Skip to content
Contact us

The Myth of Customer Feedback

  • Customer Engagement Summit
  • John Sills, Managing Partner , The Foundation

In this talk, John Sills shares the highlights from ‘The Leadership Book of the Year’, The Human Experience. The book argues that organisations are perfecting the functional experience at the expense of the human experience, leading to them being full of humans who aren’t allowed to act in a human way. His talk will cover:

  •  How we escape from the epidemic of feedback surveys
  • Why customer loyalty is a myth • The pain of being on hold (unless you're with Octopus Energy)
  • Why Swiss trains are so much better than UK ones • The cultural ways of working leaders need to create truly pioneering customer experiences

The book has had endorsements from Rory Sutherland, the IMD Business School, and the CEOs of first direct, giffgaff, and Tesco. It’s been featured in the Financial Times and the Wall St. Journal, as well as selected as a book of the month by Malcom Gladwell’s Next Big Idea Club. And, in November 2023, it was names ‘Leadership Book of the Year’ by the Institute of Leadership.

John Sills

John Sills

The Foundation Managing Partner

John Sills is Managing Partner at the customer-led growth company, The Foundation, and author of Leadership Book of the Year 2023, The Human Experience. 25 years ago, he started his career on a market stall in Essex, and since then has worked in and with companies around the world to make things better for customers. He’s been in front-line teams delivering the experience, innovation teams designing the propositions, and global HQ teams creating the strategy. He's been a bank manager during the financial crisis (not fun), launched a mobile app to millions of people (very fun), and regularly visits strangers’ houses to ask very personal questions (incredible fun). He now works with companies across industries and around the world, and before joining The Foundation spent twelve years at HSBC, latterly as Head of Customer Innovation. His first book on the topic - The Human Experience - was published by Bloomsbury in February 2023, and his writing has been featured in The Guardian, The FT, and Management Today. 

Keep up to date with the latest events, resources and articles.

Sign-up for the Engage Customer Newsletter.