Future of the Contact Centre Conference

Martin is a leading customer engagement and digital business strategist and an author and international keynote speaker. Working under his own brand, Brainfood Consulting, he designs masterclasses and transformational change helping clients evolve their social and digital capabilities. Current topics include omni-channel design, proactive, low-effort customer experience, social customer service, and customer hubs. All themed around service innovation. Even service organisations that consider themselves advanced in their omni-channel capabilities face the barrier of internal silos and competing agendas. This remains a strategic weakness in terms of real time responsiveness. Digitally empowered customers have reset the bar on acceptable customer experience. Organisations that want to prosper in this new regime have to adopt a new mind-set and leadership capabilities. But how to escape the days of siloed customer engagement and the idea that the service organisation was solely responsible for customer experience. Today, market leadership means taking a fresh approach to continuous improvement and service innovation: re-energised through new partnerships with customers and employees. Customer hubs provide a low risk evolutionary path. The hubs draw together a number of competencies into a new form of working relationship. This includes the front office (sales, marketing, service), analytics, change management and collaboration. Together they become a hub of innovation, improvement and competitive responsiveness for the rest of the organisation.

Gerry Brown, aka The Customer Lifeguard, is on a mission to save the world from bad customer service. He helps businesses save customers at risk of expiring and breathes life into their customer service operations and customer experience strategy. Gerry has provided organizational leadership on people development, business transformation, customer engagement and technology enablement for some of the largest companies in the UK, Canada, and EMEA. These include East Sussex County Council, B3 Living, National Express, Nutricia, The Royal Albert Hall, Endsleigh Insurance, O2, Screwfix, Sage, Sky, Bell Canada and TELUS. He is a frequent speaker, chairperson, panellist and facilitator at conferences, webinars, company events and other business gatherings, where his many years of business and customer service experience provide stimulating, thought-provoking engagement and audience participation. He is also a published author and his new book When a Customer Wins, Nobody Loses is available on Amazon to help business leaders to create winning and memorable customer experiences. Gerry is a Member of the Professional Speaking Association (PSA), the Global Speakers Federation (GSF), the Customer Experience Professionals Association, a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) and a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, Commerce & Manufacturing (RSA).

Martin Hanley is there Customer Experience Manager at Marks and Spener. He has worked there for the past year.

Matt Kemp leads F1’s CRM, Marketing Technology and Customer Operations strategy, overseeing the implementation of CRM solutions across F1’s commercial teams, customer service & channel management.  This is supported with L&D & Knowledge base tools through to defining the marketing tech stack; where ultimately, all areas converge to form one overall solution. Time really is a key factor with F1 fans, especially during races. When people see a complaint go unanswered, it looks like avoidance — or worse, indifference. Canned, unemotional and impersonal responses are not what we do so the content needs to be personal, emotional, urgent and practical.  It’s what we expect and what our fans demand.  We don’t need to emphasise with fans when we feel their pain; we give them the service we would expect ourselves. Knowledge Management is key to this success.  Building up content that is useful, readily available and can be created and served dynamically is a critical element in creating a leading event driven support solution. Matt is still in the early stages of implementing Knowledge Management with clear plans and aspirations on what F1 needs to achieve over the next phase of their journey.

An experienced leader who has delivered impactful transformations for large organisations in customer service strategies, customer experience technology and contact centre operations. Specialises in customer journey design, UK, homeworking and overseas operations, supplier management, customer analytics and automation.

Nathan is the Head of European Contact Centres at Ford, he has worked there for the past 16 years.

I have been a part of the Huel team since 2017, starting my journey within the Customer Experience Team. Fast forward 2 years and I shifted my focus and launched the first Insights function in the business which I continue to lead today. A huge focus of mine is developing how we view and utilise the customer journey to enhance the experience at every opportunity. I’m really pleased to be involved in the Engage conference for a second year. It’s a fantastic way to learn from exceptional CX leaders and share what I’ve learned in my career so far.

Pete leads a team of Service Designers at Santander UK, improving services and processes for colleagues and customers. Great human-centred design, rapid prototyping and continual evolution are the team’s hallmarks; as well as a healthy obsession with sharing learning with anyone who’s (vaguely) interested. Pete’s roles with Santander have spanned customer insight, customer experience, and service design; mixed in latterly with a healthy dose of internal consultancy. He’s worked with every corner of the organisation from Business banking to Branches, and from Mortgages to Marketing. Previous programme management roles in the public sector honed his ability to get stuff done with not very much to do it with. Pete’s work passion is behavioural science. At home he likes nothing better to unwind than a blast on his road bike at the weekends. His biggest love; his wife and twin daughters. His second biggest love, Board Games.  Best endorsement from someone who knows him; ‘you’re nearly as fun as Mummy’ (Lara, Age 6).

