Our Team

Catherine Macleod-Smith

Mobile: +44 (0)7768-632249 catherine.macleod-smith@customeressential.com

Catherine MacLeod-Smith loves the way that the analysis of data touches on the human aspect of customer management.

She says: "It is interesting to approach data from an emotional point of view. I don't mean over reacting when your database falls over, but really getting into the emotions of the customer as well as the person who is trying to manage that customer relationship - rather than just looking at it as a data based analytical thing".

She says analysing data can be a useful management tool not just for looking at the way customers are dealt with, but also for looking at the way people within the organisation sell to the customer. "If an organisation doesn't get its strategy right then the customer service people are going to be delivering the wrong proposition to the wrong people at the wrong cost - and holding onto the wrong customer".

And the full interview...

Catherine MacLeod-Smith began her career in customer management at BP as a data driven marketing consultant at a time when the company was trying to change from being a sales led organisation to a customer led one. She has continued to have a passion for data ever since, particularly where it touches on the human aspect of customer management.

She says: "It is interesting to approach data from an emotional point of view. I don't mean over reacting when your database falls over, but really getting into the emotions of the customer as well as the person who is trying to manage that customer relationship rather than just looking at it as a data based analytical thing. You need to get the data analysis bit right, but if you haven't got the customer champing at the bit for the product or service then it is an academic exercise".

She points out that analysing data can be useful not just as a management tool for looking at the way customers are dealt with; it can also be a useful tool for looking at the way people within the organisation are selling to the customer. She says: "You can actually see, almost down to an individual level, who doesn't get what they are trying to sell and who is mis-selling the proposition. If an organisation doesn't get its strategy right then the customer service people are going to be delivering the wrong proposition to the wrong people at the wrong cost - and holding onto the wrong customer".

For her developing the relationship of the customer with the organisation is at the heart of good customer management. She says: "What excites me about customer management is that it is about the customer being able to have a say in the relationship. As consumers we have all had customer management done to us, but the fact that customers know now that they can opt out and write about their experiences on internet blogs if they don't get what they want means that organisations are going to have to take customer empowerment very seriously. Customer management is evolving to the point where organisations can't simply do it to customers, they have got to do it with customers".

She warns that it can sometime be a shock for organisations to discover who their customers really are. "They have a romantic notion as to who their customers are which is based on folk lore and on who they would like them to be". The rewards of getting it right, though, are immense. Catherine says: "It means that organisations become more effective at getting more of the right customers because they knew who is making them money. They can sell more to existing customers and they also become far more effective at servicing those customers" .

She says that one of the key strengths of the Customer Essential team is the quality of its collective experience. "We have real experience in a wide range of industries. We have made the mistakes and blown the budget and that makes a difference. Only if you have actually sat there and cleaned data do you do understand how important it is. This means we are in a very good position to mentor people at all levels of an organisation about all the different aspects of customer management".

As well as her data and people skills, one of the qualities Catherine brings to the team is empathy, which enables her to get a real insight into the people she works with. She says: "I try to get into the mindsets of the people we are mentoring and look at how the message we are delivering is going to sit alongside the other things that they are being told to do".

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Qualifications: BA (Hons) in English with Philosophy from Sheffield university.

Particular skills: Empathy and bringing a human dimension to data.

Catherine is a Freelance Consultant