Customer-Centric Solutions: Driving Excellence with Bridgett Rousselle
In this episode of the Aftermarket Champions Podcast, host Vivek Joshi interviews Bridgett Rousselle, Global Lifecycle Business Automation Leader at Xylem. Bridgett delves into the pivotal role of service and aftermarket solutions within the water industry, emphasizing their significance throughout the customer journey. She highlights the necessity for seamless collaboration across different functions within a company to ensure comprehensive service delivery that meets and exceeds customer expectations. Bridgett also explores the essential mindset required for achieving service excellence, advocating for innovation, customer-centricity, and a culture of continuous improvement. Drawing from her global experience, she underscores the importance of balancing global strategies with an acute awareness of local nuances, enabling companies to adapt their services effectively across diverse markets. Throughout the conversation, Bridgett stresses the importance of ongoing learning and development within the industry. She emphasizes continuous education as essential for staying ahead of industry trends and evolving customer needs, driving innovation and sustainable growth. Bridgett concludes by highlighting the transformative impact of a proactive mindset and collaborative approach in establishing leadership in service provision. She encourages industry professionals to embrace change, foster internal cohesion, and prioritize customer-centric strategies to achieve and maintain success in the dynamic water industry landscape.
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>> Okay. Good afternoon, everybody.
This is Vivek Joshi, founder and CEO of Entital,
and a host of our aftermarket champions podcast.
I'm excited to welcome our latest guest today,
Bridget Russell from Xylem.
Bridget is the global lifecycle business automation leader.
Bridget, I think I put you on that,
but I think that's approximately right.
For the services business, Bridget joins us from Montreal, Canada,
but she has a global role and she's a global writer.
I think shortly after she finishes this podcast in the next few days,
she's off on a long John Thracia.
So with that, Bridget, welcome to the show.
Thank you for joining us today and
love to hear a little bit about your story now.
Help us understand a little bit about Xylem,
a little bit about the role you're playing today and how you got here.
Bonjour. Hello, Vivek.
Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity.
This is great.
Yes, I'm excited about this discussion in around aftermarket and service.
As you mentioned, I'm actually located in Montreal, Canada.
I'm currently with Xylem Global.
Xylem is a water company.
We solve water, like our slogan says.
So we do manufacture, distribute, and service our customer,
whatever, in different business segments or market,
if you want to say, municipal application, industrial, commercial,
and even residential to the transport of water to treating it and
making sure that we have drinkable water in the world,
but also making sure that we treat it so we maintain it across our globe.
Right?
A little bit of background, I guess.
I've been with Xylem for maybe now nine years.
I had the opportunity with Xylem specifically to own different roles,
and I know we're probably going to talk about that a little bit more,
but I had the opportunity to touch a lot of different functions
with the company, which is what's great.
I'm very curious as nature, so it helped me broaden my experience
and skill set even within Xylem.
So I've been working with the operation, customer service, sales, aftermarket,
the lifecycle, and different strategic project throughout North America and
globally,
which that's kind of been.
But even before Xylem, I guess my background, ironically, I studied psychology,
but I think that's why I'm here today because it took me a while to realize,
but psychology means people and people means service.
So I think when you look at my journey, everything aligns,
but I would have thought of that when I was starting my career or my study.
But I always been from even a child attracted to business and service.
And I hold different jobs while I went to my studies,
from a gas station to restaurants, but it always been in a milieu,
if you want to say, within where I would service people in a different facet.
And I guess that led me to where I'm at today.
So even before Xylem, always been in an industrial mindset.
My father used to say, I used to blame him for that because I said,
I'm not in Gucci or shoes or even though I'm in door,
I'm always seemed to be attracted by industrial,
where there's an operation, where there's a purpose when we fabricate something
and service it.
From tire industry to pulp and paper and mining.
And so I think the whole combination of that is what makes Spritchett today,
and that's why we're here, I guess.
It's actually interesting.
You said two different things, maybe three different things.
You said you said in psychology, you were just about people.
I can't tell you how many of my guests have referred to their early experiences
being around people as really a hallmark, one of the almost foundational
experiences of the career.
That's point number one.
Point number two, I actually noticed I thought you primarily spent time in
sales and service,
Richard, but I also noticed you were an operations manager in a factory.
So I'm going in the past, that's all about people.
I mean, people are different, as we say, shape sizes and stripes on all
different things.
How does it translate to service?
I mean, you said that by service, I clearly get that, but how does it translate
to service?
And is that what really kind of gets you excited about service and the role you
're playing today?
I think so, because service for me, even in my personal life, is something I
pay attention to.
