CARE FACTOR CONSULTING
Because we give a sh*t
I NOTICE WHAT OTHER PEOPLE WALK PAST.
I notice the awkward customer moment, the eye-roll behind the counter and the handover that somehow never quite works.
The manager who has to step in again.
The team member who looks like they don't care, when something else might actually be going on underneath.
I've spent my career around people, pressure, expectations and systems.
And one thing I've learned is this:
The behaviour is often the clue. It isn't always the whole story.
That's why I don't walk into a business asking, "What's wrong with the staff?"
I want to know what happened, what the customer experienced, what the team was working with and what changed under pressure.
Then I look for patterns and what inside the business may be shaping them.
Wahiba Sands - Oman
TRAVEL WAS MY TRAINING GROUND.
For around 20 years, travel was my training ground.
One week could mean extraordinary hotels, beautiful destinations and experiencing the little details that made people feel genuinely looked after.
The next could mean cancelled flights, stranded families, frightened travellers and people looking at you to somehow make everything okay.
I worked through the Ansett collapse, 9/11, the Bali bombings and moments when people's travel plans fell apart overnight.
Sometimes there was no perfect answer. But I learned that people remember who listened, who communicated, who took ownership and who actually helped.
You learn a lot about a business when things stop going to plan.
Those years taught me to look beyond whether the process technically worked and pay attention to what the customer actually experienced.
It's a lesson I still bring to Care Factor today.
Ask, don’t assume. Solve, don’t stall.
Athabasca Glacier - Alberta, Canada
CONFLICT TAUGHT ME TO QUESTION THE FIRST EXPLANATION.
After my own separation, I launched Suddenly Single Holidays. What started as a personal turning point led to national media attention, becoming known as Australia's Divorce Go-To Girl, and eventually working in coaching and mediation.
I spent years helping people navigate difficult, highly emotional situations where communication could fall apart and assumptions quickly became accepted as facts.
Through mediation and training in high-conflict approaches, including with the High Conflict Institute, I learned to question the first explanation rather than jump to conclusions.
Someone gets defensive. Someone shuts down. Someone rolls their eyes, and suddenly everyone thinks they know who the problem is.
I want to know what happened before that moment, what might have shaped the reaction and whether it's part of a bigger pattern.
That same curiosity is valuable in hospitality, hotels and retail.
The staff member who appears not to care might be dealing with unclear instructions, a frustrating system or something entirely different. Sometimes their behaviour genuinely needs addressing.
The point is to understand what you're dealing with before deciding what needs fixing.
Separate the problem from the person. Look for the pattern.
Then work out what actually deserves attention.
PRESSURE SHOWED ME WHAT REALLY HOLDS.
When COVID hit, I launched Radical Resilience while hospitality and travel were being turned upside down.
Working directly with people under extraordinary pressure, I saw how quickly confidence and communication could unravel when the usual ways of working stopped working.
It reinforced something I've carried into Care Factor: when pressure hits, the conditions people are working in matter.
CARE FACTOR IS WHERE THOSE WORLDS MEET.
Travel taught me what customers remember when things go wrong. Coaching and mediation taught me to question the first explanation. COVID showed me what pressure can expose.
Today, I bring those experiences together through Customer, Systems and Culture, helping leaders understand what's shaping the experience so they can make better decisions about what needs to change.
WE SYSTEMISED THE TRANSACTION AND LEFT THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE TO CHANCE.
Somewhere along the way, we got bloody good at making everything faster, easier and more convenient.
Then COVID happened.
We learnt to keep our distance. We scanned QR codes, ordered from our phones, collected things without speaking to anyone and found ways to do business with less human contact.
A lot of that made sense at the time.
But we took some of those lockdown habits and accepted them as normal.
And I started wondering what we'd lost along the way.
You can walk into a beautiful restaurant, order your meal, pay your bill and leave without anyone genuinely connecting with you.
Everything works. The transaction is complete.
But did anyone actually host you?
I love technology when it makes life easier. I have a problem when it quietly hands the work to the customer and removes the very moments that make an experience worth remembering.
CONNECTION IS THE NEW CURRENCY.
As more of our world becomes digital and automated, I believe genuine human connection becomes increasingly valuable.
Being welcomed.
Being remembered.
Having someone notice when you need help without having to ask three times.
Those little moments make people feel they've chosen somewhere special. They give customers a reason to come back and a story worth telling.
And hospitality, hotels and retail have an extraordinary opportunity to get this right.
But you can't expect human connection to happen simply because you've put people in the same room.
Your team needs the time, confidence, authority and support to genuinely look after someone.
A staff member might want to resolve a complaint, but the process makes it unnecessarily difficult.
A manager might care deeply about the customer, but spend the entire shift putting out fires.
And a business can have beautiful branding and values on every wall, yet deliver an experience that feels nothing like the promise.
That's why Care Factor looks across Customer, Systems and Culture.
Because how you lead, how your people work and what your systems make possible all influence the experience your customers actually get.
And that experience becomes your reputation.
I believe we can build commercially successful businesses that run beautifully without losing the warmth, personality and human connection that made people fall in love with them in the first place.
Systemise the transaction. Don't systemise the humanity out of the experience.
That's what Care Factor is here to help businesses protect.
It's why I keep coming back to two simple things:
Be curious. Be connected.
And if you're going to say you care, make sure people can see it in how your business serves, leads and operates.
Give a shit. Then prove it.
15 questions. A few minutes. A useful place to start seeing where your customer experience may deserve a closer look.