Steve Sullivan - Channel Doctors - How Do We Manage Customer Rage?
CX Files
Steve Sullivan is the founder of Channel Doctors. He is based in Bournemouth in the UK. Channel Doctors is a specialist advisory company focused on CX, contact centers, and especially issues such as data protection and GDPR. Peter Ryan called Steve after seeing a LinkedIn post on managing customer rage. Are customers more angry today and how are companies dealing with it? How can it be managed in the contact center and how is it managed for customer service advisers who need to interact directly with customers - for example in retail? Is the increased rage linked to social media and what can...
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Melanie Disse - Melanie Disse Consulting - Acting on Customer Feedback
CX Files
Melanie Disse is the Principal Consultant and Tech Adviser to Melanie Disse Consulting. Melanie Disse Consulting is a CX & VoC consulting firm helping businesses leverage CX as a key competitive differentiator to drive business performance through understanding customer experiences. Melanie is based in Auckland, New Zealand. In this conversation with Peter Ryan, Melanie outlines how companies can more effectively obtain feedback from customers and how to make use of this feedback. Most companies struggle to turn customer feedback into action and many are still relying on the...
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Gareth Bray - Premier CX - Why Customers Prefer WhatsApp
CX Files
Gareth Bray is Business Development Director and WhatsApp Guru at Premier CX. He is based in Odiham, Hampshire, UK. Over 100 billion WhatsApp messages are sent daily by users - that's more than a million messages on the platform every second. Between 1 to 3 billion of these daily messages is a customer talking to a business. Gareth was on the Meta team when they launched WhatsApp in Europe so he has a long background using this asynchronous messaging tool. In many global markets WhatsApp has entirely redefined customer service. In Brazil and India it can be used to locate local businesses and...
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CCW Berlin 2026 - Feedback Direct From The Floor
CX Files
CCW 2026 took place at the end of February 2026 in Berlin. Peter Ryan was there on the conference floor. He took a microphone and tried to capture several comments and ideas from the delegates - what was the conference about and what were the key themes that people in CX are focused on in 2026? CCW conference delegates who spoke to Peter Ryan: Monika Röhr-Łukasik Axendi Humphrey Davies BPO Search Daniel Castilla Alliance BPO Corina Amza Rockstart Chrissie Porter CCMA Simon Rainbow Pose CX -------- NOTE: this recording was made on...
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Michel Stevens - CXM Academy - How Can We Improve CX Events?
CX Files
Michel Stevens is Course Director at the CXM Academy. He is also a managing partner at goCX. He is based in Antwerp, Belbium. The CXM Academy aims to build training for the real world - interactive and culturally relevant. In this conversation with Peter Ryan, Michel talks about CX events. Why are so many of them so repetitive? Why are they flooded with the same speakers talking about the same subjects? Why do events focus on getting 1,000 through the door rather than on high quality information? Summary: Mark Hillary and Peter Ryan discuss the state of CX industry events,...
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Roger Barlow - LATAM Translations - AI Has Changed Translation Into Interpretation
CX Files
Roger Barlow is Director of LATAM Translations. He is based in São Paulo, Brazil. Roger is British and has lived in Brazil since 1998. Since 2001 he has focused on helping Brazilian companies engage with a global audience. This involves a significant amount of translation from and to Portuguese. Multilingual CX is a subject we have often covered on CX Files so Mark decided to call up Roger because of his experience managing a company that is entirely focused on translation. How has AI impacted translation and will we see a complete replacement of translation because AI can now do this...
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Michael Gray - Spacial Working - Hybrid Work Is Here to Stay
CX Files
Michael Gray is the Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer at Spacial Working. He is based in London, UK. Spacial Working is focused on helping companies to create a flexible work environment that embraces both working from home and working in offices. The aim is to create a flexible arrangement that works well for the company and employees. The media often reports that WFH is finished and most employees are heading back into offices, but the reality is quite different. There is less WFH than during the pandemic period, but it has plateaued and is not dropping much further - so there is much...
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Jacqui Turner - Turner Corner - CX For Vulnerable Customers
CX Files
Jacqui Turner founded the Turner Corner Leadership Academy. She is based at Great Malvern, which is close to Stratford-Upon-Avon in the UK. The academy is focused on customer service training, leadership programmes and coaching interventions. Training followed by coaching with Jacqui's team has been proven to make training much more effective, in terms of staff productivity, performance and business results. In this discussion with Peter Ryan, Jacqui talks about vulnerable customers. How do businesses define their vulnerable customers and how can they design CX that...
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Rob Joubert - Boomerang BPO - Building CX Success Over 20 Years
CX Files
Rob Joubert is the founder and CEO of Boomerang BPO. He is based in Cape Town, South Africa. 2025 was the 20th anniversary year for Boomerang, so at the end of the year Peter Ryan called Rob to talk about BPO and CX trends and what it takes to build a successful BPO operation from the ground up. 20 years into the journey, what has Rob learned about what clients want from a BPO partner in the 2020s?
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TUI & Transcom On Building A Best In Europe Partnership
CX Files
Last November, Leigh Hopwood, CEO of the CCMA (Contact Centre Management Association), was on the CX Files talking about the 25th anniversary of the European Contact Center and Customer Service Awards (ECCCSAs). At those awards on November 25th 2025, The Best Customer Service Into Europe award was won (gold) by TUI working with Transcom. Peter Ryan recently called Leo Ooms (TUI) and Dario Bakovic (Transcom) to talk about the award and what it takes to build a BPO partnership that can win a prestigious 'Best in Europe' award... --- Leo Ooms Head of Customer Services BPO TUI Group ...
info_outlineIn this special episode of the CX Files, we are looking to the end of 2025 and into 2026.
Peter Ryan called Paul Smith and David Rickard - two expert advisers on CX and BPO - to talk about what just happened in 2025 and their top predictions for CX in 2026.
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Paul Smith
Principal Consultant, Quinn Growth Advisers
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
https://www.linkedin.com/in/swsalesexec/
https://quinngrowthadvisors.com/
David Rickard
Partner, Everest Group
Clanfield - near Portsmouth, UK
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dwrickard/
Summary:
In the CX Files podcast episode 399, hosts Mark Hillary and Peter Ryan discuss 2025 highlights and 2026 predictions with Paul Smith from Quinn Growth Advisors and David Rickard from Everest Group. Key points include the significant AI hype in 2025, the lack of differentiation in the market, and the slow progress of AI in customer experience (CX). They predict that 2026 will see more AI pilots moving into production, increased competition from in-house GCC capabilities, and a need for better buyer-seller communication. They also emphasize the importance of understanding customer needs and the potential impact of an AI bubble.