be speaking with one of the most important experts and advisors on customer experience strategy globally - Shep Hyken. Shep is a best selling author, trainer, advisor, speaker and all round expert on CX. He advises several Fortune 100 companies and has been focused on this for over 35 years now. Anyone that has searched LinkedIn or Twitter for information on CX will know Shep because he is a very active publisher.

In our conversation we covered a wide range of topics from the customer journey, the changing nature of the agent job, tools that can help to improve CX, and how executives can focus on productivity in addition to improving CX.

Visit Shep's website for more information:

http://www.Hyken.com

Hemant Puthli is MD and Partner at Neo Group. He is based in Mumbai, India.

Neo Group recently conducted a detailed study of business service and IT companies to determine which are really adopting a robust ESG strategy and which are just "greenwashing" their credentials. In this interview Hemant talks in detail about why ESG matters and how they conducted their research...

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hputhli/

https://www.neogroup.com/

https://www.neogroup.com/esg-adoption-survey-across-select-it-business-service-providers/

Annelien Marcus is a Recruitment Manager at Clarion People, based just outside of London in the UK... her focus is contact centre and CX recruitment so Peter Ryan called to ask about the latest recruitment trends and how the post-Covid recovery is shaping up.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/annelienmarcus/

https://www.clarion-people.co.uk/

Cheryl Paarwater is the founder and Managing Director of Call Lab BPO - based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Cape Town faced a recent wave of violence during a series of taxi strikes. Peter called Cheryl to find out what's really happening and why we should still have confidence in CX services from South Africa.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cheryl-paarwater/

https://call-lab.com/

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-66445019

Luuk Houtepen is the BD Director for SThree DACH and Chairman of APSCo Germany - The Association of Professional Staffing Companies. He is based in Munich.

SThree is one of the largest global recruitment companies, focused primarily on technology and STEM. Luuk recently told me that the contact center industry has been hiring a lot more technology specialists - so in this edition of CX FIles I asked him about the trend for more tech in the contact center.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/luukhoutepen/

https://www.sthree.com/

Ahmed Refky is CEO of Raya Contact Center, based in Cairo, Egypt. In this edition we look at CX in Egypt and how the region has recovered from the Egyptian Revolution almost a decade ago.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahmedrefky/

https://rayacc.com/

NOTE: Sound quality is below usual in this episode thanks to the conferencing system we were using having a 'muddy' effect on the sound - apologies... lesson is to call direct, not through conference lines :-(

Alan Graham is the Chief Commercial Officer at Mindpearl, based in Cape Town, South Africa. Mindpearl was born in 1999 when a consortium of 11 European airlines decided they needed a better way to manage CX. They maintain a strong focus on travel, but have now expanded to support other industries such as retail and telecoms.

Alan talked to me about the issues faced by the travel industry and how to manage the 24/7 demands of customers.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-graham-514101b/

https://www.mindpearl.com/

Greg Murphy is the EVP North America of Instanda, he is based in Minnesota. The company provides SaaS cloud-based insurance policy admin services to insurance companies - allowing them to rapidly trial or launch new services. 

In this episode Greg talks about how insurance is changing and the renewed focus on insurance CX.

https://instanda.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregmurphy24/

Merijn te Booij spent the past 4 years as the CMO of Genesys. Since last month he has been the EVP and GM for Employee Engagement. Genesys offers contact centre technology solutions from cloud to chatbots to personalisation with AI. The company is based in California, but has a presence in over 100 countries.

In the podcast, Merijn talks about the evolution of WFH, the tech needed to get it right, new metrics, and how to engage with blended CX solutions.

www.linkedin.com/in/merijntebooij

www.genesys.com

Rachel Robinson is the Executive Vice President of Public Sector Services at Teleperformance, based in Bristol UK.

Rachel recently published an opinion paper titled 'The Future For Government Contact Centre Services' and so in this episode we explore the difference between public sector bodies serving citizens and private sector companies servicing customers.

Click on Rachel's LinkedIn here to access the paper:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-robinson-003a3546/

https://teleperformance.com/

CXOutsourcers 2024 took place on May 1/2 in Atlanta, GA.

Both Mark Hillary and Peter Ryan were at the event. Mark talked to some of the speakers and delegates about their thoughts on what they experienced and learned from the event.

