Embark on a transformative exploration of the customer experience cosmos with the formidable Cathrine Jooste, President of Global Business Processing Outsourcing at CGS. From the rich tapestry of her personal evolution, leaving behind the consulting battlefield to command the global contact centre fleet, Cathrine divulges the intimate camaraderie a…

Prepare to be captivated by Claas van Delden, Chief Growth Officer at Yoummday, as he unveils the transformative world of freelance models in the customer experience sector. Our conversation with Claas is more than just an interview; it's a treasure trove of insights on how flexible work opportunities are not just a perk but a revolution for agents…

Discover the unexpected allure of contact centres as Julia Morgan from Manpower joins our conversation, bringing a fresh perspective in a field ripe with potential but often cloaked in myth. With her in-depth knowledge of technology recruitment, Julia peels back the layers of misunderstanding surrounding the industry. We confront the issue of high …

Unlock the secrets to asserting your consumer rights with the ever-vigilant Helen Dewdney, the acclaimed 'Complaining Cow' who's made a career out of championing customer issues. In an eye-opening conversation, we navigate the rough seas of customer service, with Helen providing a compass for those lost in chatbot loops. She artfully exposes the ta…

Discover the future of customer service with Guillaume Langle, the visionary CEO at the helm of Konecta's UK and South Africa operations, as he unveils his journey from the automotive industry to leading a revolution in customer experience technology. His deep dive into the symbiosis of Generative AI and human intuition paints a picture of an indus…

Embark on a journey through the labyrinth of customer service innovation with Patrick Elliot, the astute UK CEO of Global BPO Business HGS. As we unravel Patrick's storied career—spanning consumer electronics, the pioneering days at Orange, and the strategic chessboard of management consulting—you'll gain a front-row seat to the philosophy that pro…

Unlock the transformative potential of your business's culture with the expert guidance of Steve Bent from Gallagher Culture Change Consulting. Throughout our engaging conversation, we examine the art of codifying a company's culture to replicate success across expanding or new locations. Steve offers a deep dive into the methods of assessing organ…

Discover the intricate dance of transitioning from an in-house contact centre to the vibrant ecosystem of outsourced contact centres with Ray Biggs, the savvy COO of Ventrica. Ray's journey uncovers the pace and challenges of adjusting to a BPO environment, where the demands of diverse clients must be juggled with precision. Our conversation traver…

Unlock the secrets to elevating your e-commerce customer service with our latest guest, Bogdan Maksak, the dynamic co-founder, CEO, and CTO of Digital Genius. As we delve into the AI revolution in e-commerce, Bogdan reveals how their cutting-edge platform is not just responding to customer enquiries but predicting and resolving them even before the…

Ever wondered how a fresh face navigates the labyrinth of the contact centre industry? Sophia's story will captivate you as she reveals how her passion, ignited by her father's career, led her to the buzzing world of customer service and outsourcing. Joining her is the sagacious Sadiq Mohammed, who brings decades of experience and a wealth of knowl…

Welcome to the latest episode of CX Diaries, where we delve into the intriguing world of customer experience (CX) in financial services. Our guest today is Wasim Mushtaq, a seasoned CX professional in the banking sector who will enlighten us about the evolving landscape, unique challenges, and the need for transparency in this highly regulated indu…

Ever wonder what it takes to transition from an in-house Contact Centre to the exhilarating world of BPOs? Meet Jo Garland, a seasoned industry maestro with a wealth of 20 years in the customer experience realm, and get a glimpse into her thrilling journey from in-house Contact Centres to Concentrix+Webhelp in the BPO sector. Unlock the key differe…

Meet our guest, Dave Vernon, an award-winning guru in contact centre planning and workforce management. With two decades of industry experience under his belt, Dave takes us on a riveting journey through the world of workforce planning. He unravels the layers of the industry, starting with the importance of an efficient workforce in business operat…

Are you ready to uncover the secrets behind the rising popularity of African outsourcing? This week, we venture into a riveting conversation with Martin Roe, Group CEO of CCI Global, who brings 30 years of industry experience to the table. Martin shines a light on the unique advantages Africa has to offer in the customer service industry, honing in…

Welcome to a revolutionary episode where we've got the inside scoop on shaking up the broadband industry with Rob Wilson, the man at the helm of customer service at the UK's largest alt-net fibre broadband provider, Hyperoptic. We talk to Rob about high-speed fibre, impressive customer service, and an in-depth look into the inner workings of a comp…

Fasten your seat belts as we embark on a fascinating journey through the world of CX with our distinguished guest, Vinay Parmar, a Chief Customer Officer who boasts over 30 years of leadership experience in this field. As we navigate the twists and turns of his illustrious career, we'll delve into the challenging and rewarding aspects of delivering…

