CX Files

Michael Aronowitz is the Senior Vice President of Revenue Growth at VXI Global Solutions. He is based in Miami, Florida. Mark Hillary called Michael to discuss the importance of turning contact centers from cost centers to profit centers, emphasizing the need for revenue generation through customer interactions. Michael highlights VXI's success in winning three Stevie awards for retention, win-back, upsell, and cross-sell. Michael stresses the significance of the human touch in customer interactions, leveraging AI for training and recruitment, and the importance of blending sales and service roles. He argues that companies should focus on driving revenue per interaction and maintaining customer loyalty through personalized service. Many business journals talk about turning the contact center into a profit center, but in this conversation Michael gives his thoughts on how to really make it happen... http://vxi.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-aronowitz/

Jonas Berggren writes the popular Transform Customer Service newsletter on LinkedIn. He is the Chief Business Development Officer EMEA and member of the executive leadership team at Transcom. Jonas is based in Stockholm, Sweden. Mark Hillary and Jonas have published a new book together called The CX (R)evolution - so Mark called Jonas to talk about how the book project started out. In this conversation they talk about how Mark's comments on the newsletter formed the initial idea for a book and how they developed the idea together. https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/transform-customer-service-6992863124731113474/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonasberggren2/ https://transcom.com/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F4XWH1L6

Amas Tenumah is the host of the Amas Talks podcast. He is based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, US. Amas has a long history focused on customer service and service innovation. He regularly advises companies and speaks at events forcused on CX. On his LinkedIn Amas says: "I'm a digital philosopher, keynote speaker and customer service thought leader. My thoughts are featured on NPR, NBC, Fox-business and other outlets. I have spent over 20 years in the customer service industry and now advise executives on service modernization." Amas recently published an article titled: "The Worst Job in Corporate America is In a Call Center - And Is It Even Worth Fixing?" Mark Hillary called Amas to ask about the article and his thoughts behind his statements on contact centers and what he thinks can be improved... https://www.linkedin.com/in/amastenumah/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/worst-job-corporate-america-call-centerand-even-worth-amas-tenumah-cdcfc/ https://amastalks.com/

Phil Kitchen is the Founder & Managing Director of Customer Contact Panel. He is based in Sheffield, UK. He recently attended the Outsource 2 Jamaica conference in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Peter Ryan caught up with him to discuss what Jamaica is offering to potential clients in locations such as the UK - outside their more traditional US nearshore market. https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-kitchen-ccp/ https://customercontactpanel.com/ Phil's LinkedIn comments on Outsource2Jamaica 2025 https://www.linkedin.com/posts/phil-kitchen-ccp_outsource2jamaica-bpo-cx-activity-7318574026124058624-yQZd

Juan Caire is Co-Founder and CEO of Alliance BPO Services, based in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. Jim Farnsworth is the CEO and Founder of Octayne Ventures, based in Denver, Colorado. Peter recently visited Hermosillo and talked to Juan and Jim about the potential for growth in the BPO industry and the importance of value over cost in outsourcing. The event in Hermosillo also emphasized the strategic partnerships Alliance BPO has formed globally to enhance service delivery. An important part of the discussion was also focused on looking beyond the major BPO delivery cities and finding new talent and value in other locations. https://www.linkedin.com/in/juancaire/ https://alliancebpo.net/#home https://www.linkedin.com/in/jifarnsworth/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/octayne/

Chris Dumpleton is the Chief Sales Officer at Limitless Technology. He is based in London, UK. Limtless is a GigCX platform that offers a connection to freelance customer service agents to brands - replacing the need for a more traditional customer service contact center as all the agents work from home, choosing their own hours and the brands they want to work for. Chris describes it as "Uber for CX." But how does the gig economy work in the CX environment and what are the challenges that clients with experience of the contact center face when they explore these ideas? Mark Hillary called Chris to explore Gig CX and this episode is introduced by Mark and the founder of TrendzOwl, Stephen Loynd... Peter is not feeling well this week so thanks to Steve for stepping in and get well soon Peter! https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-dumpleton-54557214/ https://www.limitlesstech.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenloynd/ https://trendzowl.com/

