CX Files

Stephanie Reeves Millner is Vice President of CX Management at Teleperformance US. She is also a board member of TP Women and she is based in Phoenix, Arizona. One of her key areas of focus is American retail which is an industry that has seen a lot of change in the past 6 months. On the podcast Stephanie talks about retail innovation and how retail brands can get closer to their customers in a po...

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/

Something new - just Mark Hillary alone this week. It's an experiment, but next week will be the usual interview format... Mark explores how the CX industry has managed to innovate and adapt to the new normal after Covid-19, but so many other industries are struggling. What can they learn from CX? https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhillary/ https://www.carnabysp.com/

What's happening in Belarus and how does it affect the wider IT and CX business community? On this episode, three experts on Belarus, and the region, discuss the recent disputed election and the subsequent turmoil in Eastern Europe. Featuring: Michael Zdanowski Head of Energy & Environment at Madano https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-zdanowski-2545322/ https://madano.com/ Andrew Wrobel Founding p...

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.  Gam...

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...

Simon Dillsworth is the Managing Director for Consulting at Ember Group, based in London, UK. Ember Group recently published a research paper on the opportunities around a combination of CX and the gig economy - analysts are already calling this GigCX. On the podcast, Simon explains why GigCX is happening now and the opportunities it creates. https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-dillsworth-sd/ https:...

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,...

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: http...

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

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

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 ask...

4,133 Participants 25 locations 7 countries What do they really think about working from home? Brian Kearney and Ted Nardin are the co-founders of 5th Talent. Their mission is to make work more meaningful, so they asked thousands of contact center workers what they really think about working from home. REPORT: https://bit.ly/wfh5thtalent www.5thtalent.com www.linkedin.com/in/briankearney-meaningfu...

Stephen Loynd is the principal analyst at TrendzOwl based in Arlington, Virginia. Last March he was on this podcast and he predicted 18-24 months of business disruption from the Covid-19 pandemic. It looks like he was right, so CX Files caught up with him again to talk about the New Normal. www.trendzowl.com/ www.linkedin.com/in/stephenloynd/

Brian Pritchard is the founder and CEO of LiveXChange Corporation, based in Toronto, Canada. His company offers a virtual contact centre solution - including agents. Brian believes that the New Normal is about more than just working from home - it also demands greater flexibility and new ways of working. The 9-5 in an office is dead. In the podcast be explains how LiveXchange handled the crisis an...

Robin Hoekstra is CEO at Outworx, based in Durban South Africa. Outworx focuses on CX and back office BPO solutions. Most of the coverage by analysts focusing on the 'New Normal' for CX after the Covid-19 pandemic focuses on the US and Europe. In this episode of CX Files we explore the African perspective and how a focus on technologies supporting human agents may be the transformation that will c...

Phil Jones is Senior VP for Strategic Business Development at Teleperformance UK and South Africa. He gave CX Files an advance look at a new white paper TP UK is publishing on how the CX industry is responding to the Covid-19 pandemic. It explores innovation, collaboration, and the New Normal. In the podcast Phil talks about the issues covered in the new white paper. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ph...

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/

Kathy Juve is the EVP, Customer Experience Technology & Insights Division, at Concentrix. She is based in Orlando, Florida. Kathy is focused on looking forward to the future of CX - especially looking how customers are behaving, emerging   technologies, and digital transformation. In this episode Kathy talks about the rush to digital transformation as a response to the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemi...

Jerry Leisure is the CEO and founder of Officium Labs, based in Silicon Valley, California. Officium Labs has created a CX Marketplace that blends traditional BPO operators as partners with independent gig workers allowing them to offer a highly flexible CX service that has elements of the gig economy with more traditional CX. Jerry has been closely linked to the games industry so in this intervie...

Every year, Ryan Strategic Advisory publishes their list of the top 5 most favoured offshore contact centre delivery points. The 2020 Front Office Omnibus Survey,  is being announced by Peter Ryan simultaneously with the publication of this special bonus edition of the podcast - so if you can see this then the results are now public. In this episode Peter talks about the research and the top 5 loc...

Alistair Niederer is the North America CEO of Ember Group, based in Toronto. He has a long track record in CX having previously been CEO at Praxidia and almost 6 years as CEO at Teleperformance UK and South Africa. Alistair recently published a blog talking of a third wave of customer service and how working from home will be the new normal. In this episode he talks about the path to a new normal...

Rod Jones is a contact centre strategic adviser, industry analyst, and consultant. He is based in Johannesburg, South Africa, and he is something of a legend in the CX analyst circles.  Rod has spent 50 days in lockdown so far and has been using his time to call CX analysts and operators to ask about a path to the new normal. This episode features me (Mark Hillary) and is just a taster of the full...

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/

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/