Go For It: Propelling Women Into Customer Service Leadership Roles

Customer service is changing due to AI.

One industry heavily impacted by the shift towards digitization in the wake of COVID-19: customer service. Long-standing customer behaviors were upended during the pandemic, challenging the industry to make dynamic changes to meet new needs and demands. This has led to a rise in tech-driven solutions powered by AI and machine learning, giving the perfect opportunity for a new type of leader to step in and shape the future of CX: women. 

Women helped develop innovative software; however, men took on the leadership when it took off and began infiltrating the industry, leaving women to be promoted to higher-ranking positions at lower rates than their male counterparts. While women account for a large majority of the workforce, it's clear to see there is currently a gap between men and women in leadership roles that is ripe for change. With women in control or influence 85% of spending, they have an unmatched expertise of what customers want and need, making them uniquely qualified to step into those previously unattainable higher-level roles and lead the customer service industry through this technological transformation.

 As women have historically faced challenges assuming executive positions, what more can they do to break the glass ceiling in the customer service industry and lead the tech revolution? In her most recent book, Intentioning, Gloria Feldt, Take The Lead co-founder and president and New York Times best-selling author, speaker, commentator, and feminist activist, shares her insight on how women can seize opportunities created by the pandemic and seek advancement and leadership opportunities within the customer service industry.

Feldt's solution, which can inspire women in CX, is that women must shift how they think about power to achieve true parity with their male counterparts. Shift from the outdated, oppressive "power over" to the expansive, positive, and innovative "power to" to crack the code that has held women from leadership parity. With this in mind, women in customer service must ask themselves how they can carry on their highest intentions.

 One such tactic can be utilizing the power to collaborate rather than compromise, especially for underprivileged employees who are often perceived negatively for standing up for their ideas. Unlike compromise, which requires some form of sacrifice, collaboration provides a solution with all parties addressing each other's needs. There are four steps women leaders can take toward collaboration:

 1. Trust is the backbone of a healthy team. Women can build a culture of trust by leading with empathy and practicing active listening. By listening to employees' thoughts and concerns, leaders can better understand their needs and perspectives to create a supportive environment in which everyone thrives.

2. Identify and align on shared goals and establish the roles and responsibilities necessary to reach them. Approaching the role of a leader who is facilitating success rather than one who is watching failure creates a more productive environment.

3. Understand that a collaborative solution may be different from the traditional one. Feel free to be innovative to prioritize a solution that satisfies all parties, even if there may be some risk involved due to the possibility of unknown outcomes.

4. Speaking of the unknown, let go and embrace the idea that a collaborative solution will be more robust, culturally, and more efficient.

 The challenges women face as they journey to the top allow them to develop their leadership skills significantly. When people collaborate and work together, especially women, it opens the doors for new leaders from under-recognized groups to rise up and embrace their power using community-driven thinking.Organizations, such as CCWomen, are one such community that supports and enables women and their allies to revolutionize the customer contact industry one woman at a time.

Operating on four principles to guide women seeking to grow and be leaders in the customer service industry, CCWomen builds a stage that empowers women through celebration, provides straightforward content backed by research and feedback, and creates a community that any woman would want to be a part of. As the customer service industry is at the cusp of a technological revolution, it's even more pertinent now than ever that women take on leadership roles as they have a unique set of skills that enables them to lead the movement and be transformational role models for the women who come after them.   

Sandy Ko is the Founder and Principal of Customer Contact Women (CCWomen) at the Customer Management Practice, and an award-winning intrapreneur recognized by Leading Women Entrepreneurs and named to Insight Success’ Top 10 Most Ambitious Women in Business to Follow. Sandy noticed the need for a space for women and allies to celebrate women and to support them in their careers, which led her to create CCWomen in 2018, a community for diversity, equity, and inclusion in the customer contact space.