Although women represent 70% of the CX workforce, just 30% of those in customer experience management are female.
By focusing on building a team of like-minded, empathic individuals, Helen Luty, head of CX at Landmark Information Group has bucked the trend, and forged a place at the top table. Luty picked up the gold Woman CX Professional of the Year at the 2023 UK Customer Experience Awards, after her team put her forward for the award.
Luty has prioritised building a great working culture and fostering a positive community within her team to deliver CX excellence. At the UKCXA 2023, the group also walked away with three other trophies — including CX Team of the Year, Best User Experience, and Best B2B Customer Experience – Over 25 Years in Business.
Luty lives by the Richard Branson’s adage that if you “treat your people right, they’ll treat your customers right”.
“If you’ve got happy people in your organisation, they want to be at work; they want to do their job properly. They’re going to be much happier talking to your customers [who will then] feel like they’ve dealt with the right people,” Luty shared.
Getting the best out of your people
Landmark Information Group, a Land and Property data supplier, is nominated for four more accolades at the UK Customer Experience Awards 2024 to be held in October.
Landmark has also seen an upward trajectory in its latest Institute of Customer Service benchmark. The group also hit an NPS of 59.4, which is up a massive 20 points from last year.
Last year’s awards haul emphasises the importance of empowering staff to believe in their own abilities.
“I’m a great believer in finding what people are best at…You put the right people into the right roles and great things happen,” she said.
To offer further support to her team, Luty leads internal mentoring programmes in her own time, and she now aims to bring this into the Landmark workplace. Her mentoring programmes are a way of building buy-in to the culture and training staff.
“It’s another bit of the job that I really love — giving people an opportunity,” Luty commented.
“It’s seeing people who have ambition, but don’t know where to go with it, and taking them through the opportunities they have, and giving them the confidence [to do it],” says Luty.
The pandemic as a catalyst to bring her people together
During the life-changing pandemic, teams were forced into isolation and were unsure when they’d see each other in the office again, if ever.
But Luty seized on the disruption wrought by COVID-19 to implement a wave of team initiatives that strengthened their CX efforts.
She introduced daily stand-up planning meetings, checking in with her team and ensuring they were in a good state of mind. “You shouldn’t feel worried about talking to somebody at work,” Luty comments.
“We’re with our work colleagues far more than we’re with our family. So it needs to be a relationship that you can absolutely trust, and you can cover any subject,”
“It’s about creating that awareness, having those conversations in the office, and letting people deal with whatever it is that they’re going through. But acknowledging that they are still brilliant at what they do. From a customer experience point of view, you need bucket loads of empathy,” Luty shares.
The nomination put forward by Luty’s team highlights how she is an advocate for openness and honesty, particularly with taboo topics like mental health or menopause.
Hiring the right people is critical to maintaining a positive team attitude. Luty aims to hire people that share a similar customer focus.
“They say you recruit people that are similar to you. Naturally, in customer-focused roles, you’ve got people that want to be with other people and thrive off conversations,”
“It’s a natural customer service behaviour [to be open for conversations and talking to others]. I’m not going to take the credit for it. It’s definitely the team,” Luty said.
The importance of empowering women in CX
Despite Luty’s recent success, women are “fighting against history” when it comes to breaking into the C-suite.
“We’re fighting against history. Success breeds success. We need to get better at celebrating women,” Luty shared.
An empathetic attitude is vital for CX professionals to deal with for shifting consumer trends. “It’s being aware of what’s happening in the particular market sector that you’re in, and it’s understanding your customers.”
Helen Luty’s efforts to build a supportive, empowered CX team that celebrates each other and is confident to reach out to their customers, has brought great results for Landmark. It only makes sense to continue the great work that Luty has focused on as they push forward to the next chapter.