Behind the Mic with Gerry de Graaf Managing Director at Xdroid International: Sharing Insights on Advancing Conversational AI and Enhancing Customer Experience

Gerry de Graaf is the co-CEO of Xdroid, bringing extensive experience and leadership to the communications and contact center industry. With a focus on ensuring that Xdroid’s customers maximize the benefits of the company’s solutions, Gerry is dedicated to helping businesses differentiate themselves from competitors by optimizing operational efficiency, increasing revenues, reducing churn, and achieving the highest levels of customer satisfaction.
Before joining Xdroid, Gerry served as Vice President at Alcatel-Lucent, where he managed the company’s largest geographical region. His career also includes significant contributions to various startups and scale-ups, where he played pivotal roles in driving growth and innovation.

We had the opportunity to ask Gerry some insightful questions about customer experience, exploring his perspectives on the evolving role of AI in enhancing interactions and the future of conversational technologies—here’s what he had to share.

Q1. What motivated you to pursue a career in customer experience, and what key steps did you take to enter this field?

I’ve always been passionate about the intersection of technology and business strategy, and customer experience is where these two worlds meet. In today’s digital landscape, customer interactions shape business success, and those who excel in CX gain a competitive advantage.
My career started in technology as a researcher, but after a couple of years, I moved into the sales side of the IT, contact center and communications industry. I ended up being one of the VPs managing a large territory there. After that, I started to become more involved with start-ups and scale-ups.
I transitioned into the analytics space because data-driven insights are essential for every aspect of business from operations, to marketing, to revenue to CX. Today’s technology gives us the capabilities to obtain insights and take the right actions that deliver measurable results for the company. It is simply amazing!

Q2. How have you leveraged emerging technologies such as AI, machine learning, and blockchain to enhance customer experience in your organization?

For Xdroid, AI and machine learning are at the heart of what we do. Our solutions use AI-driven speech analytics to process and analyse vast amounts of customer interactions, identifying key insights post-interaction and in real-time. In 2024, we launched our proprietary large language model (LLM), Xdroid IQ and further enhanced it with Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), to provide even more precise and context-aware insights for businesses. These technologies help organisations enhance agent performance, improve customer satisfaction, obtain revenue intelligence, streamline operations and help build strategies for growth.

Q3. What are some of the most significant challenges you've faced in improving customer experience from a product management perspective, and how did you overcome them?

One of the biggest challenges has been ensuring that our AI-driven insights are actionable for organizations. Many companies collect customer data, but turning that data into meaningful improvements requires a strategic approach.

To overcome this, we designed our solutions taking into account the needs of our clients and the end users of our solutions. As a result, our experts have created an intuitive solution that seamlessly integrates with key business systems, allowing companies to act on insights without disrupting workflows. Additionally, we have also developed pre-configured predictive models for in-call NPS and Churn detection that further simplify Interaction Analytics for potential customers.
Another challenge is keeping up with evolving customer expectations, which we address through continuous innovation, collaboration and customisation with our clients.

Q4. What role does customer feedback play in your product development process, and how do you gather and incorporate it effectively?

Customer feedback from our clients is fundamental to our product development process. We actively engage with our clients and partners through regular feedback sessions to ensure our solutions address real business needs. Our tools also help us understand pain points by analyzing actual customer interactions. This feedback loop ensures that our solutions evolve in alignment with customer expectations.

Q5. What strategies have you found most effective in delivering exceptional customer experiences through your products and services?

The most effective strategy has been focusing on actionable insights. Our technology doesn’t just capture and analyze interactions—it provides clear, data-driven recommendations for customer service teams. Another key strategy is automation, which allows businesses to streamline workflows, optimise resources, and reduce friction in the customer journey. Finally, proactive customer support is crucial; we work closely with our clients to ensure they maximize the value of our solutions.

Q6. Can you describe a specific instance where data analytics helped you identify customer pain points and drive product enhancements?