Dave Rumble is Director and Executive Chair of the Maistro Group. Maistro has long been a specialist in helping companies with RFPs and vendor selection. The Maistro platform helps companies to make better sourcing decisons adn their database has very prescise details on thousands of suppliers. Maistro recently introduced the ability to have natural conversations with the database using generative AI, so B2B buyers can engage with the information in the database without needing to build complex queries. Our conversation came about because Forrester Research recently noted that 9/10 B2B buyers are now asking Gen AI for advice and help when selecting a supplier. Mark Hillary wrote an article exploring this and it was noted in the comments that tools like Maistro offer an advantage over the more general publicly available information on suppliers... Mark called Dave to explore how B2B buyers are changing and using AI to find CX suppliers. https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-rumble-4a4a09b/ https://www.maistro.com/   https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/original-human-created-content-more-essential-than-ever-hillary--1vi7f

Peter Ryan recently attended the CCW Berlin show in Germany. He talked to a lot of people at the show and recorded a conversation with a couple of the CCW stars for their views on BPO in 2025 and what to look out for based on the show in Berlin... This episode featured Peter talking to:   Sherif Kamel Poland GM @ Raya CX --- Rachel Poku Founder, CXHero   https://www.ccw.eu/en/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-ryan-montreal/   https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherifmk/ https://rayacx.com/get-in-touch/   https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelpoku/ https://cxhero.co/      

Mark and Peter take a diversion from the usual CX discussion to talk about LinkedIn. Why is it filled with garbage today and what can be done about it? Is there a way back for Microsoft to restore the function of the business networking tool? https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhillary/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-ryan-montreal/  

Last Saturday was International Women's Day 2025. To mark the occasion, Peter Ryan reached out to three leading women working in CX in three different global locations. Listen to his discussion with them about the challenges and opportunities for women in CX in 2025... ---- Samar ElShafie - Egypt Head of Commerical and Client Relations - Octopus Outsourcing https://www.linkedin.com/in/samar-elshafie/ https://octopusoutsourcing.com/   Sabrina Labonte - Canada Marketing Director, Laivly https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabrinalabonte/ https://laivly.com/   Sophia Mohammed - UK Client Parter, USMAART https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophia-mohammed-3a1b851b6/ https://usmaart.com/   ------ https://www.internationalwomensday.com/ https://medium.com/@markhillary/international-womens-day-and-the-challenge-to-dei-in-2025-262c4bd973a3  

Sergei Levteev is the Chairman and CEO of IBA Group. He is based in Prague in Czechia. IBA Group is a technology company with deep experience building and supporting IT infrastructure. They have managed cloud systems, AI, RPA, and are even supporting old mainframe tech. Mark Hillary called Sergei to talk about the IT infrastructure supporting CX.  Sergei decided to respond to Mark using the ElevenLabs AI voice system - underlining some of the ideas around how AI can be used to create voice-based systems. https://elevenlabs.io/ https://ibagroupit.com/

Audrey William is Principal Advisor at Ecosystm. She is based between Sydney, Australia and Singapore. Audrey has several areas of research focus, including  the Future of Work, Unified Communications, Video and Collaboration, Contact Center, CX, Outsourcing and Conversational AI. Mark Hillary called Audrey to talk about AI in CX - in particular what is happening on the ground in pilots, which are the main tech vendors to watch, and what are the difficulties or blockers that some companies are experiencing - it's not always out-of-the-box! https://www.linkedin.com/in/audrey-william-3a4a04/ https://www.ecosystm.io/