Pierluigi is an commercially minded leader with multiple years of progressive experience across a broad range of marketing and management responsibilities in local and global organizations. In his current role, Pierluigi leads CX strategy for Shell’s B2C businesses aiming to enable the best in market customer experience, deliver business value and support Shell customers through energy transition. Pierluigi is born in Naples (Italy) but he is based in London (UK), passionate about football, travel and food.

Dmitry has more than 20 years background in senior Pharma industry leadership roles in Russia, Germany, France and Global. Currently he leads Commercial Quality team in International Developed Markets and China for Pfizer. Dmitry is an expert in Marketing, Portfolio management, Business & Corporate Strategy, Business Analytics & Forecasting, Training, SFE, Digital and Operational Compliance. Dmitry has been a member of several Country, Regional and Global Leadership teams, as well as leading / taking part in multiple forums, projects & working groups across the Globe.

Monika Schulze has a broad range of experience in the FMCG and Insurance industries, having successfully served in senior executive positions for almost 30 years in different countries. Before she served as a Head of Customer Office and Innovation in Germany, she joined Zurich Insurance headquarters in Switzerland as a Global CMO. Prior to that she run her own business as a strategic consultant. In the last two positions at Unilever she served as Vice President Brand Development Europe and as Business Director Foods with P&L responsibility in Hungary. Monika‘s strength is inventing new, more powerful and profitable ways to build strong businesses and brands – especially in the context of massive industry transformation and digital disruption. She is an early adopter of digital platforms and projects. In 2018 Monika was listed by Martech as one of the “Top Twelve Women CMOs to Follow on Twitter.” The year before she was recognized by Forbes as one of the World's Most Influential CMOs and was nominated by AdAge as "Woman to Watch Europe 2017" based on notable accomplishments.

Katie has worked with Digital Omni Channels of Customer Communication for over 12 years across the Retail Banking industry in the UK and Telecommunication in the Middle East. She has led customer facing teams in UK, India, Philippines and Dubai. She is currently the Omni Lead at NatWest Group and has supported her team to win the Best Customer Service Team of the year at the recent Engage Business Media Awards, where they support customers 24/7 via Video, Social Media, Chat, in-app Messaging and WhatsApp.

Catherine is an Operations Director with over 30 years’ experience leading large scale Contact Centres in the Banking industry across UK and India, Leading multi-site, Function and Brand wide scale  CX, Optimisation and Cultural transformation programmes. Catherine was instrumental in leading NatWest Group’s response to the Covid Crisis in the Contact Centres, transforming BAU Business Continuity Planning to ensure a rapid and relevant response was developed at pace for Voice and Non Voice Customers across all Channels.  Multiple initiatives implemented and NatWest was first to market with dedicated telephony lines and new products and services to support Vulnerable customers, Over 60s, NHS and Social Care workers to service Customers when they needed us the most during the Covid lockdowns. Catherine also worked in partnership with Leadership through Sports and Business to introduce 150 new Social Mobility Apprenticeships into the Contact Centres to champion potential and support the transition of talented individuals from less advantaged backgrounds.

Ambitious, self-driven compliance and multi-channel customer service transformer. Delivering high levels of customer satisfaction and risk management using a data-driven approach to innovative and deliver transformational change projects. An experienced and effective People manager with the ability to create high performing teams through effective people management, coaching and onboarding.

Experienced Customer Service and Operations leader with a history of successfully working in startups within the fintech, mobility, and hospitality sector. Skilled in team building and management, project management while easily adaptable and a strong allrounder.

Lindsay has enjoyed a long and rewarding career at Philips. She is an inspirational business leader with a diverse background, having worked across a broad spectrum of both B2B and B2C businesses within the domains of Marketing, Customer Experience, Customer Service, and eCommerce.  As the global director of Customer Engagement and Care for Philips B2B online customers, Lindsay develops, implements, and manages best-in-class customer journey processes through identifying and executing strategies to improve the quality of online customer communications and retention.  Lindsay is passionate about real time customer feedback, builds and executes VOC programs that focus on actively listening and prioritizing actions that will deliver on customers unmet needs.   She leads a talented digitally focused team for Philips healthcare that love to test, design, and explore programs that enrich and influence customer relationships, overall improve customer engagement and build new perspectives on the customer.

