The I in IRIS - Chris

Meet Chris, our Enterprise Sales Director. He’s one of the newest members of the IRIS team, and he’s definitely hit the ground running.⁠

What is your role at IRIS?

As Sales Director, my main focus is how we expand our business and grow our customer base. We have big growth ambitions and a huge opportunity so it’s very exciting to join at a key moment for the business.

My typical ​​day changes all the time but typically, I meet with customers and prospects to discuss their challenges with background noise and how that impacts their business. Since joining IRIS, the issues of productivity, employee wellbeing, agent attrition, and customer experience have come up a lot.

Being new to the team I also spend a lot of time asking dumb questions and trying to be helpful.

There are no dumb questions, and we’re very happy to have you — welcome! Can you tell us about your journey in the contact centre space and what led you to join us here?

I started my sales career in the comms sector, learning from some of the best in the industry at a time when Voice over IP was being introduced, call centres were evolving into multi-channel contact centres, and customer experience was fast becoming a board level priority.

What led me here was that I saw a really interesting value proposition that solves an ever increasing issue for call centres and their new hybrid workforce (as shown by our noisy memoirs and research on the impact of background noise on agents) , and is proven in the most extreme environments like motor racing.

We hear you’ve been training for the London Marathon. Have you always liked running marathons?

Yes I do love endurance events. This will be my third marathon, I ran the London Marathon back in 2006 and it’s such a special event to be part of, a very emotional day that I would recommend to anyone.

Sport has always been a big passion and I got big into triathlon a few years ago… otherwise known as a mid-life crisis.

Some quickfire questions:

App you couldn’t live without?

Twickets. I love that it helps me and other real music fans get into sold out gigs and doesn’t help ticket touts.

Worst noise?

The hum from the mains - I always seem to tune into it so everything gets turned off before bedtime.

Favourite food?

Pizza, especially with pineapple (sorry, Italy)

Cringiest/weirdest sales story?

In the earlier part of my sales career I was handed the opportunity to manage the account for one of the largest film and television production companies. The first meeting I had with the IT Director went pretty well — I felt we had a good rapport and some positive next steps…… until I decided a hug at the end of the meeting was more appropriate than a handshake. it was not reciprocated.

Something your colleagues don’t know about you?

I have a mild obsession with Radiohead. I get quite defensive when people disparage their work, but at the same time I also get that some of it isn’t an easy listen.