Career Insights featuring Jaquie Scammell

Welcome to a special edition of the CX matters podcast my name is Justin Tippett CEO of ACXPA and host of this podcast and in this particular podcast what we want to do is introduce you to one of our Advisory board members because we think they’re bloody awesome so you’re going to make your own opinion up so in this particular episode I would like to introduce Jaquie Scammell welcome Jaquie hey Justin great to see you super excited to have you as part of ACXPA first of all so thank you for coming on board um you are known as Australia’s leading customer service expert and for anyone who’s ever interacted with you I think that comes through in Spades right so we’ll certainly get a taste of that uh in this episode but some I really wanted people to get to I guess have an opportunity to learn a bit of insight about you and your career and and I guess just show everyone just how amazing the opportunities are in this industry because if anyone has made the most of it uh it’s someone like yourself so thank you for coming on and and offering to Bear all should I say in a professional sense so I’m going to cast you way back when Jaquie it’s probably a long time ago although these things go in a bit of a blink of an eye don’t they sometimes but you like I guess many people started their career in good old maccas right like I was just reflecting that’s 30 years ago Justin to the month amazing right incredible I’m probably going to give away my age now but yes the moment I was legally able to work which was 14 years and nine months I was marching into my local McDonald’s store in Port Macquarie New South Wales here in Australia and um I just couldn’t wait to work and of course what a back at the end this is back in the 80s what a wonderful training ground to learn the basics and fundamentals of business but of course the sweet surprise for me was that this was where I fell in love with service yeah yeah it just I think as a young teenager you’re so open-minded and you’re so curious and the world’s ahead of you and you’re going through high school and you you know you’re making friends and then you get you what you you fall into a workplace like McDonald’s where the training was so um so disciplined and you you’re held accountable at such a young age but you also understood really early on how you added value and how you contributed to the success of a thousand dollar rush hour or a two thousand dollar drive-through hour and um and I think when you when that stuff gets underneath your skin you start to see how making other people happy throw a cheeseburger and french fries and a smile um has actually a benefit commercially yeah um and you know for a business Performance Point of View and and and the the surprise that I did get from my first few days of McDonald’s was um I didn’t realize the benefits that I would get as a young girl growing up and I’m really pleased to share some of that with everyone today because it was really that that Journey 30 years ago that set me up for some incredible learning as as a human as an adult and I’d love to share some of that with with um all of our listeners and viewers today I have no doubt they are absolutely hanging on everyone way that you’re speaking about because not only did you start there you’ve actually ended up in a career that has enabled you to work globally at some iconic places like Wembley Stadium is an example and you’ve now sort of been running your own business for around 10 years you’ve published three books you’ve got a fourth on the way if anyone’s made a career of customer service it’s you right so so macca’s is a good grounding and I guess there’s lots of kids today that are still going through that grounding in in McDonald’s and I know they’re doing it really tough trying to find stuff like so many other businesses at the moment right so but what were your key takeaways you mentioned a couple of them um there is there any other thought of big standouts that you had from from the macca days yeah so I think you know it this certainly formed in those early days and then I sort of see it on the journey um as as I worked in other places like major stadiums and events at Wembley and Emirates and then close to homie at the Australian Open with the um the Australian tennis but what I learned very early on was that when you serve humans you actually learn a lot about yourself and so you learn a lot about um the way you’re perceived the way people experience you you learn a lot about your own triggers your own um your own levels of resilience if you like um but you also learn how to impress people how to um influence how to take a bad situation and make it a little bit better and so and I and these are Big macros sort of Concepts but when you break those macro Concepts down what I’m talking about are the the 101 soft skills of customer service you know um and there’s that beautiful saying that um every every human being you meet is either a lesson or a reflection and what I learned early on was that um I always had something to learn at the end of a shift not so much about the product I was selling or um you know something tangible but something about humans human behavior and and I’ve got to say Justin I’ve literally got thousands of customers to thank for the person that I am today and if people are listening to this or watching this and they have a love of learning if they are curious about you know developing themselves personally and professionally and they really want to grow into you know a better human than yesterday and just keep you know having a full life full of amazing experiences where they get to learn about themselves more then customer service is like a no-brainer like it’s one of the most incredible uh job skills for life in my view and you know I’m not surprised you know here I am 10 years now running my own business the customer service skills I learned at McDonald’s and major studies and events both in the private and public sector Frontline and in leadership I’m bringing all of that now into my own business as a CEO as a leader as a um as a speaker as someone that is influencing um a topic here in Australia and you know it’s not rocket science this is the wisdom comes from serving the nobility of what I write in my books and what I say on stage comes from those experiences not from going to UNI it comes from those experiences and I think there’s so much to be said for that you know and speaking about experiences let’s just dive into some of yours because you you spent what seven years at macca’s did you was that ended up as a full-time sort of yeah you start a part-time ends up full-time did you end up running the store running the area what was you what did you get to at macca’s you know well you’re right like it was um I was presented an option when I graduated um at 17 years of age to either go into a Performing Arts degree because I loved music and drama um or I was offered a full-time management job running the store and um at 17.

wow yeah and and back then they they put you through a really strong um leadership program um there was various diplomas that you it was all on the Ground Learning the head office was in Sydney um but you know for me that was that was what that was what I was circuit searching for and seeking was that opportunity to learn those skills that have really set up a strong Foundation um but I’ve got to say I still bring my Performing Arts in because sometimes service is a bit of a performance well I was just going to say there’s a bit of uh because there is some correlation between the two there so um so so you leave macca’s in it but you stick to the hospitality path I guess um and that got you to the Sydney convention and Exhibition Center was that sort of your uh you know did you was that a role that you saw and applied for were you tapped on the shoulder how did you sort of start to go down that path yeah well leaving McDonald’s was a big step but it was also about leaving my small town and going to the Big Smoke and so I was ready to sort of put my big girl’s pants on so to speak and um it was just it was the year before these did the Olympics and um I could see an opportunity there um you know in a a major environment the Sydney convention Exhibition Center and I thought no it’s time for me to go and try something different and that really then was the beginning of my um major stadium and um sports events type career which really set me up for quite some time where as as you said I got to go and do some incredible work in different places but stadiums and major events are um are really exciting places to work in and the commonality between that and McDonald’s is your um you’re dealing with a lot of people all the time so it’s about managing crowds managing the flow of that and serving literally hundreds of people in a day um and so I had I had that sort of earlier under you know under my skin and I knew that that I was I liked the rush of that I liked the the change and variety of serving lots of people all day but it was just a different environment you know yeah and I guess there’s no bigger challenge when you think of you know iconic sporting stadiums you know aside from the MCG of course uh for our Melbourne listeners uh you know Wembley would be right up there right so I guess the opportunity to to be the head of you know hospitality and the corporate Suites as well right where you’re dealing with the top end of town who have very high expectations having been lucky enough to sneak into a couple of boxes along the way um you know that is is that is at the Pinnacle of service so you know as you said everything probably culminated to getting into that level did you feel when you started that job that you were you were ready to go or was it thrown in and going oh my God what do I do

oh my God I mean I was like late 20s by the time I hit Wembley and um you know over in England I was exposed to things like Butler Service and um you know one of the corporate Suites was the Beckham box and then there was the Chelsea box and I was like this was blowing my mind it was like a whole different world but again if you keep things simple and and people who know me know this is one of my philosophies at the end of the day it doesn’t matter whether you’re serving a duchess and Duke or whether you’re serving a dad who’s there with his kid to watch a game of footy most people want the same things you know and so um really the beauty of my career was that I kept being reminded or bad I was in these different environments that whether you’re serving a cheeseburger or a five-star you know um Butler uh Diga station you know fine dining Chateau de Pap red wine doesn’t matter what you’re serving people still want some fundamentals and that comes right right back to my IP and what what I teach which is just make people feel seen make them feel like that that they’re heard and make them feel like they’re really important and I’ve had the privilege you know it both at Wembley but when I came back hit him on Park solving lots of celebrities you know um all the time and I never got Star Struck I never really freaked out about who I was serving although I did love serving pink because she’s she’s

her but then together they’re just a human that just has needs and right now your job is to be a professional and serve those needs and I think that’s why mindset is so critical with this job role because when we get out of our way and we sort of almost shrink our ego a little bit and just turn the voice of our ego down a little bit you can make anyone feel special and not get caught up in who they are and what they need just come back to some basic human principles and that’s why I love this work because it keeps me grounded um and it also it keeps me um real you know like don’t get caught up in it yeah I was going to say you know as you said a lot of it just comes down to the basics right but and I was always going to fall into the Trapper saying it’s not rocket science because technically it’s probably not but you know the reality is most people and it seems to be more and more these days don’t know what to do right they’re not actually taught these soft skills right um and I don’t want to jump too far ahead because we’ll talk about you know your service queue business shortly but um we’ll go from the corporate Hospitality Suites and and get back with that vein because