Punk CX: Customer Experience Insights with Adrian Swinscoe

Today’s interview is with Sandra De Zoysa who is the Group Chief Customer Officer of Dialog and the Chairperson of the Digital Customer Experience Expert Working Group for Axiata. Dialog Axiata is one of Sri Lanka's largest telecommunications service providers, and the country's largest mobile network operator with 14.275 million subscribers which amounts to 44% of the Sri Lankan mobile market. She is also the winner of the MyCustomer.com 2019 CX Leader of the Year. She joins us today to talk about Dialog, the work that she has done over the last 20+ years, what it means to live a life of service and what becoming the 2019 CX Leader of the Year means to her. This interview follows on from my recent interview – The state of workplace happiness and why it matters – Interview with Lord Mark Price of Engaging Works – and is number 326 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.

Following on from my interview last month, What makes first direct so successful: Interview with their new CEO Mark Mullen, today I am excited to introduce you to Henry Stewart, the CEO of Happy Ltd, the umbrella training organisation that delivers IT, Management, and Personal Development Training. They've won lots of awards, which you can check out here. Their biggest award was when The Financial Times rated Happy as one of the top 2 places to work in the entire UK economy. This was the result of their annual Best Workplaces award, organised with the Great Place to Work Institute. This interview makes up number sixteen in the series of interviews with business leaders in the ‘customer’ space, leading authors, thought leaders and general all round good guys and gals, that I think that you will find interesting and helpful in growing your businesses.

It's been a wee while since I've published an interview here on the blog. So, following on from the interview, Creating a great place to work is the best business investment decision you could ever make – Interview with Henry Stewart, that I did in early December, today I am excited to introduce you to Jo Causon, the CEO of the Institute of Customer Service, the independent, professional membership body for customer service. This interview makes up number seventeen in the series of interviews with business leaders in the ‘customer’ space, leading authors, thought leaders and general all round good guys and gals, that I think that you will find interesting and helpful in growing your businesses. The rationale for the interview is that I reached out on Twitter to the Institute via Twitter and asked as I thought Jo would have a lot of interesting stuff to say. As my Mum always said: 'If you don't ask, you don't get'. Jo didn't disappoint.

In Inbound marketing is about content and context, I reported back from Inbound Marketing UK. However, whilst there I was able to catch up with Mike Volpe, the Chief Marketing Officer of Hubspot, who was speaking at the conference. In the interview, we talked about inbound marketing, where people should start, how much of their marketing should be inbound/content focused and a bunch of other things. This interview makes up number thirty-seven in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things and helping create businesses that customers love.

Today’s interview is with Will Beckett of Hawksmoor, a rapidly growing restaurant brand in London, and follows on from my recent interview: Customer service, people and how caring does scale – Interview with Gary Vaynerchuk #1aDayQandA It was when they ranked No. 36 in the Sunday Times’ 100 Best Small Companies to work for in 2012 that I decided I’d like to find out more about what makes them tick and what makes them so successful. This interview makes up number forty-eight in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things and helping businesses innovate, become more social and deliver better service.

Today’s interview is with Jeremy Waite, Head of Digital Strategy, EMEA @Salesforce Marketing Cloud. He joins me today to talk about his new book: From Survival to Significance. This interview follows on from my recent interview: Copying your way to increased innovation, creativity and competitive advantage – Interview with Mark Earls – and is number 142 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to their customers.

Today’s interview is with Guy Letts, founder and Managing Director of CustomerSure, a cloud based software firm that helps businesses gather feedback from their customers – not as an annual marketing exercise but as part of day-to-day business. Guy joins me today to talk customer reviews, customer feedback, a better way to do it and that most firms are doing it wrong. This interview follows on from my recent interview: Brands with purpose build better relationships with their customers – Interview with Jeremy Waite – and is number 143 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to their customers.

Today’s interview is with Michael O’Leary, Chief Executive of Ryanair, a European low-cost airline, headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. Ryanair is also the largest European airline by scheduled passengers carried and also the busiest international airline by passenger numbers. Michael joins me today after he responded to a recent article I wrote (Does Michael O'Leary Really Care About Ryanair's Customers, Or Is He Just Being Pragmatic?) but also to talk about humility, Herb Kelleher, bourbon and starting to listening to and being nicer to customers.

Today’s interview is with Scott Pulsipher, President & COO of Needle, a US software firm that is pioneering advocate-assisted commerce. Scott joins me today to talk about what Needle are up to, trust, customer experience and advocate-assisted commerce. This interview follows on from my recent interview: A degree of humility always succeeds in business – Interview with Michael O’Leary of Ryanair – and is number 145 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to their customers.

Today’s interview is with Sanish Mondkar, who is Chief Product Officer at Ariba (a SAP company). Ariba established the Ariba Network - a cloud-based community where you’ll find buying, selling, and managing cash to be as easy as using Amazon, eBay, and PayPal.Sanish joins me today to talk about customer experience in B2B, what lessons they have learned from B2C, Total User Experience, what they are doing about it and what lessons others can learn. This interview follows on from my recent interview: Advocate assisted commerce improves customer experience and drives business results – Interview with Scott Pulsipher of Needle – and is number 146 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to their customers.