CX Talent Ltd - July 2024 Newsletter

Both Jo van Riemsdijk and Kate Baird are so pleased to bring your the July 2024 edition of the CX Talent Ltd Newsletter. This month we are delighted to introduce you to James McGhee Director of Customer Experience at FOOTASYLUM . James has been kind enough to share his thoughts and professional insights with us, which we are certain you'll be fascinated to read!! So get that cup of coffee and sit back and enjoy!!!!

James McGhee has got some fantastic experience in retail having done not one but two stints AO and most recently at FOOTASYLUM He is an incredibly accomplished Sales and Customer Experience Operations/Contact Centre Manager with extensive experience in large matrixed organisations. He has achieved record-high customer satisfaction rankings, improvements to bottom line and turnaround of under performing operations to prepare companies for fast growth and profitability.

James – you are currently Director of Customer Experience at Footasylum, please could you let us know what this entails?

I’m responsible for everything that is post purchase and customer affecting. This includes the contact centre, post purchase communications, reviews, feedback, and sentiment analysis. I’m also responsible for the qualitative measurement of our carrier partners.

You started your journey at Footasylum as the Head of Customer Experience but have since been promoted to Director of Customer Experience. How do each of these roles differ from each other?

As Head of Customer Experience, I really focussed mainly on the Contact Centre. The title change came after taking on the wider remit above and being on the Senior Team at Footasylum for a couple of years.

In your career to date what CX initiative that you’ve been involved with have you been most proud?

Two spring to mind. One was a real team effort at AO.com to deliver amazing customer experiences after customers had reported faults with their appliances. We collectively managed to convince manufacturers to take a much bigger role in the resolution, not just the assessment of faults. All were really receptive to it and it meant that there was a combined, concerted effort to delight and, most importantly, fix the customer. At FOOTASYLUM ,the culture of my department makes me proud. The management team understand the importance of customers time and our ethos that it’s about the experience over service.

I tell the teams about service being “dead” and a filing cabinet of options stuck firmly between the customer and ourselves. We choose to approach contact with customers collaboratively.

What aspect of the CX function to you personally enjoy the most?

It’s hard to choose between the front-line customer interaction – especially when you get it right and it’s almost magical in the way that we can turn a customer around and the positive feedback we receive in various places. Reading that is heart-warming and extremely satisfying.

You’ve had two separate stints at AO.com who are reknown for the excellent CX. In your opinion what do you think it is they do different that results in such a strong experience for their customers that other companies could learn from?

It’s a top-down thing that they have going on. John Roberts is obsessed with customer satisfaction, the experience and the difference it has to that business. It permeates all the way through.

When hiring for your team what attributes do you look for in candidates? What makes a successful candidate for a retail CX function?

It may not be popular, but resilience is number one. It’s an odd trait to find in someone who, more often than not, is taking the job as a perceived gap-filler in their career or fresh out of education. The best people I’ve worked with have been able to separate the customers needs from the customers’ frustration and emotion.

What skillsets do you feel that candidates in CX should be looking to develop or hone?

Resilience, Psychological understanding (Cognitive Biases, The Chimp Paradox and Amygdala Hijacking are great starting points) and how to create fun in conversations, where appropriate. Again, the best CX professionals have started from the bottom and could create an incredible, personable, personalised experience with customers.

How are you using AI in your CX initiatives?

We use it to assess customer sentiment, to write canned responses or virtual assistant responses and in virtual assistants themselves. We have a super clever Whatsapp VA where you can track and amend your delivery in Whatsapp and get order updates too.

How do you see AI use developing further in retail CX?

I was always a firm believer in it’s adoption in areas like Alexa and Siri. I’m less confident now and hope that it’s used to do simple tasks that are a frustration for advisors and customers alike. Little things like small compensation, refunds and tracking orders should be able to be automated, or at least 50-60% of them .

You’ve managed large teams of customer facing agents in contact centres in several of your roles. How important is the employee experience to your bigger picture CX strategy?

Vitally important. Richard Branson has been advocating it since the 80’s and, if I’m honest, the best CX led businesses focus on it. Anyone you look up to in CX has an excellent experience for their teams too.

What do you think it takes to be a successful leader in CX?

Influencing skills, a desire to work harder than everyone else and an analytical mind. As a given you should be the best people leader you can be and be kind. I hear horror stories of how people are dealt with in the CX world by their leaders. Those people never last and create a perception that contact centres and front-line retail, for example, are bad places to work.

Are there any CX focused events you attend? Why? Why not?

Not really anymore, I got out of the habit during Lockdowns and, to be honest, the commercialised element of it puts me off. How often are you in market for a new contact centre platform!? I’d love for events to be focussed on making customers lives better, not just SAAS products with huge claims.

What advice do you wish you had been given in your earlier career?

That your time is worth a lot more than you’re currently being paid for it. We can’t all be business owners, and that’s not what I mean. We can all use our free time wisely to enrich and create value for ourselves. Learning new skills, reading, exercising, and spending time with those you love are equally, if not more, important than working late to finish reports or clear your inbox. The problems will still be there tomorrow when everyone else wakes up and replies, you’re better at fixing them if you’re at your best.

Kate Baird and Jo van Riemsdijk would like to thank James McGhee for his fantastic insight and thoughts on the wonderful world of Customer Experience. We hope that you've enjoyed reading this latest edition of the CX Talent Ltd newsletter. Don't forget to subscribe to make sure you don't miss any of our interviews with fabulous leaders in CX in the forthcoming months!

At CX Talent Ltd - Jo van Riemsdijk and Kate Baird are so proud to be connected with the brightest and best talent in Customer Experience, Customer Operations, Digital Experience and Service Design at all levels. To discuss your recruitment requirements in this area and how we can add value in finding the right fit for your team - please get in touch as we'd love to hear from you and to get involved!