Caroline Quinlan, the Customer Experience Strategy Manager at Electric Ireland, began her journey to becoming a CX leader with her deep interest in understanding customer behavior and enhancing their experience. Working at Electric Ireland, part of ESB, one of Ireland's largest energy providers, has given her a dynamic and diverse role. She enjoys the excitement and challenges of mapping out customer journeys and continuously improving the customer experience.
What advice do you have for someone's first 100 days as head of CX?
Caroline emphasizes the importance of the first 100 days in a new CX role. She advises new CX leaders to thoroughly understand the business, including its vision, strategy, and core values. Aligning with these elements is crucial for designing effective CX strategies and gaining buy-in for initiatives. Understanding the organization's business processes, products, and people is equally important. Networking and leveraging the skills of colleagues can significantly enhance the ability to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Additionally, gathering data and insights about customer interactions is paramount to identifying pain points and opportunities for improvement.
What does your CX strategy focus on currently and in the future?
Caroline’s current CX strategy at Electric Ireland focuses on a hybrid model, integrating the CX department with other departments to ensure a cohesive approach to customer experience. The ultimate goal is to adopt an embedded model where CX becomes a shared responsibility across all teams. This shift aims to foster a customer-centric culture. Leveraging data and insights to create a comprehensive view of the customer and driving CX culture and engagement are vital elements of this strategy. Caroline aspires to elevate Electric Ireland’s CX maturity to a leading level, ensuring continuous improvement and innovation.
How Do You Measure Success With CX?
For Caroline, success in CX is measured through key metrics such as CSAT (Customer Satisfaction), NPS (Net Promoter Score), and customer ease. Benchmarking these metrics and tracking trends over time helps understand the impact of CX initiatives. Caroline emphasizes the importance of using qualitative and quantitative data to build compelling stories that humanize the data and highlight the emotional drivers behind customer behavior. This approach ensures that customers are seen as more than just numbers.
What pain points do you have leading a CX team?
Leading a CX department comes with its challenges. Caroline acknowledges that gaining buy-in from senior stakeholders can be difficult, especially in large, matrixed organizations. Tailoring conversations to address different stakeholders' specific needs and motivations is crucial. Overcoming organizational silos and fostering collaboration across departments are ongoing challenges that require persistent effort and strategic communication.
How do you establish partnerships and gain buy-in with the C-suite?
Caroline has successfully gained buy-in from the C-suite by presenting precise, evidence-based results. Using data to demonstrate the impact of CX initiatives on business outcomes is essential. She believes linking CX improvements to tangible metrics like return on investment helps convey the value of CX to senior leaders, ensuring their support and commitment.
Do you have an example of utilizing customer feedback to improve your company?
Customer feedback plays a central role in Caroline’s approach to CX. At Electric Ireland, she has implemented the "Customer at the Table" initiative, where customer feedback is shared at the beginning of meetings to set the tone and prioritize customer-centric discussions. This initiative has helped shift the focus from technical and process-oriented aspects to customer needs and experiences. The company can address pain points and enhance the overall customer experience by actively listening to and acting on customer feedback.
What is the future of CX?
Caroline is optimistic about the future of CX, highlighting the increasing recognition of its value to businesses. She believes that advancements in AI will play a significant role in CX, enabling more efficient data analysis and deeper insights into customer behavior. Embracing AI and other technological innovations will help companies deliver more personalized and compelling customer experiences.
About Caroline Quinlan
Caroline is passionate about continuous learning and customer psychology. She recently completed a diploma in customer psychology, which has deepened her understanding of customer behavior. Caroline’s commitment to being "customer-obsessed" drives her to constantly seek new knowledge and innovative ways to improve customer experience.
You can connect with Caroline Quinlan on LinkedIn to learn more about her work in customer experience. She is eager to connect with fellow professionals and share insights on CX.
About CX Chats
CX chats is an interview series with Ben Holland, where we talk to industry leaders in the field of customer experience and customer success. Each interview dives deep into the insights from each leader and highlights how they became successful, tips for aspiring CX professionals, and their thoughts on the future of CX.