One powerful example is our Escalation Management case study for one of the biggest e-commerce websites in India. Many organizations struggle with escalations in customer service, which leads to increased costs and lower customer satisfaction. Using Xdroid’s AI-driven speech analytics, we worked with the client to analyze thousands of interactions and identify the root causes of these escalations.

Our data revealed that escalations were often triggered by unclear agent communication, inconsistent information, and process bottlenecks. By leveraging these insights, the company was able to implement targeted agent coaching, improve knowledge base accuracy, and streamline processes. This level of in-depth root-cause analysis can result in a significant reduction in escalations, improved first-call resolution rates, and an overall boost in customer satisfaction. This case highlights the power of analytics in pinpointing friction points and enabling organizations to take proactive measures for better customer experiences.

Q7. Could you share a success story where your efforts in product management led to a significant improvement in customer satisfaction?

Our partnership with the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham is a great example. Xdroid’s speech analytics helped improve customer service for a council handling 300,000+ calls annually and serving 200,000 residents in East London. By automatically categorizing interactions, identifying customer vulnerabilities, and detecting frustration signals, we identified key service bottlenecks and high-escalation call types.

The council was able to improve call handling efficiency and identify common resident concerns more quickly. This led to better resource allocation, faster issue resolution, and a measurable increase in resident satisfaction with council services. This success was recently recognized with them winning the ‘Customer Experience Award’ at the Smarter Working Live Awards 2024!

Q8. Which methodologies or frameworks do you use to prioritize feature development and ensure alignment with customer needs and business goals?

As a tech company, we must aim for excellence, constantly evolve and master what we do. We use a combination of agile development keeping up with the coming-of-age technology and customer-driven roadmaps in line with the changing customer needs and expectations to chart out our priorities. Our list of priorities is always a balance between innovation, business strategy, and direct customer input.

Last year, we had one of the biggest launches in company history with Xdroid IQ (our proprietary LLM), after we recognised the need for a secure and on-premise LLM that allowed our clients to harness the power of AI and enhance their CX while being compliant. We have also added RAG to our LLM to further enhance the quality management functionality with exclusive company documents like sales protocols, pricing policies, or agent training documents. I would like to give a special shoutout to our R&D team who keep pushing the envelope and ensure that our clients get best-of-breed solutions powered by the latest tech and AI capabilities.

Q9. How do you collaborate with cross-functional teams, such as engineering, design, and marketing, to ensure seamless customer experiences?

Collaboration is key to our success. Our team of experts works in an integrated way, ensuring that engineering, sales, and marketing are aligned from the start. We hold regular cross-functional meetings and maintain open channels of communication between the different departments to make sure we all learn from each other and help each other deliver our best work to meet the needs of our clients. Our focus is on developing and perfecting a customer-centric platform, ensuring that each team contributes to delivering a seamless experience.

Q10. How do you balance the need for innovation with the necessity of maintaining user-friendliness in your products?

Innovation should simplify, not complicate, the user experience. It’s not just about delivering the best in tech but also ensuring that our clients can use it and get the most value out of the solution. Xdroid prioritizes intuitive interfaces, clear reporting, and data visualisation while introducing new technologies. One of the key drivers in our product strategy is to build what we call a Zero-Touch solution. I admit that is a bit utopian, however when you put that as a core mantra in your strategy, it drives the R&D team to always question how we can make the solution simpler and easily accessible.

Our extended team also boasts years of expertise in the CX and customer service industry, they along with the R&D team invest their time and energy to ensure that any new feature enhances, rather than hinders, usability. Our solution aims to ease the workload of our users with AI-driven automation, better visualisations with custom dashboards, and expertly pre-configured predictive models. Our ultimate goal as a company is to make sure that whatever we put out there helps make complex insights accessible without overwhelming the users.

Q11. What best practices have you implemented to ensure consistency and transparency across all customer touchpoints?

Consistency comes from standardizing processes and ensuring clear communication. When it comes to Xdroid and our clients and partners, we have a well-defined onboarding & implementation process, proactive customer success initiatives, and regular training for clients.

