Today’s podcast is with Suvi Lindfors, Strategic Business Development, Netigate. Suvi joins me today to talk about why she thinks the contact center is becoming one of the most valuable sources of insight in any organisation, how many brands are actually leveraging these insights, what needs to happen to facilitate this journey in terms of strategy, people, process and technology, what sort of impact will this have on customer centricity and how we are likely to see the contact center emerge as a data and analytics service provider within organisations.

This interview follows on from my recent interview – Life Lessons I Learned From Being A Line Cook – Interview with Ari Weinzweig – and is number 532 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.

Here are the highlights of my chat with Suvi:

• On a high level, it makes sense to be more efficient, but what if instead of minimizing the call times, you actually try to reduce the reasons for contact?
• The visibility of the reasons for contact is often non-existent for many different units in an organisation.
• My prediction is that companies are starting to utilize technology that is democratizing the data held in the contact centers and are making it accessible across the organization. That will create an engine which will start reducing the contact reasons, it will reduce the workload of the customer care team allowing them to spend more quality time with customers.
• You can democratize access to the data so that people always have access to it. But then you also have to have a culture of empowerment and continuous improvement that goes with that if you are going to reap the benefits.
• There is hunger for data, there’s hunger for bigger understanding in organizations. But the hunger and the methods don’t match.
• The contact center is this real-time data gold mine of what is actually happening, not just for your customers, but your business as a whole.
• If you ever wanted to understand what was going on in the company, then go hang out in service and support.
• Imagine if all the companies would dedicate one week in a quarter just to fix teh small things rather than overlooking them. How different would the world actually be?
• I would encourage people to take time to daydream. To daydream about how your organization will function when it’s customer-centric.
• Suvi’s best advice: Spend time regularly listening to your customers’ calls, understanding the reasons for contact and make your company’s management do the same.
• Suvi’s Punk CX brand: Revolut

About Suvi

Suvi Lindfors is a former Microsoft and Nokia customer experience data insight pro and co-founder of Finnish AI-supported CX SaaS tech platform Lumoa. In 2024, Lumoa was acquired by Netigate, a European leader in experience management solutions. In her role of heading up Strategic Business Development at Netigate, Suvi is passionate about helping organisations identify and solve critical pain points in customer experience management and turn feedback into positive actions.

Beyond her professional pursuits, Suvi thrives in a blended family environment, sharing her life with three children and a supportive spouse. She regains her strengths at the gym and finds solace in creative endeavors such as flower arrangements and crafts. In her commitment to harmonious living, Suvi embraces Marie Kondo’s principles, ensuring that her living space reflects joy and purpose.

Check out the work that Netigate does, say Hi to Netigate on X(Twitter) and Instagram at @Netigate and @Netigate, respectively and don’t forget to connect with Suvi on LinkedIn here.

Credit: Photo by Joshua Sortino on Unsplash