Ian Jacobs is the Vice President and Lead Analyst at Opus Research. He is based in San Francisco, California, USA. In this conversation with Mark Hillary, Ian explores how BPO is being transformed by AI and asks if we are sometimes focusing too much on Gen AI? CX practitioners have traditionally focused on the customer-facing AI changes - the improvement in chatbots - but there are many other changes taking place inside the enterprise.  Ian also talks about the pilots and experiments in AI that have worked and where more traditional CX is still working well and maybe doesn't need to change... https://www.linkedin.com/in/iangjacobs/ https://opusresearch.net/

Sid Victor is the Senior Vice President and Head of Support Services at Movate. He is based in Frisco, Texas, USA. Sid has published his opinion around BPO flexibility on LinkedIn several times. He has made it clear that he feels the future is not human agents OR AI OR any other solution - it is a blend of all the best options and BPOs should be able to offer this blended solution. For example, should BPOs be capable of offering traditional BPO, Gig CX, and AI all under one roof? This is what Sid has been talking about for some time. The future for successful BPOs will need to be about more than just offering an automation service or a contact center. They need to offer a flexible mix of everything - building a CX solution using all these ingredients. Mark Hillary called Sid to find out more...   https://www.linkedin.com/in/sid-victor-3355b73/ https://www.movate.com/    

Phil Fersht is the CEO and Principal Analyst at HFS Research. He is based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He recently posted this 'AI continuum' on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/pfersht_rpa-genai-agentic-activity-7282865406917115904-5lrX Mark Hillary called Phil to talk about this and how AI is offering the opportunity for genuine innovation in CX and BPO. https://www.hfsresearch.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/pfersht/ --- March 2010 - Mark Hillary with Phil Fersht podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/phil-fersht-horses-for-sources/id216384010?i=1000404472875

Gregorio Uglioni is an Associate Partner at Forward. He is based in Zurich, Switzerland. Greg is focused on business transformation and service excellence. He is an outspoken commentator on LinkedIn about the CX and BPO industry in general and his online commentary led to Peter calling him for a conversation. Greg also hosts the CX Goalkeeper podcast so he is another CX podcaster! Greg's podcast focuses on using the analogy of how a football team (soccer) works together to achieve success and applies this to the CX environment. How can customers and brands both win when they think carefully about their CX strategy? https://cxgoalkeeper.com/podcast/ https://forwardwith.ch/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregorio-uglioni/

Joel Walker is the Co-Founder and Managing Director Platform Services of The Knowledge Group (tkg). He is based in Luxembourg. Last year Peter saw the tkg vendor selection system, which has details of millions of FTEs working in BPO and CX services globally. The system can help companies find the right supplier based on a large number of variables - it's an independent and impartial advice service that helps CX executives find the best service provider at the right price. Peter called Joel to talk about CX pricing and how to find the right partner. https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelwalker/ https://welovetoknow.com/contact/

BONUS EPISODE: CX Transformation in 2025 At the start of 2025, Mark Hillary from CX Files joined Chris Hague from Yoummday and Lian Rowlands from Tayma Solutions to talk about CX trends in 2025. This discussion was hosted by Yoummday and focused on some of the trends detailed in their CX Report 2025: “Transforming Customer Experiences: The AI Advantage Meets the Human Touch.” https://www.linkedin.com/in/lian-rowlands-a26119/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-hague/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhillary/ https://www.yoummday.com/ ---

Veronica Richards is the COO at CALLS Contact Center and VP at WW CALLS Canada. She is based in Burlington, Ontario, Canada.  Veronica is also the marketing director of the Mexico Business Club in Toronto. Veronica is originally from Mexico and now works with Mexico from her base in Canada so Peter called her to ask about BPO and CX in Mexico in addition to the attractiveness of the consumer market in Mexico - a market with a population of 128 million people. What opportunities are created by being located so close to the USA and what opportunities are now being created in Mexico itself? https://www.calls.com.mx/ http://www.wwcallscanada.ca/ https://mexicobusiness.club/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronica-richards-9b26969/

