News

It seems that the devil doesn’t just wear Prada, but works there too – as a new independent guide to London shops has awarded it a rating of just two out of five ‘shopping bags’ for its customer service. Indeed, visitors to the boutique on Bond Street in central London may be surprised to find out that the same level of service was awarded to discount store Primark. Compiled by milliner Tracy Rose and her husband Russell, the new edition of Fashion Fabulous London, the third in the series, reveals a surprisingly low score for the Italian brand. On her visit
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Virgin Atlantic is well-known for delivering innovation and excellence, and one of the ways that they are achieving this is by interacting with their customers online in real-time.   According to recent research*, 71% of online consumers expect help within 5 minutes of encountering an issue while trying to complete a purchase. If your business isn’t there to assist the customer within that time-frame, it is likely that they will abandon their purchase. Virgin Atlantic recognised that by engaging with customers at the point that they are experiencing difficulty, they can improve the customer experience and increase sales.   Watch this short
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The International Customer Service Institute(TICSI) are more excited than ever as they come near to their global launch of “Home of Service” on 30th April in Dubai; also to be held simultaneously in UK, Australia, USA, Singapore, India, New Zealand and Canada. A spokesman for TICSI said: “Our objective of creating a ‘virtual home’ that will have a huge impact on individual and business performance has been widely received by business leaders, customer service professionals and experts, members of various organisations and individuals around the world. At launch, Home of Service will feature more than 10,000 articles and links on
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The Customer Service Training Awards now on its 4th year, are the first of its kind specifically developed for Customer Service Trainers only. The Categories include: LIVE JUDGING in the morning of the Awards Ceremony of the 5 July 2013  CUSTOMER SERVICE TRAINING PROGRAMME of the YEAR  CUSTOMER SERVICE TRAINING TEAM of the YEAR ELECTRONIC/REMOTE JUDGING before the Awards Ceremony on the 5 July 2013  CUSTOMER SERVICE TRAINING INNOVATION of the YEAR  CUSTOMER SERVICE TRAINING AID of the YEAR  CUSTOMER SERVICE INDEPENDENT TRAINING COMPANY of the YEAR  CUSTOMER SERVICE TRAINER of the YEAR  CUSTOMER SERVICE TRAINING NEWCOMER of the YEAR (Rookie
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Two-thirds of customers complain of poor customer service from online retailers, research from YouGov reveals. The survey of 2,000 UK consumers found that lack of customer support from online businesses could lead to loss of trade, as 64% of respondents claimed they would not return to a site that had failed to provide adequate service. With last year’s online trade exceeding £50bn, it is estimated that failing customer support systems could lead to £20bn in lost sales. Adam Cooke, founder of support software for online retail firms Sirportly, urges business owners to invest in good quality customer service. He said: “The growth of
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HM Revenue & Customs has been criticised by MPs for costing callers £136m a year by not answering telephone inquiries, despite spending £900m on customer service. The Commons public accounts committee said HMRC had “an abysmal record”, but welcomed moves to introduce a call-back system and dispense with costly 0845 numbers. According to the committee’s report, HMRC left 20m telephone calls unanswered last year and managed to reply to 66% of letters despite a target of responding to 80% of letters within 15 days. Labour MP Margaret Hodge, who chairs the committee, said: “HMRC’s ‘customers’ have no choice over whether or
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Sheffield has the best hotel customer service in the UK, according to a new nationwide survey. The research, which was conducted by hotel.info, analysed the post-stay reviews of over 25,700 hotel guests to reveal the best and worst service levels across the UK based on friendliness and staff competence. Sheffield tops the UK list, with an average service rating of 8.46, followed by Norwich (8.39), Leeds (8.29), York (8.24) and Torquay (8.21) who make up the rest of the top five. Of the UK capital cities, London scored worst, with an average rating of just 7.36,
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Gas and energy firms are receiving up to 5 million complaints a year, most of which are caused by poor levels of customer service, according to newly published performance data from Ofgem this week. Aspect’s Tony Hesketh believes that it’s not the dealing with the complaints that has become an issue – it’s reducing the number of complaints in the first place. “Whilst we all feel a bit better at first when a company goes over the top to resolve a mistake or error, all we really want is a simple and speedy resolution,” said Hesketh, who is Director of Solutions
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Nearly 1.4 million complaints were made to Lloyds Banking Group during 2012 about payment protection insurance (PPI), figures released on Tuesday showed. However, Lloyds said that it made “significant progress” in driving complaint numbers down in the sec The group dealt with just over half a million PPI complaints for the whole of 2011 but this figure rocketed in the first half of 2012 to more than 727,000. Lloyds’ latest six-monthly complaints figures, which were published today, showed that PPI complaints fell back by 9% in the second half of last year, with 658,289 cases recorded. PPI still makes up the lion’s
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    The Awards opened for entry from 1st February 2013. The Customer Service Training Awards are totally unique. The Awards are held during the day and culminate in the presentation to the winners during a gala lunch as would be normal when celebrating success. However, the finals of the Awards are held in the morning on the day of the Awards. This saves finalists having to travel to a central location twice – once for the finals and once for the Presentation but also adds to the excitement of the day. Furthermore all entrants are
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The current recession is putting unprecedented strain on many companies and sectors. Ever increasing competition to win and retain customers is driving many long established companies out of business. In this landscape, delivering the highest standards of customer service is critical to corporate success – and even survival. This is particularly true when it comes to online channels. Here poor service isn’t tolerated by customers who simply switch to competitor’s websites at the touch of a mouse. Increasingly these dissatisfied customers aren’t just moving to rivals but are also using social media channels to voice their disapproval. UK companies need to
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After each customer interaction, the greatest question is, was the customer experience enough to keep that customer doing business in the future? There’s a vast amount of research and special studies that take place looking into what makes a winning customer service experience. Is a winning customer service experience about marketing? Is it a sales process? Is it just about the product? Is it the customer service people involved? What is it that makes customers choose your business over the competition. What makes your customers continue to use you, instead of choosing your competitor? If you dive into the information available
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Barclays is following the Co-operative Bank in making bonuses to front-line staff available purely through customer service satisfaction.  However, Barclays said it was going further than the Co-op by fully introducing the measure to all frontline staff, rather than doing so on a pilot basis. It is also eradicating commission on any products sold by its staff and claims an initial gradual move in this direction had seen positive business benefits.  A statement by the bank said: “Barclays has now decided to implement a new incentives programme for our UK frontline staff (branch and telephony) which will be wholly based on service.  ”From 1
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Because it will impact your revenue Enterprises must pay attention to the quality of customer service they offer because: Good customer experiences boost repurchase probability and long-term loyalty. Customer loyalty has quantifiable economic benefits as measured over three dimensions: willingness to consider another purchase, likelihood to switch business to a competitor, and likelihood to recommend to a friend or colleague. Poor customer service experiences lead to increased service costs. The cost of failing to meet these expectations is high: 75 percent of consumers move to another channel when online customer service fails, incurring costs. Poor customer service experiences risk customer defection and revenue
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Because it will impact your revenue Enterprises must pay attention to the quality of customer service they offer because: Good customer experiences boost repurchase probability and long-term loyalty. Customer loyalty has quantifiable economic benefits as measured over three dimensions: willingness to consider another purchase, likelihood to switch business to a competitor, and likelihood to recommend to a friend or colleague. