Andrew McMillan started his career as a management trainee with the John Lewis Partnership. He worked in several branches, finishing with heading a department in the flagship Oxford Street branch. With 21 years operational experience behind him, he then moved to the John Lewis head office to take charge of their intelligence team.

He was subsequently asked to lead on their customer experience; the role saw him develop their market-leading culture and attitude towards customer experience. That  customer-driven culture is something that has now become synonymous with the John Lewis brand.

After nearly three decades at John Lewis, Andrew joined a boutique consultancy firm as a principal consultant. It was here he honed his consulting skills in employee engagement, customer experience, and customer-centric business process change.

Other positions include chairing the customer experience committee at Revo – previously the British Council of Shopping Centres; as a judge and adviser for the Customer Focus Award; and judge for the Virgin Atlantic Customer Experience and Loyalty Award.

In 2012 he founded Engaging Service. Whether it’s a small, family-run firm or a large multinational, Andrew places an emphasis on understanding what makes (or can make) them different. By uncovering inherent values and a shared enthusiasm he brings about employee engagement and growth. Andrew also looks at the roles of leadership, communication, trust and enjoying work in creating success.

ANDREW McMILLAN | CORPORATE

Since Engaging Service was founded, Andrew has spoken at over 300 conferences and events, and has consulted for over 40 organisations worldwide, from large corporations to SMEs.

He has spoken at global conferences, across all commercial sectors as well as government, health, and not-for-profit organisations. He does not have a standard presentation, but instead collaborates with his clients and tailors his talks to meet the precise needs to the event.

Andrew also provides workshops which are, in effect, longer versions of his conference presentations, but with more time for practical exercises and questions.

ANDREW McMILLAN | TALK TOPICS

– Employee Engagement
– Customer Experience
– Strategic Purpose
– Productivity and Fun at Work
– Leadership
– Managing Complaints to Enhance Reputation

ANDREW McMILLAN | KEYNOTE TALKS

Inside Out Customer Experience: What do your customers really experience when they interact with front-line employees, and how do they subsequently feel about your organisation? Many companies focus on their product or service, rather than their customer experience. Engaging employees with common behaviours and attitudes will increase the customer experience, consequently leading to consistent and sustainable relationships.

Differentiation: Why would customers choose your business over your competitors? What attitudes should your business be adopting to ensure potential customer always choose you? In an ever-increasing commoditised marketplace, businesses can’t just rely on their product and price to differentiate themselves. Creating a powerful reputation will ensure you are proactively chosen by your customer, leading to long-term success.

Productivity: Fun at work can be seen as frivolous and is rarely at the top of the leadership agenda. However, it creates an environment that attracts millennials, improves productivity and employee engagement, and reduces employee turnover. Engaged employees will deliver a better and more consistent customer experience, which in turn improves reputation and turnover.

Leadership of Change: Inspiring and engaging leadership at every level of seniority seems to challenge organisations globally. Many companies assume leadership skills training is the answer but it rarely is. Ensuring managers have the opportunity and time to lead as well as manage is critical, followed by the right skills and self-belief to use them effectively.

Storytelling: When the right work environment is created, employees will become brand ambassadors and spontaneously do remarkable things for customers. Celebrating these ‘stories’ through internal communications is a really powerful way of recognising individuals, while reinforcing the customer and employee engagement ambitions of the organisation.

Marketing: Many companies attempt to create their personality through marketing, which can be a disappointment to customers if the reality falls short of what is promised. Rather than working from the outside in, smart organisations start from the inside out, creating their business personality through engaging their employees with a common purpose and using that to drive their customer experience.

Sales: So many organisations take a short-term view to sales – maximise the sale today and don’t think about tomorrow. However, taking a longer term view of customers, and focussing on their individual needs rather than the immediate needs of the company can build a degree of trust and loyalty that will provide a robust defence to the unpredictable economic challenges organisations have to inevitably face.

Complaints: We’ve all heard the figures that a satisfied customer tells x number of people, whereas a dissatisfied customer tells x+++ number of people. However, many dissatisfied customers who experience a swift positive resolution are more likely to become the strongest advocates of an organisation, while providing some free consultancy as to how that organisation can become more customer friendly.

Retail: Bricks and mortar retail is said to be in decline and for many retailers they are frankly experiencing what they deserve. To tempt customers away from their smart devices, high streets and shopping centres need to offer a personally affirming experience to make customers’ effort in visiting them worthwhile.

ANDREW McMILLAN | CONSULTING AND COACHING

There’s several reasons you may employ a consultant:

– No expertise or experience in the discipline

– Expertise but insufficient resource capacity

– Expertise and resource capacity available but the knowledge that an external view will be more effective

Consulting programmes are based on the philosophy that engaged employees perform better for their organisations, colleagues and customers.  Cross-sector clients over the past ten years have proved this time and time again.

Andrew’s framework was born out of nearly 30 years’ experience at John Lewis, and has evolved over his cross-sector consulting. His framework covers:

– Diagnose: identify and validate the key issues

– Strategic Direction: working with the whole board to gain consensus on key goals relating to strategy implementation

– Define: working with front-line employees to define and articulate the consistently delivered behaviours and attitudes for which the organisation is to become famous

– Measure: employee and customer measurement programmes to evidence if the behaviours and attitudes are positively impacting customers

– Communicate: internal communication programmes to introduce behaviours and attitudes

– Leadership: support for managers to help them identify and overcome leadership challenges

– Reward, Recognition and Appraisal: to align the HR structures to the new behaviours so that employees are rewarded, not just for outcomes, but for how they achieved them

– Recruitment: to ensure the advertising of roles is designed to attract the sort of people who will naturally behave in the way the organisation aspires to, and to reinforce the behaviours and attitudes

ANDREW McMILLAN | CLIENTS

3, Abellio, AirFrance, Argos, Armagh City Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council, Asda, Autoglym, AXA, Barclays, Bath College, BaxterStorey, Bunzl, Cala Homes, CBRE, Chubb, City of Westminster, Close Brothers, Deloitte, Doncaster Council, EE, Engie, Etisalat, Eurostar, Experian, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Genesis, idsMED, International Paper, Investec, Kings College London, Lambert Smith Hampton, the Law Society, Macquarie, Mercedes Benz, Michael Kors, Money Supermarket, Morrison Utility Services, National Grid, NFU Mutual, NHBC,

NHS Leadership Academy, NHS Property Services, Nissan, Nottingham Trent University, Nuffield Health, Olympus, Parkdean Resorts, Rightmove, Roche, Royal Bank of Scotland, Shell, the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, South East Coast Ambulance Service, St James’s Place Wealth Management, Toyota, United Utilities, University of Oxford, Veolia, Virgin Atlantic, Welsh Water, Wiltshire Farm Foods

Call +44 1753 439 289 or email Great British Speakers now to book customer service speaker Andrew McMillan for your next live event.

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