Customer Experience Magazine is profiling the top 10 Professionals and Influencers from our Top 50 CX Stars list.
Here we look at Number 9 in each category. CCXP Marion Ellis, of BlueBox Partners and the Women in Surveying Network, is today’s featured Professional, and our Influencer is globally-renowned consultant and author Nick Hague .
We welcome feedback on our CX Stars list, and all correspondence should be sent to paul@cxm.world.
Number 9
Marion Ellis
Managing Director at at BlueBox Partners
Marion Ellis is the first name that will come to mind for most when considering Customer Experience in the world of property surveying.
It was while working for a large surveying firm undertaking valuations and surveys that her understanding of the importance of CX in the field was cemented, and Milton Keynes-based Marion has since went on to achieve her CCXP accreditation and bring her instinct for customer centricity to her own firm, BlueBox Partners, an alliance of experienced valuers and surveyors committed to supporting the professional development, and personal well-being of other valuers and surveyors.
Marion also sits on the Governing Council of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and is the founder of the Women in Surveying Network, which aims to help surveyors as they navigate and become established in the field.
Events including the online Sisterhood Summit have provided valuable female perspectives on the industry, and the influence of Women in Surveying continues to grow thanks to Marion’s dedication to providing opportunities and a platform for peers.
Among her inspirations is fellow Top 50 CX Star and the UK’s top CX consultant, Ian Golding, whose mentorship she has used to help her inspire and guide others beginning their journey in Customer Experience.
Marion says: “Kindness – just allowing ourselves to use the word in business is significant. You can still have tough contracts, robust processes, and make difficult commercial decisions, and yet still be kind.”
Meanwhile, Marion is a firm advocate of keeping kindness at the centre of business strategy – a refreshing take in corners of today’s business world, where cutthroat tactics are often lauded.
A professional through-and-through, Marion’s ambition knows no bounds, and is one to watch for further success in 2020.
Number 9
Nick Hague
A name likely familiar to anyone even with a passing knowledge of customer centricity, Nick Hague is an original founder of market research experts B2B International and over the last two decades has assisted over 500 business-to-business firms measure and improve the experience they deliver to clients and customers.
Many CXM readers will no doubt have a copy of his bestselling book B2B Customer Experience to hand, and if you don’t – but run a B2B business – then do yourself a favour and make the purchase.
The book – which was shortlisted in the 2019 Business Book Awards – was co-authored by Nick’s father Paul Hague, himself a co-founder of B2B International and one of the UK’s leading authorities on the art of market research and helping companies achieve their strategic goals.
Nick cites Paul as his biggest inspiration in business and the world of Customer Experience, and describing the journey they have taken together, he told us: “We built B2B International with just three of us in Manchester in 1998, and now we employ over 120 staff across 10 offices around the world. The secret sauce to doing this has been through building an internal culture and engaged workforce that understands that the customer is king. You need to practice what you preach!”
Nick says: “The one essential component to delivering excellent Customer Experience is to make your company easy to do business with. This is always a company-wide challenge.
Like father-like son, Nick shows that a love of helping businesses achieve their full potential for customers is something that runs in the family. A truly global CX Star, and one of the first names you should consider if a rise in NPS scores is on your agenda for 2020.
Click here for profiles of our Number 10 Professionals and Influencers.