Neville Samuels is the CEO of Virtual Staff 365. He is based in Melbourne, Australia. Virtual Staff 365 offers a virtual staffing service that includes CX. In this discussion with Peter Ryan, Neville explores how virtual staffing can help to create a flexible CX environment that can work for in-house teams or BPOs. https://www.linkedin.com/in/outsourcingexperts/ https://www.virtualstaff365.com.au/  

Mark Lowe is an expert in business risk and security. He is based in Genoa, Italy. Mark is a faculty Member of the ASERI Postgraduate School of Economics and International Relations at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. He is also a columinst in the Italian financial journal Fondia & Sicav. Risk and security are particularly important for CX executives. Who can forget how impossible it was to contact an airline as the Covid pandemic started? Companies managing customer data also have very detailed private data, including payment details - this has to be kept secure. Over the past year or so there has been constant disruption. Politics, climate change, and unexpected events... how do companies focused on CX manage risk and security? Peter Ryan called Mark at his base in Italy to talk about this in our final interview on CX Files this year... https://www.linkedin.com/in/lowemw/  

Katrin Langley is a CX expert with experience throughout her career at several major BPO companies. She is based in Tampa, Florida. Peter Ryan called Katrin to talk about first-time outsourcing. Most companies still handle their customer service processes in-house, even as it has become more and more complex in recent years. Why do companies still want to retain these processes and what approach can BPOs take to convince them that outsourcing is a positive strategy? https://www.linkedin.com/in/katrinlangley/

Jose Paz is the founder and CEO of Startups BPO. He is based in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Jose has been living and breathing BPO recruitment for many years. In this conversation with Peter Ryan he explores CX recruitment trends in Honduras and the wider nearshore US area. What are agents expecting when they apply for CX jobs in the 2020s and what is the reality? How can modern CX brands be creating real careers in CX? How is skills-based hiring changing BPO and CX recruitment? How is AI changing the way that companies hire? https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-paz-8883b968/ https://www.startupshonduras.com/

Claas van Delden  is the Chief Growth Officer at yoummday. He is based in Munich, Germany. Yoummday is a proprietary technology platform for managing remote workforces - what we have summarized on this podcast in the past as 'Gig CX'. Yoummday has a diverse global talent pool of 15,000+ sales and customer care freelancers available. Mark Hillary called Claas to talk about the issues around providing support to customers in multiple languages and whether the platform-based appproach is replacing the more traditional multilingual hubs used by BPO companies... Claas talks about this specific question and outlines how Gig CX really works in this interview. https://www.linkedin.com/in/claas-van-delden-b7b3b2/ https://www.yoummday.com/en CX Report 2025: https://business.yoummday.com/en/yoummday-cx-report-2025

Ted Nardin is the VP of Customer Success & Value Add at Teleperformance Jamaica. Ted has spent years researching CX. He recently joined Teleperformance and Mark saw a LinkedIn update with this new job title focusing on customer success and value add. Mark called Ted to discuss this idea. How can BPOs put business success on the table and talk to clients about how to add value in the customer relationship - rather than the usual focus on the cost to serve customers? What more can companies get from all those customer interactions? https://www.linkedin.com/in/tnardin/ https://teleperformance.com/    

John Dinardo is the CEO and president of Nordia, a Canadian CX specialist with over 10,000 employees on the team. Nordia is the largest BPO in Canada. Peter Ryan and John are both based in Montreal, so this is a local Canadian edition. Bell Canada created Nordia back in 1999, but a quarter of a century on they are now looking at many new opportuntiies and areas of business. John talked about expansion beyond Canada and also about the complexities of managing customer service processes in both English and French. https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-dinardo-nordia/ https://www.fr.nordia.ca/  

Vidya Ravichandran is the CEO of UnifyCX. She is based in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. In this conversation with Peter Ryan, Vidya talks about the evolution of GlowTouch Technologies into UnifyCX, how technology is changing the BPO industry, and how CX and BPO is evolving as technology solutions become more integral to customer interactions. As customers demand more complex solutions the BPO community is adopting or building different tech solutions - using AI in particular. But should BPOs buy off-the-shelf tools or create their own and attempt to lead their sector? In this conversation Vidya talks about how BPO is evolving and how the new brand wants to be seen as a CX leader. https://www.linkedin.com/in/vidya-ravichandran-53423b2/ https://www.unifycx.com/

