Tune in as we share real-talk conversations between women working in CX and those influencing the CX agenda from the periphery too.
Clare Muscutt talks with Adi Tobias about CX in platform-based businesses and neurodivergence as a CX superpower!
“But I think now working in an environment where I can legitimately show up to work like this, and lead a team like this, and present in any which fashion – nose ring, hair, coloured lips, coloured nails – ‘Doesn’t matter. We’re interested in your work. We’re interested in what you can put together. We’re interested in the way you lead.’ I think that is so, so important in leveraging the benefits of having people who aren’t neurotypical because it’s magical. It’s magical to have a brain that works like this. It is. I fully believe it. I sell it to my team. If I go off on a little rant, they know to bring me back to the conversation because ‘Full disclosure: this is who I am. I love what I do. And sometimes, I don’t necessarily, can’t necessarily stay in the conversation like you can, but it’s worth it. Like stick it out with me and you’ll see the benefit.’ And it typically…”
Clare Muscutt talks with Gita Samani about CX and Digital Transformation, Perfectionism, and Beating Burnout
“And I think when we spoke, as you said, you recognised it in yourself, as well, when we both sat here and we’re like… and we just literally breathed. We just breathed. And I think that was so important to realise that it’s not just yourself; there are other women out there or people out there – not just women – there are people out there who are feeling this way because they are striving for so much. And, you know, I do think it’s a symptom of my own making that I am a bit of a perfectionist and I like to make sure that everything is right, and everything is done properly. And I do get slightly irritated when it doesn’t happen, and it’s something I have been pulled up on. But sometimes, you just have to let the small things go, and you have to…”
Clare Muscutt talks with Sarah Curran-Usher MBE about the evolution of retail customer experience
I think it’s really important that I stress that, you know, particularly when we’re talking about profitability… and sometimes, I think there’s this unfair assumption towards female leadership that we’re focused on all the sort of exciting and cosy stuff, the warm staff that kind of creates this loyalty, but actually that therefore we’re not looking at the bottom line. And that’s not the case because actually, particularly if you’ve got a low average selling point, protecting your operational margin and operational profits is even more important because you haven’t got much to play with. But then, it’s about driving that repeat customer through strong loyalty, strong retention. It’s about maybe purchasing less inventory and stock so that you’re actually selling more at actually full price versus having to constantly give out discounts to incentivise people to shop.
Clare Muscutt talks about CX Insights and Women in the Workplace with Kantar Insights CEO Amy Cashman
I think it’s really important to be clear what your red lines are in an organisation. I’m very clear there’s things I won’t miss: I have never missed one of my children’s assemblies; I’ve never missed sports day; I’ve never missed a parents’ evening. I just won’t miss stuff like that. And I’ve had occasions where it’s clashed with an important meeting and I’ve consciously chosen to explain, ‘I’m not at that meeting because I’m at a school assembly.’ I haven’t tried to hide it and say, ‘I’ve got a medical appointment’ or anything like that because that’s how you get the message that that is okay and that is normal. And that’s not always felt comfortable, to be truthful. I’ve come to that, I would say, over a period of time. It wasn’t something I would have done straight away when I got back from maternity leave, but I hope by doing things like that it just makes it…
Clare Muscutt talks human Centred Design, Inclusion and LGBTQ+ Womxn in CX with Lara Husselbee
“For me, inclusion is thinking beyond the mass and looking for minorities and those intersections where actually some really amazing golden nuggets and stories lie that you can improve people’s lives, and that comes back to the empathy.
And maybe why I was drawn to this career is the idea that we can improve it even if it’s just one point in someone’s life – obviously sounds so idealistic – but same kind of thing as you don’t know who you’re walking past and what they’re experiencing, so a smile might help. Well, why not do the same for minority groups when you are in a privileged position?