you then came back to Australia as you said went to tennis Australia um and I guess probably similar concept of major sporting events you know the the open Etc but those fundamentals I guess this time when you when you first sort of imagined yourself going to Wembley and as you said all these things you had to wrap your head around that you hadn’t heard of when you did go to Melbourne did you feel a much better prepared at that point yes and um you know you as your career grows you you know there’s there’s another level up and there’s a higher expectation of what you’re going to bring and and I think this is this is really the correlation of service and Leadership you know it feels relevant to bring this point in at this point of our conversation you know there’s one thing to to be good at serving a human being um at the front line but then you know when we’re leaders we’re asked to do so much but again I like to keep it simple um and so for me leading was all about still service it was about how do I serve my team now you know how do I really take care of you know when I came back from England I was handed the keys to um a contract which at the time had 40 full-time employees I’ve just turned 30 um and we had at our Peak about two and a half thousand staff back then um and this was just in the hospitality contract space and for a 30 year old that was quite overwhelming you know it was um it felt like a lot of responsibility and and I felt um I felt the pressure of that but I had some fantastic mentors around me I had some great people to keep me again grounded and remind me what I was here to do and um this is where service and leadership are just so intertwined because leaders are there to serve their people and the more we can serve our people if it’s a full-time team of 40 or 400 or 4 000 if we can care for them then we’ve got to trust that they’ll care for our customers you know and that there’s this there’s this ripple effect so I always felt even when I was you know the general manager and I was in a significant leadership role oh I still felt that my job was to serve it’s just that my my customer became a little bit different you know um and I think that’s a really helpful lens for for any leader of any size team yeah I mean look obviously leadership with customer service comes with its challenges as you know no doubt no particularly with large teams and it seems that often you know it’s the interaction of one that often takes up a lot of your time right yeah the the uh someone’s you know spilled a drink in the Beckham box or someone uh did something wrong with one of the the VIP customers Etc yet you know you get 99 of things right how do you as a as a leader deal with those sorts of situations yeah so you know you spot on like it only takes one person in your business to have a bad day right and like it or not how how the customer feels about that one interaction with one employees is often how they feel about the brand or the company itself so you know um each person no matter how big the team is is the company each individual is the company and so it’s up to leaders to re remind each individual that they are the company but also Inspire and reinvigorate them so that they feel that they’re adding value to the whole and the the challenges the bigger the company is the harder it is sometimes to see your value or your contribution but what I will say about you know if you’re in a leadership role and you’re you’re you’re noticing the pool performers or the ones that it um I guess letting the team down one of the quickest ways to address that is to focus on um what is already strong within the team and what is already working and so um a valuable leadership lesson I learned very early on in fact in my Delaware North days when I was running the Melbourne Park contract was to spend more time with my high performance and by doing that and it does feel a bit counterintuitive right because when you think someone’s not performing you need you feel like you’ve got to put all your time and energy into them but in actual fact the reverse is true we spend more time with our high performers and the ones that are really playing to their strengths and strong and we do that in a way that elevates the people around them that might be struggling or might not be doing so well by reinforcing this is what good looks like this is what good looks like and this and we reward these people by giving them more of our time and that was a very valuable lesson for me because I I learned that when I wasn’t spending time with high performers I was ignoring them because I was like they’ve got it I don’t need to worry about them they’re fine I need to spend all my time over here and fix this well in actual fact that’s not an effective way of taking a team on a journey and so um one of the one of the habits that we teach um in my business which we’ll get to is is is praise effectively and I think that praising the good as much as you can is actually a way of addressing the poor performance yeah there goes some good leadership tips there for everyone who’s listening as well as Jaquie’s journey um I completely agree with everything that you’ve said um so you’ve been leading to Big teams obviously I really love the way you just always keep it simple I just think there’s something to be said for that right we are often over complicate things so well done um you have a