Best-in-class customer experience needs inspirational leadership

On National Customer Service Week, Karen McCarthy, Director of Customer Experience at the Locale Group, discusses the impact of effective strategy and leadership

This year, National Customer Service Week has been exciting and insightful for me. While I don’t need a week or even a day to appreciate this, today’s theme of effective strategy and leadership is a reminder that I have the privilege of leading a committed and loyal team that consistently goes over and beyond to keep our customers happy.

Moreover, strong leadership has been a cornerstone of my own success. I have had amazing mentors over the years, who have inspired me and helped make me who I am today. Therefore, I want to be able to do this for the next generation I am currently working with now.  We have already promoted two members of the team Gabriel and Rosie, who are now managing their own teams, and recently taken on Jorge in customer care and Cyril to manage our new customer success department – I am already so excited knowing the future is so bright.

Strategy is also something I have spent a lot of time since my arrival at Locale Group. Keeping our customers and their customers (occupiers of buildings) at the forefront of any strategy, our effective strategy hinges on every stage of the customer journey at Locale Group.  

Collaborating closely with all other teams, we have an excellent portal with strong customer care skills sets, and this helps us to plan effectively, and deliver expected results to all our customers. It is why we are consistently achieving satisfaction levels of over 98%; last year we received 99.2% which is great news to see our customers are so happy and well looked after.

Our strategy also places a considerable amount of important on evaluating our resources, capabilities and performance to make sure we exceed targets and expectations. Our client approach is bold; we make no apologies for being involved from day one, ensuring our clients maximise the technology they are investing and ensuring it is used to its full potential. It’s why we set our clients KPIs too – a strategic objective we are very proud of.

Delivering first-rate customer experience is an evolving and challenging journey but one that offers the highest rewards when done right. We have only started to scratch the surface at Locale Group; we are only getting started!