What is customer retention? It is about creating value that energises two things regarding your customers: positive behavioural responses and strong emotional bonds.
Retaining customers is never about entrapping them. It is more like “magnetising” them.
Samantha Hillion-Burns roots in customer psychology and communications provide firm ground upon which you can rely on our expertise in the art and science of retaining clients.
Add to this our substantial first-hand knowledge and experience of what it takes to keep customers in the financial services industry.
To increase customer retention a number of factors need to pull in the same direction simultaneously. Such as: The way you listen to and communicate with customers.
The competence, energy and ethics of your leaders and team. The effectiveness of systems and processes. The design and quality of products and services. The attention to details showing your value of and respect for customers.
You’re probably already doing very well in certain factors but might not be aware of where and how improvements need to be made that will have the most significant impact on your customer retention.
This is why you need independent expertise to provide professional objective reviews, advice and recommendations. This is what we do for our clients.
Samantha Hillion-Burns is the founder and MD of Brilliance, a consultancy dedicated to helping companies proactively look after customers’ best interests while driving profitability. With more than 25 years of executive experience in customer experience management, loyalty, ethics, service design, and complaints handling, Samantha is recognized as one of South Africa’s foremost authorities on Treating Customers Fairly.
Over 100 financial services firms successfully use her tools to measure and monitor fair customer outcomes in line with both regulatory and customer experience requirements. She combines her international MBA (cum laude) specializing in customer loyalty with a degree in psychology and communications, bringing a unique understanding of customer psychology and communication strategies.
Samantha is also an inspirational keynote speaker, offering transformative talks on Service Energy, Customer Success, and Customer Ethics, equipping leaders with practical tools and frameworks to become a force for good in business.
The founder and MD of Brilliance, Samantha Hillion-Burns is dedicated to helping companies around the world become more successful at and by proactively looking after customers’ best interests.
Passionate about her clients, Samantha provides effective customer experience tools, practical advice and inspirational training. Having over 25 years’ executive experience in the field of keeping customers (including customer experience management; customer trust and loyalty; customer ethics; service design and complaints management). Numerous clients have benefitted from her strong problem solving and design skills and her persistent drive for customer success.
Being an expert in customer fairness, Samantha Hillion-Burns has over 100 financial services firms using her online tools successfully helping them to implement, monitor and measure fair customer outcomes to meet both regulatory and CX requirements. She is regarded as one of the leading authorities on Treating Customers Fairly in South Africa.
Samantha Hillion-Burns has an international MBA cum laude mastering customer loyalty, and a degree in psychology and communications which she applies to customer psychology and customer communications.
On a personal note, Sam loves dinner with friends (especially when it’s sushi or a good old South African braai); she loves word games; she loves the nature; she loves reading, being inspired and inspiring others – she loves life.
How would you like a complaints management system that already meets regulatory reporting requirements, that doesn’t require any capital outlay, that is perfectly suited to any number of employees or third parties to use working from home, that is customised to your needs and immediately available on a subscription basis?
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In this live interview, Samantha Hillion-Burns, founder of BrillianceCX, shares her journey from recruitment and PR into becoming a leading global voice on customer experience, fairness, and complaints management. She explains how a career transition into customer retention sparked her passion for helping businesses succeed by putting customer outcomes first. With an MBA in customer loyalty and a degree in psychology and communications, Samantha brings a unique blend of technical expertise and human insight to the field.
The conversation highlights her extensive work in highly regulated industries, especially financial services, where compliance and customer-centricity must align. Samantha emphasizes that regulation does not conflict with customer success; rather, it provides an opportunity to improve fairness, transparency, and ethical practices.
A core differentiator of her work is the Brilliance suite of SaaS-based tools designed to help small and mid-sized businesses manage complaints, compliments, and continuous improvement. She explains how many smaller firms, unlike large enterprises, lack structured systems, often relying on spreadsheets. Her tools provide accessible, scalable solutions that capture data consistently, automate reporting, and create actionable insights.
Samantha also stresses the importance of human empathy in complaint handling. Technology provides structure, but resolution depends on frontline employees empowered with discretion and emotional intelligence. Effective complaints management not only recovers individual customer relationships but can increase retention rates by 50–80%, transforming dissatisfied clients into advocates.
Throughout the interview, she and the host explore real-world examples, including Virgin Atlantic’s service recovery practices, which demonstrate how proactive responses can turn issues into loyalty. Samantha underscores the importance of feedback loops, continuous improvement, and anticipating systemic problems before they escalate.
She concludes by inviting organizations of all sizes to rethink complaints as opportunities for brilliance. By improving systems, empowering people, and embedding fairness, companies can strengthen trust, improve retention, and build reputations that attract loyal customers.
0:25 Host introduction and Samantha’s career background
1:55 Journey from PR to customer retention and CX passion
3:36 Customer experience in regulated industries
5:18 Differentiating through accessible tools for SMEs
8:56 SaaS solutions for complaints and feedback management
13:39 Importance of consistent complaints reporting
15:22 Turning complaints into continuous improvement
17:29 Virgin Atlantic case study on service recovery
20:59 Why empathy and human connection matter in complaints handling
23:08 ROI of effective complaints management (50–80% retention boost)
25:34 Why complaints are valuable data for improvement
30:17 Scalable solutions for SMEs, franchises, and distributed networks
36:11 Why “being brilliant” means aligning customer success with business success
41:00 On overcoming customer inertia in financial services
44:41 Personal insights: family, nature, and inspiration
47:00 Closing reflections and call to connect via BrillianceCX
She works across sectors, with deep expertise in financial services, compliance-driven organizations, and customer-centric firms.
A subscription-based, customizable complaints management system meeting regulatory requirements without capital outlay.
Yes, each keynote is adapted to the client’s audience, industry, and organizational challenges.
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