In this episode, Martin talks to Dan Schlenzig, who leads the CX Sales team at Cisco across 22 countries. Dan shares his journey from helpdesk beginnings to managing international teams and gives a fascinating insight into how Cisco is driving innovation in the AI and CX space.

🎙️ Topics covered:

• Dan’s career journey and leadership lessons

• Cisco’s transformation from on-premise to cloud CX

• The AI phone booth demo coming to the Contact Centre Expo

• The future of voice AI and multilingual challenges

• Building guardrails and AI quality management

• How Cisco is helping customers build and train their own AI bots

Dan also shares a glimpse of what’s next for AI, how Cisco is empowering customers to innovate safely, and what makes the company such a great place to work.

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In this episode of Get Out of Wrap, Martin talks with Sam Sanford — writer, performer and former contact centre worker — whose acclaimed interactive show I Love My Job (with an asterisk!) shines a spotlight on the fascinating, funny, and deeply human world of customer service.

Sam’s one-person play mixes comedy, theatre and audience interaction to explore what it really means to “communicate authentically” in a world of scripts, KPIs and AI. Drawing on her own time in call centres, she shares hilarious and heartfelt stories about the conversations we have — and the ones we wish we could.

Expect discussions on:

• The blurred line between human and AI communication

• The exhaustion of constant conversation

• The joy (and chaos) of customer interactions

• Why treating people like people still matters most

This episode is a celebration of the humour, absurdity and humanity at the heart of contact centre life. 🎭

At just 20 years old, Lewis Parkin is proving that age is no barrier to impact in the contact centre world.

Starting out at Alvaria in an entry-level role, Lewis quickly showed his initiative — creating training videos, planning events, helping with design projects, and even managing customer accounts across the UK and Ireland. His story is a brilliant example of curiosity, attitude, and the power of saying yes.

In this episode, host Martin Teasdale chats with Lewis about:

• How he entered the contact centre industry straight from college

• The perceptions young people have about contact centres

• What he’s learned from working with experienced leaders like Steve Powell, Bruce Skjolde and Phil Jude

• How variety and responsibility helped him grow

• Why proactive customer contact excites him about the future

Lewis also shares what it’s like being part of a global team, how he handles imposter syndrome, and why technology and creativity go hand in hand.