Marcus Child: If employees thrive, so will the business

Finding the most effective way to lead a high performing business culture will be foremost on the agenda at UCC this Friday when motivational speaker Marcus Child presents the keynote presentation.

“Ideas to help leaders create the conditions for employees to thrive and grow at work, so they in turn deliver brilliant experiences for customers,” he explains of his part in the seminar entitled - ‘Making the Difference in Customer & Employee Experience Excellence’ - taking place the Devere Hall. “Courage, confidence, hopefulness, optimism and positivity are always relevant as the future is always uncertain.”

Amongst the key takeaways from his presentation will be: insights into how to create and embed memorable customer and employee experiences; identify what it takes to succeed in Employee Experience and Customer Experience; appraise where you are at on the Customer Experience transformation journey; and anticipate the typical blockers to providing excellent customer experiences and techniques on how to successfully deal with them. Known for his ability to inspire confidence and new thinking, Child has amassed an impressive reputation for helping individuals and organisations embrace change positively and successfully.

Those who succeed believe in three things, he says: “People. It’s not all about them. They know that other people are key to our progress, they trust others.” He adds that “inspiration is a contact sport - if you travel together you go much further than you would alone.” Positivity is another key - “They have real belief that they will prevail, and they have a can-do attitude, the habit of bright-sidedness.”

Added to this is a sense of purpose: “They are ambitious and live and work with a real desire to improve. “They are prepared to set bold courageous targets and this stirs them to keep working hard when less-inspired people would give up.”

Customer retention and growth is critical to all business, and the Mardyke Arena UCC is no different, says Wayne Falvey, Marketing & Quality Manager, Mardyke Arena, UCC. “We are delighted that Marcus Child has agreed to come to Cork to deliver this seminar on the importance of both customer and employee experience excellence within business. Creating the right service culture amongst employees will help maintain high levels of customer service which in turn will lead to increased customer loyalty. Marcus will give insights in how to create and embed memorable customer and employee experience and how to make the difference in every customer interaction,” he adds.

Child emphasises exploiting work as an opportunity for self-improvement as well as commercial success, and has helped an impressive number of CEOs, MDs, boards, business teams, sportspeople and politicians to realise bold and extraordinary goals.

“Whilst I don’t really deal in national stereotypes, I always enjoy speaking in Ireland because people have a well-developed sense of humour there,” Child explains. “They’re quick to see the irony in a situation, and don’t take me or themselves too seriously. Being pompous and dogmatic in these times isn’t helpful. My message is as much about serving your people as well as leading them,” he adds. We need to be flexible, keep things in perspective and humble enough to try new things, adjust course and learn. “I suppose people in Ireland have had to bounce back from economic setbacks in the recent past so they know what it takes to focus on controlling the controllables.” He admits to having been “mediocre at best at school, failed O levels, lacking self-belief.” At 16 a teacher took him rock-climbing - an event that changed everything.

“My teacher, Antony Shannon, totally backed me and has since become my oldest friend. He taught me to climb, have ambition and to believe in myself. I ended up writing a climbing guidebook, going to Cambridge, where I got a PGCE with distinction, and which launched me into a lifetime of working with companies. It’s amazing what people and companies can achieve we they truly believe in themselves and each other,” he concludes.

Devere Hall, UCC, Friday August 30 - admission free - tickets Eventbrite