The Reality of Business

What do CX leaders think about customer experience when the boardroom door is closed?

NPS is going up, but are customers actually any happier? You’ve invested heavily in AI but is it improving the customer experience – or making some journeys harder?

In this episode of The Reality of Business, Bob and Jeremy discuss five things CX leaders may be thinking but rarely say out loud, and why some of these frustrations are becoming harder to ignore.

They explore the pressure to deliver better customer experiences while dealing with board expectations, AI investment, old processes, internal politics and tighter budgets.

They also look at what CX leaders can do about it, including how to make a stronger commercial case for customer experience, why change needs to reach far beyond the CX team, and the increasingly important questions of where AI should end and human conversations should begin.

If you work in customer experience, contact centres, operations or customer service, there may be a few familiar frustrations in this one.

To find out more about our work and to see what we could do to help your organisation, visit www.realitytraining.com.

How much is staff turnover really costing your business?

For many large organisations, particularly those with large frontline teams, high employee turnover has become an accepted part of doing business. People leave, replacements are recruited and trained, and the cycle starts again.

But when turnover reaches 40%, 50% or even higher, the cost soon adds up – across recruitment, onboarding, training, lost productivity and management time.

In this episode of The Reality of Business, Bob and Jeremy discuss why people leave, why some organisations have come to accept high turnover, and what businesses can do to improve employee retention.

They discuss:

• The biggest reason people leave their jobs
• The hidden cost of continually replacing employees
• Why management, flexibility, and career progression matter
• How training and better induction can improve retention
• Why even a small reduction in staff turnover could save a large organisation millions

If high staff turnover has become something your business simply expects, this episode asks whether it’s time to start doing something about it.

To find out more about our work and to see what we could do to help your organisation, visit www.realitytraining.com.

Part 2 of a two-part series on interviews. In this episode, Bob and Jeremy turn the tables and look at interviews from the candidate’s perspective.

Most people spend their time preparing answers. But the questions you ask can be just as important.

Bob and Jeremy share practical interview questions to ask employers, explain how to take a more active role in the conversation, and explore why a job interview should be a two-way process. After all, you’re not just trying to impress the employer – you’re deciding whether the role, the culture and the people are right for you too.

You’ll hear:

• Questions to ask an employer in a job interview
• How to understand a company’s culture and management style
• What to ask about success, challenges and opportunities in the role
• Why onboarding matters before you accept a job
• How sales candidates can stand out with thoughtful questions
• Why honesty is often a better strategy than trying to give the ‘perfect’ answer

Whether you’re preparing for your first job interview, changing careers or interviewing for your next sales role, you’ll come away with practical ideas to help you ask better questions, have better conversations and decide whether the opportunity is the right fit for you.

To find out more about our work and to see what we could do to help your organisation, visit www.realitytraining.com.

Part 1 of a two-part series on interviews. In this episode, Bob and Jeremy explore how employers can run better interviews by asking questions that reveal far more than the usual clichés.

They discuss why some of the most common interview questions have outlived their usefulness, what to ask instead, and how to have conversations that reveal how candidates think, prepare, solve problems and approach their work.

You’ll also hear:

• The interview questions employers should stop asking
• How to spot candidates who’ve genuinely prepared
• Questions that reveal curiosity, judgement and commercial thinking
• Why time management matters in every role
• What makes sales interviews different
• And a simple closing technique every salesperson should know 

Whether you’re hiring your next employee or preparing to interview sales candidates, you’ll come away with practical ideas to help you ask better questions, have better conversations and make better hiring decisions.

Next time, we switch to the candidate’s side of the interview table, exploring how to prepare, the questions every interviewee should ask, and the small things that can make a big difference when you’re trying to land the job.

To find out more about our work and to see what we could do to help your organisation, visit www.realitytraining.com.

Glengarry Glen Ross has long been regarded as one of the greatest plays ever written about selling.

