1. How did you find the move from client-side to consulting-side?

It was an exciting time as having built a decade worth of experience in the telecoms industry , I was able to find my specialism. From my role as an advisor, I managed to work my way through to management level and then stepped into new specialisms of speech analytics and project management. This meant that I was able to take all my skills and apply them to my role at Davies to support my clients even further. I was able to bring all the skills, experience and knowledge I had learned from my previous client role to our team.

2. What made you want to work in the CX industry?

In my previous role, I was at the forefront of customer experience, and it was my priority to make my customers happy with the service I provided from day one. And this has echoed throughout the roles I have worked in ever since. Since I joined Davies, I get a kick out of solving business problems and making things better for customers, agents, management, and operations. It’s great knowing that I have been part of a team that makes long-lasting improvements to CX operations – and showing clients the innovative technology we use is always really rewarding too.

3. What is it like working on multiple client engagements especially in insurance & financial services?
   

It’s fast paced and busy and no day is the same. I get to meet loads of different people from the industry from multiple seniority levels and help them to find the best solutions for their requirements. We get to make a difference, but not only that, we can help measure the improvements we make either through cost saving or adding value to a process.

4. Tell us more about the Women in Leadership programme you are currently completing. What have you learned so far from this programme and how have you implemented the learnings into your role?

Overall, the programme is brilliant, and it’s been brilliant to be able to learn again. It’s a full-on course – you’re doing your tutorials, assessments, and exams with the end result of becoming a fully CMI qualified leader. The best part is that I get to do it as a part of my role with Davies’ support. I get one day a week that I can dedicate to the course, so I get to really immerse myself in it.

So far, I’ve learned management of self, how to build a high performing team, effective communication, how business structures work and team building. What I’ve taken most from it is taking those difference aspects of the learning outcomes as a foundation to my role today. I also have the support from a ‘management’ expert and fellow learner on the same course which I find really helpful.

5. Congratulations on your recent promotion to Senior Consultant! Where do you see your career developing over the next five years?

I have enjoyed immersing myself in the role and getting used to the changes and exciting challenges the role brings. I get to shift my focus from not only helping our clients through project delivery but also ensuring the growth of the team from a development and a proposition perspective. In a nutshell, helping contribute and refine what we can offer our clients as well as still being part of our client delivery. The next five years for me will involve really focussing on delivering amazing service to our clients as a senior consultant as well as really immersing myself and putting all my CMI learnings to use with my team.

6. What do you expect to see happen in the industry in the next 12 months and what challenges do you expect to arise?

It may seem we are towards the end of the pandemic, but organisations are still adapting to the ever-changing climate in front of them. A challenge that would be around digitalising claims or customer journeys, automation and making use of the technology that’s available to improve processes and create efficiencies. Another challenge will be utilising data in the most intelligent way that isn’t just reporting the “what” but telling businesses the “why” to ensure they are answering the organisation’s challenges as well using data to feed into the strategic business plans. The biggest focus now is being there for our clients and their workforces and understanding what we can do to their current processes to refine them in line with hybrid working and all the other changes required post pandemic.

7. What are we doing in analytics to help these challenges?
   

Automating processes using technology and data is our bread and butter.

If we’re looking at it from a speech, text and interaction analytics perspective; we can use our technology to automate their QA processes or to highlight an organisation’s high-risk, or unhappy customers. And use this understanding, to help them act, make better business decisions, as well as identifying any learning and development opportunities.

If we’re looking at it from a data perspective, we have propositions that are mapped directly to our clients’ needs such as data management and reporting. That proposition’s purpose is for us to assess our clients data maturity, determine their current state and then provide recommendations to get the most out of their data. It involves taking that data and refining it to help digitalise that customer journeys or optimising processes using an omni channel approach linking their speech and interaction analytics with MI.

8. What are the key things you have learnt in your career so far?

It’s about not settling and not being complacent. Being happy in your role is key but finding ways to develop and learn is also essential. There are always opportunities to improve and opportunities to do better. A lot of that comes down to not being afraid to reflect on things.
I also believe in not always taking no for an answer. A lot of the time we are faced with problems that at first may seem impossible to overcome, but it’s about not being afraid to ask why and thinking that there is no such thing as a problem that can’t be solved.

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