Member Spotlight: Rebecca Edwards
“Pride is the ability to celebrate who you are, whoever that may be. It isn’t just a word or a parade in the street, it’s an expression of love and acceptance.”
Celebrating Pride – this month and every month – amplifying the voices of our LGBTQ+ members and championing diversity, equity and inclusion in all that we do, we spoke to Rebecca Edwards, Senior Consultant – Customer Experience and Service Design at Datacom, about her lived experience, feeling that she didn’t ‘quite measure up’ before accepting herself entirely – as a woman and as a person - finding her voice in male-dominated environments and excelling in life as the incredible woman that she is.
Tell us a bit about you and what your company does.
With more than 50 years of experience in technology, Datacom has grown to be one of Australasia’s leading locally-owned technology companies and partners with customers from large government agencies to commercial businesses to transform their organisations from idea to delivery.
I work in the Datacom Experience Practice; we provide external feedback and advice to help organisations challenge their existing processes. The Experience Practice team works to dissect customer journeys and challenge inflexible ideas about business processes.
In my role, I am somewhat a voice of reason by putting an organisation’s processes, demand and understanding of experience (particularly CX) under a lens to help them elevate the services they provide and help live up to ever-increasing expectations around customer service.
How did you get where you are today?
Lots and lots of hard work! It took me a long time – years – to work out what it was that I wanted to do with my life and where my passions lay. I remember when I became a Team Leader, that was really my first experience with discovering a big passion for a career.
The moments where I found the most joy were when I witnessed members of my team excel, grow and learn and then I would voice my ideas for change in processes and get to be a part of those initiatives. I thrived in identifying areas for improvement in experience and developing solutions for that. It was like something just clicked for me and suddenly I became so hungry to learn more and expand on my skills. I started to seek out other like-minded peers and managers and then people beyond that who I could learn from, be mentored by and grow alongside.
I listened to podcasts, read blogs, read a long list of professional development and biography books and started engaging in groups on LinkedIn that were experience-focused. Over the course of two years, I ingested as much as I could about experience, customer and employee, and kept chasing opportunities to put that into practice.
I’ve always been a believer that growth doesn’t happen overnight and that opportunities were there for me, I just had to work at it, keep learning and be confident enough to put myself out there to achieve them.
What were the main challenges you faced as a woman in CX?
Confidence has been a big one for me.
There are times when I find myself questioning my abilities or starting to believe I’m not the best person for a task or even just doubting where I’m at professionally.
While I’ve definitely come to know some really incredible women in CX, my career has also been in some heavily male-dominated environments that have pushed me to really find my voice, stay true to my passion and vision, and not hide.
As a woman, and a very proud and independent woman, it’s so important for me to just keep going, to be sure of my abilities, and my value and to continue to deliver at the standard I know I’m capable of, regardless of gender.
Tell us about a moment that shaped you into the woman you are today?
The moment that I accepted who I was.
Coming out and understanding who I was entirely, as a woman and as a person, was a pivotal moment in my life. Up until then, I was always a little unsure, reserved and not proud about being a woman, let alone a queer woman.
Growing up, like so many people, there are expectations that you measure yourself up against and I never seemed to meet them, and that can be a painful and restricting place to be in. I made a choice to break free from that and reclaim my life. I invested hours and hours into understanding myself, healing and growing.
I was 28 when I finally was able to look in the mirror and adore the person that I saw for exactly who she was and who she had the potential to be. It was like a weight was lifted from my shoulders and I’d say that’s when I really started to excel in my life, and when I felt proud and honoured to be the remarkable woman that I am.
What makes a woman courageous, collaborative, inclusive and authentic?
Gosh, what doesn’t make us those things?
We are courageous because we wake up every day knowing there is a possibility that we will find ourselves in a situation that is unsafe, unloving and unencouraging, yet we still get up and we excel at work, and we thrive in life.
We are collaborative because we are empathetic, curious and hungry to learn from and support others. We know that there are so many valuable voices in the world and that we can achieve some really great things when we work together.
We are inclusive because we recognise that we are not the most important person in the room, building or world, that inclusion isn’t a tick box for recruitment, it’s acceptance of people being who they truly are.
We are authentic because why would we ever want to be anyone else? What benefit could we get from hiding ourselves and our ideas to meet someone else’s needs?
These values are important not just for us as women, but in the world of CX too. We need to be courageous in how we design our services to meet our customer’s needs. We need to be collaborative not just with our clients, but with their employees and customers too, in order to truly understand what makes an experience exceptional. We absolutely need to be inclusive in our design to understand all the ways that a service can be interacted with and to ensure that we meet the needs of every customer. We need to be authentic because no customer wants to be just another statistic or data point, they want real, genuine connection and service.
What does Pride mean to you?
Pride is the ability to celebrate who you are, whoever that may be.
As a queer woman, I am so unbelievably proud of every part of me and honoured by my wife and the connection, love and life that we have built together.
Our community fought for a very long time for the right to marry the person that they love. So, for me, Pride is another way I celebrate the fact that I get to spend every day of my life with my wife.
Pride isn’t just a word or a parade in the street, it’s an expression of love and acceptance.
And finally, What is your experience of feeling welcome and included in WiCX?
Since I joined, I’ve been overwhelmed with the welcome and support I’ve received in WiCX.
From catching up one on one with some members and those involved more directly with WiCX, to finding great articles and discussions that have helped me learn something new or solve a problem I had.
I feel safe, celebrated and excited in WiCX… Excited about the possibilities and opportunities out there and the incredible women who are dominating the CX world. It’s a really great community to be a part of.
Thank you, Rebecca, for so courageously sharing your story with our readers. 💛
With inclusivity amongst our four core values here at Women in CX, we will continue to lean in, listen and learn from the lived experiences of our members, using our platform to champion diversity, equity and inclusion, to afford equal opportunities for all and to amplify the voices of Women in CX across the globe.
To take part in discussions on topics such as this, expand your own professional network and join other remarkable women on the path to CX mastery, sign up to the waitlist now and become a member of the Women in CX community.
At our table, there’s room for everyone.