Did you ever wonder about the unique challenges of managing Customer Experience at airports? Lian Rowlands, an industry insider and founder of TAYMA Solutions, takes the hot seat to unpack this complexity and more. We explore the fascinating world of the airline customer, the critical role of recovery processes, and the necessity for lightning-fast…

Imagine leading a thriving business where employee satisfaction links directly to customer happiness. Our guest, Iain Banks, CEO of Ventrica, shares his unique vision and leadership journey, showing us how to create a positive work environment that benefits all. He divulges Ventrica's approach to the digital customer experience and the importance o…

Get ready to enter the fast-paced world of e-commerce retail with our guest, Daryl Wilkes, Director of Customer Care at ASOS. His hands-on experience with leading customer service transformation programmes across multiple industries gives him a unique perspective on how to navigate the ever-changing digital landscape. As he takes us through the cus…

“Thoughtful application of technology” Thérèse tells us about her most recent role at Manchester Airport to improve the passenger experience, how thoughtful application of technology is the real prize, about how it is applied not what you buy, putting yourself in your customer's shoes, and avoiding Magpie behaviour. We hear about Thérèse’s roles th…

“Culture is the worst behaviour you are willing to tolerate” In our latest podcast for the CX Diaries, we sit down with Lucie Child who tells us about her wide-ranging role in shaping the Customer Strategy at The Very Group. Challenges include Recruitment, Employee Value Proposition, her work in leading Wellbeing for the people, and how AI may shap…

“No one wants to be stuck in a loop of death with a Bot” Chandni talks to us about her experience of working with rapid growth businesses in E-Commerce and retail, and managing large offshore teams both in house, outsource, onshore and offshore. She also talks about innovations in technology and leading a community and member based CX operation. We…

“For Phone Calls read Shoe Boxes” Chris gives us his view on how so many of the problems and opportunities of the last few years come down to organisational culture and mindset, the importance of strong leadership, and his answer to the “magic formula” We hear about the origins of his renowned and successful leadership style, and the approach he ta…

“Service is where your brand hits the customer” For our latest CX podcast from the Customer Experience Foundation, Nicola talks to us about always pushing the boundaries and innovating throughout her career through some great companies, across the supply chain. We get Nicola’s take on what the cost of living crisis and impact of hybrid working and …

This week Sarah Hunt spoke to Steve McSherry from Daktela UK & Ireland. Steve shares his vast amount of experience in the industry on a range of topics such as ‘pandemic recovery’ and what the key challenges are (including ‘people’, ‘technology’ and hybrid working), and his thoughts on how organisations can engage remote workers and reward performa…

For the first of our brand new CX Diaries podcasts, we were delighted to be joined by former CX Leader of Year James Scutt, who chatted to us about his new role at Qualtrics XM after 17 years at the Post Office. We hear about what Experience Management is, what an XM Catalyst is and does, and about the work of the XM Institute. James talks to us ab…

“Your home is your castle” Sarah talks to us about her move into social housing 3 years ago, having worked her way up through the ranks leading large, multi-site, multi-national contact centres, the motivation behind this, and the operational and cultural differences and challenges. We hear how the cost-of-living crisis is affecting both their cust…

In this episode, as we occasionally do, we step into the world of Mental Wellbeing, and support in the workplace Kathy was had a hugely successful corporate career in change delivery for 35 years. In the last 4 years she has run her own coaching business working with senior leaders and with women who want to transform their experience of work. Kath…

We had a chat with Iain just a couple of months into his new role as CEO at leading BPO and CX outsourcer Ventrica. Iain speaks to us about the background and early weeks in the role, and their positioning in the market, both UK and offshore. We hear about growing businesses in an experience economy and becoming an employer of choice, the importanc…

In our latest episode of The Big Interview, we caught up with Katie Stabler. She chats to us about ‘Journey Mapping’ – why we should be doing more of it, its reality vs the perception, and what makes a good CX programme, including how it should be part of a bigger strategy, and not siloed. She also talks about where companies get CX wrong, especial…

In this week’s podcast we had the pleasure of speaking to Justin Custer, CEO of one of our Foundation Partners – ChatLingual. Justin tells us all about ChatLingual and the major challenges he sees in the CX industry when it comes to language and multilingual support for customers. He talks about the issues when it comes to multilingual speaking age…

In this week’s episode of ‘The Big Interview’ we speak to Beverley Hughes, who tells us about the importance of the ‘people’ element of contact centres and ‘empathy’ and how this needs to be looked at in organisations as much as technology, as well as who is doing it well. She also talks about the benefits of Cloud technology, especially during the…