The new (July 2024) UK government just announced their budget plans for the year ahead. Several measures look like they could impact the BPO and CX industries. In this special extra edition of the CX Files, Peter Ryan called a few UK-based friends of the podcast to ask for their views on the challenges and opportunities they can see in the latest UK budget... Featuring a discussion with... Alistair Niederer, CEO, NeedleRock https://www.linkedin.com/in/aniederer/ http://www.needlerock.net/ Lian Rowlands, Principal Consultant, Tayma Solutions https://www.linkedin.com/in/lian-rowlands-a26119/ David Rumble, Managing Partner, On Consultancy  https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-rumble-4a4a09b/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/on-consultancy/  

Tanya Scotece is also known as 'Dr T.' She is a Professor and Program Coordinator at Miami Dade College focused on funeral service education. Tanya is also a senior placement specialist with Sunshine Senior Placement, helping familes find an assisted living facility for their loved ones. Tanya is a licensed funeral director and has direct experience managing a funeral home and crematorium. The funeral and mortuary environment in the US is heavily regulated and people working in this field need to understand that end of life and funeral care is an environment where a very special level of care is required. Peter called Tanya to ask about this fascinating area of customer care that is often not discussed because so many people prefer to avoid end of life conversations.  https://www.mdc.edu/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanya-scotece-ph-d-lfd-cfsp-%E2%80%9Cdr-t%E2%80%9D-a85a6226/  

Almost everyone in the CX environment knows about B2B sales. BPO companies need to sell to clients. CX software companies need to sell to customer service teams or BPOs. Most people in this industry are working for specialist companies selling services to another company. Mark Hillary has just written a book about this - how do B2B companies sell to each other and how has it changed since the Covid pandemic? Mark and Peter talked about the new book. What inspired it and why it matters for people working in CX... The book also features a foreword by Paul O'Hara - a legend from the CX environment with a decade plus experience of using social sales strategies for B2B. https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhillary/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/pauloharateleperformance/ The Social Sales Playbook: Developing a B2B Sales Plan That Drives Results Published October 11, 2024 https://www.amazon.com/Social-Sales-Playbook-Developing-Results/dp/B0DJY3MYD2/  

Neal Topf is the founder and President of Callzilla. He is based in Miami, Florida. Callzilla is a CX specialist based in the US, but also with delivery centers in Colombia and South Africa. Peter Ryan called Neal for a conversation about corporate culture - in particular culture inside the BPO environment. Neal recently posted on LinkedIn that a prospective client was impressed with the Callzilla technology and their business proposal, but he wanted to meet the team. Seeing the team at work and learning about their daily on-the-job culture was really important to this company - he wanted to build a rapport with the Callzilla team.  Neal has often written that prospective clients today are less interested in contact center metrics and much more interested in how the team can help with both sales and service or how engaged the team is and how this will translate into great CX. Clients today are looking for a BPO to have solutions to business problems - not just AHT statistics. Tune in for the latest CX Files where Neal talks about culture and why it is more important than ever for BPOs to have a positive answer when a prospect suggests visiting their team. https://www.linkedin.com/in/nealtopfcustomerexperience/ https://www.callzilla.cx/

Peter has recently been touring Asia, including some time meeting CX and BPO experts in the Philippines. Mark called Peter in Tokyo to talk about his recent time in the Philippines. What is going on in CX over there right now and do they need to reinvent their approach to communications and promoting what they can do?  When will we see Philippines BPO 2.0? https://www.ibpap.org/ https://ryanadvisory.com/india-is-the-most-favored-offshore-cx-delivery-location-in-2024/ https://ryanadvisory.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-ryan-montreal/  

