The Innovation Award
This is for women who have introduced groundbreaking ideas, methodologies, or technologies in CX. These innovators have pushed boundaries, solved complex challenges, and shaped the industry's future with their creative problem-solving.
Winner!
Shannon Knowlton
Voice of the Customer Manager, Selective Insurance
With a deep commitment to making customer feedback more meaningful, Shannon Knowlton has delivered a series of practical, impactful innovations that are setting a new benchmark in customer experience within the traditionally conservative insurance sector. As Voice of the Customer Manager at Selective Insurance, Shannon’s work has transformed both the scope and efficiency of VOC operations.
Her standout innovation, introducing a GenAI CoPilot Agent, streamlined the monthly VOC analysis process, cutting hours of manual work and enabling more time for stakeholder engagement. The tool identifies themes, trends, and emerging patterns, summarises key insights, and generates tailored outputs for the executive team, dramatically improving the quality and usability of feedback across the business.
Shannon’s leadership in revamping eight core VOC surveys has also been a major milestone. Working closely with internal teams, she redesigned surveys to align feedback with specific points in the customer journey. This shift has enabled Selective to move from passive data collection to proactive insight delivery, leading to a clearer understanding of customer needs and direct improvements in NPS strategy.
She also introduced benchmarking practices through a collaborative initiative with survey partner Forsta, providing critical external comparisons that have elevated performance standards across the organisation. At the same time, Shannon has been instrumental in developing and maintaining journey maps, including detailed micro maps for niche customer interactions, driving forward a more nuanced understanding of CX.
A recent graduate of Michigan State University’s MS in Customer Experience Management, Shannon continues to integrate cutting-edge methodologies and technologies into her work. Her academic achievement, combined with a strategic approach to real-world challenges, underscores her drive to improve not just processes but outcomes.
Judge’s comment:
“Shannon’s done a great job taking the initiative to reinvent and enhance your VOC analysis. Well done for sticking with it and achieving significant time savings in your analysis time.”
Judge’s comment:
“Shannon’s innovation has made a significant impact. I’m particularly inspired by how driven and passionate you are—not just about transforming your industry, but about making a positive impact in the world.”.
From benchmarking new standards to mentoring others in the CX community, Shannon is leading with passion, purpose, and precision. Her work proves that innovation isn’t just about technology; it’s about removing friction, uncovering meaning, and making customer experience better for everyone.
Highly Commended!
Charlotte Kennett
Customer-Centric Marketing Leader
Charlotte Kennett is recognised as Highly Commended in the Innovation category for her outstanding achievements in redefining the role of marketing in post-sale customer experience. Over her six and a half years at SS&C Blue Prism, she built a customer marketing function from the ground up, creating a unified approach across customer intelligence, advocacy, and community that delivered real business impact.
Her leadership transformed marketing’s relationship with other customer-facing teams, aligning insight, digital experience, and lifecycle engagement into a cohesive post-sales strategy. The department Charlotte built influenced significant revenue outcomes, improved customer satisfaction, and garnered multiple industry awards for its innovative approach to customer advocacy and community-building.
Judge’s comment:
“Brilliant innovation in post-sale CX marketing. While not BPO-focused, innovation brings marketing to the CX table with tech-enabled structure, insight, and advocacy. Very scalable and transformative in B2B SaaS.”
Judge’s comment:
“Charlotte brings a rare combination of creativity, structure, and technological insight – her alignment of ideas, methodology, and technology drives true excellence. She exemplifies leadership that’s both bold and transformative.”
Presently, between roles, Charlotte remains an active contributor to the CX and marketing community, generously sharing her learnings and mentoring others. Her story is a powerful reminder that innovation doesn’t always mean new tech—it often means reimagining existing systems to serve people better, with humanity and purpose at the centre.
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