couple more uh goes in the corporate life you you left Melbourne uh Melbourne Olympic Parks uh went out to spotless and then back to tennis Australia for a bit as well um but then ultimately you end up wanting your own business around 10 years ago service Q um talk to me I guess about some of your motivations for uh for going out on your own because it’s a big step for anyone to take particularly when they’ve worked at some you know big uh corporates I’m sure there was lots of offers and and large dollars thrown at you to uh to take another senior role somewhere so to sort of be brave and go you know what no I’m doing this myself some would call you absolutely crazy but you took the leap of faith so what was the what was the driving motivation behind that one Jaquie uh you’re you’re spot on like sometimes I think what was really motivating um but look I just don’t think I’m good having a boss Justin yeah

I love autonomy I love independent I love being independent but I really love change and variety and I’m I’m a I’m a um someone that seeks change and variety I need it and so being in one place um feels a bit limiting for me um so that’s sort of a little insight to some of my personal values and motivations but you know one one bit of advice I got given which was around the time when I decided to leave the corporate career behind and take a huge leap of faith and start something from scratch in my mid-30s you know it’s age 35 was this idea of um you know how do you help people in a way that um really lasts with them not just at work but at home and for me service does that you know the skills that um you and I talk about all the time Justin are skills for life and they not only make you a better employee or worker they also make you a better dad a better Mum a better friend a bit a better brother sister and so I wanted to play that game you know and I think it’s important for people who are watching this or listening who are still trying to work out what’s their thing um I didn’t really know service was my thing I knew I loved it and I knew that it was I knew that I was good at it and I knew that it I made it look easy and natural but you know the secret is that it’s a lot of learned behavior that over time makes it look easy and natural yep um but it wasn’t until I I decided to leave the corporate world that it got really clear for me actually it’s not a particular industry or a particular Market or a particular product that I really love it’s actually service and a and a mentor of mine once said to me if you are if you’re going to write a book Jaquie about anything if you want to be an expert in anything here’s the litmus test he said if you’ve got to wake up every day and talk about it write about it think about it obsess about that topic and never get bored and if you can do that every day get up and write and talk and think and obsess about that same topic every day then you know that’s the thing that you’re most you know you’re here to do that’s your pets and that was my lens Justin I realized actually the one thing I know I could talk about forever the thing I could just punch out thousands of words every week about the thing I could you know on the Fly speak about and I’ve got all this sort of passion energy at your service and so that was my real litmus test and I was like okay I think I’m gonna go really narrow on that and what I’ve found is this beautiful sweet spot of sticking with what I believe I’m an expert in but I get all the variety by working with all these amazing different Industries and sectors that gives me the variety and changes I’m seeking you know yeah yeah absolutely and can we touch on um because I know you’re as you said a lot of it’s around skills that benefit yourself right it’s not just you know what you’re doing with customers and I know you know you’re you’re quite uh the advocate for for meditation uh yeah as well how did you how did you get into that um well like most things when you have um experiences in life whether it’s breakdowns or meltdowns or moments of anxiety you you start looking for tools and techniques to support you and so I mentioned my journey when I was at Wembley I was in my late 20s and that was already a significant responsibility for a young 20-something year old on the other side of the world with no family no friends and not really knowing what the hell she’s doing there um and then to come back to Melbourne at the age of 30 and to be responsible for such a big contract here um I really felt the pressure you know I was working with a lot of anxiety I was working with a lot of stress I took myself way too seriously and um so that that was the gift you know for me to go looking for ways of helping myself manage myself and so I was introduced around that time of my life to yoga and meditation and um became because I’m a lover of learning like I became absolutely obsessed with both of those modalities um and interestingly I have a fundamental belief that people who serve the best are typically most present you know if you think about when you’re with someone who serves you absolutely and they’re with you yeah that they’re hanging on every word they’re not multitasking that they’re absolutely with you in that moment that level of presence and mindfulness I think is um it’s incredibly hard to cultivate but it it’s simple you know and so but simple can be hard and so and so how you get to that