Australian consultancy The Bridge International has launched CXO2, a customer experience consulting specialist.

Sara Elmstrom, partner at The Bridge for nearly seven years, has been appointed CEO and will lead a team of customer experience experts who have worked with clients across a range of industries.

“Sara is a well-known and respected executive leader with close to three decades of international experience including in the UK, South Africa and Asia, spanning multiple industries,” Bridge co-founder and MD Stuart Blake said.

“She has also walked in the shoes of our clients, having managed large-scale customer operations for Wesfarmers, IAG ... As CEO at CXO2 she has already built an impressive team of customer-obsessed experts who are all leaders in their field.”

Ms Elmstrom says CXO2 can help insurance clients facing challenges such as affordability, the protection gap, climate change impacts and regulatory changes.

“The insurance industry faces unique challenges in the customer space,” she told insuranceNEWS.com.au. “How do we continue to create really great customer experiences with increased intimacy as the traditional entry-level roles disappear?

“We leverage our depth of understanding of these issues to help organisations design their unique customer and distribution strategy that helps build competitive advantage through differentiation.”

She says being part of The Bridge means CXO2 brings “both a deep knowledge of and experience in the industry, coupled with our passion for customers.

“Our clients get the best of both worlds – people who ‘get’ insurance, who can also bring in insights and learnings from doing customer work outside the industry.”