CX Files

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.

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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/

Full details of the Service Provider Sustainability Index assessment can be found here:

https://formigaspsi.com/

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/