About Stephen Hewett

Stephen Hewett is the creator of NetCNS and the Customer Needs Solution.

Day job and CNS

In Stephen’s words (LinkedIn, 7 October 2026):

"I'm full time as Director of Growth & Innovation at Clearcast, and that's my day job and my main focus."

"Before I joined Clearcast, I worked as an independent consultant and built Customer Needs Solution (CNS), a framework for understanding what customers actually need and measuring whether those needs are being met. It has been and is used by a number of well-known brands."

"CNS is a side project I develop in my own time, with Clearcast's knowledge and support and is fully separate from my work there."

"So if you see CNS posts from me, that's the passion project. Clearcast is the day job."

Background and credentials

CCXP (Certified Customer Experience Professional) and Fellow of the Institute of Consulting.
Author of "The Customer-Centric You", "People Centricity" and "Customers Are The Agenda".
Experience (2018): "20 years experience working with executive teams for leading brands". His 2017 biography describes "more than thirty years' experience in customer service, retail and consultancy … one of the UK's leading authorities and business advisors in the field of customer centred business change." He has also worked with "Central and Local Government".
He has been described as "recognised as one of the world's leading consultants, writers and practitioners in the field of Customer Centricity … considered a Global thought Leader on the subject of CX."
Endorsement: "Stephen is a people and customer guru for our times." – Lord Price, Ex Deputy Chairman John Lewis Partnership and MD Waitrose.
Co-founder of iCustomer. Executive director of iCustomer and “Creator of NetCNS”.
BigEars Senior Advisor (from November 2018). He connected with BigEars in 2015 and collaborated informally from 2016. BigEars contributed to "the early NetCNS development".

How Stephen has been described

How Stephen and his work have been described over the years:

2016: "The framework approach used has been developed over fifteen years".
2018: "Stephen Hewett, Board Advisor, iCustomer. 30+ years working with a range of blue chip organisations on employee and customer experience, including 10+ years at John Lewis."
2021–23: "ICG Global Thought Leader & Partner".

What colleagues and clients say

From recommendations on Stephen’s LinkedIn profile. Client and company names have been removed.

Stephen is THE Customer Centricity Guru whose work has radically changed the approach to service provision of his corporate and governmental clients. His selfless mentoring and generosity with his time and experience has helped to promote a new discipline in business consultancy. He also has a resilient sense of humour that has been invaluable in helping him to survive the rough and tumble of the consultancy business and come out smiling.

David Snowden Worked with Stephen on the same team
Stephen provides a level of clarity and simplicity in helping organisations understand their goals, and how to get there through pragmatic application of business change and IT. Having worked on technology programmes where Stephen has been involved I have found that, through his extremely effective and pro-active customer engagement, and business lead approach, he is able to break down the common challenges and barriers to adoption of technology enabled change, and ultimately demonstrate value for money in terms of technology investment.

James Crossland Worked with Stephen on the same team
He is the most reasonable, calm and insightful person I have had the pleasure to work with. He is always able to distill any project into clear deliverables, whilst providing a clear understanding of the political landscape that may exist. He is scrupulously honest in any negotiations and always fair minded when dealing with staff, suppliers and clients.
I would recommend Stephen highly to any organisation and look forward to working with him for many years to come.

Pete Cameron Stephen was his client
Stephen has worked with me for over 10 years both as a principal of the consulting team and as a member of the management team. Over that period I have been consistently impressed by his consummate professionalism as a senior consulting practitioner, a consulting practice leader and a management team member.
He is highly client-focussed, building enduring client relationships through his own direct consulting activities and by the management and direction of consulting teams. He has been a prime mover in the development of a framework for the delivery of customer-centric business change services which has been at the heart of a strategic shift in the way that the company promotes and executes its services.
It has been a pleasure to work with Stephen and to experience his balanced and mature management style. I am delighted to recommend him and would relish the opportunity of working with him again in the future.

David Pickering Managed Stephen directly
Stephen is an inspiring consultant and leader, encouraging confidence and buy-in from clients and colleagues. He gets to the crux of the issue quickly, successfully negotiating politics and personalities bringing the team around to meet objectives and to deliver. He is an expert in the area of ‘Customer Centricity’ and has been responsible for building this business…, training colleagues and spreading the passion for this approach through the organisation and with clients. Stephen is frequently asked to return to clients to work within different areas of their business, who believe he really does add value and provide true expertise.

Clarissa Bateman-Harden Reported to Stephen directly
Stephen is an extremely experienced consultant with sound people skills. He has pioneered his field of expertise namely “Customer Centricity” and I have seen him skillfully manage customers and staff alike. Stephen is well respected for his pragmatism and is also well liked. Clients continually ask for him to work for them. I have no hesitation in endorsing Stephen as a truly professional consultant.

Barry Hoffman Senior colleague of Stephen
Stephen is one of the rare people who can focus into the heart of an issue, whilst others are playing around the edges.
He has a real passion for helping organisations deliver excellent customer service and goes about in a simple and straight forward fashion. He is a mentor and coach to both colleagues and clients and is widely recognised as a subject matter expert in good old fashioned customer service.
… It has been a pleasure to work with Stephen.

Emad Salib Worked with Stephen on the same team