CX Files

Ian Jacobs is a principal analyst at Forrester Research, based in San Francisco, California. His focus is customer service and digital transformation so he is well placed to comment on the way that brands are using technology to try improving CX. In this episode Ian explores automation, chatbots, smart speakers, and how to manage emotion in brand to customer interactions. https://www.forrester.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/iangjacobs/

Paula Kennedy Garcia is the Vice President of strategic projects and corporate strategy at Concentrix, based in the UK. Paula manages the Solv project which is a Concentrix solution focused on working on a CX solution within the gig economy. In this edition of the podcast she explains how the gig economy works for CX and what it can offer to companies designing their customer service. https://www.linkedin.com/in/paula-kennedy-garcia-1b90b81/ https://www.concentrix.com/

John Linkous is the Founder and Principal Adviser at Phalanx Security, based out of Baltimore in the US. He has a long track record as an expert on cyber crime so in this edition of the podcast we continued exploring the recent Capital One hack, but also looked at social networks and personalization. Can companies keep on collecting the personal data of their customers if they are not protecting it? When will the pushback begin? https://www.linkedin.com/in/jlinkous/ http://www.phalanxsec.com

Peter Zaitsev is the founder and CEO of Percona, based in the US. Percona designs, supports, and advises on databases. They help companies manage data and keep it safe. This episode was inspired by the recent Capital One hack, where personal details of over 100m customers was compromised. Peter talks about keeping customer data safe, GDPR, Cambridge Analytica, and much more... https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterzaitsev/ https://www.percona.com/

Alistair Niederer is the CEO of Egeria Insights, a recently formed company launched by the Resolver Group, the leading complaint and dispute resolution organisation in the UK. Egeria Insights is focused on helping companies understand how to manage customer conflict and even predict it. In the podcast, Alistair explains the importance of managing customer conflict well and how complaining customers can actually be turned into fans. https://www.resolvergroup.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/egeria-insights/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/aniederer/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tgjOCOiUpE

In this episode of the podcast we are exploring the perception and reality of working in different global locations after the news this week that airlines such as BA and Lufthansa are not flying to Cairo because of "security concerns." How do executives working in BPO and CX separate perceived risk from reality? Steve Weston and Peter Ryan discuss the Egypt problem and also explore other locations and how to evaluate risk. Steve Weston is the Managing Partner at SK Weston & Co. He is based in Washington DC and is one of the leading US contact centre advisers, with particular expertise in global locations - in short he has advised many companies on where to locate their cx function either offshore or through working with a partner. Peter Ryan is the founder and principal analyst at Ryan Strategic Advisory, based in Montreal Canada. He is well known globally as one of the leading authorities on Business process outsourcing and contact centres. https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-weston-1843152/ https://www.skwestoncompany.org/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-ryan-2b39b71/ https://ryanadvisory.com/ https://ryanadvisory.com/flight-cancellations-highlight-perception-problem-for-egyptian-bpo/

NOTE: Sound quality is below usual in this episode thanks to the conferencing system we were using having a 'muddy' effect on the sound - apologies... lesson is to call direct, not through conference lines :-( Alan Graham is the Chief Commercial Officer at Mindpearl, based in Cape Town, South Africa. Mindpearl was born in 1999 when a consortium of 11 European airlines decided they needed a better way to manage CX. They maintain a strong focus on travel, but have now expanded to support other industries such as retail and telecoms. Alan talked to me about the issues faced by the travel industry and how to manage the 24/7 demands of customers. https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-graham-514101b/ https://www.mindpearl.com/

Felix Serrano is the co-founder and CEO of Activus Connect. The company is a certified women and minority-owned customer engagement organisation and they are operating across all of the continental US and Puerto Rico - based out of Orlando, Florida. Activus Connect is building a new platform for customer experience services modelled on the gig economy. In this episode, Felix explains how this can work and how the Work-At-Home agent strategy is developing rapidly. https://www.linkedin.com/in/felixserrano3/ https://activusconnect.com/

Robert Allman is the Group Senior Vice President for Customer Experience at Dimension Data. Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, Dimension Data operates all over the world managing and consulting on technology and they have a strong focus on CX and customer analytics. Each year for the past 22 years, Dimension Data has published their annual Global CX benchmarking report - this is one of those reports that everyone in the industry looks out for because it has a long history and deep insights into what companies are really doing. In this edition of CX Files I talk to Rob about the findings from the 2019 research. https://www.linkedin.com/in/roallman/ https://www.dimensiondata.com/

Ved Sen is a Digital Evangelist at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). He is focused on digital strategy, acceleration and innovation and from his base in London he advises TCS clients on how to utilise new innovations, platforms, and business models. Ved is also the author of a book titled Doing Digital, Connect, Quantify, Optimise - a guide to digital innovation and strategy for non-technical managers. In the podcast we talk about the way that digital technologies are changing how companies interact with their customers and how managers can explore new innovations without affecting their day-to-day responsibilities. Ved also talks about some of the digital innovations we need to watch for over the next year. https://leanpub.com/doingdigital https://www.tcs.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/vedsen/