And I think service is the core of everything we do, right? Personally or
professionally.
And even when we fabricate products for companies, we fabricate product based
on the service and
the knowledge we get from the service and the needs we get from service and
from the customer.
So everything circles around it. The company is developed or created based on a
service need.
So I think that's what attracted to me. And I think service, what I like about
it,
is like the, it encompassed the whole customer journey, right? From the time
they purchase to the time,
you know, the invoice, and we keep repeating that cycle. And throughout those
cycles,
there's different functions and process. And I think being in service touches
all the aspects
of the company. So if you're a curious person like me and like to have your
ends in different
things and understand the whole cycle of things, then I think that's why I'm
into service, right?
Doing one thing for me would have been, maybe to my point, would have been less
attractive, right?
Right. It's actually a couple of things you said that I'll pick up in a second,
but, you know,
especially you talked about everybody in the company gets involved in service.
I, you know,
one of the things we've been talking about it is the fact that I call after
marketing services,
actually one of the few "team games" within a company. Everybody has a finger
in it. It's the
manufacturing people need to know what's happening in the field of finance
people, the marketing
people, sales people, support, you name it. Everybody engineers have to know
what's going on. So it
really is a team game to do it right. And I think that's where the people
aspect that you talked
about really comes into this thing. Right. So, you know, one thing, if I go
back to your career,
and when you look at the progression, I met you when you were the aftermarket
sales director,
right? Now, I'm in this global automation leader job, automation and business
process automation
job. What led you into the first aftermarket sales job when you're running
North American,
I think you're running North American aftermarket sales at one time when you
met?
What led you into that job? And then what made Zylam say, "Hey, Bridget, why
don't you go do this
global role now?" God, I'd love to understand that. Well, I think it was just a
natural next step,
right? I think, you know, like I mentioned throughout my career, I was very
flexible in the role I hold.
Always, you know, eager to get into something new and try something new. And I
think the aftermarket
was something, you know, new, not new in my career, but new for me to do. And I
think it was natural,
because to your point that you mentioned, right, being in operations and sales
and then customer
service, I think that vision and that skill set or experience altogether kind
of creates aftermarket,
right? So I think it was just a natural progression from experience and
background, but also, you know,
wanting to be involved in the customer journey, I guess.
You know, there's something that you said along the way as well, in addition to
the involvement in the customer journey, being able to deal with so many
different people.
One of the points you made a few minutes ago was that aftermarket is the one
place within the
business that you have repeated touches with the customer. It's not just a one
time you send the
filtration plan, they set it up or get the big project and be all done, but you
have to continuously
be in touch with the customer, your continuous interaction with the customer.
How does that
translate itself into how Xylem goes about building out the customer experience
profile,
how you personally have kind of played that into your into your own role as Br
idget, right? If you may,
because that's a big thing that people forget that service people are the ones
who are in touch
with the customer more often than anybody else in the company. Yeah, I always
make a reference to
the car dealership. We all own a car at some point or most people, you know,
have owned a vehicle in
their lifetime. And I always say it's like, you know, you get the vehicle, you
know, you purchase it,
you get a great experience, you know, the person who supports you in that
purchase,
you know, will give you all your options. And sometimes it's a quality product,
right? So,
you know, and then for like four years, you become friends with your service,
right? You get,
you go there every year, you maintenance, you preventive maintenance, you know,
they give you
guidance, something's wrong. So I think it's the same. I think, to your point,
it's a recurring
relationship. And that relationship is nourished through the process, how we
approach it, how we
support our customer, and how we understand them. So knowing, knowing really
well your customer
is critical, because that will drive your next product or your next sales or
your innovation
projects. It's a accumulation of all that data into one, right? And that's what
drives you to take
strategic decisions or put in place new processes. Because at the end of the
day, it, you know, like
I said, that same customer is the customer of the whole company, from the
product development,
from manufacturing, invoicing, all of that is the same customer. So I think,
you know, that whole
journey of repetitive relationship and billing relationship with that customer.
And when I say
relationship doesn't mean, hey, hi, bye means relationship on the process, how
we approach them,
how we service them, right? And what we offer them, right?
Yeah, well, it's actually interesting because I've been in and around services
one, 20 years now,
right? Maybe 25 years. And I always thought that it is such a
poorly utilized weapon in customer experience and growth and everything, right?
