Get Out of Wrap - Contact Centre Chat

With extensive experience in training and leading change in contact centres in the UK and offshore Mark is a unique talent.  Great fun to be around and with clear opinions on getting the best from training for contact centre teams Mark is someone whose opinion is definitely worth listening to. I've been lucky to work with Mark in the past and those who have like me have always like to hear from hi...

A Get out of Wrap first with Helen back on the podcast for the second time. Helen is the EMEA Quality Solutions & CX Manager for BPA Quality and is an expert on improving human interactions and quality monitoring. Working on multi-lingual projects for global brands and herself a fluent French speaker has seen Helen develop a real passion for understanding cultural  nuance which she covers in this...

James is a multiple award winning leader at Air France - KLM where he has worked for 21 years, the last 4.5 years as General Manager. You may have heard James last year as he delivered a key note speech at the National Contact Centre Conference.  At Air France - KLM as well as leading the contact centre operations James recently has overseen a successful transformation programme which entaile...

I really enjoyed chatting to Sham Aziz who is Head of Customer Service at Selfridges. Sham covers his 17 year journey in delivering in contact centre operating models and working in and leading the customer service and contact centre teams for some great companies. In an enjoyable chat we also talk about; Culture Advisor motivation & performance work / life balance People being themselves Lessons...

After working with contact centres for 14 years, most recently as Senior Director of Operations, Helen started her own business working with organisations to promote positive mental health & wellbeing, to transform environments within the workplace to prevent poor mental health and better support those who do struggle. In this episode, amongst other things we discuss;  key triggers within contact...

For this 13th episode of the podcast a key guest, contributor and supporter of the podcast Rachel Goddard had an idea. (Matt Bourke and Helen Beaumont Manahan - also guests & key contributors also suggested this). The idea was to turn the table and microphone on me. Thinking 'don't ask someone to do something you are not prepared to do yourself' I agreed.  I can now say it is more nerve wracking b...

Nerys is a key figure in the Contact Centre Industry with almost two decades owning the P&L and SLA delivery of contact centre services for many national brands (Volkswagen; Vodafone; British Gas; News UK and National Apprenticeship Service).    Nerys now runs Injection Consulting - providing contact centre consultancy  This is combined with being a member and former Chair of the DMA Contact Centr...

In this episode I have a fascinating conversation with Ed Wells, Ed is Head of Strategy & Development (EMEA) at Sologic and provides thought leadership, delivers presentations and training across the country (and has written a book) on complex problem solving.  Ed talks about how repeat mistakes get ingrained in organisations and how many of these manifest in the contact centre environment. Ed inf...

Paul Moore of LV is Head of Operational Training , QA & Customer Relations.  Paul and his team won a Gold award at the Learning Awards 2019. Today he shares his thoughts & best practice on Training. In this episode Paul covers amongst other things; - Training & working with other support functions as well as Operations. - The impact of Digital on training and using it effectively....

Balancing CX & regulatory requirements in your quality framework is a challenge. Ed is an SME in the Quality world and shares his views on this and Ed also covers the following; - the work of his team in The AA - getting a seat at the table for QA  - how QA can positively disrupt CX & Ops  - QA as early detectors  - CX & Regulation - commercial vs regulation  - the...

With 49% of Contact Centres either already using homeworkers or considering it Homeworking is an important growing area. Matt Bourke is Head of Service Delivery at Sensee and shares his thoughts and best practice on this topic.

Celebrating their 25th anniversary this year the CCMA is a seminal organisation for all contact centre professionals - at the helm is Ann-Marie Stagg a role model for our industry. Ann-Marie covers a range of topics including the 25 year anniversary of the CCMA, the recent UK National Contact Centre Awards. She also talks about the judging process and judges& why you should enter the awards and th...

Helen is regarded as a subject matter expert within the Quality Assurance & monitoring world. In this episode we chat about what she considers a fundamental area in the development of a best practice QA framework - Calibrations.  A must listen if you are interested in maximising your quality function within your Contact Centre.

Jo is a Senior Leader at John Lewis responsible for Operational Support - Customer Contact. 22 years as a Partner Jo has had a varied career and shares the lessons learnt and her passions for leading and coaching. Jo talks about her team winning a European Contact Centre & Customer Service award last year for their work and offers great advice on the importance of authenticity, feedback, reflectio...

A departure from Contact Centre Chat to talk to Nik McEwan who recently walked over 700 miles in the UK to raise money for Shelter. We focus on that but also talk about mental health & Nik’s views on Linkedin & touch upon controversial topics like sexism.

Chris is Head of Operational Management Best Practice for Verint and previously was at The Forum for many years as the Community Development Manager.  Many of you would have been at events and seen and heard Chris speak on a wide range of topics. He has been in the industry for 20 years and shares his journey from part time agent as a student earning some beer money to where he is today.  He share...

Rachel Goddard is Quality Assurance Manager for a general insurance company with a call centre of over 2000 employees. Rachel is rightly considered as an SME in the QA world and she talks to me about disrupting current thinking around what QA currently does as well as making QA an industry within Contact Centres that people feel is a proper career path. And we also talk biscuits.

There are 6,200 contact centres in the UK employing 4 million people. So many industries, careers, skills and interesting projects to talk about. No sales, no sponsorship - just me and interesting guests.