Customer Science taps James Johnstone for its first COO role amid strong growth
AI and challenging market conditions are fuelling demand for customer service transformation.
Customer Science has appointed James Johnstone as its inaugural chief operating officer to lead the company’s operations and go‑to‑market initiatives as it responds to strong demand for integrated customer experience, AI and digital solutions.
Johnstone has more than 20 years' experience with stints at Cisco, Datacom, HPE, Fujitsu and Microsoft. He will also support the business’ expansion into the UK and US.
“James has a rare blend of operational, technology and sales skills focused on benefiting customers,” Customer Science CEO, Todd Gorsuch said.
Johnstone partnered with the business in previous roles and brings first-hand experience as teams navigate digital shifts with a customer-centric approach.
“In our market space, he has exceptional experience in advising on the use of AI and chat solutions at both medium to large scale,” Gorsuch said.
Where is AI delivering value in CX today?
Many enterprises are interested in improving customer experience (CX) but they often go wrong by looking processes or product features rather than the holistic service and designing solutions for the service.
“They finish with a spaghetti of uncoordinated solutions that independently solve their own issues but collectively fail to deliver a good service or the cost reductions required,” Gorsuch told CRN Australia.
Increasingly, they’re looking to external partners to lead the process and provide guidance on incorporating AI into their workflow.
But AI changes the way people work in a more nuanced and different way to other technologies that co-work with humans, Gorsuch explained.
“This requires different change management, supporting people, adjusting KPIs and recruitment profiles and much more,” he said.
The problem is that these people elements are often lost in the transition. “AI in CX is not ‘set and forget’. The environment changes and so it needs management and focus optimisation to see client satisfaction continuously improve along with ROI,” he added.
Customer Science is deploying AI to reduce handling times for customer service enquiries, solve customer questions with minimal or no human intervention, automate processes, accelerate speed to competency and provide insights to make rapid decision in real-time.
Looking ahead, Gorsuch expects that as AI platforms mature, employee roles will become more defined as curators and directors of AI. The goal is building better ways of working with customers.
“Ideally, it’s about making customer experience more human and transforming jobs into greater value for customers and organisations resulting in new revenue streams,” he said.
“Both public and private sector enterprises will increasingly focus on frictionless services and removing barriers such as payments and identity friction points,” he added.