A person who understands the needs of the world, analyzes it efficiently, and executes it at the right place and at the right time, becomes a leader to the masses.
In the dynamic business world, aspiring entrepreneurs who have understood this and acted accordingly have transformed customer experiences in significant ways and transformed their journeys from a startup to globally renowned leaders in the corporate ecosystem. Among the list of such success stories, the one that tops the leaderboard and captures the spotlight is that of Chief CX Innovation Officer of Arise Virtual Solutions Inc – Jonathan Shroyer. He has intricately crafted industrial excellencies to elevate customer satisfaction through his diverse leadership roles over the past 20 years.
From working as a CS Finance at Microsoft to Co-founding Officium and now becoming the Chief CX Innovation Officer of Arise solutions, he has accurately understood the need to develop agile solutions to meet everyone’s needs on an international level. As his company, Officium’s strengths of agility and vision were merged with Arise Virtual Solution’s WFH-based model and scale & maturity in the industry, he was able to disrupt the BPO industry and further produce a flexible, on-demand solution to Game studios and publishers with the new subset – Arise Gaming.
Arise, with its customer-centric approach, is building the services marketplace platform of choice for outsourcing services to all verticals globally. It is further fostered by the insights of Jonathan, who helps the company and the team to dream, imagine, and deliver what the future needs for work and collaboration will be.
Jonathan’s quick response to customer needs and empowering business acumen have decorated him with innumerous awards and recognitions, like Wall Street Journal – Lifetime Achievement Award, International Resilience Awards – Best Culture, and many more.
Knowing Jonathan’s dynamism, we interviewed him to learn more about his leadership marvels and the impact he has on the industry.
Below are the interview highlights:
Jonathan, kindly brief our readers about yourself and your professional journey so far.
I have spent more than 20 years in global leadership roles for companies such as Microsoft and EA. During the past 20 years, I have been leading and transforming business operations to provide better support and experiences to key partners or customers.
I was lucky enough to spend three years in Munich, Germany, where I was responsible for the EMEA region. During that time, I learned a lot about different cultures and the need to develop agile solutions that meet everyone’s needs on an international scale.
A few years back, I co-founded a startup called Officium Labs. Our vision was to disrupt the BPO industry. We created an agile, on-demand solution that connected brand advocates with brands that needed workers across their customer experience organizations.
In 2022 we agreed to be acquired by Arise Virtual Solutions, which is a 27-year-old BPO that established the WFH model. Arise’s scale and maturity in the industry, combined with Officium’s agility and vision, led to the development of Arise Gaming, a subset of Arise Virtual Solutions that take the flexible, on-demand solution to Game studios and publishers.
Now, I am the Chief CX Innovation Officer at Arise, and I am passionate about elevating clients’ Customer Experience.
What was the primary motivation behind joining the outsourcing and offshoring consulting sector?
My main motivation was to equalize the playing field. So many people have the ability to do great in this industry yet may not have companies to work for in their area. Geography should not limit people, and it should not limit companies.
As we have seen with the pandemic, companies can survive and thrive with remote or hybrid work options. This ability to work wherever and whenever can transform companies by opening up more options for job candidates and can provide more opportunities to people looking for jobs that previously would not have been available to them.
Large corporate hubs are expensive places to live, and while they draw in companies, they can also create unlivable areas for people due to how expensive it is for rent, transportation, and cost of living. I sought to equalize the playing field for everyone and benefit both companies and people and I saw a solution in remote work in the consulting sector.
Kindly tell us about Arise Virtual Solutions. What was your role in its development and outreach?
Arise believes we are changing how people work. We invented work-from-home in 1999, and post-pandemic, we see mass adoption from companies globally to this new way of working. Over the next decade, the best companies will have platforms where work can be done in a hybrid way.
Arise believes we have built the services marketplace platform of choice for outsourcing services to all verticals globally. My role as an Innovation Officer helps us dream, imagine, and deliver what the future needs for work and collaboration will be!
Please tell us about the ways you keep up with customer expectations.
At Arise, we focus on prioritizing the Customer Experience.
