CX Files

CXOutsourcers 2024 took place on May 1/2 in Atlanta, GA. Both Mark Hillary and Peter Ryan were at the event. Mark talked to some of the speakers and delegates about their thoughts on what they experienced and learned from the event. This podcast features: Stephen Loynd, Founder and Principal at TrendzOwl https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenloynd/ Rod Jones, Founder Rod Jones Contact Center Consulting https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodjonessouthafrica/ Yanique Grant, MD of Professional Training and Occupational Services Ltd. (PTOS) https://www.linkedin.com/in/yaniquewagrantcx/ Tyler Ashby, COO of Agents Only https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-ashby-agentsonly/ Neil Sturrock, Global Customer Support Director Wave Mobile Money https://www.linkedin.com/company/wavemm/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/neils74/

Chris Gillen is the CEO of A Closer Look. He is based very close to Atlanta, GA, so the CX Outsourcers conference is a local event for him. In this conversation he gave Mark Hillary a preview of his CXO keynote speech on CX and AI and keeping humans in the loop https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisgillen/ https://a-closer-look.com/ https://cxoutsourcers.com/

Alex Muñoz is CEO of the Hispanic Media Center in San Diego, CA. He is focused on advertising and marketing for the hispanic community in the USA. Alex talked to Mark Hillary from Mexico City about the importance of understanding the complex nature of the hispanic community in the US and not just assuming there is a broad need for an "English" customer experience and another in "Spanish"... Alex will be talking about this in more detail at the CX Outsourcers conference in Atlanta on May 1/2. This conversation is a short preview where Alex talks about his forthcoming talk with the CX Files... https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-munoz-media-sales/ https://hispanicmediacenter.com/ https://cxoutsourcers.com/

Barry Winkless is the Chief Strategy Officer at Cpl Group & Head of the Future of Work Institute. He is based in Dublin, Ireland. Barry is speaking at the CX Outsourcers conference in Atlanta on May 1/2. In this conversation with Mark Hillary he gives a preview of his keynote talk about making companies - and countries - more attractive locations for investment and improving the ability to attract talented people. https://www.linkedin.com/in/barry-winkless-7357094/ https://www.cpl.com/ie https://cxoutsourcers.com/

CX Outsourcers Special Edition: For the next two weeks CX Files will be published on both Monday and Thursday giving previews of the talks that will be taking place in Atlanta at the CX Outsourcers conference on May 1/2... --- Paula Kennedy Garcia is an old friend of the CX Files. She has senior experience in several leading BPOs and is know as a leader in CX innovation and new delivery models. Paula is based in Belfast. In this conversation with Mark Hillary she talks about her planned talk on digital CX to the CX Outsourcers conference in Atlanta on May 1/2. Unfortunately, Paula has had to cancel her visit to Atlanta just before the broadcast of this epsiode (Peter and Mark recorded this about a week before broadcast), but it would be a shame to not hear the conversation so we have still published it here. https://www.linkedin.com/in/paula-kennedy-garcia-1b90b81/ https://cxoutsourcers.com/

Alex Mead is the CEO of Total CX. He is based in Bahrain. Alex is a long time friend of the CX Files and he has featured before talking about the need for better CX advice and expertise across the industry. In this discussion with Peter he is talking about Bahrain and the opportunity for this region to emerge as a nearshoring BPO destination... Bahrain may not have been on your radar before, but listen to Alex and it may well be! https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexmead/ https://total-cx.com/about-us/

Nirali Amin is the SVP Global Solutions and Success at LivePerson. She is based in the US. LivePerson recently published a report focused on the state of customer conversations and the emerging "AI gap" between the willingness of customers to use and accept AI customer service solutions and the willingness of executives to roll out these solutions. This gap points to a bigger picture that is focused on the digital transformation of customer service processes. Mark Hillary called Nirali to talk about the research and the bigger picture for tech solutions in customer service today. https://www.linkedin.com/in/nirali-amin/ https://www.liveperson.com/ State of Customer Conversations 2024: https://www.liveperson.com/customer-conversations-report Digital Transformation: https://www.liveperson.com/solutions/digital-transformation/

Chris Hague is the head of marketing at yoummday. He is based in Prague, in the Czech Republic. Chris was at the recent CCW conference in Berlin and he posted some of his thoughts online about his views on the future of BPO - based on the conference trends. In this conversation with Mark Hillary, Chris explores some feedback from the CCW conference and also asks what the BPO or CX specialist of the future needs to look like? Chris talks about the discussion in Berlin affecting all professional jobs - how do we plan CX if employees want more control over where and when they work and which brands they are representing? Where is CX heading in future and how will companies in this industry eventually be serving others? https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-hague/ https://yoummday.com/

Rod Jones is a legend in the CX industry. Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, Rod is now a speaker, trainer, and coach - focusing his experience of contact centers and CX on the next generation of managers. Rod was 75 a few days back and he started his first business in 1972 - so he has experienced CX and customer service processes up close, or as an advisor, for over half a century. There are very few people in the industry with this level of experience so Mark Hillary and Peter Ryan called Rod to wish him a happy birthday and to ask for some background on how he started out and what has changed in CX in all that time... Rod also takes a look forward to the future, applying his experience to some ideas around what might be coming next. We hope you enjoy this 75th birthday conversation with Rod - do go to his LinkedIn to leave him a happy birthday message! Rod will also be at the CX Outsourcers conference in Atlanta on May 1/2 - all of us hope to see you there if you will be attending. https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodjonessouthafrica/ https://cxoutsourcers.com/ https://rodjones.co.za/ Mark, Peter, and Rod all together: https://www.instagram.com/p/C4gpH4Gvn9I/

