The world’s first global online membership community for Women in CX is launching on International Women’s Day – March 8th 2021. And this start-up is pretty special.
CX Magazine has partnered with Women in CX and this week, caught up with Founder and CEO Clare Muscutt to find out why.
The rise of online communities
Online communities, platforms, and social networks have experienced huge growth in the last two decades, but very little is known about how to design communities for women. Mainly because women don’t tend to build them.
According to Forbes:
“The technology industry is vastly dominated by men – the venture capitalists who fund companies and the developers who build the products are predominantly male. In fact, just 8% of decision makers in the top venture capital firms are women.”
This inevitably means tech products and services are set up to best serve those who design and back them. Women in CX (WiCX) is challenging the status quo by being 100% female owned, managed, and led by a team of female Founding Members. By uniquely engaging with their female audience to co-create and design their platform, they are making their endeavour 100% female-centric too.
Why female communities are important
According to consumer behaviour analyst Bridget Brennan, “Gender is the most powerful determinant of how we see the world and everything in it. It’s more significant than age, income, ethnicity, or geography.”
From the conversations we have in real life to those on social media, women demonstrate greater interest in empathy, relationships, and social issues than men. This doesn’t mean men don’t care – or that women aren’t interested in topics like politics – we just find ourselves more naturally attuned to emotion.
Listening to understand what women want
Throughout their research, the team at Women in CX have been listening to understand prospective members’ goals and needs, as well as the challenges women are facing in CX and beyond. This insight is steering the strategy behind product development and clarifying priorities for ‘what’ the WiCX platform will address.
However, in reality this research has been ongoing through the conversations taking place on the Inspiring Women in CX podcast for the past nine months.
Learning through action
When Founder Clare Muscutt created the podcast during the first 2020 lockdown in response to her own need for meaningful support and connection, she had no idea it would be so well received. Especially amongst such fierce competition for listeners.
Clare said, “What made our podcast different was not only women sharing their previously unheard ideas and opinions on CX, but also the vulnerability with which they exposed the difficult moments in life, ones that shaped them into the women they are today.”
Through discussing difficult topics like sexism, domestic violence, divorce, racism, working motherhood, homophobia, and child loss to name a few, the response to the podcast was phenomenal. Women began reaching out to one another to thank the guests for sharing, frequently stating, “This happened to me too.”
The podcast generated the social proof for the need for a safe space for women. And seeing over 100 women join the waitlist for membership before launch is testament to the demand.
Here’s what the team at Women in CX had to say:
What the community will do
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller
Women sharing personal and professional challenges, and how they overcame them, is one of the most powerful methods of social learning. But most women are limited to learning from small groups within their network or, if they are lucky, one or two mentors.
The Women in CX community platform aims to empower women, break down barriers, and give unlimited access to a global network of women who are open to sharing learning and growing together through genuine, authentic, courageous, and inclusive collaboration.
Why this is important
By harnessing this female perspective, we have the opportunity to influence the future of Customer Experience. We are on a mission to humanise CX and believe by empowering women, we have the power to change it for good.
How women can get involved
“Amazing things happen when women help other women.” – Kazia Gaspos
It’s not too late to have your say and contribute to the direction of the community. If you have 10 minutes to spare, you can fill in our survey online. And if you’d like to know more, register for our FREE launch event to be the first to hear about our vision and values, see our product demo, and get a sample of what being a member of the community will feel like.
We would dearly love to see you there and for you to have your voice heard too.
What about men in CX?
While this online membership community platform is only for womxn* in CX, we know equality cannot be achieved in isolation, so we will be working on joint projects and events including our male allies who support us. This group already includes some big names you will already know, like Ian Golding, Matt Watkinson, Naeem Arif, Adrian Swinscoe, and Adam Toporek to name a few. If you would like to become an ally, you can contact our founder at clare@womenincx.community for more details.
What the future holds
The launch is just the beginning of a wonderful space that will grow and evolve over time based on member feedback. And with early sponsorship backing from brands like Kantar and Officium Labs, and early support from partners including CX Magazine, Uxpressia, and Survey2Connect, that future looks bright for the (presently) only female-owned tech start-up in CX.
We wish Clare and her team the best of luck for the up-coming launch and exciting times ahead.
For more info on membership, partnership, and sponsorship please visit www.womenincx.community.
*A note on terminology: The term ‘womxn’ entered the dictionary in 2019. It is used particularly by intersectional feminists to avoid perceived sexism and explicitly include transgender women and non-binary people.