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      Customer First

      KPMG International's Customer Center of Excellence hosts our Customer First podcast series examining the trends in customer experience and the evolving front office interviewing experts who share their views and insights.

      Listen to the latest podcasts below or listen and subscribe on Spotify and Apple.

      Latest Episodes

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      This episode explores how B2B organizations are moving beyond transactional customer experience to organizing around Total Experience and Total Value. The conversation examines how agentic AI enables organizations to shift from task automation to outcome delegation—connecting sales, marketing, service, and operations into coordinated value streams across the customer lifecycle. Key themes include breaking down functional silos, reducing tool sprawl, and using shared metrics—such as customer lifetime value and outcome realization—to redesign operating models around journeys rather than functions. The discussion also highlights how human roles are evolving alongside AI, emphasizing trust, empathy, and strategic partnership, and offers practical steps for leaders to begin building a culture of orchestration that delivers measurable outcomes for both customers and the business.

      Our speakers this week:

      • Carmen Bekker, ASPAC Customer Lead and Partner, KPMG in Australia
      • Tomas Potmesil, EMEA Customer Lead, KPMG Czech Republic
      • Nikhil Sethi – Customer Lead, KPMG in India

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      This episode explores how B2B organizations are shifting from transactional customer experience to delivering measurable outcomes. The discussion examines how agentic AI is helping connect sales, service, and operations into integrated value streams that can deliver “total value” across the customer lifecycle. Key themes include reducing tool sprawl, breaking down data and process silos, and redesigning operating models around outcomes rather than functions. The conversation also highlights how human roles are evolving alongside AI — emphasizing trust, empathy, and partnership—and offers practical steps for leaders to begin their transformation journey from experience to outcome.

      Our speakers this week:

      • Jeanne Johnson – Global Customer and Operations Service Line Leader, KPMG International
      • Nikhil Sethi – Customer Lead, KPMG in India
      • Jeff Mango– Customer Experience Lead, KPMG in the U.S.

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      This episode explores how artificial intelligence is helping to reshape customer experience across marketing, sales, and service. The discussion dives into the shift from efficiency gains to creating connected ecosystems that are designed to deliver a “total experience” for customers, employees, and partners. Key themes include the critical role of high-quality data, evolving operating models, and embedding AI into every layer of the business. The conversation also highlights why trust, integrity, and employee experience are essential pillars for success in an AI-driven world, and how governance frameworks should adapt to balance human and AI decision-making. Finally, the episode looks ahead to some of the biggest trends that could be shaping customer experience over the next five years and offers practical steps for organizations to start their transformation journey.

      Our speakers this week:

      • Walt Becker - Global Customer Advisory CoE Lead, KPMG International
      • Tim Knight – Partner, Head of Customer Experience, KPMG in the UK
      • Carmen Bekker – ASPAC Customer Lead and Partner, KPMG in Australia

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      KPMG’s Customer First Podcast brings together KPMG specialists to discuss the latest trends in customer experience, highlighting insights from the KPMG Customer Experience Excellence Report. This episode explores why customer experience is a key differentiator for businesses, introduces the six pillars framework, and examines how technology, empathy, and total experience strategies can help leading brands drive growth and stand out in a competitive market.

      Our speakers this week:

      • Walt Becker, Global Customer Advisory CoE Lead, KPMG International
      • Scott Lieberman, Customer Advisory Leader, KPMG US
      • Tomas Potmesil, Customer Advisory Leader, KPMG Czech Republic

      Past Episodes

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      As companies get to grips with inflation, cost of living crises, supply chain issues, and geopolitical conflicts, meeting customers' expectations has never been so challenging. Today, we're having a roundtable with two of KPMG's global sector leads to talk about trends that we're seeing in the marketplace around customers and consumers, and how companies are interacting and engaging with their customers, and how they're trying to stay ahead of disruption.