Matt Kendall founded Cognitive Copy, a B2B copywriting and ghost-writing specialist. He is based in Madrid, Spain. He recently launched a newsletter focused only on the BPO and CX community called BPO Bullhorn... Mark Hillary called Matt to talk about BPO Bullhorn and why newsletters are still a useful way to build a community. Matt also reminded Mark that he has been on the podcast back in 2021 - Mark forgot this during the introduction! Here is that earlier show... https://cxfiles.libsyn.com/cxfiles/2021-offshore-bpo-confidence-index-cognitive-copy-and-ryan-strategic-advisory Contact and Show Details: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cognitivematt/ https://www.cognitivecopy.com/ Sign up for the BPO Bullhorn newsletter here: https://www.cognitivecopy.com/newsletter

Dr Lollie Mancey is an anthropologist and AI ethicist based in Dublin, Ireland. She is the Programme Director for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Digital tech and resilience) at the University College Dublin Innovation Academy. Lollie is focused on workplace performance and this includes how work/life balance should be managed and what causes anxiety and other issues that may damage work perforamnce, home life, or both. Lollie isn't focused specifically on CX, but her research covers workplaces that are similar to those we see in BPO and CX and her ideas in this conversation with Peter Ryan are valuable lessons on how to look after your people - if you don't then they will not be around for much longer. https://www.ucd.ie/ https://www.ucd.ie/innovation/ https://www.innovationacademy.ie/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/drlollie/

Bruce Winder is the president at Bruce Winder Retail. He is a leading analyst focused on the retail sector, with a long history of senior management roles in the retail industry. Bruce is based in Toronto, Canada. Bruce talked to Peter Ryan about trends and challenges for CX in retail in the 2020s. https://www.linkedin.com/in/brucewindermba/ www.brucewinder.com

Vaishali Dialani is a Senior CX Strategist at Konabos. She is based in Dubai, UAE. Vaishali is passionate about how data can be used to help both customers and brands by identifying preferences and trends. Peter Ryan called Vaishali to talk about making better business decisions by using data-driven analytics. https://www.linkedin.com/in/vaishalidialani/ https://konabos.com/

Rob Dwyer is the VP of Customer Engagement at Happitu. He is based in Wichita, Kansas. Rob also hosts the Next In Queue podcast - another CX-focused podcast. Peter Ryan called Rob to talk about CX lessons from his main day job, but also what he learns from talking to CX leaders across the world on his podcast. https://www.linkedin.com/in/j-robert-dwyer/ https://happitu.com/ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/next-in-queue/id1586211868 https://happitu.com/learn/podcast

On February 5, 2024, British contact centre company The Contact Company (TCC) was put into adminstration. Struggling to recover from a cyber attack in 2022, the previously successful company found itself in the red. On February 7, 2024, the UK media - starting with the Liverpool Echo - explained that the assets and business of TCC had all been sold to the British work-from-home specialist Sensée by the finance company FRP Advisory - the company called in to save the business. Mark Hillary spoke to Steve Mosser, the group CEO at Sensée and Asif Hamid, CEO at TCC on a call together in Liverpool just after concluding the deal and even before a press release had been released - the press release went out on Feb 8. This CX Files is a recording of that call - immediate reaction to the deal from both CEOs. https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/nearly-1000-jobs-saved-call-28586234 https://sensee.co.uk/ https://thecontactcompany.co.uk/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/asif-hamid-mbe-aa37723/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-mosser-77136712/

Mike Harfield is the COO and Co-Founder at Sigma Connected Group. He is based close to Birmingham in the UK. In this epsiode of CX Files Mark Hillary speaks to Mike about developing careers in CX. He explains how his company has explored impact sourcing initiatives across South Africa and the UK and how a focus on training, support, and developing genuine career paths for people working in CX helps employees to perform better now - and creates options for their future. Mike is passionate about developing his team and this conversation demonstrates that ESG and impact sourcing are not just 'nice to have' initiatives - they can improve how your business operates today and also demonstrate a real commitment to the team. https://sigmaconnected.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-harfield-8820254/

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-capric/

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 pandemic to focus her research on how the CX and BPO environment changed because of the move to a work-from-home and hybrid business model. We have often talked about the corporate experience of WFH on this podcast, but in this interview Jo goes into more detail on how WFH looks from a research perspective. How did office-based employees emulate the experience of working in a team when they all had to work from home? What worked and what is essential now that this is now normal? How can managers with remote teams ensure that they enable the creation of teams, no matter how the team is constructed and how are we building a flexible future for CX? Do you have the leadership skills and structures in place to really manage in a remote environment? These are the questions that Jo and Peter explore in this edition of the CX Files https://www.henley.ac.uk/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/garland-jo/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-ryan-montreal/ Episode 300 of CX Files... here's to another 300 in the future! Mark & Peter

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 wave of flexible working practices and work-from-home (WFH) that has persisted across the industry. This has also led to new expectations around data security - to protect customer data when services are being delivered using a hybrid of WFH and in-office teams. Randy also talks about how AI is offering new opportunities to support agents inside the contact center and improve the customer experience. With all these developments available equally to the big and medium players, Randy argues that there is no longer a need to work with the giant BPOs if you want to access the latest technology and flexible working practices - it is equally possible in mid-size partners now. A modern BPO is not stronger just because they have more agents. They are stronger because they have insight and ideas for how to transform CX processes and the ability to work in partnership with their clients - size is no longer a marker of service quality. BPO has transformed inside this decade and we are only at 2024 - listen to Randy explain what has changed and why it is important for CX executives to understand this evolution. https://www.linkedin.com/in/randyarellano/ https://datamark.net/

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 Rowlands Principal Consultant, Tayma Solutions (UK) https://www.linkedin.com/in/lian-rowlands-a26119/ Stephen Loynd Founder and Principal Analyst, TrendzOwl (USA) https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenloynd/