How Ascensos Transformed Peak Season Chaos into Record-Breaking Performance
Ascensos transformed real-time performance management during the Christmas peak for its client Selfridges by leveraging Centrical’s Performance Intelligence Platform. The results: lower attrition, record performance, and rising employee satisfaction.
By: Simone Somekh, Content Marketing Manager at Centrical
Ascensos, a global leader in retail and e-commerce customer experience management, achieved record-breaking results during the Christmas peak season for its client Selfridges, earning the High-Performer Award at the 2025 Centrical SELECT Awards.
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With data-driven insights at their fingertips, employees and leaders were empowered to achieve personal bests, driving business success across the enterprise. We caught up with Kim Canning, Operations Director, and Laura Jayne Grewer, Centrical Platform Owner at Ascensos.
The Challenge: Scaling Performance Visibility During Peak Season
As Ascensos prepared for the Golden Quarter—the critical Christmas peak period—the organization faced a significant operational challenge. Team managers were spending excessive time on reporting, while agents lacked clear visibility into their own performance. Different coaching approaches existed across the business, leading to inconsistent feedback and support for employees.
“A big key piece for bringing Centrical [on board] was purely because of agent visibility and performance,”said Kim Canning. “Team managers had a lot of work to do from a reporting element. We wanted to stabilize our operations, and we wanted to give a real set of guidelines and framework around how to manage performance. And we wanted that clear visibility and coaching, something that we’d seen we were doing in different ways, different shapes, different forms across our business, and we were seeing that there were real missed opportunities in that space.”
The stakes were high: the Golden Quarter demanded onboarding new agents while maintaining exceptional service standards for Selfridges—a key client outsourcing customer support to Ascensos—during the busiest retail period of the year. Without a unified approach to performance management and engagement, Ascensos risked falling short during this critical time.
Key Innovation: Creating One Controlled Environment for Performance and Well-being
After evaluating multiple platforms, Ascensos selected Centrical for its ability to understand their needs from day one. The solution created what the team calls “one controlled environment” for performance, learning, and employee well-being.
“Centrical really helped us create that one controlled environment for performance, learning, and well-being, and really ensured that our people had that sense of stability as they were going through their own self-journey and self-learning, as well,”said Kim Canning.
Leaders gained the ability to check in with teams in real time, moving beyond retrospective reporting to proactive performance management. Employees could visualize their progress daily, accessing personalized coaching and learning paths that guided their development.
Why Gamification Became Central to the Engagement Strategy
Gamified performance management and learning represented new territory for Ascensos, but it became essential to their engagement approach during peak season. The platform gave employees a reason to focus on development every day, with friendly competition through leaderboards, recognition through kudos, and the ability to see their performance metrics improve in real time.
The implementation extended beyond the Ascensos team: Selfridges became actively involved, sending monthly newsletters via Centrical to keep the agents connected to everything happening in the Selfridges brand. This client involvement reinforced the sense of belonging that was central to the engagement strategy.
“When people feel that they’re loaded up to do a good job with knowledge, with the right tools, with the right confidence to have the right conversations, then they want to stay with us, and they become really loyal to that brand,” said Kim Canning.
Results: Record-Breaking Performance Across Every Metric
The Centrical implementation during the Golden Quarter delivered transformative results that exceeded initial expectations. The impact extended across operational efficiency, employee engagement, and retention metrics:
10% decrease in average handle time
20% reduction in attrition year over year
Rising employee satisfaction scores
Reduction in absences year over year
Improved quality scores
“The Centrical implementation for us as a business has been transformative in every area from performance management and to the engagement, retention, and operational efficiency,”said Laura Jayne Grewer. “We leveraged the platform on our Selfridges client during the Golden Quarter. So it was going through a peak with lots of challenges, from onboarding new people into our ways of working. But also, trying to keep them up to speed and engaged, and retaining them at the same time was obviously a challenge. But within that space, really relying on Centrical, we were able to deliver a record-breaking peak performance.”
What’s Next: Expanding Success Across the Business
How Ascensos Plans to Scale the Centrical Platform
With proven success on the Selfridges client, Ascensos is preparing to expand Centrical across additional clients within the next few months. The platform has evolved from an operational tool to a competitive advantage, now featured as a unique selling point in new client RFPs.
Why Ascensos Is Reinvesting Returns into Employee Rewards
The ROI delivered by Centrical enabled Ascensos to reinvest in their people.
The 20% reduction in attrition eliminated backfilling costs and additional training expenses. The decrease in absences meant higher daily productivity without additional staffing. These efficiency gains created budget flexibility that Ascensos redirected straight back to its team, investing in employee rewards for the Centrical store.
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Madeleine Freind
VP, Customer Success
Madeleine Freind is a senior Customer Success leader with deep experience building and scaling SaaS and managed services businesses. At Centrical, she leads the Customer Success teams across North and South America, partnering with clients to drive measurable business impact through the platform.
Before joining Centrical, Madeleine was Head of Customer Success at Quantifind, an AI-powered analytics company, where she led strategic relationships with brands like Hershey’s, KFC, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Dunkin’ Brands. Her ability to translate complex data into clear, actionable solutions consistently helped customers achieve their goals.
Earlier in her career, Madeleine spent over a decade on the agency side, managing CRM and digital marketing programs for Fortune 500 companies through smart, data-driven strategies.
Michael Ciancio
CMO
Michael Ciancio serves as the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Centrical, bringing decades of experience in marketing and go-to-market strategy. In this role, he leads the company’s global marketing efforts to drive brand growth and market expansion.
Prior to joining Centrical, Michael held marketing leadership positions at notable technology companies, including IntelePeer, Infor, and Vonage. Throughout his career, he has successfully guided teams in scaling products, strengthening brands, and significantly expanding market presence.
Michael’s expertise lies in scaling high-growth software companies, particularly in AI, performance management, and employee engagement solutions for customer experience teams. His strategic vision and leadership continue to be instrumental in advancing Centrical’s mission to transform how organizations engage and motivate their frontline teams.
Michael holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Gettysburg College and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Marketing from Montclair State University.
Natalie Roth VP, Corporate Marketing
Natalie Roth brings over 15 years of experience in brand and product marketing for SaaS solutions. Before joining Centrical, she was Senior Product Marketing Manager at Frontline Education, where she led go-to-market strategies for enterprise K-12 solutions and played a key role in integrating and positioning products following multiple acquisitions.
Previously, Natalie served as Director of Marketing at Accelify Solutions, where she drove marketing strategy, new product launches, and customer communications. She played a pivotal role in business growth, expanding market presence, and deepening client engagement, contributing to the company’s success and eventual acquisition by Frontline Education.
Natalie holds a BA in Creative Writing and Digital Media from New York University, graduating magna cum laude.
Linat Mart
VP, Product Management
Linat Polak Mart has more than 15 years of expertise in managing product strategy and operations in high-volume organizations.Previously, she held the role of Head of Product Experience and Communications for LivePerson, a leading Conversational AI platform, where she played crucial part in delivering significant product innovation and customer growth. Prior to her time at LivePerson, she held multiple senior product roles at NICE, a leading enterprise customer experience (CX) software provider, including Director of Product Portfolio and Director of Product Management.
Linat holds an MBA from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Computer Science from Reichman University (IDC Herzliya). She graduated magna cum laude from both institutions.
“CX leaders should stop isolating contact centers from other departments. Customer experience is increasingly cross-functional. In 2025, integrating CX insights across the organization will be critical to delivering seamless and cohesive experiences.”
Tompkins comes to Centrical with more than 25 years of experience in software and hardware sales. Prior to joining his role as Chief Revenue Officer at Centrical, he was CEO at Workspot. He held the position of Chief Revenue Officer at IGEL as well as senior sales leadership positions with Red Hat, Hewlett Packard (now Hewlett Packard Enterprise), and Citrix.
Tompkins holds an MBA in Business Administration and Management from the University of Virginia, Darden Graduate School of Business Administration and served in the US Navy as a Nuclear Propulsion Technician.
“To start, give customers a choice: digital or live support. And if they go digital first and can’t get what they want, make it super-easy for them to connect to a live agent.”
“Knowledge Management: It is not exactly underrated but it will be bigger than what it is in 2025. Vendors are likely to boost R&D investment in knowledge management for contact centers in 2025.”
“Human-centered AI, where AI is used not just to automate and drop money to the bottom line, but used to service up insights to support team members and delight customers. I see generative AI with conversational context and tonal analysis as pretty critical here.”
“The future? Goodness, there’s so much, but I really believe 2025 is the year of community. We’re not just taking tickets anymore—folks we’re drawing people in, getting proactive, and co-creating with customers. Community will become a normal service channel, with customer service workers facilitating and adding value.”
“The myth that technology/AI is a quickly implemented CX superpower. Companies will realize that we can’t harness a lot of these gains without quality data that is clean and well-organized.”
“By 2025 the buzzword omnichannel may be on its’ last leg. Customers want their issues resolved quickly and accurately and they would prefer not to need to contact us in multiple channels that we can see at one time.”
“For 2025, the main trend I’m watching is ‘AI agents’—bots powered by AI that are becoming more autonomous. Unlike basic responses, these AI agents can handle end-to-end customer interactions, reducing the need for human intervention. Expect significant developments from vendors.”
“Stop talking about AI. It’s like talking about the internet being a thing. It’s here. The better focus is start thinking about how AI enhances the lives of your team. So stop talking about AI and start doing something about it.”
“AI and CX will drive hyper-personalization, using consumer data to segment customers, deliver key messages, and provide fast, accurate responses. Technologies like chatbots and predictive analytics will close the gap between brands and consumers.”
“The blending of CX and EX will accelerate. The days of reducing friction for customers at the expense of employees are over. Indeed, because AI-enabled customer experiences often require AI usage by customer-facing employees, leaders will have to ensure a frictionless work experience to drive AI adoption and deliver value.”
One myth that will be debunked in 2025?: “Customers are on the edge of their seat waiting to hear what you have to say. We need to learn about what’s important to customers by asking more questions.”
Doron is a seasoned R&D professional with a a deep expertise in SaaS and enterprise software. He leads product development at Centrical. Prior to joining the company, he was Director of R&D at Tipalti, where he was part of the team that designed and developed the Tiplati product and the infrastructure it uses. Prior to that he was Director of R&D Sensor Management, which joined from Orsus, which was acquired by Nice Systems. Prior to that he held various R&D positions at Orsus. Doron holds a B.Sc in Computer Science from the Tel Aviv Yafo Academic College and a MBA degree from the University of Tel Aviv.
Gal Rimon
Founder and CEO
Gal founded Centrical (previously GamEffective) in 2013, with the vision of helping companies empower their employees’ performance, making them the center of business success.Prior to that he was CEO of Gilon-Synergy Business Insight, a national leader in Business Intelligence. In 2010, Gilon-Synergy was acquired by Ness Technologies (NASDAQ:NSTC) and Gal went on to serve as Senior VP at Ness, and was member of its executive management.
Prior to that he was VP customer relations and operations at Deloitte Consulting. He also worked at EDS and Bashan. He holds a MBA degree in Marketing and Information Technologies from the Tel Aviv University.
Daphne Saragosti
Chief Customer Officer
Daphne has over 15 years of experience in Customer Relations and Retention in both B2B and B2C environments. Her area of expertise is leading customer success, consulting and global professional services teams within public and private sector companies. She is focused on leading teams to grow the partnership with our clients.
Prior to Centrical, Daphne worked software and service companies in the online marketing and gaming industry.
Daphne holds MA in Statistics – Specialization in Operations Research and a MBA degree, both from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Ella Davidson
VP Global HR
Ella Davidson is responsible for managing Centrical’s employee relations worldwide, including organizational development, talent management, benefits and recruitment. Ella has more than 18 years of human resources management experience. Prior to joining Centrical she was vice president of human resources at myThings and OpTier – leading SW companies, and consulted numerous entrepreneurs and startups in the Israeli hi-tech industry and Israel and in the US.Ella holds a B.A in Psychology from the Hebrew University and MSc in Organizational Behavior from Recanati Business School at Tel Aviv University.
Ariel Herman
VP Research and Development
Ariel has over 16 years’ experience in a wide variety of R&D leadership roles. He is highly experienced at building R&D teams from the ground up, driving high levels of accountability and ownership and setting up automation infrastructures. For the past 10 years Ariel has managed both in-house and offshore development teams at companies ranging from startups to enterprise organizations.
Prior to joining Centrical, Ariel served as VP of R&D at Worthy.com where his team dramatically improved product stability, quality and execution. Before that, he was VP R&D at Applicaster where he led infrastructure changes from project to product. Ariel has also held various R&D positions at Retalix (later acquired by NCR).
Ariel holds B.sc in Computer science & Math, and MBA degree in Information Technologies, both from Bar Ilan University
Ronen Botzer
CFO
Ronen is a Finance and Business Development executive with 20+ years of leadership experience in startups and global companies across all aspects of management. He has direct experience with companies in the areas of software, services and capital equipment, including fund raising as well as M&As across different continents. Ronen is a CPA and holds an LLM degree from Bar Ilan university and B.A in business administration from the College of Business Management.
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Madeleine Freind
Natalie Roth
Linat Mart
Doron Neumann
Gal Rimon
Daphne Saragosti
Ella Davidson
Ariel Herman
Ronen Botzer