The CX Alliance is a brand new CX trade association launched in September 2024 in the UK. It is being launched by Karen Howard, MD of The Retail Bulletin (TRB) and the partnership director of the CXA is Isobel Rogers. They aim to publish information, research, and host events all focused on various aspects of CX. Mark Hillary talked to Isobel and Karen to find out more about how this initiative got started and what are their plans for 2025. --- https://www.linkedin.com/in/cxisobelrogers/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenhoward/ https://www.theretailbulletin.com/ https://www.theretailbulletin.com/general-merchandise/the-retail-bulletin-announces-set-up-of-cx-industry-body-cx-alliance-19-09-2024/ The CX Alliance news is so recent that they are still in the process of setting up their website and other channels ... follow Isobel and Karen for now and check TRB for new information... http://cxalliance.org/

Graham Brown is the SVP EMEA Sales for Alorica. He is based at Leicester in the UK. In some parts of the world, like Europe, brands need to offer a customer experience in many different languages. For major languages this is not a problem. It's relatively easy to find French and English speakers, but some languages can be hard to support and often they are not even economic to support.  What if you want to operate in Finland, but you can't support those customers in their local language? Do you expect every customer to use English? Graham has been working on simultaneous voice translation with Alorica. This allows an AI-powered translation system to sit between the customer and the agent. How well does it work and can we really just staff a contact center with English-speakers and let them support anyone from anywhere? Listen to this conversation between Graham and Peter Ryan to find out! https://www.linkedin.com/in/graham-brown-cx/ https://www.alorica.com/

This week we have two guests rather than the usual one! Chris Gillen is the CEO of A Closer Look. He is based just outside Atlanta, Georgia. Stephen Loynd is the founder and Principal Analyst at TrendzOwl. He is based in Virginia, just across the Potomac from Washington DC. Both of these leading thinkers have spoken before at the CX Outsourcers conference about how AI is changing the CX industry. In this conversation, they join forces to talk to Mark Hillary about how the past couple of years has shaped expectations on what AI can do for CX companies and how this might be changing the traditional BPO business model. Is CX getting more tech focused? https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenloynd/ https://www.trendzowl.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisgillen/ https://a-closer-look.com/contact-us/  

Michael Clark is the founder of CXTT Consulting. He is based in Sydney, Australia. Michael has been recognised in 2023 in the Top 100 Contact Centre Influencers in APAC, and in 2022 as a Top 50 Small Business Leader. Peter Ryan called Michael to talk technology and the tech stack required to make modern CX processes work well. We all know that multiple types of technology have become important for CX executives but how important is it to understand this technology and what really matters? https://www.linkedin.com/in/mclarkcxtt/ https://cxtt.com.au/

Once you are into CX, you never leave... this summarises how Martin Anderson explains the journey he has taken over the past 21 years building the Lemon Contact Centre near to Durham in the north-east of the UK. Peter Ryan talks to Martin about the entrepreneurial nature of BPO and CX, how he got started, and how he manages to compete in a business where the competition can be both local and global. https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-anderson-%F0%9F%8D%8B-b5372123/ https://www.lemoncontactcentre.co.uk/

Jonas Berggren is the Head of Global Accounts EMEA at Transcom. He is also a member of the Transcom EMEA management team. He is based in Stockholm, Sweden. Jonas has a long history designing customer experience processes, but he is also well known as an innovative thought leader. He publishes a popular LinkedIn newsletter titled "Transform Customer Service" that explores the future transformation of CX.  Often the newsletter looks to the future of CX, but recently it has been exploring how AI is immediately changing the CX landscape. In this episode of CX Files Mark Hillary talks to Jonas about some of his newsletter themes and how he sees the future of CX in both the short and long term... https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonasberggren2/ Transform Customer Service Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/transform-customer-service-6992863124731113474/ https://transcom.com/  

