Gina McCartney, former REA Group CX and marketing leader, has been appointed as the new Chief Customer Officer for Melbourne-based work and uniform outfit, Cargo Crew.

McCartney officially took up the reins in May after an initial five-month contract with the group across sales and marketing. The privately owned business has expansion aspirations both in Australia and globally, which McCartney cites as one of the key reasons she’s chosen to take the gig.

“This business has incredible founders, outstanding product and a customer-centric culture,” she told Mi3.

The newly created chief customer officer role brings together sales, success, service and marketing teams together to drive revenue, membership and brand growth across key markets. McCartney said her priority is to align strategy and plans, embedding scalable systems of work and capability.

Prior to this latest full-time position, McCartney was GM of CX and commercial effectiveness at REA Group for two years, overseeing a team of sales enablement, learning and development, operations, program management and CX strategy. She’d previously been the executive manager of customer excellence, having stepped into the more dedicated end-to-end customer role from executive manager of customer marketing.

Also on her resume is a stint as CRM then brand and consumer manager for Renault Australia. McCartney kicked off her marketing career agency side, working for the likes of Visual Identity and M&C Saatchi Australia.

“There are endless opportunities for Cargo Crew, so applying a laser focus on what we do and when will be critical,” McCartney said. Already on the list is connecting with B2B customers through an omni-channel strategy.

Meanwhile, a particular learning from her career that should prove valuable and applicable to the new job is an ability to identify talent quickly and nurture that talent to drive the business forward.

“It’s about creating clarity and executing with excellence,” she continued. Another must is building a shared plan that galvanises teams gets results, and the right results.

“Leveraging customer insight to drive channel and communication strategies to ensure right channel, right customer, right results is also key,” she added.

- with reporting by Nadia Cameron.