      Our speakers this week:

      • Julio Hernandez, Global Customer and Operations Service Line Lead, KPMG International
      • Anna van Poucke, Global Sector Lead for Healthcare, KPMG International
      • Judd Caplain, Global Sector Lead for Financial Services, KPMG International

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      From emerging technologies like the metaverse, to speech-processing and improved location-based services, organizations are trying to balance the quest for insight versus the protection of customer data. Today, our panel discuss what good customer privacy looks like, and how it is shaping customer interactions. 

      Our speakers this week:

      • Julio Hernandez, Global Customer and Operations Service Line Lead, KPMG International
      • Sylvia Klasovec Kingsmill, Global Head of Privacy and Partner, KPMG in Canada
      • Paul Henninger, Global Head of Lighthouse and Partner, KPMG in the United Kingdom

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      How can companies manage rising inflation and the impact on customers? In this episode, our panel talk about the importance of brand, loyalty, and tactics that companies can take to manage higher inflationary pressure.

      Our speakers this week:

      • Julio Hernandez, Global Customer and Operations Service Line Lead, KPMG International
      • Yael Selfin, Chief Economist, KPMG in the UK
      • Edgar Molenaars, Partner, KPMG in The Netherlands

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      In this episode, our panel explore constantly rising customer expectations that are challenging companies to innovate fast to keep up, and discuss how organizations can maintain the momentum of transformation accelerated by COVID to ensure their positive results continue. Innovation is not just limited to technology but rather enabled by it.

      Our speakers this week:

      • Isabel Zisselsberger, Partner, Head of Financial Services Strategy and Operations, KPMG China
      • Sam Ganga, Principal, National Consulting Industry Leader - Consumer & Retail, KPMG in the United States
      • Patrick Maes, Director, Head of Customer, Sales, Marketing and Innovation Advisory, KPMG in Belgium

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      In this episode, our panel explore personalization and how companies should look to cultivate proactive, one-to-one connections with their customers that deliver on their expectations, without threatening their trust in the brand. They also discuss how, going forward, businesses must be sensitive and systematic in how they utilize data, always demonstrating the clear benefit to the consumer.

      Our speakers this week:

      • Amanda Hicks, Partner, Customer Brand and Marketing Advisory, KPMG Australia
      • Tom Lurtz, Partner, KPMG in Germany
      • Paul Henninger, Partner and Head of Lighthouse, KPMG in the UK

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      Today, during our episode of Customer First, we're going to be talking about orchestrating customer experiences and KPMG's Global Customer Experience Excellence report for 2021. We'll be discussing what are the key trends from year's research and who are the companies leading the way in CX?

      Our speakers this episode:

      • Julio Hernandez, Global Lead - Customer and Operations, KPMG
      • Jenny Roche, Partner, KPMG Australia
      • Peter Liddell, Global Head of Operations, KPMG

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      In this episode, our panel explore the emergence of a new type of customer, whose decisions are driven increasingly by purpose, integrity and reputation. They discuss how businesses can achieve customer buy-in and translate that into practice, illustrating their points with some great examples of trust-building key events.

      Our speakers this week:

      • Jo Stringer, Partner, KPMG in the UK
      • Edgar Molenaars, Partner, KPMG in The Netherlands
      • Carmen Bekker, Partner, KPMG Australia

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      In this episode, the panel highlight how business success is no longer measured purely in financial terms and how purpose now has to be built into strategy if organizations are to survive and thrive. Ethics are now tightly entwined in the wider business agenda of commercial resilience and the need to implement processes both for the customer and employees to ensure brand integrity and protect against reputational damage, are discussed.

      Our speakers this week:

      • Tim Knight, Partner, KPMG in the UK
      • Samantha Gloede, Managing Director, KPMG in the US
      • Vamsi Duvvuri, Managing Director, KPMG in the US

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      In this episode, the panel discuss long-lasting changes that retail and CPG sectors need to address, from last mile and reverse logistics to orchestrating eco-systems. with the changing face of the customer. They also look at the difficulties of fulfilment for small businesses as well as growing customer expectations and feedback challenges are all considered. And our panel explore how delivery has now become a point of differentiation. Our speakers this week:

      Our speakers this week:

      • Lisa Bora, Partner, KPMG Australia
      • Duncan Avers, Principal, KPMG in the US
      • Iain Prince, Associate Partner, KPMG in the UK
      • Peter Liddell, Partner, KPMG Australia

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      In this episode, the panel discusses how to stay emotionally connected to customers as we move to digital channels and how to use brands to build more meaningful relationships, while responding to those customers' needs and desires for self-service channels.

