In Asia, one cannot overstate the importance of inclusion in enhancing customer experience with its diverse population, comprising various ethnicities, cultures, languages, and traditions. Creating an inclusive environment is crucial for businesses to cater to their needs and preferences. In embracing diversity and fostering inclusion, companies can better understand the perspectives and requirements of customers, leading to more personalised and tailored products and services.
We look at how inclusive practices play a significant role in building trust and loyalty among customers, and how incorporating inclusive strategies in the operations businesses can tap into the market segments and reach a wider customer base.
Ultimately prioritising inclusion, women inclusion, particularly, not only enhances the overall customer experience but also contributes to the long-term success and sustainability of businesses and the diverse and dynamic market landscape of Asia.
Customer experience and inclusion
Jacqueline Guichelaar, senior vice president and general manager of customer experience for Asia Pacific, Japan, and Greater China at Cisco, believes promoting inclusion is the right thing to do and a strategic business decision.
She posits it directly impacts a company’s ability to deliver superior customer experience.
“Being a person who has been in technology for 33 years, I am very metrics-driven. I am always looking for the latest data points that show their importance. I believe in it from an emotional perspective, but if you look at it from a factual perspective, McKenzie publisher report and Harvard Business Review, amongst other statistics, show inclusive teams make better decisions up to 87% of the time. Companies that embrace gender diversity are 25% more likely to have above-average returns,” she explained.
She said inclusion can directly impact customers by increasing satisfaction, which can accelerate the company’s growth. Particularly regarding women's inclusion, she acknowledges how women excel in emotional intelligence and empathy, which she considers keys to understanding and addressing customer concerns and building solutions.
Inclusion at Cisco
Being a customer at Cisco for decades before venturing into a career in the company, Guichelaar said that she found its culture and sense of belonging attractive.
“What struck me is that these are people who care about people. When we say Cisco wants to empower an inclusive future for all, it is not just a slogan. Cisco invests hundreds of millions of dollars around the world to create better technology and digitise communities,” she said.
Guichelaar said the company commits to giving back to the community by letting employees pick their causes and granting them ten days to serve others.
“I have lost count of how many communities we have in Cisco, but I can tell you that pretty much every single employee uses the ten days they are given to do all of that. Bringing the power of the different perspectives of people and allowing them to choose brings out the best. It encourages people to want to be part of teams and communities that want to change the world for the better,” she said.
Obstacle to inclusion
“I am very focused on trying to understand why more women do not either move into the technology path when they are young,” she said.
Statistics reveal that women make up about 35% of the tech workforce globally, a significant improvement since the early 2000s, when women only made up 9%. Guichelaar said she tries to lead by example and share her story as much as possible.
“There are parts of Asia, Pacific Japan, and Greater China where I see lower percentages of women in the more senior levels,” she observed.
In fact, in 2023, women made up only 14% of tech leaders, even though 93% of women under 30 hope for promotion to the next level of their careers, according to Nash Squared Digital Leadership Report, 2023.
“I like to lead by example, and I am always actively looking for great talent and trying to make my team as diverse as possible because I know truly diverse teams bring up strength,” she said.
Success factors in inclusion
“As a team, recently, we hired several customer success executives, and we nearly hit 50% for the 1st time ever on diverse hiring,” she quipped.
For Guichelaar, regular discussions and performance reviews helped Cisco achieve its inclusion targets.
“How are we doing? How is our performance? What does our diversity look like? Are our teams open? Are they supporting each other? If you don't monitor, you can't manage,” she explained.
Guichelaar added that Cisco is leveraging technology to reach underserved communities, saying that, “Technology is a powerful tool for achieving inclusion and customer experience. I believe the more people you bring to the table with different views, the better outcomes for your customers.”
Guichelaar also highlighted Cisco’s collaborative culture that goes beyond being just a buzzword.
“When collaboration works, teams come together at their best. I do not always get it right, but I know when you get that click happen between your leadership team, it does not matter what job I do, but we win together. We win with a diverse team. We are stronger together in front of our customers in giving them our best if we are at our best.”
When collaboration works, teams come together at their best.
Jacqueline Guichelaar
Raising the bar
As someone who kept moving around the globe to pursue her career journey, Guichelaar said it helped her raise the bar of inclusion. Now that she is a leader at Cisco, she considers it her next transformation.
“But again, it has to have the secret sauce: It has to be a diverse team. We have to make sure we are measuring all the right things. We have to ensure we are having the right conversations and we have to continue to raise the bar. We will raise the bar on diversity. We will raise the bar on inclusion. We will raise the bar on collaboration,” she concluded.
Click on the PodChat player to hear Guichelaar's insights on inclusion and how it deepens customer experience:
1. The IWD2024 theme is inclusion. How would you relate “customer experience” and inclusion?
2. Specific to IWD2024, to what extent does this sense of belonging, relevance and empowerment exist in your organisation? In your role? In the society/community you live in?
3. What is the most prevalent obstacle to inclusion (narrowing to CX)?
4. Drawing from your experience, what can learn in terms of achieving inclusion (narrowing to CX)?
5. Your role has two faces: internal (marshalling your team) and external (customers and partners) How will you inspire inclusion (in your function/in the enterprise)?
6. How do you plan to elevate your commitment to inspiring inclusion?