This week we chat to John O’Melia from Contentsquare. We chat about the ‘disruptive’ CX trends (good and bad) as the world navigates its way out of pandemic, and how quickly the space is evolving. John gives us his personal experiences of disruptive CX since he has started travelling again, especially with regards to an increase in SMS outbound com…

As part of our Mental Health Awareness Week campaign, we had a chat with Claire Bennett about the importance of Mental Wellbeing in the workplace. Claire talks about the myth around the assumption that mental health being just about ‘poor’ mental health, the cost to organisations with regards to mental health, how presenteeism is a huge issue with …

Nerys chats to us about the challenges of assessing your investment in contact centre technologies over the next 3 to 5 years, auditing current operations and determining the right solutions. She also gives us her expert opinion on the development of Omni-channel, Cloud, integration and Unified Comms solutions. We hear about her take on the CCaaS v…

Mark talks us through his reflections on the whole market trying to replicate Sensee’s original homeworking model in recent times, how the have retained their USP in this market, and the difference between having people working from home, and a true homeworking model. We hear about truly flexible scheduling and planning with self-selecting shifts, …

Sadiq takes us through his journey through the contact centre world, the decision to leave corporate world, matchmaking clients and partners, we hear about his extensive and successful portfolio of angel investing, and the challenges and differences for managers of working in a start up and privately invested business. Sadiq gives us his take on th…

Nicola talks to us about the reflective times of the last 2 years, and the challenges and success of clients, businesses, and investments during this time, across her varied portfolio. We learn a lot about how to work with businesses that are backed by Private Equity, the differences, and the opportunities this brings. We chat about the disconnect …

Russell takes us through the rapid journey many organisations went through with their technology during the pandemic, and we explore why this wasn’t happening before, and how many businesses found themselves with technology that didn’t support the new reality, and how all providers had to adapt to support their clients. We hear about the advancemen…

Graeme talks to us about the dual challenges of running both an outsource and in house estate, the value of strategic alliances, the pace of technology deployment over the past 18 months, and the expectations and opportunities this now brings. We hear about Graeme’s migration from Operations into Planning, the importance of understanding your numbe…

Jamie tells how the pandemic has amplified CX across many industries, and awareness across brands of the importance of CX. We discuss CX as a profession, the advent of the CXO, the attention at boardroom level, and the importance for the industry of backing this up, with more focus on the “so what”, much more provable ROI, and hard metrics. We hear…

Paul tells us what being a Contact Centre Innovator and CX Industry Dragon is all about! We hear about Paul’s background as an early entrant into contact centres in the 90s, some of the challenges and key learnings along the way, and how the landscape has changed over the years, both for the people, the technology, and consumer behaviour We come up…

Alistair talks us through the new proposition of CX as a Service, what this involves and how it works, the benefits and outcomes it brings. We hear about the levels of growth and consolidation in the CXM market, the labour challenges, and the need for balance between self serve and automation and what this means for customers, and what the next nor…

Dave talks to us about the opportunities and positives the pandemic has brought us, particularly around the way we work and doing things a better way, the evolving world of cloud contact centres, the importance of integration, and how to do this well. We hear about his journey through the industry, and developing people throughout his career. Dave …

Megan talks to us about the challenges of launching a Tech start up and we hear all about Gig CX and crowdsourcing customer service, bringing in the gig economy to contact centres and why this works for people and clients. We hear about her rise through the industry, how talent not technology is the answer to many of the industry issues, and the mi…

Gerry chats with us about some of the work he has been doing over the past 18 months, supporting organisations who have not traditionally seen their users as customers, the new world experience of facilitating virtual conferences, and his frustration with the state of customer service in the UK right now. We hear about the importance of maintaining…

Carolyn talks us through how she launched her business at the age of 27, defying everyone who told her she was too young, before selling that to Ember in 2016. We hear about Carolyn’s reflections on her entrepreneurial journey over her 20 year career, the ups and downs, the learning experience, the big influences on her career, and discusses the im…

Graham talks to us about the challenges and successes over the last 18 months, and during his 5 years at HGS, what the future holds for the market and the clients, plus takes us through his journey through the contact centre and outsourcing world, from starting in the Next Directory call centre at the age of 15 and his time in Paris. He give us his…

Chloe talks to us about challenging the conventional, what more can be achieved in CX, and the importance of CX professionals showing ROI. She explores how we can link data to better serve the customer, employee, and brand and we discuss the advancement in CX programmes over the last 5 years, and whether this may have gone too far and how this can …

Paula tells us about the challenges of coming into the sector whilst being seen as a relative outsider, gives a big shout out to some the competitors who have supported her through the 1st year. We hear about a watchdog exposé on her 1st day in new job at BT, the lessons of transformations and how you move hearts and minds, and her take on future t…