      Our panel this week inlcudes:

      • Mike Flodin, Principal, Customer Service Transformation, KPMG in the US
      • Aditya Rath, Partner, Customer and Operations Practice, KPMG in India
      • Katie Bolla, Partner, Customer and Digital Practice, KPMG in Canada

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      Our opening Customer First podcast explores customer obsession, the theme of our Customer Experience Excellence Report.

      Our expert panel includes:

      • Julio Hernandez, Global Lead for the Customer Centre of Excellence, KPMG International
      • David Conway, Director, KPMG Nunwood, KPMG in the UK
      • Edgar Molenaars, Partner, KPMG in the Netherlands

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      This episode considers how businesses can drive better customer service through engaged, autonomous teams and reflects on the benefits of aligning customer and employee experience.

      Our expert panel includes:

      • Robert Bolton, Global Lead for the People and Change Centre of Excellence, KPMG International
      • Chloe Burton, Senior Manager, KPMG in the UK
      • Matt Campbell, Managing Director, KPMG in the US

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      This global panel discuss the rapidly shifting consumer marketplace, the rise of marketing tech and how the expectation – and role – of marketing within organizations may change in the coming months and years. With an increasing focus on marketing data measurement, the panel explores the metrics behind brand value. And as the traditionally separate roles of marketing, branding and customer experience continue to converge, they all agree that the need to pull these sources together into one holistic point of view is vital.

      Our experts this episode are:

      • Carmen Bekker, Partner, KPMG Australia
      • Jason Galloway, Managing Director, KPMG in the United States
      • Joanna Stringer, Partner, KPMG in the United Kingdom

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      In this episode of the Customer First podcast, our experts discuss the impact this disruption has had on the Sales space and how, while the future of the function is somewhat unclear, organizations can place themselves in good stead to weather the turbulence.

      Our experts this episode are:

      • Aditya Rath, Partner, KPMG in India
      • Tom Lurtz, Partner, KPMG in Germany
      • Walt Becker, Principal Sales Transformation Lead, KPMG in the United States

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      In this episode, we explore the concept of insight driven engagement and how organizations are getting to know their customers at a deep and profound level to help them choreograph motivational experiences.

      Today's experts are:

      • Amanda Hicks, Partner, Customer Brand & Marketing Advisory, KPMG Australia and
      • Torsten Fritz, Director, Customer Advisory, KPMG in the United Kingdom.

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      Today's customers know what they want. With countless options at their fingertips, they can easily switch products or providers when their needs are not met. They expect every experience to match their best experience –and the bar rises daily. In this episode of the Customer First podcast, we delve into the changing nature of the consumer landscape and the impact this has had on delivering the right customer experiences.

      Our experts this episode are:

      • Julio Hernandez, Customer Advisory Practice Lead, KPMG in the United States, and Global Customer Centre of Excellence Lead, KPMG International
      • Terry Walls, Managing Director and Connected Customer Service Lead, KPMG in the United States
      • Lisa Bora, Partner in Charge, KPMG Australia

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      This episode of the Customer First podcast brings together a panel from Asia, Europe and North America to examine the true value of customer experience (CX). The panel discuss the latest customer experience trends in their regions and look at ways organizations can overcome the pitfalls to ensure a successful CX transformation journey.

      Our panelists this episode are:

      • Julio Hernandez, Customer Advisory Practice Lead, KPMG in the United States, and Global Customer Centre of Excellence Lead, KPMG International
      • Aditya Rath, Partner, KPMG in India
      • Tim Knight, Customer Experience Leader, KPMG in the UK