The CX Collective is an incredible congregation of the region’s CX leaders, collectively transforming customer experiences. Each month, we’ll be profiling one of our esteemed members to shine a light on some of the extraordinary leadership in the Collective.
Q: Can you tell us a little bit about your career journey and how you came to be in a CX role?
A: My career started in the ANZ market research team where I mostly worked with marketing, distribution and product teams to improve customer satisfaction. At the time, this wasn’t called CX so I feel like I’ve been working in the CX space for a long time. After ANZ I moved to NAB where I worked in their planning, digital and strategy teams and was involved in creating campaigns, launching digital tools for home loan customers and other CX initiatives for key segments. And now I’m very lucky to be able to join SEEK, where I work in the Customer Insights and Strategy team. My role here is to design and deliver better experiences for hirers across Australia and New Zealand.
Q: What are you most excited about over the next 12 months?
A: Lots of exciting things happening at SEEK. We’re implementing a new CRM platform across ANZ and Asia, which will present lots of opportunities to improve the experience for hirers and candidates. The next year is also about better understanding unmet needs of our segments and developing ways to support customers throughout the hiring process. For us, it’s tapping into our research, using all our data and launching new initiatives to help hirers; that’s the bit that excites me.
My wife and I are also expecting our second child – exciting and terrifying at the same time!
Q: What would you say have been your biggest achievement or proudest moment?
A: Over the 12 years, my proudest moment are whenever I’ve been able to help solve big customer problems; problems such as developing instant property insights for home loan customers, helping customers overseas when they lose their wallet, or to help first home buyers understand whether it’s better to rent or buy. All those initiatives were identified as key insights in research and then developed further with awesome teams. That for me is the most rewarding thing.
I know you asked for one, but my other proudest moment is taking three months of paternity leave to look after my son. Those 3 months were really difficult due to the lack of sleep. I was spending most of my time driving around in the car trying to get him to fall asleep. So that was a huge achievement – surviving the 4am wake ups, endless crying and food throwing.
Q: How do you strive to put the customer at the centre of what you do?
A: For me, one thing I always try to do no matter what role I’m in, other than using research and data which I enjoy doing, is spend time with the customer service team. I think as CX professionals, we need to spend as much time as possible with front-line team members because they have direct contact and relationships with customers, and I find valuable insights every time I spend time with them. When you’re getting too bogged down with the challenges or the processes internally, I find spending a little time listening to the calls or even spending time observing customers takes you back to what’s important.
Q: What advice would you give to peers about being the best CX professional you can be?
A: I think the best advice we can all take is to know your customer and know your stakeholder. And if you know that, you’ll be able to drive some great initiatives that really help customers.