For our clients dealing with their end customers, we make sure we generate insights by analysing and measuring 100% of their customer interactions and not just a manually picked sample size. Our clients have the opportunity to train and coach their agents on the industry’s best practices based on the insights from their daily interactions and not just a few per month. This brings consistency in agent behaviour.

Our recent case study with Simplify, a leading independent conveyancing and property services group in the UK, highlights the importance of this level of uniformity. Simplify was able to boost its Sales Conversion rates by a whopping 8% with Xdroid’s Interaction Analytics. Within just a few months of implementing our solution, they were able to unite the efforts of their sales team with a more consistent and targeted script based on both agent behaviour and customer needs.

Since 2024 we’ve added Xdroid BI (Business Intelligence) to our offerings. Our experts have pre-configured a set of models that allow our clients to get maximum outcomes from the solution with minimal effort on their part. For instance, with our in-call NPS prediction model our clients get a more accurate view of their NPS without having to spend money on pushing customer NPS surveys. We help them combat the low response rates and negative bias of these surveys. The model provides a holistic understanding of agent performance and its impact on customer satisfaction levels. This kind of transparency is important so our clients always get the full picture of how their customers are responding to different aspects of customer service and what actions they can take to improve.

The solution also offers omnichannel analytics thus integrating both voice and text interactions as well as CRM data and any other input on one platform. The insights and outcomes generated can be shared with agents and all management levels in the organisation. The implementation of our analytics solution enables the clients to have a consistent set of KPIs that are objectively measurable across departments.

Q12. How do you stay updated with the latest trends and developments in customer experience and product management?

My team of experts and I know that we need to stay up to date with the latest trends in the markets. We as a team make sure we keep learning and growing as professionals. Other than that at the end of the day, we are also the ‘end consumers’ we are surrounded by ‘consumers’ whether it’s our friends, family, or neighbours. We make sure to tap into those insights to identify the pain points, understand the needs, and acknowledge the common practices both good and bad.

We also learn a lot from our peers, partners and clients through an open line of communication. Our work with diverse clients and partners across industries and regional markets gives us insights into emerging trends. We participate and stay informed through industry conferences, thought leadership discussions, and direct engagement with CX leaders. Events like CACES and partnerships with industry leaders keep us at the forefront of innovation.

Gerry's Closing Thoughts:

“Thank you for the opportunity to share my experiences. It’s always a pleasure to discuss how technology and data can meaningfully improve customer experiences. Xdroid is passionate about helping organizations turn insights into actions and results—and I’m excited about what the future holds for our industry.”

Conclusion

Our conversation with Gerry de Graaf, highlights his deep passion for leveraging technology and data to enhance customer experiences. Throughout the interview, Gerry emphasized the importance of actionable insights, seamless integration of AI-driven solutions, and a customer-centric approach to product development. By continuously innovating with proprietary models like Xdroid IQ and incorporating Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), Xdroid has empowered organizations to drive measurable improvements in customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

Gerry’s commitment to delivering intuitive, data-driven solutions is evident in the success stories he shared—from improving escalation management for leading e-commerce platforms to transforming customer service for public sector organizations. His focus on collaboration, continuous learning, and maintaining a balance between innovation and user-friendliness ensures that Xdroid remains a leader in the conversational AI space.

“These insights from Gerry de Graaf provide valuable lessons for enhancing customer experiences. Stay tuned for more expert insights in our upcoming Behind the Mic editions!”

Links

Main Website link: https://xdroid.com/
Case Study discussed in Q 6: https://xdroid.com/xdroid-news/how-to-manage-escalations/

Case Study discussed in Q 7: https://xdroid.com/customer-success/enhancing-customer-service-uks-lbbd-adopts-xdroid/
Case Study discussed in Q 11: https://xdroid.com/customer-success/how-simplify-boosted-sales-conversion-by-8-with-xdroid/