This podcast features:

Stephen Loynd, Founder and Principal at TrendzOwl

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenloynd/

Rod Jones, Founder Rod Jones Contact Center Consulting

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodjonessouthafrica/

Yanique Grant, MD of Professional Training and Occupational Services Ltd. (PTOS)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yaniquewagrantcx/

Tyler Ashby, COO of Agents Only

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-ashby-agentsonly/

Neil Sturrock, Global Customer Support Director

Wave Mobile Money

https://www.linkedin.com/company/wavemm/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/neils74/

Peter has recently been touring Asia, including some time meeting CX and BPO experts in the Philippines. Mark called Peter in Tokyo to talk about his recent time in the Philippines. What is going on in CX over there right now and do they need to reinvent their approach to communications and promoting what they can do? 

When will we see Philippines BPO 2.0?

https://www.ibpap.org/

https://ryanadvisory.com/india-is-the-most-favored-offshore-cx-delivery-location-in-2024/

https://ryanadvisory.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-ryan-montreal/

Helen Hickin is the founder and CEO of ICON Communication Centres, based in Prague in the Czech Republic. ICON is focused on CX, inside sales, and account management for B2B brands.

Most of the time when we focus on CX strategy we tend to focus on B2C - the end consumers - but B2B remains critically important and has also changed with the pandemic. In this edition, Peter Ryan talks to Helen about what has changed in B2B CX and what is coming next in this space...

https://www.linkedin.com/in/helen-hickin/

https://www.theiconadvantage.com/

Victor van Baal is the GTM lead and MD of Qelp at Sykes Digital Services (SDS) and Amahl Williams is a director of SDS. Victor is based in Amsterdam in the Netherlands and Amahl is based just outside of Boston, Massachusetts in the US.

In this episode we focused on post-Covid digital transformation, innovation, and automation - including RPA.

www.linkedin.com/in/amahlwilliams

www.linkedin.com/in/vanbaal

www.sykes.com/digital

This week we have two guests rather than the usual one!

Chris Gillen is the CEO of A Closer Look. He is based just outside Atlanta, Georgia. Stephen Loynd is the founder and Principal Analyst at TrendzOwl. He is based in Virginia, just across the Potomac from Washington DC.

Both of these leading thinkers have spoken before at the CX Outsourcers conference about how AI is changing the CX industry. In this conversation, they join forces to talk to Mark Hillary about how the past couple of years has shaped expectations on what AI can do for CX companies and how this might be changing the traditional BPO business model. Is CX getting more tech focused?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenloynd/

https://www.trendzowl.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisgillen/

https://a-closer-look.com/contact-us/

Loren Moss is the founder of Unido Digital, based in Medellín, Colombia. He is a CX analyst with expert knowledge of FinTech and Intelligent Automation.

In this interview, Loren and I spoke about CX channels and their connection to customer demographics.

http://www.unidodigital.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorenmoss/

Vaishali Dialani is a Senior CX Strategist at Konabos. She is based in Dubai, UAE.

Vaishali is passionate about how data can be used to help both customers and brands by identifying preferences and trends. Peter Ryan called Vaishali to talk about making better business decisions by using data-driven analytics.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/vaishalidialani/

https://konabos.com/

Seandette Wiltshire is the founder and director of strategy and operations at The Contact Hub. She is based in Christ Church, Barbados.

The Contact Hub offers contact center and marketing services to companies in Barbados - and beyond. In this conversation with Peter Ryan, Seandette talks about creating a new BPO in Barbados and how the region is developing a growing reputation for the quality of CX services.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/seandette/

https://gocontacthub.net/

Marianne Rutz founded Rutz consulting over 20 years ago and she had advised companies such as Hertz, Thomas Cook, Ralph Lauren and Banco Santander. She is based in Stirling, in Scotland.

Her focus is operational excellence for contact centres and she also hosts a podcast titled The Operational Excellence Show.

I asked Marianne to tell me about some of the problems of trying to shift very quickly to a work from home strategy - just as many companies are doing right now.

https://rutzconsulting.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/marianne-rutz-351b0a5/

Andrew McNeile is the Chief Customer Officer of ThinScale Technology. He is based in Dublin, Ireland.

ThinScale enables remote and hybrid work using bring-your-own-device by ensuring that remote employees can connect securely. The company saw a boom as the pandemic forced office workers to work from home, but what does the situation look like now? 

Is WFH and hybrid here to stay in CX and BPO?

Mark Hillary called Andrew at his base in Dublin to catch up and see how he thinks BPO will evolve...

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amcneile/

https://www.thinscale.com/

Steve Mosser is the Group CEO & Chief Innovations Officer at Sensée. He is based in London, UK. 

Sensée is a work-from-home specialist, but has recently purhased The Contact Company, in Liverpool UK. This more or less doubled their size, but means they now offer both contact center and WFH options.