It's not just,
you know, selling services and parts of a career in margin, but that
relationship is that it's not
necessarily, hi, Bob, how are you? But it's the ability to develop a superior
experience for long
periods of time is what creates massive loyalty and stickiness and, you know,
future growth. And I
think people don't, don't quite take it, take it as seriously as they could. I
think sometimes is
what I've seen. So I'm glad that I'm glad to hear that as I am and certainly
you are thinking about
it that way. I think it's a relationship at the end of the day. And that's
where my psychology comes
in. Right? It's a relationship, right? And you mentioned something that made me
think about loyalty,
right? Loyalty in the relationship. Well, to be able to have a loyal and long
standing relationship,
you need to communicate and understand parties that are involved in that
relationship. So I think
I think that's where psychology comes in because a customer, I have a
relationship with that
customer and how I maintain it and how I communicate and how I understand the
needs of that relationship
and will drive loyalty and long term relationship professionally, right? At the
same same same
same concept, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, there's before I switch
to your job that
you're doing today, one of the big things that happened in the last 18 months
was Zilam merged
with this company called Evocua. And now combined, you guys have a very large
service business,
right? Not just North American, but global service business. Can you maybe just
tell us a little bit
about how, obviously, it's public information, right? What the Zilam services
mindset has changed,
or has it changing, or how is that going to change going forward? I think Zilam
service has
always been existing through our 100 years of being Zilam in acquisition and
becoming Zilam.
So I think service has always been in the heart of what we do. I think it's
just going to drive
the focus even more, right? In making sure that we're aligned with our
customers' needs.
Good. It's a big powerhouse now. So switching back a little bit to your current
job and as it relates
to the whole aftermarketing service thing, right? So there's a set of
experiences you
gain not just in the last few years of the aftermarketing services business,
but for manufacturing
our own words. How does that play a role in a current global job? And I think
this is your first
real global job, right? So far, you are primarily North American, North
American center, right? Now,
this is your first global job. How does that aftermarketing services play in
your new role,
and especially as you think about the whole global as a stage?
So basically, yeah, to your point, I've been involving global project but never
leading a role,
you know, officially. But I think it helps in the way that service is service
no matter where we
are in the world. And I think it's all about innovation and keeping connected,
right? I think
companies that will drive service, it's a company that's adaptable, but also,
you know,
is able to drive change, right? And I think the learning, I think it doesn't
matter where you are,
I think in the world. I think at the end of the day, and no matter the industry
, to be honest,
I think the concept of service is what we should be focusing on, right? And the
concept of aftermarket,
and you know, the focus might be different in different companies or the
priorities.
But I think the concept of service and aftermarket, no matter what type of
industry you're in,
it exists. And if we put a focus on that as a company, every, like I keep
repeating, but
every function in the company will be from that, right? But I feel like, like I
said before, the
service and aftermarket is part of the heart of the company because I feel like
it's where it all
comes in, right? And that repeated, it's like a repeated inflow, right? And how
you drive that
concept throughout the company is what will make it successful.
So then there's a role that's a global role. It's about business applications,
business process,
that's fundamentally what it is. So I've always thought that to do any sort of
transformation or
change that you just talked about is people, process and technology. So is that
kind of how
you think about a role in terms of people, process of technology, a primary and
aftermarketing
services globally? Is that the mandate? Because I think one of the things, you
know,
we all have a phone, right? We all have technology in our life in this new
modern world. I think
a tool is not sufficient. And sometimes we probably come with the assumption
that a tool will solve
for it. A tool is an enabler to what you're trying to achieve, right? And then
you have a process
that is supported by that tool, right? And at the end of the day, it's all
about people again.
So there's people within the company, your customer are people. And how do you
harmonize all these
three things will drive, you know, and that's kind of what my focus is, right?
Is how, you know,
what are we trying to solve for, right? And what are the process that we're
trying to solve for?
How could that be supported with the tool? And how do we drive that, you know,
process and tool together to drive change and benefit from those change, right?
And achieve,
right, what we're trying to get to in this case, service, right?
Right. So when you think of this role, and you've said something a few minutes
ago,
which is important, which is services service, everybody has to kind of make
sure they take care
of the customer. I think the last time I checked, I think there was like, I don
't know how many
countries in the emerging markets in Europe, but this is a lot of countries
across the
zylon network. What have you, in the last, I guess, six or nine months since
you've been in this role,
what has your experience been in terms of the similarities in terms of how
people do and execute
and think about service versus the differences? Because there have to be some
local nuances,
maybe that people certainly sitting in the US, we don't think about it. What
have you learned?
Because I know you've been on the road a lot of visiting all the different,
yeah, I think what I enjoy mostly about the global role to your point is from a
business
standpoint is, under coming to realization that probably 80% of what we do is
the same,
is similar, right? But what's different is the people and how we approach it in
our customers
and sometimes cultures and in different ways of doing business in different
countries.