This entails taking care of the customer and maintaining an open line of communication throughout the entire process. Regularly communicating and identifying customer expectations and needs allows for the customer to feel heard and understood, resulting in an overall better Customer Experience.
Listening to customer feedback means following social media comments and reviews and opening up direct lines of communication between the customer and the company. Additionally, listening to what competitors’ customers say can be a great tool for understanding customer expectations in a given industry.
In your opinion, what are the challenges that you are facing currently? And what are your strategies to overcome these challenges in the upcoming future?
Every challenge is merely a goal that has yet to be reached. If we address challenges and refocus them as goals, it allows us to constructively create solutions rather than focus our energy on the negativity that encompasses the word challenges.
We can successfully address challenges by looking at three-month, six-month, nine-month, and one-year objectives.
Let’s suppose, a challenge you and your company faces is employee retention. If we refocus and re-word our challenge as a goal, for example, “let’s help more employees celebrate more work anniversaries,” we are shifting our attention from a negative challenge to a clear, attainable goal. Additionally, we are using words that focus our attention on our employees, which takes it from an “I” challenge to an employee-focused strategy. This is simple and effective in transforming our company’s success or professional lives and applicable to everyone at any stage of their life.
In short, that is our philosophy on how we manage challenges and opportunities. All in all we will face similar impacts as other companies in the near future, namely the recession, consumer spending habits, world events, and adjustments to how people work and buy based on macroeconomic global changes.
Please shed some light on the major challenges that you have dealt with in your professional journey and how they played a vital role in your success. What are the ongoing challenges?
Early on in our careers, we tend to think of things as a ladder. What is the next step on the ladder to get to that dream job? Most of the tensions I have had in my career follow this line of thinking.
When I reoriented myself to think about my career as a portfolio of experiences and learning, this paradigm shift changed my life and mindset. I began to think about things without boundaries or constraints and consider short- and long-term value propositions and opportunities in different ways.
As an accomplished entrepreneur, what advice would you like to give to budding entrepreneurs to excel in the industry?
The biggest advice to give entrepreneurs is to not dwell on your past or where you came from. Where you came from or who you were in the past neither defines who you are in the present nor determines who you can be in the future.
Examining your past to find your strengths is great, but dwelling on and using your past as a reason not to do something is an inefficient use of your time and energy.
Additionally, really focus on finding a partner that can build a great business together and then find something that is needed in the market that does not exist and go after it.
What is your goal for the future? What is the next step for Arise Virtual Solutions?
The next step for the future is to help more companies realize their potential and capabilities by optimizing their Customer Experiences. That’s the professional line, in reality, I just want to help people get back to what they love, the products they purchased.
Additionally, I want to help clients get the most value out of what they love, the products they are creating and sharing with the market.
Industry Recognition
• Wall Street Journal – Lifetime Achievement Award
• Forbes and Fortune USA – Top CX Professionals of 2022
• Forbes India – Top 10 Business Leaders of 2022
• Fortune India – Super 40 Companies and 40 Unstoppable Brightest Minds
• Exeleon – 2022 Pioneering CEO’s
• Hoinser Men’s Magazine – Time Square Billboard
• CIO Today – 2022 Futuristic Business Leaders
• TIM – Top 10 Unstoppable Business Leaders of 2022
• Business Talk – Top 10 Successful Entrepreneurs of the future
• USU – Top 10 CX Influencers of 2022
• Engati – Top CX Influencers of 2022
• Outlook India – 2021 Inspiring Business Leaders
• Who’s Who in America – Top CX Professional 2021
• Industry Era – Top 10 CEO’s to watch for 2021
• Entrepreneurs of Success – 2021 Leader of Impact
Industry Awards
• CCW – Best Customer Experience Remote Contact Center Strategy
• World Series, Global Customer Centricity – Best Customer Experience Strategy
• IXCA 21 – finalist for CX Leader of the year, Best CX Transformation, Best CX Strategy
• Peer Awards – Engaging Customers with Technology, Customer Engagement Strategy
• International Resilience Awards – Best Culture
