From the Frontlines to the Strategy Room: Beckerman’s Playbook for CX Success
Frost & Sullivan recently chatted with customer contact leader extraordinaire Natalie Beckerman. Natalie has run top tier, large scale operations driving transformation and change, leading strategy and delivering service excellence across the globe.
Natalie was fresh off her success hosting the Women’s Leadership Alliance Workshop – an action-oriented forum focused on participants’ growth journeys – featured at the 21st Annual Customer Contact East: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange in April. As she noted, the workshop focused on “women’s leadership, what makes up leadership and advocacy for women in customer experience.”
Natalie graciously answered the following questions about her own journey as a customer experience leader, sharing key lessons and insights gleaned overseeing customer service teams and developing exceptional relationships with colleagues at every level along the way.
Lessons from a “Fixer”
Q: The Women’s Leadership Alliance Workshop was extremely well received and participants want more! Many really appreciated the conversational format and blend of personal and professional insights shared. Will there be another collaboration with Frost & Sullivan? If so, can you share any details?
A: Absolutely! The Women’s Leadership Alliance Workshop was a tremendous success. The engaging conversational format and the rich mix of personal and professional insights truly resonated with participants. I’m excited to share that, due to the overwhelmingly positive feedback and strong interest, another workshop is in the works for the 22nd Annual Contact Center West: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange taking place October 19-22nd in Tucson, Arizona.
I will be collaborating once again with Frost & Sullivan to bring you an even more impactful experience. I can’t yet reveal all the details just yet, but you can expect deeper dives into leadership development, expanded networking and mentorship opportunities, and fresh, inspiring voices joining the workshop. Please stay tuned. This next workshop promises to be even more powerful, and I can’t wait to see you there!
Q: You’ve been described as a “fixer” — proficient in leading change and even transformation. What skills – hard and soft – do you think have contributed to your success?
A: Yes, I love to make things better and am always looking for better ways to do things. Firstly, I do think there is a set of skills that help differentiate those successful in transformation and those not. My top three soft skills are:
- Strategic thinking—the ability to see and understand the big picture.
- Change Leadership—being comfortable with both ambiguity and complexity.
- Inspirational—being able to bring others along the journey for change. Negotiations for navigating finding common ground.
My top hard skills enabling execution are probably operational and process improvement, being familiar with frameworks for success, data-driven decision making, using analytics to identify both problems and impact as well as using change management methodologies. Brings me back to my MBA days using Kotter’s 8 step model—yes, I still use this. You have to have a vision, think big, and be strategic, but understand the skills it takes to execute and deliver.
Q: Any advice for women in CX roles about how to make the leap from middle management to strategist, vice president, or leadership?
A: You can’t just run the operation; you must be able to strategize ways and opportunities to drive growth. You need to be able to articulate revenue, retention, customer lifetime value benefits. You need to be able to build cross functional fluency. The other big thing I would say is to build relationship capital. Why I have been successful is that I have built relationships effectively with partners and those who can execute. Lastly, I’d say lead with impact, not only effort.
Understanding the “Beckerman Five”
Q: I’ve been writing about the customer contact industry for a while, and have yet to come across a true, consistent example of omni-channel service delivery – have you?
Well, it has certainly been the buzzword for a while now, and I do believe it can exist. I also have a different view that we should find which interactions should go to which channel and all channels don’t service well for all customers. I could name a few better-known brands that have done this well, but I guess I am urging people to think about their customers in different ways and for organizations to think about what the best channel is for the best interaction and really personalize the approach.
Digital and physical intersections are valuable but not the only way. All need to be customer-focused and customer-centric for meeting customer needs, but not all can meet all needs.
Q: And how about that other big buzzword – “seamless?” As in seamless integration, seamless operations, a seamless customer experience? Is seamless really possible?
A: Seamless is possible, but once achieved, doesn’t mean it’s over or you are done with it. You need the right architecture, strategy and mindset…and ongoing investment and alignment across technology, people, and processes.
Q: “Rapidly evolving customer expectations” is another common industry refrain. How to meet them? Or, perhaps, re-set customer expectations?
A: You’re absolutely right: “rapidly evolving customer expectations” is the mantra of nearly every customer experience (CX) and service leader today. The speed of change, driven by technology, personalization, and convenience puts pressure on brands to either keep up, lead, or reset the playing field.
Here are a few of things to keep in mind that I like to call the “Beckerman Five”:
- Be radical. Embrace channel convergence and remove friction.
- Use both real time customer insights AND historical data.
- Be agile and design with agility. Fix and fail and flex FAST.
- Digitize with purpose and passion, not just cost savings. This is one of my biggest beefs. People say let’s switch to messaging rather than voice, when it takes five times longer to transact and it ends in a voice call–BIG BEEF there.
- Align effort, loyalty and engagement measures, not just CSAT.
Described as a fixer in the customer experience and customer contact space, Natalie Beckerman has run top tier, large scale operations driving transformation and change, leading strategy, while conquering operational and service excellence across the globe. She is known to build new business, increase revenue and turn around performance, while at the same time reenergizing and invigorating businesses and leaders. Natalie has done this in the telecommunications/mobile, Home Services, Hospitality and Fintech/Financial services industries.