But I do think 80% of what we do is similar, right? And then I think the beauty
of the 20%,
it's learning about each other and the different innovative ideas and then
being able to scale
those ideas from one country to another, right? So I don't see the differences
or the similarities
as a negative, but he leveraged that to drive even more, right? So when you
look about it,
you think about it, 80% of what we do because we're the same in the world, but
we're located
in different places. Yes, there might be particularities of service because
there's a specific need,
geographically, if you think in a mining industry versus a more city-like, of
course,
there's different practices. But I think that's how I see it. It's leveraging
that 20% difference
in taking the best ideas from that and scaling it, right? Now, when you think
of this global
service role, I know as part of the merger with Zyla and Evoqua, you guys
created a global
services head, right? So now we have a global services leader who sits on the
executive committee
almost, if you may, reporting to the CEO. That is a new framework, I think, for
Zyla, right? There
was not such a strong senior role at the management board, executive level. Is
that part of the
change that you guys are doing, which is knitting together all the different
organizations across
the world, not just the Evoqua's organization, but across the entire network,
making it one single
view to the customers? Is that how you guys are thinking about it as part of
this change?
Well, we've always been, since we've been named Zyla becoming one Zyla with
different products and
brands and different solutions. So our journey is obviously to be one Zyla for
customers and
being able to support them with whatever needs they have in different parts of
the world and
different areas of the business. So driving, being one Zyla and being able to
support the
customer in time, I think that's the best way to get it.
Now, when you think about your progression, all the way from the manufacturing
job to sales
jobs and our global aftermarket business process leader, if you may, there are
probably a bunch of
lessons you learned along the way, right? Clearly, one was people in
relationships, you talked about.
One was, I think, I hear about the sameness, which is actually interesting. I
've always sold
people like, look, the more companies think they're different there, they're
more actually the same,
right? And then in some ways, it reflects it within a company, within a company
as well.
Are there other things that you have learned that are important lessons for
people who might
be listening to the show, which is really maybe somebody who wants to be in
your shoes someday,
somebody who wants to become a global aftermarket leader or even a North
American aftermarket
sales leader like you were before this, right? One of the lessons that you can
kind of share with
them that might help people think about it as they think about a career
progression.
I think it's, don't be scared to try. Try things, try things, try different
things, be flexible.
Because I feel like your career is like a construction site, right? You start
with an idea
that it doesn't really fit with what it was supposed to be, then you change to
format,
then you learn from that, and you keep striving. So I think from a career
standpoint, I would say,
don't be scared to try. Not everybody who's in their role knows their job or
when they started it,
and have confidence in yourself, right? And what baggage you bring, because
that's what makes you
as an individual. I think to be in service, you've got to love what you do. And
I think
being close to people, but consistency in innovating and creating, I think is
where
service is. I say service is probably anywhere in the business world, but I
think in the service
area, people expect what they get from their personal, and as you know, with
the technology
today and everything, and the data-driven information, and being able from a
push of a button to get what
I need or reach somebody. But at the end of the day, also, there's always
people, and I think we
felt it during the COVID season, right? And the episode, that technology was
very needed, but it's
also still at the end of the day, we're surfacing an individual, right? And
yeah, so I would say,
keep innovating and driving, right? I'm going to ask you a slightly different
question, but similar
to that theme in the sense that this question is about what your experiences
have been in
terms of common that other people can take. The reason I call this an after
market champion is
podcasts for two reasons. One is champions like you as a people who are really
making sure
service grows and becomes a bigger deal for everybody and get the best people
in the business, right?
It's a huge part of it. But the other part of the aftermarket champions is also
the fact that
some companies are better than the others that making service happen. Clearly,
Zalem,
both the legacy Zalem and the news Zalem with their vocal has always been a
service leader.
You've been in your career, we've been in other places as well, and you
probably talked
to other people as well. What's in your experience or what in your assessment
is what sets
what I would say champions apart from the others. I mean, what are the
characteristics of these
companies that makes them so unique to what I call champions?
I think it's a mindset. I think it's a mindset. You need to see service in
every aspect of what
you do. I think it's a mindset of, hey, if I do this, what impact will it have
on the next stage?
I look at the customer's journey, right? And if we do this here, how is that
going to impact over
here? And I think another thing is being collaborative. You can't do it alone.
It needs collaboration
between the different functions in the business. And I mean, not about
servicing the customer,
but I mean about making sure that each one's effort hands off to the other one,
and that the
customer's journey is smooth throughout it. But I think really what sets a
champion is,
I think it's truly a mindset and being able to drive that creativity behind
finding ways.
