Podcasts

Ashley Friedlein is founder and CEO of Econsultancy. In the latest Foviance podcast, we discussed the development of customer experience outside the UK.

Ashley, can I first ask you to tell me a little bit about how things are going with Econsultancy? I know you’ve set up recently in the US, possibly at the worst possible time during the recession?

Yes, it’s an interesting one. New York probably feels it particularly keenly, and it felt a lot bleaker than the UK. It was a pretty miserable economic situation, but the good thing is that it means you can get good people for less money than you normally can, it means that estate agents are very nice to you for a change, and you get decent property for less money. When we set up Econsultancy in the UK, we did it in the dot.com crash period, and everyone said then that we were crazy to be doing what we were doing, but as a result we had a kind of clear run and no competition for about three years, so actually as a time to build a brand, arguably it’s a good time. It’s effectively a start up for us. It wasn’t projected to make any money this year, and I think we’ll achieve that, and it’s going well in terms of raising the traffic, the links, the brand, recruitment, so we’re pretty happy.
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Part 2 of Paul Blunden’s interview with Ashley Friedlein, CEO of Econsultancy. We discussed the development of customer experience outside the UK.

You can listen to Part 1 of the interview where Ashley Friedlein talks about Twitter in our Expert Interview section.

• Episode title: Ashley Friedlein on Customer Experience
• Episode number: 6
• Series: on Customer Experience
• Duration: 25 minutes

Listen now:

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Or, Download the Ashley Friedlein on customer experience podcast (MP3, 11mb)

An abridged version of the conversation between Ashley Friedlein and Paul Blunden can be read in our October Newsletter.

Alternatively you can also read the Podcast transcript.

This is the fourth podcast in our ‘…on Customer Experience’ series of interviews. This interview was with Graham Webster Director, Customer Experience for Telefónica and Marty Carroll.

Graham provides some real insights into an organisation that is putting the customer experience front and centre of its strategy. He discusses how customer experience acts as a growth enabler for Telefónica, the world’s 3rd largest telecommunications company.

• Episode title: Graham Webster on Customer Experience
• Episode number: 4
• Series: on Customer Experience
• Duration: 26 minutes

Listen now:

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Or, Download Graham Webster on Customer Experience podcast (11.6 mb)

Alternatively you had read the Graham Webster podcast transcript

In the third of our ‘…on Customer Experience’ podcast series, we talked to David Lengen, Head of eBusiness for Citi and Egg.

In the interview he discusses Citi’s approach to customer experience, how they measure and score their efforts internally and, when it’s important to maintain a UK focus vs a global focus.

• Episode title: David Lengen on Customer Experience
• Episode number: 3
• Series: on Customer Experience
• Duration: 25 minutes

Listen now:

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or Download the David Lengen podcast (12mb)

Alternatively you can read the David Lengen podcast transcript

In this, the first episode in our ‘…on Customer Experience’ podcast series, we talk to Marc Sands, Marketing Director of The Guardian.

• Episode title: An interview with Marc Sands, Marketing Director at The Guardian.
• Episode number: 1
• Series: On Customer Experience
• Duration: 36 minutes

Listen now:

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Or, Download the Marc Sands podcast (25mb)

There is an abridged interview in the Foviance Newsletter

Alternatively you can read the podcast transcript

About our ‘… on Customer Experience’ podcasts

The ‘… on Customer Experience’ podcast is a series of interviews with senior figures from some of the world’s most respected businesses, focusing on the strategic importance of customer experience. Throughout the series we hope to shed some light on the ways in which organisations are using customer experience to gain competitive advantage.