Kathryn Simons-Porter holds a Masters in Business Management and a Post Grad Diploma in Applied CX and Emotional Intelligence. More recently Kathryn co-authored the Global No1 Best Seller ‘The AI Mindset’. Starting her career initially in tech and selling contact centre solutions to some of the world’s leading brands, Kathryn became a CX Specialist in 2015. Kathryn has gone on to speak at a number of CX Day events and is a member of various associations, including the global community, Women in CX. Kathryn is currently the VP of Sales (EMEA) for Local Measure, a global CX platform, powered by Amazon Connect.
Recently, in an exclusive interview with CXO Magazine, Kathryn shared insights on what fuels her passion for CX and how her perspective has evolved over her 25-years of career, her secret to striking work-life balance, future plans, words of wisdom, and much more. The following excerpts are taken from the interview.
Hi Kathryn. What drives your passion for revolutionizing customer experiences, and how do you stay current with emerging trends and technologies?
What drives my passion is a real interest and fascination with human psychology – what drives human behaviour. I have been in the CX industry now for over 25 years and so I like to think I have picked up a few things along the way, and while I started out selling telephony and contact centre technology, and now working for a comprehensive & consolidated CX vendor, I very much focus on the outcome that we are trying to get to – which is typically to improve Csat yet also while reducing operational cost.
In terms of how I stay current – well it helps that I am simply very interested in the subject of customer experience, and thoroughly enjoy reports such as Contact Babel’s array of insight, and the Customer Satisfaction Index, for example – these two report types give me a good understanding of the organisation and the customer’s perspectives. I also tune into podcasts when at the gym; Martin Teesdale, Adrian Swinscoe – all fun yet really interesting conversation and learning. Its so important to hear others’ perspectives and stories. Plus of course, I work for a world class CX vendor so specialising in AI in the context of CX is just part of my job!
What do you love the most about your current role?
Over the last few years, I have studied the subject of Emotional Intelligence, and in particular how EQ plays a key role in the delivery of high performing teams, greater customer service, and overall better business performance. Despite working for a leading technology vendor, I work with companies now looking at how AI can be used across the entire customer journey, looking for where AI EQ can be applied. Due to the breadth of our consolidated CX platform I really believe that we have all the right tools needed to improve Experience for all – whether thats Customer, Employee – or the Business. I love to use my experience to help guide other sales professionals coming up through their careers. This is a really fast moving and highly saturated market and being successful means being current (at the very least) if not looking at how to help companies innovate, continuously over time.
Can you share your perspective on the importance of empathy and human touch in customer experience, and how you promote these values in your own leadership practice?
Well, empathy is just one EQ capability. It is important, but empathy alone will not resolve customer issues. Empathy needs to be used in conjunction with (for instance) Active Listening, ability to Demonstrate Ownership etc. Self Awareness and Awareness of others. These attributes lead to far greater outcomes than empathy alone. Empathy alone is of little use in customer service, all it will do is create more traffic with repeat callers needing to get issues resolved. Customers just want to get their issues resolved, first time – in fact the recent Contact Babel report showed us that the biggest trigger of CSat is still FCR. Not to mention operational savings gained.
Tell us more about your book, “The AI Mindset,” and how you believe AI can cultivate emotional intelligence in the workplace?
I was asked to co-author this book in Spring 2024, after Erik Sevensen (the lead Author) read my Post Graduate Dissertation. My Post Grad is in ‘Applied CX and Emotional Intelligence’ and the Dissertation was about the use of AI in the Contact Centre. The Post Grad Dissertation was written through the lens of AI in March 2021 however, the book is written through the lens of GenAI, and looks at various examples of using GenAI to cultivate EQ in workplace employees across the entire organisation, and the outcomes than then follow. Its still pretty early days and AI and GenAI should always be used with a Human in the Loop approach to ensure accuracy, removal of bias and to ensure ethics. The book was published in December 2024 and became a No 1 Best Selling in five countries by Christmas, which was rather nice!
What has been your experience as a frequent CX and EX judge, and what you look for when evaluating customer experience excellence?