In this conversation, Steve focuses on the evolution of workforce management and flexible working patterns, why this is good for the clients and the agents, and how to create flexibility while still investing in agents - rather than creating a casual workforce.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-mosser-77136712/

https://www.sensee.co.uk

https://newsblog.sensee.co.uk/sensee-creates-a-powerhouse-in-uk-based-cx-outsourcing-with-purchase-of-the-business-of-the-contact-company/

Felix Serrano is the co-founder and CEO of Activus Connect. The company is a certified women and minority-owned customer engagement organisation and they are operating across all of the continental US and Puerto Rico - based out of Orlando, Florida.

Activus Connect is building a new platform for customer experience services modelled on the gig economy. In this episode, Felix explains how this can work and how the Work-At-Home agent strategy is developing rapidly.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/felixserrano3/

https://activusconnect.com/

Barry Matthews is the CEO of Open Assembly. He is based just outside Oxford, in the UK. 

Open Assembly co-creates the future of work with organizations, platforms, and people by providing content, community, and strategic advising services. They glean key insights from Harvard Business School faculty and researchers and the Laboratory for Innovation Sciences at Harvard (LISH), to inform and inspire new ways of working using open strategies.

In this interview, Barry talks about the future of work and how trends such as GigCX may be changing the way that CX and customer service processes are designed in future.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/barry-matthews-2a51a32/

https://open-assembly.com/

Evan Jones is the CIO of Youth Employment Accelerator, Harambee, based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is also the National Board Chairman of BPeSA, promoting and advising the wider BPO industry in South Africa.

In this episode of CX Files Evan talks about Impact Sourcing and how CX can be used to create employment and change lives across Africa, and beyond. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/evanjonesbpo/

https://harambee.co.za/

Calum Chace is an expert on artificial intelligence (AI). He graduated from Oxford university after studying philosophy and found that the science fiction books he loved were really just philosophy in fancy dress. Calum has now written several books on AI and is in demand globally as an expert speaker and advisor. He will be speaking at the CX Tech event in London on October 12.

https://cxtech.events/

https://amzn.to/2QqnsWx

https://calumchace.wordpress.com/

Pedro Lozano is the EMEA CEO of Sitel Group. Sitel has over 80,000 in their team across the world. Like other CX specialists they are currently in a race to move contact center agents into a work from home environment. In the podcast, Pedro talks about the immediate plans for Sitel, how he is advising clients, and what he sees as the new normal in 2021.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/plozanodecastro/

https://www.sitel.com/about/

Roger Beadle is the founder and CEO of Limitless. Roger is based in London, UK.

Peter Ryan caught up with Roger to talk about GigCX and how it offers the opportunity to do more than just change how customer service agents are paid - hiring agents that love the brands they support is just one example. Flexible CX is about far more than just WFH.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-beadle-96048410/

https://www.limitlesstech.com/

Nicky Pharaoh is the Managing Director and owner of The Learning Curve - a people assessment and development company focused on behavioural change inside companies.

Nicky talks on the podcast about employee behaviour and how management structures can be applied inside customer service organisations. - what is changing in modern companies? 

www.linkedin.com/in/nickypharoah/

www.tlcglobal.co/

Claas van Delden  is the Chief Growth Officer at yoummday. He is based in Munich, Germany.

Yoummday is a proprietary technology platform for managing remote workforces - what we have summarized on this podcast in the past as 'Gig CX'. Yoummday has a diverse global talent pool of 15,000+ sales and customer care freelancers available.

Mark Hillary called Claas to talk about the issues around providing support to customers in multiple languages and whether the platform-based appproach is replacing the more traditional multilingual hubs used by BPO companies...

Claas talks about this specific question and outlines how Gig CX really works in this interview.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/claas-van-delden-b7b3b2/

https://www.yoummday.com/en

CX Report 2025: https://business.yoummday.com/en/yoummday-cx-report-2025

Stuart Ravens founded Corax Insights in London at the start of 2021, but he has a long history as an industry analyst (Navigant and Ovum) focused on energy and utilities. In this episode of the podcast, Stuart talks about the transition to renewable energy and the relationship between energy companies and their customers - do energy companies even think about the customer experience at all?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuartravens/

https://www.coraxinsights.com/

Lynda Arsenault is a partner focused on investment attraction at FDI Business Diplomacy, based in Canada.

CX, BPO, and Shared Services are all regularly involved in helping regions create jobs and boosting the local economy. How do these regions make their offer more attractive so they can encourage companies to invest there and how has Covid-19 affected investment flows?

Dubai DAFZA Webinar: https://j.mp/30mslFS 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynda-arsenault/

https://www.fdibd.com/