Introducing our chief strategy officer… Peter Doveren

Our latest Sigma Connected Q&A is with group chief strategy officer and executive member, Peter Doveren.

Dutch-born Peter, who has held a variety of senior positions throughout his career, including at Vodafone and Capita, joined Sigma Connected in October 2022, leading on strategy and the next stage of our growth.

In our latest Q&A, we chat with Peter about his experience and what he brings to Sigma Connected and our clients.

Q. Hi Peter, perhaps can you kick things off by giving us an overview of your role and what it entails please?

Peter:

I joined Sigma Connected almost two years ago and my role as chief strategy officer for the Group covers the UK, South Africa, USA and Australia.

Previously, I ran outsourced customer experience operations for 15 years, but I also spent 10 years on the client side – so I have sat at both sides of the table. I believe this gives me a greater understanding and appreciation of the challenges both clients and BPOs face.

There are multiple elements to my current role, but essentially, I’m able to step back and look at the bigger picture for the business, the direction of travel, and the opportunities that exist to both grow and serve our clients’ customers better. This includes reviewing geographical markets, strengthening or expanding in new industries, new service offerings, and reviewing how we work to ensure it fits with who we are, our values and what we aspire to be as a business. I also need to ensure we’re having the right conversations around areas such as regulations and AI plus external benchmarking.

It’s vital that we continue to challenge ourselves, look in the mirror and ask ourselves are we doing the best for our clients. We also need to ensure we have the right strategic dialogue and solutions, but then bring everything down and connect it successfully to our operations.

Hopefully, having run BPO’s and large-scale operations for over two decades, I bring great value and knowledge to the company. But what I purposely don’t do is to have my head in the clouds all the time by looking five or 10 years ahead. I need to be driving the business forward now.

Q. How does it benefit our clients having someone with your experience?

Peter:

First and foremost, as a business we need to know what is happening in our client’s operations and their markets if we are to support them in enhancing their customer experience.

For example, what are the changes that are going on in financial services at the moment, what does that mean for customer experience, collection activities, and how can we support the challenges they are facing?

To have a constructive discussion with clients about these things you need to understand their market as well as you can – such as where do you think the sector is going, trends, threats and opportunities. I make sure I know all of those inside out, along with understanding their regulatory environment.

Another topic that is on top of everybody’s list these days is AI. It provides such a wealth of opportunities, but at the same time is not the answer to everything. Finding the best way to make it work for our people and our clients is part of our everyday.

The other area is analytics. As a business we handle approximately a quarter of a million calls a day, including speaking to around 125,000 energy users daily. These conversations are such a rich source of information to understand what is happening in the market and how customers are feeling. Having mature tools like Generative AI can help collect and analyse data which assists with agent coaching, learning and development.

In one of my previous roles, we had 241 contact centres across 22 countries, so I’ve studied and understand any service model that exists, including what good looks like across different industries, such as transport and charity. Hopefully much of that experience is now of value to Sigma Connected and our clients.

Q. And what attracted you to Sigma Connected as a business back in 2022?

Peter:

Having spent 25 years in customer service, you cannot fail to know and hear of Sigma Connected and the great things they were doing, and then I got to meet Gary Gilburd the co-founder and CEO. I liked him and when he referred to how the business always hires on culture it really resonated with me as I’ve always believed that people experience is a key driver when it comes to customer experience. It has been a key focus for every role I’ve held so finding a company with that approach was a perfect fit.  

What I also like is that Sigma Connected are a medium-sized entrepreneurial company, who really work as one team to get the best outcomes for their clients. I’ve not seen any other company doing it more real and better than us.

Having such a strong people culture means our attrition rates are low, our colleagues enjoy their jobs, so in the long run our clients’ customers have a much better experience and receive a higher quality of service. 

I knew that if I joined the business I would have a real opportunity to help create and protect a very special culture. I want to continue to build on that.

Q. So, in your opinion, what is the ‘magic sauce’ that makes Sigma Connected so different?

We are not a growth-driven business. If you have been part of any shareholder-driven organisation you need to grow at a certain rate otherwise the share price does not rise. At Sigma Connected we define growth differently in that we still want to grow and be better, but not at the cost of our people, our clients and their customers.

One of the main differences, and an ingredient of that sauce, is the alignment we have created across the entire business. The values we stand by every day are not just displayed around our offices as a ‘nice to have’, they are in our hearts, we believe in them and they run through our entire DNA.

Everyone feels the culture and lives it. That’s very unique.

I go back to my first day at Sigma Connected when I sat back and observed. One of the first things I wrote down was ‘wow this executive team really trust each other and have each other’s back’. Trust me, I have been on a handful of executive teams in my life, and what we have at Sigma Connected is unique. Having the co-founders Gary Gilburd and Mike Harfield in the business also really helps as they stay close to what they set out to do and the beliefs they had.

Now, when I look to hire new people, I always ask myself, are they a Sigma Connected person? And if not, no matter how good their CV is, they will not get in. They need the qualities we look for – people first.