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: I started out in the front line at Woolies and in tech support at call centre while I was studying at University. From there, I went to a boutique research agency in North Sydney that did a bit of everything. I was there for about 5 years, and it was really good exposure across all sorts of businesses, both B2B and B2C. We worked on categories from toothpaste to explosives, and everything in between. It was a really interesting experience. For myself as a junior I was involved the whole process, from taking notes in a briefing, to conducting interviews, all the way through to delivering the presentations. It was a really great environment to learn and grow.
From there I went into a brand experience agency. This involved brand and comms research to define the business strategy – using the rational and emotional needs to drive the brand personality and engage your customers. This was my first real exposure to the experience side of things. I really loved seeing my clients and guiding the business through their current position, where they should re-position, and the process to achieve that.
I then moved to a digital agency specialising in user experience and acquisition, so focusing on conversion rate optimisation and how people navigate websites. And from there I moved over to the client side, starting at ALDI in an strategy & experience role, and now in my role as Customer Strategy and Insights Manager at HSBC.
Moving to a client-side role brought about the realisation that a lot more goes into the customer experience than a powerpoint slide deck, and customer experience enhancement is very much engagement across a lot of different teams across the business. Being client-side allows for a much deeper understanding of the customer from lots of different perspectives.
What unique challenges have you met and overcome in your current role?
I pride myself on being an excellent researcher. But research alone does not improve customer experience. A key challenge is forming a strong team with internal stakeholders to further the customer agenda.
At both HSBC and ALDI I have been very lucky to collaborate with experts across the business. I really enjoy engaging in cross functional teams and sharing different approaches, genuinely voicing the needs of the customer into key decisions. A positive attitude goes a long way to establish an effective team.
What would you say has been your biggest achievement or your proudest moment in your career so far?
Two years ago I did a masters of marketing at Sydney University. Working and studying full time was not easy, but I learned a lot was recognised as the top student in the degree. That was awesome. That degree covered all facets of marketing, starting with consumer behaviour and context analysis, all the way through to marketing strategy and evaluating marketing performance. It was a really interesting journey which I believe helped me secure a client-side role.
The degree ran at night and at both days on the weekend for a year and a half, also studying through Christmas and all the holiday breaks – it was insane, that whole period was unreal! The great thing about it too was everyone else on the course were marketers across different categories, so it was a unique opportunity to create new connections and build my understanding of lots of different categories. Highly recommended, but a significant commitment is required!
How do you continue to put the customer at the centre of what you do?
It’s about getting out there, going into the branches or going into the stores. The customer is not in a powerpoint presentation or a spreadsheet. If you really want to understand the customer, you really need to be where they are.
When I worked in an agency and we brought on a new client, I would sign up to them and their competitors, so you can experience the whole on-boarding journey. You see how customers are treated, you see the benchmark in the industry and best practice. Place yourself in the customers shoes, get as close to real people as you can. Get your stakeholders to do it too!
What advice would you give to your peers about being the best CX professional you can be?
That comes back to ‘go out there and understand your customer’. It needs to go beyond “40% of our customers are male”. It needs to be “this is Gary, and this is Nancy” – really get into their heads. Understand what drives them and what the underlying needs are that are causing the behaviours that you’re seeing. You almost start to see lead and lag indicators in their needs and attitudes, which drive the behaviours that you see in your balance sheet. So get out there, experience the journeys of your customers and have fun. That’s where you’ll see the most opportunity.