Leo Lopez is the co-founder and principal consultant at Calltastic, an advisory firm focused on helping startups and small businesses. He is based in Los Angeles, California.  Leo has over 30 years experience in contact center operations and he is now using this expertise to help startups improve their customer service processes. In this conversation with Peter Ryan he outlines the top five mistakes that startups and small companies make when engaging with their customers. https://www.calltastic.com/ https://riseglobalsolutions.net/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/leolopez1/

FormIGA was launched in London in June this year. It's the Industry for Good Alliance for technology and business services and is a joint venture between the IAOP and the GSA. Alistair Niederer heads up the ESG initiatives for the GSA so he talked to Mark Hillary about what this new alliance is doing and how it is more than just another industry body publishing white papers on ESG... https://www.linkedin.com/in/aniederer/ https://www.anindustryforgood.com/ https://www.gsa-uk.com/ https://www.iaop.org/      

Stephen Peattie is a Director at Kinetic GB and HybridWorkSmart. He is based near to Leicester, in the UK Midlands. Daniel Castilla is the co-founder and MD of Alliance BPO Services. He is based in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. Daniel and Stephen both visited Fiji on a recent mission to explore current and potential BPO and CX services from Fiji. Fiji is a small island nation of around one million people located in the South Pacific Ocean. What was their assessment of Fiji as a location for business services? How did they feel on the ground in Fiji? What makes Fiji different or interesting compared to other locations? What are the limitations in Fiji? Daniel and Stephen explore all these questions in this conversation with Peter Ryan. https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-castilla-328b0734/ https://alliancebpo.net/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-peattie-799181/ https://www.kineticgb.com/ https://outsourcefiji.com/

Leigh Hopwood is the CEO of CCMA (Call Centre Management Association) and Chair of the European Customer Contact Alliance. She is based in London, UK. Peter recently attended a CCMA event in Manchester focused on the buy-side - the companies that need to create their own CX team or buy in expertise from a specialist BPO. He called Leigh to talk about the event and to discuess what buyers are really looking for when they are in the market for CX and BPO services... https://www.ccma.org.uk/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/leighhopwood/  

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 about this specfic region of the UK that has recently been enjoying far more global attention thanks to the Disney+ TV show "Welcome to Wrexham", which explores the success of Wrexham  foorball club since it was purchased by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. But, there is much more to Wales than just sport and music. Sandra has spent many years promoting investment in the region and in this episode she explains why Wales is a particulkarly attractive part of the UK for any business managing their BPO and CX functions. https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandrabusby/ https://cnectwales.uk/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_to_Wrexham

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 customers across many different European countries. https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra1971/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/staygenerator/ https://staygenerator.com/ https://freehandhotels.com/

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://www.linkedin.com/in/ahelland/ https://www.atender.com/  

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 companies need to entirely reshape their relationship with customers. Stephen talked to Mark about the new book and his belief that we are entering into a new industrial revolution. https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenloynd/ https://www.trendzowl.com/ https://www.amazon.com/Widening-Turn-America-Accelerating-Innovation-ebook/dp/B0D673PRSW/    

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 the company can publish this information. Erin talked to Peter Ryan about content creation and how to use networks like LinkedIn to publish it for a global audience. https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-b-411150a/ www.teleperformance.com  

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!

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 vehicles, autnomous vehicles, retail purchasing, leasing... change in the traditional dealer-focused business model is all around.   This also changes how customers build a relationship with auto brands. In this conversation, Peter Ryan talks to Aymen about the modern auto business and how to serve the day-to-day needs of customers alongside building long-term relationships. https://www.linkedin.com/in/aymenismail/ https://media.smart.com/eu    

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 CX services. https://www.linkedin.com/in/seandette/ https://gocontacthub.net/  

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 patterns, why this is good for the clients and the agents, and how to create flexibility while still investing in agents - rather than creating a casual workforce. https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-mosser-77136712/ https://www.sensee.co.uk https://newsblog.sensee.co.uk/sensee-creates-a-powerhouse-in-uk-based-cx-outsourcing-with-purchase-of-the-business-of-the-contact-company/