level of mindfulness and presence one of one of the ways one of the ways of building muscle and mental training is is meditation and and meditation is simply that it’s the mental training to be mindful um and so for me this is a massive part of of what we teach as well is how do we get people in service roles to be self-aware of the dialogue that’s going on up here and being really really aware of how that’s leaking out in the way they speak and behave and act and even just their energy how people experience them um and so yeah I believe that people who meditate are better people in service you know there’s there’s a really strong correlation with that number I think you’ve written a few blogs about that yeah you have and uh and speaking of writing um you know I did touch on a little bit earlier but um you’ve already we’ve already got three three books out and a fourth on the way and I do believe congratulations are in order for your last book that just picked up another award yeah I know two Awards I was like oh my God this is awesome but that’s an interesting point Justin because the the third book serve service habits which is a second edition it’s won an award in a leadership category and in a self-help category yep and I think that speaks volumes right like it’s actually a service book but here we are winning Awards in those two categories so yeah yeah well congratulations how did you get because a lot of people work in customer service we had careers in customer service but not everyone’s written a book how did the motivation come about for going you know I’m going to write a book well first and foremost I one of one of the things one of the habits I teach is tell the truth and um I think that’s a big one in service and and I think if you’re going to come out and declare that you’re an expert um you’ve got to earn that credibility not just an experience but also in um contributing and putting out to the world through generosity and and through your own lived experiences you know which I think gives you the badge or the right to call yourself an expert so um here in Australia and I think in most parts of the world if you’re a published author it certainly is um it still has a lot of um credibility around that and I think there’s a lot of recognition the work that goes into being a published author so I was up for that challenge and um my first book was always a bit clunky when you do something the first time I was like oh my God this is costing me tens of thousands of dollars I’m not writing a book to make money you know like we’re writing it to to to get a message out but then um after the second and third book I’ve now officially got the bug and in fact I’m currently amusing and and preparing my fourth book um to present to my publisher in January so we we’re starting that whole journey and next year’s a year of writing and I’m really looking forward to it well okay there we go look out for the uh the bookstores and hopefully we should actually sell it on Ax but there’s something for us to look at as well and get your books out on the expert platform in the marketplace so um but speaking of expert I guess you know one of the questions I sort of want to put to you because you are involved in a lot of things but you know what what made you say yes to getting involved in in expert because we’re obviously quite quite new um but we’re obviously looking about changing a few things I guess in the industry but some nothing better than hearing it directly from yourself yeah and that’s actually a key reason why which is first and foremost your vision Justin of the purpose of expert but equally your vision and what you’re trying to influence in the industry I was absolutely drawn to that in our very very first conversation way back when and I think that um the the industry does need a shake up and the industry does need um pioneering it needs leadership it needs Visionaries like yourself who’s prepared to put in the effort and time to not only um get get people exposes but actually give them the tools to enable them to change the way we do things and so your vision coupled with your hard work in developing this incredible platform business um is inspiring and I always seek the company that I hang out with the people that I spend time with I’m inspired by the company that I keep and so that was one of the very first reasons was you thank you um yeah and I think that shared and common belief that we both have that um this is really important work and whether you’re you know sitting there with a headset on like Justin has now um you know making phone calls receiving phone calls day in day out or whether you’re behind a counter serving customers face to face or anything in between um it’s a privilege to serve humans and uh it’s an incredibly important vehicle to the way Society is shaped and the and the way we are shaping society and I said yes to this advisory role before covert and look where we are now like there’s even more of a reason why we need you know platforms like aspa networks communities like but also CEOs like yourself Justin to help shape the future and I want to be part of that as well you know I I I’m um in my mid-40s I’ve got a hell of a lot of life ahead of me and a lot that I want to do in this lifetime and a lot that I want to give and um I think being part of ax bar is is another way of allowing me get some reach and some