A very warm welcome to the October 2024 edition of the CX Talent Ltd Newsletter. Kate Baird and Jo van Riemsdijk are very grateful to Nicola Langley– voted one of the most inspiring women in Automotive and Volkswagen UK’s Customer Experience Strategy Head -for her time and insights in this months’ interview.
- Nicola, you are currently heading up CX Strategy at Volkswagen UK. Can you tell us what this entails?
I have a varied role at Volkswagen which I love. Looking across the customer lifecycle, I have responsibility for CX vision and strategy, as you would expect from my job title! This continues into customer journey mapping, customer measurement and action planning, CRM and loyalty, and finally data and insight.
The days and weeks fly by as there is a lot going on across my team but having the opportunity to shape and influence all those areas that are key in CX is a privilege and it’s fun.
My role is mirrored across the other Volkswagen brands which means I work very closely with my peers in Audi, Skoda, Seat and Cupra. It’s a great position to be in as you have the strength of the Group but the opportunity to develop brand specific experiences.
- You’ve got some fantastic experience across Telco and automotive. Please can you tell us which role you’ve enjoyed the most and why?
Now that’s a hard question! My role at Virgin Media holds lots of special memories for me as the brand name gave you permission to do things differently. Within the CX team, we worked across all areas of the business to design and deliver standout experiences.
It was my first dedicated CX role and I learnt a huge amount from fantastic colleagues who were genuinely ahead of the curve in many aspects of CX. I do believe this set the bar high for me when deciding on future roles.
- What has been your biggest success in terms of CX initiatives in your career to date?
Following on from my previous answer, the Voice of our Brand initiative at Virgin Media was great fun to be involved in. Virgin brands have an expectation upon them to deliver an experience that feels Virgin. The brand stands for something that is different and the Voice of our Brand objective was to design a framework that the customer-facing teams could use to deliver a Virgin branded experience to their customer. The project included teams from across the different stages of the journey, from the sales teams to the customer service teams and the engineers out installing/repairing customer broadband or TV.
I loved being involved in this project as you had the sense of delivering something exceptional to the business – something that truly made a difference to the customers but also the employees who were doing an amazing job. The impact of the project resulted in an uplift in all the key customer and business metrics.
I know you don’t get involved in projects to win awards, but our exceptionally talented cross-functional team went on to win a UK Customer Experience Award. It was a very proud moment to be recognised.
- Not all CX initiatives go to plan, have you ever had one that has failed or gone wrong and how did you learn from it?
I can’t think of a specific initiative. Although I’m sure there are things that haven’t gone to plan! When I think of times that haven’t gone to plan, it tends to come back to not getting the brief or deliverables fully defined. Achieving those quick wins, by their very nature, can be easier to achieve but when it comes to strategic projects, being clear on the deliverables and timeframes you plan to deliver within is something I have learnt.
- What skillsets do you feel people wanting to pursue a career CX now need to really develop?
In my CX experience, regardless of industry; stakeholder management and relationships have been critical to success. For example, it’s easy to define the ideal customer experience but if you haven’t engaged the business and those involved in delivering the experience, you will struggle to launch and embed.
Taking time to understand the business you’re working within is critical too. I started my career in operational roles so understood the pain points customers had and how different parts of the business worked. As part of a CX team, you need to understand your customers – both internally and externally. Having strong relationships across the organisation allows you to test and validate your thinking at an early stage.
- Employee development and engagement has always been really important to you. Can you tell us what makes the development strategies for your teams so successful?
We all know that employee engagement is linked to customer engagement, so it’s always been an area of focus for me. I love seeing people develop and feel as a CX leader, this is an important part of my role. In the same way we take the time to understand our customers, as a leader, we should take the time to understand our teams too.
Every member of the team has their own strengths and it’s my job to make sure they have the tools (systems, processes, knowledge, mentoring etc) to be successful. I love seeing people achieve their aspirations – even if that means people moving onto new roles or organisations.
It’s important to recognise that development can be very different to different people. I like to work with people to make sure the development strategy is right for them, as well as delivers the business needs. Talking about development can’t be a discussion twice a year at performance review times – this is a pet hate of mine. it must be an ongoing discussion as, not only can the business priorities change so can an individual.
Kate Baird and Jo van Riemsdijk would like to give our enormous thanks to Nicola Langley for making the time to speak to us. We hope that you’ve enjoyed reading this latest edition of our Senior CX Leaders series.
CX Talent Ltd produces a newsletter monthly where we interview a senior CX Leader on their views and insights about working in CX and the skills and experience that they feel candidates will need for the future. If you do not want to miss out on these incredibly valuable observations and views – do hit the subscribe button!
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