Why Customer Success Is the Missing Link in Modern Records Management
As the Chief Customer Officer at ZircoDATA, Donna Wright has a unique lens on what makes records management succeed or fail. She describes her role as “the air traffic controller for customer journeys,” responsible for aligning cross-functional teams to keep customer experiences smooth, predictable, and compliant.
This month we sat down with Donna to get her expert insight into what it actually takes to drive success in records management, dipping our toes into her human centric approach in an industry that often prioritises paper over people. In today’s information-heavy, regulation-driven world, Donna unpacks the real reasons why records management needs more than good storage and digitisation processes. It needs customer success at its core.
Why Customer Success in Records Management Matters
“I wish every business truly understood that Customer Success is not just a support function… It’s the engine room for business growth,” Wright shares.
In her view, records are no longer static or back-office. They are active, high-value assets that must be accessed, translated, audited, and protected across their lifecycle.
“When clients can’t find what they need, when they need it, or don’t trust the systems protecting their data, that’s not just a service issue. That’s a business risk,” she explains.
This is why she pushes for more intentional design across records services—looking at how every step from intake to disposal can reinforce trust, transparency, and clarity.
Her perspective is echoed in this CustomerThink article, which highlights how fragmented systems and poor journey design prevent organizations from delivering seamless omnichannel experiences, underscoring the importance of aligning people, processes, and systems to meet customer expectations.
The Risks of Siloed Thinking
With decades of experience managing client relationships across high-compliance environments, Donna has seen how even the most well-intentioned teams can unintentionally create barriers for customers. As an expert in aligning service delivery with customer outcomes, she has built her leadership philosophy around unifying people, systems, and goals.
Wright is clear that one of the biggest challenges in the field comes from internal misalignment.
“Treating customer success, sales, marketing, and operations like separate planets… is a huge mistake,” she notes. “Those divisions speak different languages, but they all impact the customer.”
To combat this, her team maps entire customer journeys, from onboarding and service delivery through to renewal, ensuring every function shares ownership of the client experience. By putting the customer at the centre of strategic decision making, Donna’s team is able to ensure every detail contributes to a seamless, consistent, and trusted experience, no matter where in the journey a client engages.
Her approach reflects evolving best practices like those outlined in McKinsey’s vision for 2025, which highlights how hyper-personalised, journey-driven service models are reshaping customer expectations and operational success.
Compliance as a Trust-Building Tool
“One key compliance issue many businesses overlook is documentation, knowing what you have, where it lives, and who has access to it,” Wright says. “If you don’t have the right controls, things fall through the cracks.”
That’s why ZircoDATA embeds safeguards into every service line. Whether it’s barcode-tracked boxes, certified chain-of-custody destruction, or NAATI-accredited translations, these processes are designed to make clients feel in control and protected.
She adds, “People don’t remember the process. They remember how you made them feel.”
That emotional resonance is especially important in regulated sectors, where poor information handling can quickly damage trust. As the OAIC outlines, securing personal information isn’t just about ticking a compliance box. It’s a fundamental part of building public confidence and delivering a trustworthy experience.
Her Strategic Principles for Records Management
Through her experience supporting highly regulated industries like healthcare, legal, and government, Wright has developed four guiding principles that shape how records management should be delivered:
- If it touches the customer, it’s your responsibility.
Customer experience is a shared accountability. Every function, whether directly client-facing or not, has a role to play in delivering a seamless journey. - Complexity is the enemy of action.
Simplicity in systems isn’t just about internal efficiency. It is key to client trust. Clear processes reduce friction and make service delivery feel effortless. - Outcomes matter more than outputs.
Success isn’t measured by how many files are scanned or bins collected, but by whether the client achieves their intended result. - Customer success isn’t a department.
It’s a mindset. A unifying operating principle that links every team and service to the client’s long-term success.
The Future of Records Management
Wright believes that the future of information services won’t be defined by technology alone. It will be shaped by how human the experience feels.
“My role has evolved faster than a teenager’s phone habits,” she says. “It’s no longer about fixing issues. It’s about preventing them and designing experiences that earn long-term trust.”
As regulations tighten and client expectations grow, records management leaders must prioritise clarity, connection, and customer-centric design.
Because in the end, Wright says, “Success in my role isn’t just about ticking KPIs. It’s about helping customers feel like they’re in control, not in crisis.”
And that kind of success? It’s measurable, scalable, and more valuable than ever.
Ready to Rethink Your Records Strategy?
Customer success isn’t just a philosophy. It’s a competitive edge. As Donna Wright makes clear, the most effective records management strategies are those that are built around trust, clarity, and human connection.
Whether you’re looking to modernise your storage systems, streamline destruction workflows, digitise critical records, or ensure compliance across your information lifecycle, the difference lies in how well your provider understands your needs and builds services around them.
At ZircoDATA, that’s exactly what we do.
Want to see how a customer-first approach can transform your information management?
Explore our services or get in touch to start the conversation.