As Head of Customer Delivery For Lloyds Bank & Bank Of Scotland I lead, inspire, motivate and coach a business support team to build and grow the Community Bank Branch Network business model, delivering sustainable business and operational excellence. Working in collaboration with key stakeholders across Community Bank, Managing Directors office and Central teams to positively influence engagement of customer delivery across the Branch Network. Conducting root cause analysis to identify & assess business performance risks compared to plan. Embedding best practice by consistently understanding customers' individual circumstances, proactively supporting vulnerable customers, those in financial difficulty and expertly identifying and meeting needs of all of our Customers with fair outcomes. Creating an adaptability to changing customer/business demand, political, economic and regulatory factors. Listening to and acting on colleague and customer feedback to inform process and customer changes to drive continuous improvement. Highly developed & experienced Senior Leader of large teams for 15+ years, benefitting from completing the Executive Development programme with LBG and working with external development experts such as The Insight Network, Common Purpose, Burnham Rosen, Coloured Square, Conversant, Coach match and University of Chicago Booth School of Business around all aspects of Leadership.

Andrew Robertson has been with HM Land Registry since 1986, and has worked in a variety of roles, starting out as a caseworker and then on to several Head Office roles. Also, for 8 years, he was out on secondment to the Independent Complaints Reviewer’s Office as her Senior Investigations Officer and Office Manager. For the last few years, he has worked in customer service and policy development roles, and is now HM Land Registry’s Head of Customer Policy & Service Improvement. In this role, he is responsible for customer handling policy and HM Land Registry’s complaints procedure, and he liaises extensively with customers from all sectors, regulators, professional bodies and other external stakeholders.

Mark Anderson is Customer and Commercial Director at global passenger transport operator Go-Ahead Group, with a remit spanning marketing, customer experience and innovation across bus and rail companies on three continents. He has worked within Go-Ahead for seven years, having joined as head of marketing at the company’s Southeastern Railway subsidiary and spent time on secondment to Japan and Norway before taking a role as part of the Group’s leadership team. He works across diverse strategic areas from climate change and future mobility to capturing the voice of the customer and his initiatives have included leading the Billion Journey Project, one of the UKs largest transport innovation programmes. He is a non-executive director of Go to Places, a not-for-profit body in the tourism sector and Sustainability Ambassador for IoD in Oxfordshire. Prior to entering the transport industry, he worked in the retail, leisure and hospitality industries including holding senior roles at LEGOLAND Windsor and at Warwick Castle. He is passionate about developing growth strategies aligned to customer insight and challenging the status quo to deliver elevated customer experiences.

Currently Operations Director for Sykes Holiday Cottages, leading all operational functions within the Sykes Family. Previous experience within Virgin Holidays and Virgin Atlantic where I led Customer Centres and People Operations team. In 2018 Virgin Holidays was awarded the Gold award at the European Customer Centre and Service Awards. High focus on innovation within the Customer experience industry focussing on digital technology and the development of people.

I have a passion for achieving a great customer experience and be fanatical about understanding the detail of the operation. Hands on management with strategic thinking and stakeholder influencing is as important to me as my analytical mind and a passion for hitting the numbers. A strong influencer / communicator with the ability to build effective relationships across the organisation at all levels Proven track record in recruiting, developing, coaching, mentoring and managing high performing teams of various sizes, focused on strategic improvements within the area of customer service and field operations across multiple sites.

CRM, digital, direct and data driven marketing expert with 20 years experience delivering growth to global brands with online & eCommerce focus. • Leader in infusing customer economics to strategic business management, in creating comprehensive omnichannel strategies and in deploying transformations with x-functional roadmaps and governance. • Extensive experience leading customer analytics, research and data strategy to derive qualified and quantified insights and opportunities. • Practice establishing eCommerce as the cornerstone of customer experience and orchestrating customer strategies across channels (on site, email, social, digital advertising, partners, sales reps, mobile, in stores, contact centres, IVRs). Creative use of content, data and design to power communication & brand perception. • Enabler of end-to-end integrated omnichannel ecosystem with defined customer management operating model: customer data architecture, analytics and marketing & eCommerce platforms, content automation, channel capabilities, region and local governance. • Inspired by customers, obsessed by business performance and driven by execution excellence.

Experienced Senior Manager within financial services with a firm history of leading teams to deliver strategic change. Skilled in product and proposition development, digital innovation and customer journey transformation. Founder of The Career Collective, a non-profit offering specialist career coaching for brilliant women.

Creator and leader of Digital Innovation Labs and Disruption Hubs, working with internal stakeholders and external consultancies across multiple organisations and product propositions in the creation and delivery of future digital first customer journey design. Leader of cross-functional teams in the design and delivery of customer, product and digital first operating models across organisational architectures with clear, enabling organisational adoption paths to support the transition to a ‘digital first’ customer and colleague community. Previous clients include : GDS, LBG, Virgin Money, RBS, PCL and Santander. Responsible for creating and integrating Customer Centred Design Models (Design Thinking) and Agile Ways of Working, ensuring that customer experience and needs are at the centre of any design and development across organisational value streams. Previous clients include : GDS, LBG, Virgin Money, RBS, PCL and Santander.

