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Adrian Swinscoe

Customer experience advisor, author and host of the Punk CX podcast

Customer experienceCustomer serviceExperience leadership

Career and advisory work

Adrian Swinscoe describes himself as a former teacher, economist, analyst, corporate strategist and business developer[1]. He writes that he has spent more than 25 years growing and developing customer-focused businesses, and the last 20 years working independently as a consultant and advisor[1]. The clients he lists include Adobe, Apple, Cancer Research UK, Costa Coffee, the UK government's Crown Commercial Service, KPMG, Lloyds, Médecins Sans Frontières, Microsoft, Nespresso and Zoom[1].

His advisory work covers customer experience audits, strategy development, technology selection and ongoing improvement[5]. Projects he lists include advising a customer experience technology start-up on its go-to-market strategy, designing a donor experience strategy for an international NGO, and establishing a culture of service excellence in a UK government department[5]. He also produces thought leadership content for technology vendors and business process outsourcers, in the form of articles, white papers, podcasts, webinars, videos and panel discussions[3]. Clients for that work have included Genesys, Medallia, NICE, Qualtrics, Sprinklr, Twilio, Zendesk and Zoom[3].

Books: How to Wow, Punk CX and Punk XL

Swinscoe has written four books on improving customer service and experience, one of which is now out of print[1]. His 2016 book How to Wow: 68 Effortless Ways to Make Every Customer Experience Amazing was published by Pearson[8]. His site describes it as a best-seller made up of practical tips, insights and interviews with leaders and entrepreneurs[2].

He published Punk CX in 2019 and a follow-up, Punk XL, at the end of 2021[8]. Punk CX combines his interest in service and experience with graphic and street art and punk music[1]. On his books page he frames it with the question of what a punk rock version of customer experience would look like, given reports that around 70% of customer experience projects fail to deliver on their promises[2]. In Punk XL, the XL stands for eXperience Leadership, and the book explores what it takes to deliver a good experience at different levels of an organisation[2]. It includes contributions from Ari Weinzweig, Paul Greenberg, Clare Muscutt and others, and all of its proceeds are donated to charity[2].

Punk CX podcast and writing

Swinscoe has run a podcast on customer service and experience since January 2011, and has written about and researched customer experience since 2008[1]. The podcast now runs as the Punk CX podcast[7]. Its November 2026 episode with Jessica Cuthbertson of National Australia Bank, on the bank's use of agentic AI and decisioning for personalisation, was number 609 in his series of interviews[7]. The Genesys blog describes him as a Forbes contributor, speaker, investor and advisor[8].

In an October 2026 article, first published on CMSWire, Swinscoe compared research on the emotional effect of poor customer service from five years apart and found that the top customer frustrations overlapped heavily[6]. He cited a Parloa survey of more than 1,000 US adults in which nearly 56% reported at least one extreme emotional reaction to a frustrating chat or phone session[6]. He argued that few of the frustrations customers reported were directly about technology, and that leaders should not jump to a tech-first fix[6]. Instead he pointed to how well customers are understood, the effort and time needed to solve a problem, and the transparency of the process as the place to start[6].

Speaking

Swinscoe speaks at conferences, vendor customer events, in-company functions and leadership gatherings on customer service, customer experience and the use of AI to improve service and experience outcomes[4]. His listed talks include How To Wow, a session on balancing digital CX tools with the human touch, and a talk on proactive customer service[4]. His speaking clients have included Braze, Citi, CIMA, Genesys, ING, KPMG, Microsoft, Nespresso, Teleperformance, Verint and Zoom[4].

Known for

Sources

  1. Adrian Swinscoe: About — checked 6 Nov 2026
  2. Adrian Swinscoe: Books — checked 6 Nov 2026
  3. Adrian Swinscoe: Thought leadership — checked 6 Nov 2026
  4. Adrian Swinscoe: Keynote speaker — checked 6 Nov 2026
  5. Adrian Swinscoe: Advisory — checked 6 Nov 2026
  6. Adrian Swinscoe: Why is bad customer service still driving customers to tears?, October 2026 — checked 6 Nov 2026
  7. Adrian Swinscoe: Punk CX podcast, interview with Jessica Cuthbertson of NAB, November 2026 — checked 6 Nov 2026
  8. Genesys blog: author page, Adrian Swinscoe — checked 6 Nov 2026
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