impact and learn you know like there’s so much that I learn every day when I’m in front of a new audience or in front of a new master class or even a one-on-one um you know you know sure I’m going to write my fourth book next year like that sounds like I’m old hat at it you’re kidding right like it’s it’s a massive learning process when you give out to the world and when you serve and when your attention out and um like I said earlier on I’ve I am the person I am today because of what I’ve chosen to to put out and give and who and and serve you know so my expectation of being here um on the Advisory Board of ACXPA is that I hope to learn a lot um and probably more about some of the industries that I don’t know so much you know and and by the virtue of being part of this community and learning more of what people want and and where the skills Gap is and how we can help and serve them like I want to be there so that’s a that’s a big part of my motivation for being here and um spending time with you and the rest of the Advisory board members yeah most certainly through the Euro part of it because as I said right at the start you know your passion for the industry knows no bounds so um now before I let you go I I think it would be worthy to ask there’s no doubt a lot of people listening here that uh a already inspired by your your story because you’ve been very open in sharing your learnings along the way but what advice would you you give to people that are I guess more towards the start of their career but you know going you know what yeah this customer service thing is kind of all right I don’t mind it how do they go from transitioning from you know it’s a job and I’m enjoying it to actually going you know what this is going to be my career this is what I want to do

the one there’s a lot of things I could say I know right the one the one thing I will say is you know um if you choose to serve whatever it is you do and whatever role you are no matter how senior or Junior you view yourself and whatever label you’ve been given in any moment when you’re in front of a human being if you choose to serve you are going to get so much back from that you are going to get more answers to your questions you’re going to learn more about yourself service can give you an opportunity to stay present and it can help turn down some of the unhelpful words and thoughts and stories that you might be telling yourself you gain more learning understanding about particular industry or sector but also when you find out what benefit or what impact you’ve had on other people that’s like that’s one of the most powerful things that in in a human life you can receive you never know what your legacy is right you never know what impression you’ve just left on someone you don’t know what kind of day they’ve had until they met you or where they’re about to go or what they’re about to do we’re working a lot at the moment with airports and Airlines and you know tourism environments where they’re they’re Transit you don’t know the impact that you’re having on someone and the impression that that might leave for them and the thought that you can impact another human being is um to me one of the one of the reasons why we exist yeah it’s critical to human evolution and and I’ve been on the receiving end Jaquie I haven’t told you this but I’ve been on the receiving end of some of your work because I I traveled recently and uh was at Melbourne Airport and I was lining up to go through the the X-ray machines and you know it’s it’s not a fun process let’s be honest in the case is often a little bit line that long no matter which side of the the queue you’re on and um but there was a couple of people at the front of the queue that were just making everyone laugh and smile and you know you sort of quickly forgot about that delay and and so just that little as you said that little bit of work that they did the skills that they did just had such an impact on everyone standing in that queue and and I went through the scanner and you know I was having a smile on my face and thought wow that’s awesome so I know the work that you do is uh is is amazing um for those that you that want to learn more about uh Jaquie’s business I encourage you to do so I’ll just pop the email address sorry the website address up there but it’s a service queue so serviceq.com so if you want to learn more about what Jaquie does with her and her team please check out the website and of course if you want to learn more about what ACXPA does then make sure you check out our website at acxp.com acxpa.com.au I should know that shouldn’t I um so Jaquie thank you so much for sharing your story um as I said you should be incredibly proud as I’m sure you are of of everything that you’ve achieved and and you’re not even halfway there right so there is so much more to come and um so if you haven’t said seen some of Jaquie’s work there’s a few books that you can read as well there’s some other podcasts that you can listen to on on this CX Matters podcast as well and of course you’ll hopefully be seeing and hearing a bit more of Jaquie throughout the year with all the things that we do through ACXPA so Jaquie thank you so much for sharing your story pleasure and wonderful to be with you and uh yeah let’s let’s look forward to a great year ahead thank you exactly right all right thanks everyone for listening and bye for now

thank you