After seeing the new all-female production at London’s Old Vic, Bob and Jeremy discuss whether it works, how the play has stood the test of time, and why salespeople are still talking about it more than 40 years after it was written.

They explore the famous characters, the pressure of selling, David Mamet’s distinctive dialogue, how the world of sales has changed since the 1980s, and what today’s salespeople can still take from the play.

To find out more about our work and to see what we could do to help your organisation, visit www.realitytraining.com.

Bob and Jeremy share what they learned at a three-day London customer experience (CX) conference and why AI now sits inside almost every customer journey.

As AI takes care of more of the routine work, the human conversations left behind are often the difficult ones – emotional complaints, complex problems, retention calls and moments where judgement still matters.

Bob and Jeremy also challenge some of the thinking currently shaping contact centres, customer experience and customer service strategy.

Across the episode they discuss:

• Why AI and customer experience are now impossible to separate
• The rise of AI agents supporting both customers and frontline teams
• How far conversational AI can realistically go
• Why Net Promoter Score (NPS) is becoming less trustworthy
• Using AI to analyse customer conversations instead of relying on surveys
• The gap between AI demos and what companies are actually implementing
• Why human roles are shifting towards more emotional, high-stakes conversations
• The importance of smooth AI-to-human handovers
• The cost, complexity and training challenges behind AI adoption
• Where the line currently sits between automation and human judgement
• And why customer service conversations are becoming more important commercially too

If you work in customer experience, contact centres, customer service, sales leadership or CX strategy, this episode will give you plenty to think about.

To find out more about our work and to see what we could do to help your organisation, visit www.realitytraining.com.

What role should contact centres play in your business?

In this episode – the final part of our recent contact centre series – Bob & Jeremy look at how contact centres are evolving from cost centres into drivers of customer experience, sales and retention. 

As AI and automation handle more routine enquiries, the value of human interaction is shifting towards higher-quality, more complex conversations.

They explore how brands can improve customer lifetime value, move beyond cost-per-call thinking, and use contact centres to build stronger, longer-lasting customer relationships. 

There’s also a look at hybrid teams, global talent, and why companies that connect the full customer journey are better placed to compete.

To find out more about our work and to see what we could do to help your organisation, visit www.realitytraining.com.

What does a contact centre team leader need to focus on today?

In this episode - the second part of our contact centre series - Bob and Jeremy explore how contact centre leadership is evolving. As AI and automation take on more of the reporting and admin, team leaders are being asked to focus more on coaching, performance management and customer experience.

They discuss common challenges in contact centres, from stepping into a team leader role and managing former peers, to balancing targets, quality and employee wellbeing.

There’s also a practical look at hybrid and remote teams, omni-channel working, and how strong coaching skills can improve performance across contact centre teams.

To find out more about our work and to see what we could do to help your organisation, visit www.realitytraining.com.

What does the future of contact centres look like for the people on the frontline?

In this episode – the first in our three-part contact centre series – Bob and Jeremy look at how AI is changing the role of contact centre agents and customer experience teams.

As AI handles more routine calls and admin, human conversations are becoming more complex, emotional and valuable. Bob and Jeremy discuss why skills like empathy, problem solving, listening and confidence across different channels matter more than ever.

They also explore omni-channel service, remote working, and why AI is more likely to change the job than remove it.

To find out more about our work and to see what we could do to help your organisation, visit www.realitytraining.com.

Why do some people push harder at work while others just do the minimum?

In this episode of The Reality of Business, Bob and Jeremy look at how incentives, rewards and recognition really affect employee motivation. They talk about the difference between incentives and perks, why some bonus and commission schemes work while others backfire, and how things like fairness, culture and recognition shape workplace performance.

Using examples from real sales environments, they explore the psychology behind incentives, employee engagement and productivity.

If you manage a team, design incentive schemes, or care about workplace motivation, this conversation will give you plenty to think about.

To find out more about our work and to see what we could do to help your organisation, visit www.realitytraining.com.