Adam Lindsey is the Vice President of Operations at Groupon, a global leader in e-commerce specializing in vouchers and local experiences. Joining Groupon in 2011 as a Customer Service Agent, Adam has held various roles internationally and now leads the company’s global Operations teams. With a strong commitment to continuous improvement, transformation, and operational excellence, he remains dedicated to amplifying the voice of the customer across all aspects of the business.
Recently, in an exclusive interview with CXO Magazine, Adam shared insights on the role of technology in enhancing CX, the secret mantra behind his success, personal hobbies and interests, future plans, words of wisdom, and much more. The following excerpts are taken from the interview.
Hi Adam. What drives your passion for customer experience and operations?
Operations is one of those fields you either love or you don’t , the best Ops folks are often those who’ve walked in the shoes of every role they now support. They are able to understand the customer experience 360 degrees; incorporating the customer, agent and business aspects into their work.
I’ve been in this space for nearly 20 years, starting my first role as a customer service agent the same week I turned 18. Two decades later, my commitment to improving, transforming, and streamlining teams, tools, processes, and policies remains as strong as ever.
CX is a multi-faceted skill requiring a wide range of knowledge and experience; tied with expert-level focus areas. Bring your team along for the ride, keep the mission clear in everyone’s mind, the north star is critical. I have the privilege personally of working in my current company for almost 14 years, starting as a CS agent and now leading the post-purchase support teams, Customer Support, Merchant Support, Content Operations along with a host of other amazing teams such as GLD and Workforce Management. It’s been a journey of continuous growth, impact and evolution.
What do you love the most about your current role?
It always has been and always will be the people. CX, Operations and most roles in this area are filled with people from the most diverse backgrounds and experiences. There is strength in diversity, hence having such a wealth of expertise to collaborate with and work towards solutions, ensures that no two days are the same.
What role do you think technology plays in enhancing CX?
Technology plays an increasingly critical role in enhancing customer experience, but it’s important to remember that it’s not a standalone solution. Today, with AI rapidly evolving, technology is more accessible and democratized than ever—allowing almost anyone to build or implement new tools. That accessibility brings enormous opportunity, but also a reminder: without deep understanding of the business, the customer journey, and the processes and policies behind the scenes, technology alone can fall short. Over a decade ago the buzz was around how chatbots would automate 80% of the workload, removing the role of agent in the CX space. After countless failed attempts to make this happen, it is since apparent that technology is only as good as the policies and processes that support it.
CX is after all the end to end journey of a customer, it begins way before the customer speaks with a human. Ensuring technology (and specifically AI) are consciously and intelligently embedded within an ecosystem is where the USP of CX comes into play.
How do you stay current with the latest trends and innovations in CX?
By speaking with as many people as possible, as often as possible, from as diverse backgrounds as possible. Echo chambers can be damaging, even keeping discussions within the business you work for can become an echo chamber. LinkedIn, events (remote and online), keeping in touch with former colleagues, talking through internal issues with external people, all ensures that you keep up to date with trends, successes and failures. In almost every instance, you are not the first person to solve a problem; find others who have tread the same path already, it will save a lot of time and energy.
Congratulations on being recognized as one of the top 50 CX Leaders in 2025! Our readers would love to know the secret mantra behind your success.
Thank you very much, it is an honour to be recognised! There is no secret, simply work hard, be responsive, own problems through to resolution, learn about as many topics as possible, especially those not within your direct remit. CX is universal and encompasses almost every aspect of a business; so learn all of those aspects. Make connections, build relationships and always be part of the solution.
What is your leadership philosophy and how do you keep team engaged and motivate them?
My main mantra is “everything can always be improved.” Just because a project is complete does not mean that the solution is perfect, it means we have improved and iterated on the prior version; and will improve again. Continuous improvement is key, it is rare to have spikes of improvement, also spikes from experience tend not to be healthy. What is desired is healthy, continuous and sustainable improvement. Progress should be consistent, aligned with long-term north star goals and course corrected frequently.
What has been your most career-defining moment that you are proud of?
India is in many ways my second home, after living in Chennai for the entirety of 2013 and visiting several times a year since. I’m proud of the work we did in 2023 to successfully expand and scale our global operations in Bangalore and Chennai, growing our capabilities whilst concurrently improving service levels, CSAT, MSAT, and other key metrics. Transformation can be hard, especially at this scale, but if done correctly, with the right people and the right strategy, ensures positive outcomes.
What are your passions outside of work?
I’m an avid reader, huge fan of music and also a marathon runner in training. I spend as much time as possible outdoors when I’m not working, including frequent breaks in our campervan. Anything that takes me away from screens, whether it’s playing guitar, running, reading or exploring is what gives me energy whilst in work.
Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
The million dollar question. I initially joined Groupon expecting a short-term opportunity in Customer Service, but Fast-forward almost 14 years later, I’m still in my first business post-graduation, after living around the world and leading thousands of colleagues across multiple teams and organisations. I tend to look at things in smaller intervals, each year I ask myself the question “am I still learning, is there still a challenge” and as long as the answer is “yes” I will continue. The day the answer is “no” I’ll know it’s time to find my next mission.
What advice would you give to organizations looking to build more effective CX teams and strategies?
Build strength through diversity, the best strategies incorporate multiple viewpoints and perspectives. Not only the customer perspective, also internal user, Finance, Sales, Product, Engineering, the list goes on. The best strategies work when these perspectives are already baked in from the onset. And if not, following diversity, flexibility is key. Flexibility to pivot, flexibility to scale, rollback or even cancel an initiative altogether.
And finally, AI is simply one tool amongst many. AI is a great assistant, but in many areas a poor substitute for human insight, empathy, context and lived experience. Use AI as you would any other tool, appropriately and in context with the wider ecosystem.