Our Team
Caroline Pearce
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Mobile: +44 (0)7968-259743 caroline.pearce @ customeressential.com |
Caroline Pearce enjoys helping people within an organisation to understand and believe in Customer Management and considers this is one of the key skills she brings to the Customer Essential team. She says: "I am very enthusiastic and passionate about what I do. I absolutely love complex challenges. I enjoy going into an organisation and understanding how that organisation ticks, who the key people are and very quickly building relationships with them. Inspiring them to believe and working with them to deliver - a better, consistent customer experience, an aligned customer focused business and successful consumer marketing within their efficiency targets."
And the full interview...
Caroline has been focusing on Customer Management for the last 15 years. Whilst specialising in consumer marketing she is experienced in all aspects of customer management, skills which were critical when she helped to launch MORE TH>N, the direct to consumer insurance arm of Royal and Sun Alliance. The emphasis there was on delivering a great experience for the customer whilst optimising both retention and sales during this time she realised just how much she enjoyed the Customer Management discipline.
For Caroline the success of Customer Management should not be judged by sales targets alone. She says: "It is about the way that a whole organization operates. Some organisations think that customer management is a way of generating sales from their Customer base without always appreciating this relies upon consistent service delivery. You have got to have your whole organisation behind it to be able to optimise the benefits at sale, retention or repurchase and, in particular, to encourage advocacy".
Indeed what appeals to her is the way that good customer management brings together all parts of an organisation. She says: "Organisations tend to be very much focused around a particular function, for example an HR department, a sales function, product development or pricing. In many organisations these work very individually. What I love about customer management is helping people in very disparate organisational sections to work together, talk together and actually deliver for the customer together. Every part of an organisation can make a huge difference to your consumers. It¹s very exciting and really rewarding".
With the customer management industry still in its formative years, Caroline sees part of her role as educating companies about the enormous possibilities that good customer management can offer. She says: "I don't think some companies yet really understand the potential. Frequently they are focusing on reducing their costs and the length of their transactions with the customer and they are concerned that doing the right thing by the customer goes completely against that. But it does not, you can do both. You can reduce costs cleverly so that a Customer doesn't feel the difference - because you have concentrated on reducing costs in the right areas and focusing spend in the areas that really make a difference". This is where Customer Essential comes in. She says: "Individual companies have very different internal challenges and I think Customer Essential is unique in understanding and respecting that".
Another key quality of the Customer Essential team is that they are very keen on empowering the companies they work with. "We don¹t just go in and apply our skills in isolation, leaving the business in a better place but nobody else any the wiser. We leave the people who work there in a better place too because they know more, they have got more confidence and they understand better what customer management is about and how to apply it", says Caroline. For Caroline the challenge of getting the message across helping people within an organisation to understand and believe in Customer Management – is one of the key skills she brings to the Customer Essential team. She says: "I am very enthusiastic and passionate about what I do. I absolutely love complex challenges. I enjoy going into an organisation and understanding how that organisation ticks, who the key people are and very quickly building relationships with them. Inspiring them to believe and working with them to deliver - a better, consistent customer experience, an aligned customer focused business and successful consumer marketing within their efficiency targets".
FACTFILE
Qualifications: Cranfield school of management business - focusing on marketing and consumer management. Institute of Direct Marketing - on customer value and customer management.
Particular skill: the enthusiasm and the ability to communicate effectively in order to inspire.
Caroline is a Freelance Consultant