“Ensuring Customer Success First”

Catherine Swee, former Head of Marketing, APAC & ME, NICE, says being analytical and inquisitive has taught her a lot, right from being data-driven and understand what works, what doesn’t work, why so, and what’s next? “This helps the team to understand why these data matters in drawing insights and how we can become better. When some information seems incomplete or misleading, how do we uncover that information or even uncover underlying implications to take next best-informed action?” Alongside, personalization (humility) and empathy is a big necessity when dealing with people because knowing how people work, their strengths, and what makes them tick will facilitate better understanding and increase effectiveness. Communicating effectively and practicing agility to pivot in a timely manner to stay ahead of the curve is equally essential. Lastly, being bold and creative is a must-have quality for every leader of today, as one has to be bold enough to make the extra effort to overcome the hurdles.

"With more than 20 years of regional experience in Marketing and Business Development, I’ve observed the many shifts in the market – from wave of disruption by the Cloud, Automation and Artificial Intelligence, to the exponential growth of data, down to rapid pace of change in consumer behaviour and expectations."

“I’ve met many talented people from different walks. I’m honored to have the opportunity to recruit and coached a number of them in my career path and thank those who had helped and enabled me one way or the other to who I am today. There are many who reached out to me via events and social media to seek advice on how to get onto a marketing career or excel professionally,” says Catherine. “Some guiding principles which I’ll usually share besides offering my support with an earnest listening ear is to ask them to have a clear vision, aim high and set key milestones. Today’s leaders have to be responsible and accountable, stay focused and on track along with being passionate and courageous.” She adds, “have a balanced life and inject some fun along the way. Regardless of the situation, there’s always something for us to learn from it.”

Being the head of marketing, Catherine believes every organization has to ensure they have customer success. Only when the customer wins and experiences success in their organization can one look at creating further success beyond the original contract. “It is critical that we build trust and deliver on win-win scenarios when we go to market to share our customer success. We typically manage and identify how our customer would like to further brand/ position themselves with their success,” she says. “If the customer has certain pending objectives, we can help them achieve it through these marketing efforts. Whenever necessary, we pull in a bigger team and resources to support and optimize the end results.” Examples commonly known to many are customer press releases, speaking engagement at events and workshops, customer referral site visits, success case stories in written and video format, and media interviews.

There were occasions where customers sought help organizing their technology day, briefing seminars, and workshops to raise awareness and educate their internal stakeholders on the purchased solution. “For newer technology adoption, we even worked with customers to offer marketing consultation on how to roll out internal enablement and user adoption and their external communications and brand awareness plan,” she says. “Customers are usually very appreciative when we make an effort to understand them better and have their interest at heart to achieve a win-win situation.”

Catherine recently embarked on a new journey with Everbridge after five fruitful years at NICE. She is diving into switching from customer experience space to critical event management and public warning, an area that’s so important, yet not many are fully aware of what this encompasses and how it’s helping to keep people safe and businesses running more effectively. “Everbridge is fairly new in APAC and I see great potential to educate the market and bring the brand to light. I personally think what Everbridge provides matters at a global level and it shouldn’t stay as a well-kept secret,” adds Catherine. “I’ll work on educating the APAC market on what is critical event management, the importance of it and why every second counts when it comes to saving lives and assets. It’s mind blowing when we learn about the impact.” IE