CX Files

Nina Čaprić is the Government Relations Manager EMEA at NCR Voyix. She is based in Belgrade, Serbia. Peter Ryan called Nina to talk about her role managing government relationships. How is the public sector different to the private sector and do BPOs need to behave in a different way when national - or regional - governments are the client? https://www.ncr.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/nina-cap...

Jo Garland is an experienced CX professional. She is based in Surrey in the UK, close to London. In this interview Jo is speaking in a personal capacity as Peter Ryan called to ask about her experience of a Master's Degree in Leadership at Henley Business School. Jo graduated in 2021 with a distinction so the research was clearly appreciated by the course supervisors. Jo used the experience of the...

Randy Arellano is the head of sales and marketing at DATAMARK. He is based in Dallas, Texas.  DATAMARK offers contact center and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services with delivery centers in the US, India, and Mexico. In this discussion with Mark Hillary, Randy talks about how rapidly the entire BPO landscape has progessed since the start of this decade. The period of the pandemic created a...

Every analyst and journalist is saying that AI will be important in 2024. It's obvious... but what are the less obvious predictions we can make for CX trends in the new year? CX Files host Peter Ryan (Canada) hosted a discussion focused on CX in 2024 featuring: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-ryan-montreal/ Mark Hillary  CX Files co-host (Brazil) https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhillary/ Lian Row...

It's the festive season. Mark and Peter have decorated the podcast for Christmas. Although many people will now be off work for the Holidays there are millions of CX agents out there still helping customers to get their presents on time. In this final CX Files of 2023, Mark and Peter look back at the key CX trends of 2023 and some of their favourite interviews from the year. CX Files will return o...

Adrian Swinscoe is well known in the CX community as an adviser, speaker, and writer. His Punk CX book argued for a new approach to CX and he also publishes the Punk CX podcast. Adrian also writes about CX in the business magazine Forbes. He is based in Edinburgh, Scotland. In this conversation with Peter Ryan, Adrian argues for a new approach to designing and managing CX - especially when hiring...

In this discussion, Mark Hillary talks to Christine Heynes, Head of Customer Transformation, and Yvonne Quinn, Head of Customer Relations, at Southeastern Railway in the UK. Southeastern is the public-facing name of SE Trains Ltd - a train operating company that serves the south east area of England.   Southeastern serves the main London stations of  Charing Cross ,  Waterloo East ,  Cannon Street...

Sidharth Mukherjee is the Chief Digital Officer at Teleperformance. He is based in San Francisco, California. Sid is focused on all things digital and CX and in this conversation with Peter Ryan he talks about the explosion in interest in Generative AI in 2023 and how it can really be applied to improve the customer experience. https://www.linkedin.com/in/sidmuk/ https://www.teleperformance.com

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? Mar...

Sagufta Janif is the Executive Director of Outsource Fiji. She is based in Suva, Fiji. Fiji is located in the South Pacific, east of Australia and north of New Zealand. It is an island country with a population of approximately one million people, but Fiji has been punching above its weight in CX and BPO. What is Fiji offering and why are so many companies interested in BPO from Fiji? Peter Ryan c...

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...

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...

Dianne McCoubrey is the VP of Sales at Grypp. She is based in Toronto, Canada. Grypp helps customer service agents to get closer to customers by providing an immersive video experience. In this conversation, between Mark Hillary and Dianne, the CX Files explores how video can be used to improve customer service interactions. Why is it not used more often today and can it be more than just a video...

David Neale is the Chief Growth Officer at Nutun CX. Mike Butler is the Executive Director of Sales and Marketing at Nutun CX. David and Mike are both based in the UK, but Nutun operations are in South Africa. Every BPO says that they do Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Every annual report features an update on Environmental, Social, and corporate Governance (ESG) these days... but are BPOs...

Diane Edwards is Director of the consulting and professional services unit at the Mona School of Business & Management in Kingston, Jamaica.  Diane has a long history in BPO management and promotion and she led JAMPRO, the Jamaican trade and investment agency for over 9 years, until 2022. In this CX Files episode, Peter Ryan talks with Diane about the compliance implications of the Jamaican Data P...

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...

Terry Rybolt is the Chief Revenue Officer at LiveXchange Technologies. He is based in Boston. LiveXchange is a platform that allows companies to augment their existing customer service processes with a team of gig workers - a bench of GigCX. This talent can be called on daily or occasionally, as and when it is required. It works for companies that manage their CX internally and also if a BPO is ma...

Beza Tekola is a doctor. She is a gastroenterologist based in Fairfax, Virginia. Beza founded Suture BPO to help manage the back office processes within healthcare organizations. In this conversation with Peter Ryan, Beza talks about why healthcare needs BPO expertise and what is especially important about the healthcare industry. https://www.linkedin.com/in/bezawittekola/ https://www.getsutured.c...

Jon Yarlett is the founder and COO of Intelligent Sourcing magazine. He recently founded a new trade association focused on impact sourcing titled the Impact Sourcing Alliance. The role of the new alliance  is to support the education and information   sharing of Impact Sourcing globally across the broad BPO and CX community.   Jon is an old friend of CX Files and has often published articles by P...

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/n...

This is just a short alert to let you know that CX Files will be back from our summer break tomorrow - remember to tell your friends and contact Peter Ryan or Mark Hillary if you have ideas or questions for the show... https://cxfiles.libsyn.com/cxfiles  

For 280 episodes Mark and Peter have always ensured there is a new CX Files episode every single week. However, as it is a very quiet time of year we decided this year that it's not fair on our guests to ask them to appear when few are listening. We will be back in the first week of September - see you then!  If you are taking a summer break then have a great time (it's winter here in Brazil!) Mar...

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 focu...

It's the first CX Files Q&A session with Mark Hillary and Peter Ryan. Listen in to hear Mark and Peter answer audience questions and talk about the latest industry trends and news. In this discussion Mark and Peter talk about: Why are IVRs so bad? Will AI drastically reduce agent numbers? What are the latest trends in WFH? Was Queen at Wembley 1986 the best concert movie ever? Tribute to our frien...

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 pred...