‘I’m a big believer that culture trumps everything’

In this week’s podcast interview, Suzanne Henricksen talks about the importance of exmployees fitting into the company culture, saying that skills can be taught but culture cannot

EPISODE OVERVIEW:

Suzanne Henricksen is Senior Director, Innovation Insights, Sense & Respond Insights, Burt's Bees Insights and Consumer Affairs at The Clorox Company. This week she joins CX Network Podcast Theatre host Seth Adler to talk about how to bring customer service to life in different areas of the business.

Henricksen shares that although she’s been on the west coast for quite some time, she’s an east coaster at heart. Early on in her career she focused on earning respect through actions. After job in debt collections and an internship in Napa Valley, a former classmate came back and recruited her to Clorox.

While the company was an explicit cultural fit, Henricksen began with the brands Armor All and STP- which were not personal fits. But by working with them she learned that she loved market research.

Along the way she realised that she loved managing people too, which led to an opportunity to run customer service; the CEO wanted to know how the company could get value out of the call centre and Henricksen obliged.

She also touches upon the importance of company culture, highlighting that while she can teach employees skills, the fit with the culture has to come naturally.

LISTEN NOW: