Emma Cornwell, Chief Customer Officer for the myHomecare Group, is passionate about creating value and seamless communication channels for customers.
Commencing her career in sales, in the automotive and publishing industries, Emma has worked for a number of organisations across a range of industries. She reflects, “Later I started a position at the NRMA, then I worked for Weight Watchers and finally I started working in home care services. My roles varied greatly within these organisations but they all involved helping to build brands and transitioning organisations from being monopolies to operating in highly competitive markets”.
The one thing that has always remained constant is Emma’s commitment to customers. The diversity of her career and the changing roles she has taken on has allowed her to develop an understanding of all aspects of a business and what this means for the customer.
“I started my career building customer value propositions for people wanting to purchase media and advertising products. To a large extent that is still what I do today. But instead of media and publishing, it’s now home based aged care services. So, I have always been at the interface between the customer and the business, helping brands build and develop their value propositions for customers”.
Emma’s role at myHomecare
myHomecare is a private equity backed aged home care group. myHomecare came into existence in February when three separate nursing and home care businesses joined – Sue Mann Nursing and Community Care, Enrich Living Services and Bromilow. The new brand has come into being during a period of dramatic change in the aged care services industry.
Emma comments, “In the last three years the industry has grown from 500 age home care providers in Australia to nearly 1000. Prior to 2017 providers were allocated their client, but since the move to consumer directed care, numerous competitors have entered the market”.
The greater competition has brought numerous challenges as well as opportunities for players in the industry. Being able to add value and engage customers has become critical. “Never in a million years would I have seen myself working in aged home care 10 years ago. But it is possibly one of the fastest changing industries in Australia and I’m excited to be a part of it.”
Emma’s primary responsibilities include the acquisition, engagement and retention of clients. Under her portfolio she manages a range of teams that look after marketing, client support, internal communications and customer experience. “One of the main challenges is that with the proliferation of providers, older people can find it very confusing when deciding which provider to go with. So, my role is very concerned with creating a value proposition that actually meets the needs of the market that we’re talking to and helps people make informed decisions”.
Listen to your customers
“In terms of customer experience the biggest or most important thing is to listen to your customers. Your customers will tell you everything you need to know – it’s more a matter of where and when you are listening to them.”
“We understood from listening to our customers’ feedback there was a large group of what we would call the ‘sandwich generation’ – influencers and people seeking information about when they need to be thinking about home care for their parents, how to approach the subject with their loved ones and how to make an informed decision when selecting a provider.”
“In response to this feedback we built a customer journey and content strategy that included the development of the myHomecare portal. The portal is essentially, a navigation tool for people to help inform then. We also worked with a clinical psychologist to develop a ‘Ask your folks’ guide – which is the first of its kind in Australia.”
myHomecare’s strategy provides consumers with a service that solved a problem and provided them with real value by providing them with useful content, a lot earlier in their journey. The success of their strategy has been measured by the creation of a solid pipeline and establishing myHomecare as a thought leader in the industry.
All paths lead to a career in CX
Many Chief Customer Officers typically come from a diverse range of backgrounds – fulfilling various roles across different functional areas of an organisation. Emma believes the ability to understand all aspects of a business and engage stakeholders from across the organisation is critical to a successful career in CX.
She advises those professionals at the start of their career, “Gain as much experience as you can in every expect of an organisation as you can. I believe I was very lucky to have worked in a variety of jobs with some great organisations that helped me build my career path. That ability to think on the other side of the coin and engage stakeholders is vital to overcoming internal challenges and roadblocks to achieving your CX vision and goals.
Emma Cornwell is presenting at the Chief Customer Officer Melbourne 28 – 29 April. Chief Customer Officer Melbourne brings together Australia’s customer experience C-suite for two days of exceptional networking and problem-solving. In the era of customer obsession, we focus on the nuts and bolts of how practitioners have executed successful CX transformation strategies and impacted the business bottom line.