Mark Zucker is the Co-Founder of MCVO Talent Outsourcing. He is based in Chicago, Illinois.

Mark shares his journey from founding a wedding album manufacturing company (almost 30 years ago) to starting MCVO, which specializes in helping small businesses in North America. He highlights the benefits of the Philippines as a BPO destination, citing its respectful culture, strong English proficiency, and service-oriented mindset. Zucker emphasizes the importance of understanding client needs, maintaining client relationships, and providing simplified pricing models. He advises entrepreneurs to seek knowledgeable, involved partners and to consider the feasibility of outsourcing tasks.

Mark talked to Peter Ryan about his journey as an entrepreneur and the specific needs of smaller companies when outsourcing.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/markzucker/

https://www.mcvotalent.com/

Martin Hill-Wilson is the founder of Brainfood Training and Brainfood Consulting. He is based in Milton Keynes, close to London, UK.

Martin has a long history as a leader inside the CX and BPO industry. For the past 15 years he has focused on strategy consulting and advising on CX leadership and culture. Brainfood Training is a more recent focus on helping non-technical teams to understand the implications of and opportunities for the use of AI - particulary for CX teams.

Brainfood Training is focused on helping people understand what AI can really do - not just repeating the hype from the media.

In this conversation with Mark Hillary, Martin talks about his experience talking about and training CX teams on how AI can be used and where it is already possible to find real use cases - how is AI really being used to improve CX?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/customermanagement/

https://brainfoodtraining.com/

Michael Aronowitz is the Senior Vice President of Revenue Growth at VXI Global Solutions. He is based in Miami, Florida.

Mark Hillary called Michael to discuss the importance of turning contact centers from cost centers to profit centers, emphasizing the need for revenue generation through customer interactions.

Michael highlights VXI's success in winning three Stevie awards for retention, win-back, upsell, and cross-sell. Michael stresses the significance of the human touch in customer interactions, leveraging AI for training and recruitment, and the importance of blending sales and service roles.

He argues that companies should focus on driving revenue per interaction and maintaining customer loyalty through personalized service.

Many business journals talk about turning the contact center into a profit center, but in this conversation Michael gives his thoughts on how to really make it happen...

http://vxi.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-aronowitz/

Jonas Berggren writes the popular Transform Customer Service newsletter on LinkedIn. He is the Chief Business Development Officer EMEA and member of the executive leadership team at Transcom. Jonas is based in Stockholm, Sweden.

Mark Hillary and Jonas have published a new book together called The CX (R)evolution - so Mark called Jonas to talk about how the book project started out.

In this conversation they talk about how Mark's comments on the newsletter formed the initial idea for a book and how they developed the idea together.

https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/transform-customer-service-6992863124731113474/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonasberggren2/

https://transcom.com/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F4XWH1L6

Amas Tenumah is the host of the Amas Talks podcast. He is based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, US.

Amas has a long history focused on customer service and service innovation. He regularly advises companies and speaks at events forcused on CX. On his LinkedIn Amas says: "I’m a digital philosopher, keynote speaker and customer service thought leader. My thoughts are featured on NPR, NBC, Fox-business and other outlets. I have spent over 20 years in the customer service industry and now advise executives on service modernization."

Amas recently published an article titled: "The Worst Job in Corporate America is In a Call Center - And Is It Even Worth Fixing?"

Mark Hillary called Amas to ask about the article and his thoughts behind his statements on contact centers and what he thinks can be improved...

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amastenumah/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/worst-job-corporate-america-call-centerand-even-worth-amas-tenumah-cdcfc/

https://amastalks.com/

Phil Kitchen is the Founder & Managing Director of Customer Contact Panel. He is based in Sheffield, UK.

He recently attended the Outsource 2 Jamaica conference in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Peter Ryan caught up with him to discuss what Jamaica is offering to potential clients in locations such as the UK - outside their more traditional US nearshore market.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-kitchen-ccp/

https://customercontactpanel.com/

Phil's LinkedIn comments on Outsource2Jamaica 2025

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/phil-kitchen-ccp_outsource2jamaica-bpo-cx-activity-7318574026124058624-yQZd

Juan Caire is Co-Founder and CEO of Alliance BPO Services, based in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico.

Jim Farnsworth is the CEO and Founder of Octayne Ventures, based in Denver, Colorado.

Peter recently visited Hermosillo and talked to Juan and Jim about the potential for growth in the BPO industry and the importance of value over cost in outsourcing. The event in Hermosillo also emphasized the strategic partnerships Alliance BPO has formed globally to enhance service delivery.

An important part of the discussion was also focused on looking beyond the major BPO delivery cities and finding new talent and value in other locations.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/juancaire/

https://alliancebpo.net/#home

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jifarnsworth/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/octayne/

Chris Dumpleton is the Chief Sales Officer at Limitless Technology. He is based in London, UK.

Limtless is a GigCX platform that offers a connection to freelance customer service agents to brands - replacing the need for a more traditional customer service contact center as all the agents work from home, choosing their own hours and the brands they want to work for.

Chris describes it as "Uber for CX."

But how does the gig economy work in the CX environment and what are the challenges that clients with experience of the contact center face when they explore these ideas?

Mark Hillary called Chris to explore Gig CX and this episode is introduced by Mark and the founder of TrendzOwl, Stephen Loynd... Peter is not feeling well this week so thanks to Steve for stepping in and get well soon Peter!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-dumpleton-54557214/

https://www.limitlesstech.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenloynd/

https://trendzowl.com/