Ed Creasey is Calabrio’s Director of Pre Sales for the International market.  He brings 28 years’ experience in the Contact Centre and Customer Experience industry.  Ed has worked in pre-sales, consulting and operations across a wide range of organisations and market sectors, throughout the world.   He has been delivering thought leadership and leading pre-sales and consulting teams for Analytics, Employee Engagement, CX and Robotics.   He has a passion for engaging audiences, helping customers solve their business problems and delivering happy, reference-able clients who receive a rapid return on their investment.  Previously, Ed has been Nexidia’s, then NICE’s, Director of Consulting for 12 years.

Stephen Kennedy heads the EMEA solutions team for eGain.  Working with eGain’s customers and prospects, he helps clients understand the benefits that can be obtained with a successful eGain implementation. Stephen started his career with Sterling Software where he managed the Northern European support centre. Using effective knowledge during his tenure at Sterling software, he moved into a Pre-Sales role, working with prospects and customers to achieve some of the results he attained. For the last 20+ years, Stephen has been involved in many aspects of the implementation of successful Customer Service environments and ensuring that customers attain the expected benefits

David has been a technology leader at Alvaria (formerly Aspect) for 20 years, responsible for software and cloud network architectures across the entire Alvaria product set. He is an inventor and thought-leader with nine core contact centre technology patents issued during his tenure at the company. David is a problem-solver and attributes his success to spending more time collaborating with customers than tinkering in the lab.

Built fantastic teams in e-commerce analytics and customer experience industries. I thrive in dynamic and challenging environments that want to leverage data to help inform decisions that impact their business.

Dave is a vastly experienced and Industry recognised customer and contact centre expert. He has spent almost 30 years in customer oriented roles predominantly in the IT and Telecoms sector. Dave has spent the last 5 years shaping and delivering customer experience, and support in the communication SaaS (Software as a Service) area. Dave is highly awarded within his field, his recognitions include UK, European and Global Awards Dave is the Director of Customer Care EMEA for RingCentral leading a first class high delivery team of CX professional

Celine Maher joined Zendesk in 2020 as Regional Vice-President, UK and Ireland, leading the organisation’s commercial growth and strategy in the region, which represents Zendesk’s number one market in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Celine has more than 20 years of experience in eCommerce, Fintech and SaaS industries, mostly recently as Vice President of Corporate Sales and Business Development EMEA at New Relic. Prior to that, she has held roles at Sage, Eir, PayPal & Ebay, among others. Based in Dublin, Ireland, Celine is a passionate supporter of women in business and the progression of girls in STEM. She volunteers with CoderDojo mentoring students in scratch programming and is a member of Connecting Women in Tech (CWIT) Ireland.

At Intercom, my role is to help potential customers understand if we can help them interact with the customers better throughout the customer lifecycle. Marketing: Make the most of every site visitor or lead, by helping get the right information when they need it. A simple product tour, a help center article in short everything a buyer needs to do their research. Engagement: When the customer is ready to talk, help to engage with your sales team leveraging bots to schedule calls with humans on their team. Support: answer your customers' queries on your site and in-app, push messages and enable them to self-serve, triage, and escalate issues.

Simon is the General Manager for Freshworks UK&I - one of the fastest growing software start-ups of all time. Freshworks believe that Traditional enterprise software is clunky, expensive and not focused on how you can wow your customers with the ultimate service and experience. Freshworks provide customer-for-life software that’s modern, mobile and affordable, enabling their customers to deliver wow moments to customers all over the world. Freshworks work with industry leaders to streamline customer conversations, automate repetitive work and save time - ensuring that teams can collaborate to deliver world class customer engagement. Under Simon’s leadership, Freshworks UK&I has been able to grow from a zero to a multi-million-dollar region within a few years, doubling their revenues year-on-year.  

Joe Jorczak is Yext's Head of Industry for Service & Support and is responsible for defining and executing the strategic direction for the company's service and support offerings. Throughout his 20+ year career, Joe has held influential roles at several large tech companies including Oracle, Medallia, and IBM. Most recently, Joe was at Zendesk where he led sales strategy, solution development, and go-to-market strategy for the global Communications, Media & Entertainment industries. Jorczak holds a degree in English from Penn State University and a Master of Business Administration from the Goizueta School of Business at Emory University.

Nico is currently looking after Yext's Northern European business. Prior to this he managed Oracle Marketing Cloud's B2B organisation, with various other leadership roles in other MarTech companies beforehand. His knowledge spans across the MarTech and AdTech industry, with a huge interest in how search as an application is shaping the world around us.Nico is currently looking after Yext's Northern European business. Prior to this he managed Oracle Marketing Cloud's B2B organisation, with various other leadership roles in other MarTech companies beforehand. His knowledge spans across the MarTech and AdTech industry, with a huge interest in how search as an application is shaping the world around us.