I admit that the book took up so much time last year, and my house move and a family bereavement that the Judging went on hold for 2024. I hope to get back to it in the next season, as I love to hear about all the wonderful things that companies do for their employees and for the greater good of their customers. As for what I look for, I look for companies that take the time to understand the end-to-end journeys, measure structured and unstructured feedback in realtime – use technology appropriately, there are still companies out there that employ people to manually listen to calls for agent quality monitoring purposes, which is pretty ludicrous, not to mention expensive. Give agents AI desktop tools so they can easily do their jobs, for me its all about the people.
Do you notice a lack of women in CX? If so, why do you think that’s the case?
You ask a female that has always worked in tech this!! When I started there were less than 5% women in tech sales, for well over a decade I had to be ‘one of the boys’. The contact centre operation has always been woman dominant, and in CX I see a good split. Local Measure recently sponsored an Executive lunch with the CCMA, our discussion topic being on DEI and there were 2 men and 18 women in attendance. There are some seriously smart, incredible, knowledgeable female powerhouses out there but male or female – there is no relevance in that, its about the work ethic and the credibility of the individual.
Looking back, which women in your life have had the most influence on your career?
My late mum was certainly an inspiration from an early age, working with two kids, and then completing two degrees whilst poorly with terminal cancer. Mum was great at bringing people together, creating community. We travelled a lot for my dad’s job and each place we landed in, mum would create a women’s group (that I affectionately called ‘The Handbags Club’). She ran for Local Council, had a strong moral compass and was a great role model. My Aunt holds a Phd, had had a very successful career lecturing and leading on the subject of palliative and bereavement care and also is the founder of an award winning children’s charity (Seesaw) in Oxfordshire. So two women from my family that are held in my core when it comes to values and principles.
What is your secret behind striking a work-life balance?
Probably age! You learn as you get older to listen to your body and your surroundings and act accordingly. Having run my own company and also having worked for many global organisations (and timezone challenges) – I have never been a 9-5 worker. My nemesis being sleep – I suffered from Chronic Insomnia throughout my 30s and it took a while to re-train my brain to sleep, and I did this training with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. I am now very mindful and aware of triggers. That said, and as my husband will concur, I am never too far away from my laptop! Exercise is SO important for my mental health, and so I keep fit, I ran the Medoc Marathon for Andys Mans Club (a men’s mental health charity) two years ago, and I have also hiked a few mountains and done a bit of skydiving for charity – although I think those days are now over! Im happy in my garden, spending time with family, friends and of course our cocker spaniel, Willow.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years from now?
I am very lucky that I love what I do, and I invest in continuous self development. For instance I am just about to commence another EQ qualification, focusing on the intrinsic link between EQ and business outcomes. So I dont think I will ever stop learning, which I think is really important in this industry. Things move too fast to stay still – technology, economic, social, political, human psychology – all these factors reshape the industry in a never ending way. I hope we will have finished our house renovations in five years (!) and I can sit in the garden with my husband and Willow or spend time with my all time best friend who lives in New Zealand, sipping local wine with the sun on our faces. From a professional perspective, I don’t know, I am now 50 and so a NED role is attractive, working with a start up for instance or spending more time helping companies applying EQ throughout their teams in order to gain better business outcomes.
What advice would you give to aspiring leaders looking to drive customer-centric transformation within their organizations?
I took my first CX certification in 2015, courtesy of the wonderful Ian Golding, and back then there were hardly any CX folk in organisations. Now its a crowded room. There is a LOT of noise. Linked In is full of bloviate, which hinders root cause and subsequent fix of issues. For newly qualified CX leaders or people handed CX projects – wow, there is SO much noise to tune out.
At a time when budgets are being cut, consumer spending is low, we need to get back to the basics – measurement of good old fashioned metrics of FCR. Understand intent, consolidate data, bring your systems together, work cohesively across the operation. You know, the lightbulb was NOT created by trying to improve the candle, the lightbulb emerged from a radical shift in technology. With the technology now at our fingertips there has been no better time to really drive change.