Mark Bradley is a consultant, writer and business speaker with a talent for bringing the customer experience vividly to life.

An expert in customer service and author of Inconvenience Stores, one family's testing retail travelogue, Mark's work richly evokes the UK consumer experience in a way that brings a new objectivity to business.

As National Consumer Council research highlights the millions of pounds lost to UK business through poor customer service, Mark's entertaining and imaginative contributions have brought him to the attention of the media, where he's appeared on BBC1's Are We Being Served? BBC2's Working Lunch and BBC Radio Five Live. He writes for the Yorkshire Post, and contributes a video blog to Customer Strategy Magazine's.

He maintains that the low profile of service in the UK - and its root causes - explains why most customer service initiatives are doomed to fail. The answer, Mark contends, is by rigorously examining service experiences from the customer's perspective and attacking some of the internally-fixated business conventions that have driven us to this impasse.

Most recently Mark has worked in football. His company has helped the Football League research, develop and launch their inaugural Family Excellence Awards. He's also worked with the Premier League, the Football Association of Ireland and several individual football clubs, including Liverpool, Manchester City, Blackburn Rovers, Ipswich Town, Newcastle United and Huddersfield Town. A recent project sees him leading a unique fan experience improvement programme at a Premier League club.

Outside of football Mark has worked with Land Securities, HBOS plc, DHL / Argos, Norwich Union, Hull University and PMI Health Care. He is a popular conference chairman with Marcus Evans, White Paper and Infoline - and currently one of the UK's most popular business speakers.

Mark's second book, Retails of the Unexpected, a collection of essays, articles and customer service experiences emerged in 2008 and was featured on ITV News, BBC 2's Working Lunch and a dozen further radio magazine shows. It is said that when they finally throw the book at British Customer Service, this is what they'll have in their hands.

Championed by X-Leisure's PY Gerbeau and the BBC's Adrian Chiles, the latter says of him:

"If you want to hear the usual old tosh about "putting customers first" then Mark's not your man. I've heard thousands of people talking about customer service but Mark's the only one with anything useful to say on the subject"

Mark brings a new realism into your business by entertainingly bringing your customers' actual experiences to life. He switches from the internal to the external perspective and highlights the humour in some of the experiences we create for our customers.

He then explores the consequences of true consumer focus and inspires change by drawing on the strategies and working practices within some of the world's most progressive and customer-focused organisations.

An in-demand and flexible speaker, Mark has presented on the following subjects and more:

• Raising the profile of service in your organisation
• How to become a business that listens
• What we really want: a consumer's view of brand and marketing
• Inconvenience Stores: the state of UK service and how to improve it