Punk CX with Adrian Swinscoe

Today’s interview is with Naomi Rankin, the Manager of Global Customer Care at Lush, the British cosmetics retailer. I spoke to Naomi when I attended Zendesk’s recent Relate event, which took place in Las Vegas on March 25th-27th. We talk about her highlights from the event, what customer care means to Lush, their approach to AI and her journey with Lush from starting work in one of their shops to now managing the global customer care team that covers 24 markets, 15 different languages, and another 20 partner markets. This interview follows on from my recent interview – Omnichannel was a myth – Interview with Gaurav Passi of Zingly – and is number 541 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders who are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.

Today’s interview is with Gaurav Passi, Founder & CEO of Zingly. He joins me today to talk about some research that they have recently conducted about FORO (the Fear of Reaching Out), the Great CX Paradox, why Omnichannel was a myth and how ‘Rooms’ could be the answer. This interview follows on from my recent interview – Why businesses need to invest in both brand and customer experience – Interview with Martin Gill of Forrester – and is number 540 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders who are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.

Today’s interview is with Martin Gill, VP, Research Director at Forrester. Martin joins me today to talk about their upcoming CX Summit EMEA that will be taking place in London (and digitally) from June 2–4, 2025. We explore the major themes of the event, including why businesses need to invest in both brand and customer experience to maximise growth, what practitioners should be keeping in mind when thinking about design for the future of experiences and the role of organisational culture and leadership in all of that. You can find out more about the event here. Also, if you use the discount code CXEMEAPUNK, you’ll get 10% off the ticket price. This interview follows on from my recent interview – Legacy transformation, agentic AI and how to get it right – Interview with Don Schuerman of Pega – and is number 539 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders who are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.

Today’s interview is with Don Schuerman, the CTO at Pegasystems, an industry-leading low-code platform for AI-powered decisioning and workflow automation. Don joins me today to talk about the upcoming PegaWorld 2025 (PegaWorld is taking place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas from June 1st to the 3rd), Agentic AI (obvs.), how some organizations are implementing agentic solutions and it is causing chaos, a better way to do it, Pega Blueprint, legacy transformation and how to get it right. This podcast is sponsored by Pega. This interview follows on from my recent interview – Starting a resolution revolution – Interview with Tom Eggemeier, Adrian McDermott and Matthias Göhler of Zendesk – and is number 538 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders who are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.

Today’s podcast is a two-parter and features interviews with Tom Eggemeier, Adrian McDermott and Matthias Göhler, which took place at Zendesk’s recent Relate event, which took place in Las Vegas on March 25th-27th. Tom Eggemeier is the Chief Executive Officer of Zendesk, Adrian McDermott is the Chief Technology Officer at Zendesk, and Matthias Göhler is EMEA Chief Technology Officer at Zendesk. We talk about all of the latest developments at Zendesk, some of the big product announcements, starting another revolution and how knowledge is the coal in this latest industrial revolution. This interview follows on from my recent interview – AI-driven search volumes are exploding and what brands should be doing about it – Interview with Vivek Pandya of Adobe – and is number 537 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders who are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.

Today’s podcast is with Vivek Pandya, Director, Adobe Digital Insights at Adobe. I recently caught up with Vivek at Adobe Summit in Las Vegas to talk about some new research that Adobe just published called AI to Cart, which highlights the impact that Generative AI-powered chat interfaces are having on consumers, how that is changing their search and shopping behaviours, what brands should be doing in response and his highlights from the event. This interview follows on from my recent interview – The art and the science of listening – Interview with Zig Serafin, Brad Anderson and Isabelle Zdatny of Qualtrics – and is number 536 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders who are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.

Today’s podcast is a three-parter and features interviews with Zig Serafin, Brad Anderson and Isabelle Zdatny that I conducted at Qualtrics’ recent X4 2025: The Experience Management Summit, which took place in Salt Lake City on March 18th-20th. Zig Serafin is the Chief Executive Officer of Qualtrics, Brad Anderson is the President of Products, UX and Engineering at Qualtrics, and Isabelle Zdatny is the Head of Thought Leadership at Qualtrics XM Institute. We talk about all of the latest developments at Qualtrics, including some of the big product announcements, many of the big challenges currently facing brands and a new piece of research that Qualtrics recently produced in collaboration with McKinsey on The AI-Powered Customer Experience Opportunity. This interview follows on from my recent interview – Testing and experimentation is everyone’s problem – Interview with Shafqat Islam of Optimizely – and is number 535 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders who are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees. NOTE: Today’s episode is sponsored by Qualtrics, who recently held their X4 2025: The Experience Management Summit in Salt Lake City on March 18th-20th. I was there, and it was a great event that explored how leading organizations are leveraging Experience Management (XM) to enhance customer and employee satisfaction, reduce operating costs, and achieve remarkable breakthroughs. We heard from industry leaders and companies, including Autodesk, Ford, USAA and Hilton. Find out more and catch up on the latest news coming out of the event at the Qualtrics website.

Today’s podcast is with Shafqat Islam, President at Optimizely, who joins me to talk about a new research report they have just published called Tested to Perfection, experimentation, personalization, privacy and all things in between, including the key things that marketers should be doing more of to better engage their customers. This interview follows on from my recent interview – There are five types of loyalty but only two are growing – Interview with Sara Richter of SAP Emarsys - and is number 534 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders who are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees. NOTE: Today’s episode is sponsored by Qualtrics, ahead of X4 2025: The Experience Management Summit, which is taking place in Salt Lake City on March 18th-20th. It’s set to be an unforgettable event designed to empower you and your organization in leveraging Experience Management (XM) to enhance customer and employee satisfaction, reduce operating costs, and achieve remarkable breakthroughs. There, you will hear about some of the best customer experience programmes from industry leaders and companies, including Autodesk, Ford, USAA and Hilton. Find out more and register now at the Qualtrics website.

Today’s podcast is with Sara Richter, CMO at SAP Emarsys, a leading omnichannel customer engagement platform provider. Sara joins me today to talk about customer loyalty, the findings emerging from the 2024 edition of their Customer Loyalty Index (CLI) report, the five different types of loyalty that marketers and CX professionals should be thinking about, and what brands should be doing to engender (true) loyalty with their customers. This interview follows on from my recent interview – Harnessing the contact center’s potential as a real-time data gold mine – Interview with Suvi Lindfors of Netigate – and is number 533 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders who are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees. NOTE: Today’s episode is sponsored by Qualtrics, ahead of X4 2025: The Experience Management Summit, which is taking place in Salt Lake City on March 18th-20th. It’s set to be an unforgettable event designed to empower you and your organization in leveraging Experience Management (XM) to enhance customer and employee satisfaction, reduce operating costs, and achieve remarkable breakthroughs. There, you will hear about some of the best customer experience programmes from industry leaders and companies, including Autodesk, Ford, USAA and Hilton. Find out more and register now at the Qualtrics website.

Suvi Lindfors, Strategic Business Development at Netigate, brings extensive experience from Nokia and Microsoft. She delves into the untapped potential of contact centers as gold mines of customer insights. Suvi discusses the shift from focusing on efficiency to enhancing customer experience, the need for a culture of continuous improvement, and the importance of democratizing data across organizations. She also emphasizes how leveraging customer interactions can drive meaningful change and foster a more customer-centric approach.