Back in the ’80s when people would ask Elaine Buxton, “How’s your little business?” few — including Buxton herself — could have imagined that Confero would someday be considered the premier provider of customer experience research services to leading national brands.
It’s not difficult to understand why expectations were tempered. “Women were really just starting to come into their own in the business world” in 1986, according to Buxton. This was a time when companies knew they had to include women, she says, so they appointed one woman — “and you wanted to be that woman.”
This put women in competition with each other while trying to make their own way to the top during the early days of Buxton’s career. Now, thankfully, she believes we’re at a point where women are lifting each other up instead.
Buxton’s first break came early, when at the age of 24 and while living in Germany as a trailing military spouse, she landed the “fabulous job” of retail operations manager for Wedgwood China Company, which had 32 stores on Army and Air Force bases all over Europe. When she returned to the US three years later, Buxton’s retail interest and background would prove helpful to her mother’s budding new business. “Will you help me get started,” her mom had asked, “while you’re looking for your real job?”
Some 37 years later, Buxton has proved that she’s still having fun getting started.
Reactions toward multigenerational businesses are different today, Buxton says. While they are admired now, the setup “didn’t seem cool at the time.” In 1986, the pair felt Buxton couldn’t use her maiden name in connection with their venture. As she explains, “I used my married name when I joined my mom. We were worried that when people saw a mother and daughter, they wouldn’t take us seriously.”
Six years later, in 1992, the first national customer came. Although the client now has thousands of locations, their 250 locations at the time reinforced for Buxton that the company could “move past these blinders we’ve had on” and be bigger than local or even regional.
And Confero has done just that and is recognized today as a full-service customer experience research firm with a national reputation that was built on mystery shopping services. Every month across the country, thousands of people are sent into diverse locations to do research. “In store, online, over the phone, on a web chat, or assessing the service of a delivery order or in-store pickup order — all of the ways consumers interact with a business,” Buxton says, “we study that.”
Contributed photo
Having been an owner since 1986 and president since 2000, Buxton describes Confero’s work as “helping companies get customer insights, and then we learn from them, and then we help the companies align their operations to what their customers want.”
Her role today is primarily marketing, networking, bringing in clients, and acting as account executive on the major accounts that need a little extra help with planning and strategy. As Confero has grown, Buxton has moved away from the day-to-day business because, as she says, “I’ve got a really good team that takes care of all of that.”
And many members have been on that team for decades. “I’m not interested in being the biggest,” Buxton explains. “I’m interested in being the best, which also means being a good place to work.”
After all, in her various nonprofit board positions, Buxton has seen “the good, bad, and ugly” of leadership. The CEO, she believes, is responsible for serving the people under their purview by meeting them where they are, recognizing what they need, and providing that instead of sticking to a fixed notion of their personal leadership style.
Buxton believes that earlier in her career, it was easy to stereotype women as more nurturing. Today, as more men are being raised by women who were out in the workforce, she acknowledges that compassion is “like a muscle — you have to learn it and stretch it, but it all comes down to you deciding who do you want to be. Do you want to be the person that everybody’s scared of, or do you want to be the person that everybody will work their tail off for?”
Although, after 37 years at Confero, Buxton recognizes “I’m not big at moving on,” she knows she’s “big at moving on what needs to move on, business-wise.” Which is why, after devoting much of her 50s to caring for her terminally ill husband, Buxton is now having a “fun time” learning about process automation and applying AI and “having a chance to build the business the way I would have built it in 1990 if I’d had the technology.”
Along with being “kind of a geek” about technology and believing that if you have an open mind, “you can learn everywhere you go,” Buxton has followed in her mentor father’s footsteps with what her mother referred to as “do goodin’.” Possessing the inherited belief that if you’re part of a community, you have a responsibility to give back, and despite Buxton’s company maintaining a national presence, she tries to focus on “this place — because Cary’s my home.”
When asked about who she is beyond the job, Buxton is refreshingly frank: “I honestly don’t know who I am beyond the job; it’s all interconnected.” Her business experience enhances her volunteer work, and her volunteerism bolsters her business through continued learning — critical to Buxton, now a grandma, as she eyes her future: “If I stop learning, I think I’d lose my mind.”
Which is why she stays connected to Meredith College with positions on its board of directors and school of business advisory board. It was within this “incredibly supportive educational environment” that Buxton earned her MBA.
Her need to stay sharp is also why she serves on the board of advisors and as interim chair for the Women Presidents Organization, a global peer advisory group. Sharing, “You get to a certain place and there’s nothing,” Buxton clarifies that despite there being numerous resources available for women starting a business or owning micro-businesses, the WPO fills a critical gap by offering support and learning to women who have second-stage businesses.
Monica Smiley, a 2011 Women of Western Wake honoree, publisher at Enterprising Women magazine, and president and founder of the Enterprising Women Foundation, describes the WPO as a “very powerful organization” composed of only the top 1% of women entrepreneurs both nationally and worldwide.
“I just think the world of her,” Smiley says of her friend of over 20 years. “Elaine has been a leader locally and nationally and a strong advocate of mentoring young women. She is a thought leader in her industry and a top-notch entrepreneur.”
Buxton’s unrelenting need to stay active is also why she admits, “I need to be in the yard at least once a week to get my hands dirty.”
Of course, Buxton must also learn while she’s doing that … so she’s simultaneously listening to a podcast.
- Women of Western Wake: Annette Hibbert Stevenson
- Meet Cary Magazine’s 2024 Women of Western Wake
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- Women of Western Wake: Elaine Buxton
- Women of Western Wake: Dr. Joy Allen
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