When I say good customer service or good aftermarket or good service, sometimes
it doesn't mean we
always say yes, or we always have the answer. But it's important to capture the
need and making
sure we solve for it, right? In some way. So I think having that mindset sets
something off,
right? Seeing the whole life cycle of the customer journey.
And I think there's both the things you said are really important. I think the
mindset is important,
and it manifests itself in the way the company constructs the services business
and the team,
and so on and so forth. And the other part is actually a lot of people forget,
it's this collaborative across multiple functions and not just functions, but
even their
channel partners maybe, right? And I always have always said this to people, I
say, look,
aftermarketing services, the team game, people forget that. You have to have so
many different
people involved in it, right? And making all that work with the right mindset
is important.
So I think that's been really something that's actually good to hear from you
in terms of
how people and certainly what you think is a difference. Yeah, because now,
sorry, go ahead.
No, because I think when you think about it, right, the technician in the field
, the person on the
phone, the salesperson or the per the account, everybody brings value to that
customer.
It's a collaboration of all that, right? That drives that relationship or that.
I think that's kind of an understated secret again that people don't take
advantage of in terms of
doing it. There's one thing that I look at also and I think about Xylem, your
role, and
as a role model for other people who are looking to become a senior global
business leader,
we talked about people and relationships. We talked about mindset. We talked
about collaboration,
right, across multiple functions. We talked about, I think you said something
interesting a few
minutes ago, which is your job is like a construction site, which is nothing
you've ever complete,
because you almost always come in with a blank slate. Almost nobody's done that
job there
in for the first time. So it's always this learning mindset. Those are actually
quite
important lessons, I think, for people to take away. I was talking to one of my
one of my other guests the other day, and he said something that you also said
at the beginning of
the conversation, which is, "Disability to continuously and repeatedly stay in
touch with
your customer is also a part of it." How do you get people to kind of do that?
How do you
make sure people understand that this repeated touch, continuous touch, is
something that should be
championed and cherished, because I don't see that happen all the time. Because
that's the last piece
that I think you mentioned also to me. I think there's different ways to go
about it depending
on the company's approach. I think it could be simple by getting everybody in
one room on a
monthly basis and share their experience within their, as basic as that, and
getting everybody in
the room sharing their experience throughout the month with their reality with
customers.
There's all the SLEE surveys and transactional NPS core surveys. There's also
general
case stories that we go, but there's also platforms or tools that helps us to
identify patterns.
We always think about a company sometimes through numbers and it's normal at
the end of the day,
but it's a combination of those different information. I think that keeps us,
and tells us where to go and when to get in touch with the customer.
I think that's important. I think that's the keeping people reminded of all
this stuff is important.
Bridget, I always like to end these interviews with my favorite question. I'm a
big fan of
podcasts and there's one particular podcast I listen to hosted by the gentleman
called Diarras.
He always asks this question. If you look at your career, look at where you are
today,
how much of it do you say is luck? How much of it say this because you're
amazingly good?
I always like to ask a question to people because I'm a fascinating question.
Well, I think it's a little bit of both. I think being flexible and open and
trying different
things and curious, I think brought me to this place, being uncomfortable.
I think being in the right place at the right time, also probably. I've been
cherished throughout
my career. I had good mentor, good leaders that believed in me and allowed me
to grow.
I think it's a little bit about, but if I can get, I guess always had an
innovative mindset
and not be scared. I think that drove me to where I am. Having a little bit of
that perseverance
character, I guess, that would be one of the skillset. I think it's a little
bit about
some is luck being in the right place at the right time, having the right
people see at this time.
But if I could give advice on the final note, don't assume people see what you
do.
Make sure that you show it in a humble way, in a respectful way. But don't be
scared to come
forward with ideas. That's such an important advice. You can't be a poorly kept
secret all the time.
It doesn't help anybody. That's great. I think I love that answer. That's
exactly how I think
about how people have said this to me. Luck gets you some places and open doors
for you. But what
you do with it is all within your control and how you take advantage of the
opportunity to get to
what you've read. They say you create your luck in some sense. This is a great
conversation.
I think the points you discussed are you mentioned exactly how I think about it
. There's people
in relationships. It's continuity. It's a curiosity. It's a learning mindset.
All those things that
matter eventually that comes down to all these things is what people get it. I
think making
the mindset of service is so important in the business because then you start
making the
company change happen once you start putting these things. So this has been a
really, really good
conversation. I really appreciate your time. Did you bridge it? Thank you so
much for that. I think
our listeners are going to have a really good time listening to them and
learning much from what
our conversation is about. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.