CX Files

Sandra Busy is the Chief Executive Officer of Cnect Waies. Cnect Wales, (formerly The Welsh Contact Centre Forum), is Wales' premier networking organisation for   business in Wales operating centralised services. They represent Wales and promote greater investment in BPO and CX in Wales. The British general election is taking place as this episode arrives on July 4th so Peter talked to Sandra abou...

Alexandra da Silva Rodrigues has many years experience designing and supporting CX in various major hotel groups. She is now the Global Head of Reservations and Customer Services at Generator & Freehand hotels. Alexandra is based in Barcelona, Spain. Mark Hillary called Alexandra to talk about CX in hotels generally, but with a focus on the multilingual challenges this presents when supporting cus...

Andreas Helland is the CEO & Co-Founder at Atender Group. He is based in Bergen, Norway. Atender Group is based in Norway, but has their main operational facility in Málaga, Spain. Andreas talked to Peter Ryan about how a company that mostly serves customers in the Nordics region manages to do this from a sunny location in Spain that is known to most Europeans as a vacation destination. https://ww...

Stephen Loynd is the founder and principal analyst at TrendzOwl. He is based in Virginia, close to Washington DC. Stephen has just published a new book this week. It's called "The Widening Turn: America & the Accelerating Sweep of Innovation." The book explores how new technologies, such as AI, are redefining work, culture, and our entire society. It also includes many observations on CX and how c...

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...

Michael Morrison is the Chief Revenue Officer at NCRI Inc. He is based in Toronto, Canada. Peter called Michael to talk about CX and BPO in Canada and how Canada has played a dual role as a nearshore BPO destination for the US as well as being an important market for customer service itself... come and listen to a discussion about the great white north! 🇨🇦🍁 https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-mor...

Aymen Ismail is the Head of Customer Engagement Solutions at smart Europe GmbH. He is based in Stuttgart, Germany.   The smart auto company was founded in Germany in 1994. The brand was originally famous for quirky small cars, such as the ForTwo. Now, the company is focused on EV production and battery technology.   The auto industry is surfing an extreme wave of change at present. Electric vehicl...

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...

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 pa...

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 Consulti...

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/    

Alex Muñoz is CEO of the Hispanic Media Center in San Diego, CA. He is focused on advertising and marketing for the hispanic community in the USA. Alex talked to Mark Hillary from Mexico City about the importance of understanding the complex nature of the hispanic community in the US and not just assuming there is a broad need for an "English" customer experience and another in "Spanish"... Alex w...

Barry Winkless is the Chief Strategy Officer at Cpl Group & Head of the Future of Work Institute. He is based in Dublin, Ireland. Barry is speaking at the CX Outsourcers conference in Atlanta on May 1/2. In this conversation with Mark Hillary he gives a preview of his keynote talk about making companies - and countries - more attractive locations for investment and improving the ability to attract...

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. Pa...

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 l...

Nirali Amin is the SVP Global Solutions and Success at LivePerson. She is based in the US. LivePerson recently published a report focused on the state of customer conversations and the emerging "AI gap" between the willingness of customers to use and accept AI customer service solutions and the willingness of executives to roll out these solutions. This gap points to a bigger picture that is focus...

Chris Hague is the head of marketing at yoummday. He is based in Prague, in the Czech Republic. Chris was at the recent CCW conference in Berlin and he posted some of his thoughts online about his views on the future of BPO - based on the conference trends. In this conversation with Mark Hillary, Chris explores some feedback from the CCW conference and also asks what the BPO or CX specialist of th...

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 ve...

Matt Kendall founded Cognitive Copy, a B2B copywriting and ghost-writing specialist. He is based in Madrid, Spain. He recently launched a newsletter focused only on the BPO and CX community called BPO Bullhorn...  Mark Hillary called Matt to talk about BPO Bullhorn and why newsletters are still a useful way to build a community. Matt also reminded Mark that he has been on the podcast back in 2021...

Dr Lollie Mancey is an anthropologist and AI ethicist based in Dublin, Ireland. She is the Programme Director for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Digital tech and resilience) at the University College Dublin Innovation Academy. Lollie is focused on workplace performance and this includes how work/life balance should be managed and what causes anxiety and other issues that may damage work perforam...

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    

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/

Rob Dwyer is the VP of Customer Engagement at Happitu. He is based in Wichita, Kansas. Rob also hosts the Next In Queue podcast - another CX-focused podcast. Peter Ryan called Rob to talk about CX lessons from his main day job, but also what he learns from talking to CX leaders across the world on his podcast. https://www.linkedin.com/in/j-robert-dwyer/ https://happitu.com/ https://podcasts.apple....

On February 5, 2024, British contact centre company The Contact Company (TCC) was put into adminstration. Struggling to recover from a cyber attack in 2022, the previously successful company found itself in the red. On February 7, 2024, the UK media - starting with the Liverpool Echo - explained that the assets and business of TCC had all been sold to the British work-from-home specialist Sensée b...

Mike Harfield is the COO and Co-Founder at Sigma Connected Group. He is based close to Birmingham in the UK. In this epsiode of CX Files Mark Hillary speaks to Mike about developing careers in CX. He explains how his company has explored impact sourcing initiatives across South Africa and the UK and how a focus on training, support, and developing genuine career paths for people working in CX help...