Rupert Bedell is one of a few chief executives who’s made their way to the top job via the marketing department. Before arriving at Fasthosts, he’d occupied senior marketing roles with American Express, NatWest, HSBC and Barclays.
The evolution of the marketing role has equipped practitioners with the necessary budget and revenue generation skills to take the top job.
Combined with a strong understanding of brand strategy and powerful communication skills, it’s a recipe for more senior marketeers to evolve into chief executive officers. “As a CMO you [have] a strong understanding of the market and developing a brand strategy,” Bedell told CXM.
Also CMOs bring an expert customer perspective to the top job. “It is absolutely key… as the CMO you’re the voice of the customer in the organisation,” Bedell added.
Meeting customers at the coalface
Since arriving Bedell has invested time with departing CEO and Fasthosts’ service agents in the contact centre. “I have spent as much time as possible on the frontline. If you want to learn a business fast, that’s where you do it,” commented Bedell.
“If you go to the coalface, you listen to calls and understand how customers are interacting with products, what’s good about them, what’s not so good about them, how to sell them, how to upsell, [and] how we manage retention. You get a very steep learning curve,” he added.
CX incorporated into brand positioning
Bedell is inheriting a firm with a healthy customer experience. Fasthosts had an NPS value of 50 at the end of 2024 and largely positive Trustpilot reviews. The hosting service provider doesn’t target agents on the number of calls per hour. Consequently, agents will “stay on the call as long as they need to solve a customer’s problem. There’s real customer delight there”, said the freshly minted CEO.
Bedell intends to incorporate Fasthosts’ strong CX position into the firm’s brand messaging. In the price sensitive hosting market, service excellence can be a competitive differentiator. “We have a very clear, unique sales proposition — we have a fantastic service record,” added Bedell.
Improving employee experience
Bedell isn’t without challenges in his new role. The annual survey revealed a record low level of employee engagement. The low score is partly attributable to the centralisation of some service departments with the parent company, European hosting giant, Ionos.
Rather than push employee experience to either the CMO role, or into HR, he intends to take ownership himself. “The vision and the long term strategy for employee experience needs to be set by the CEO. That is something I am taking ownership of here at Fasthosts.”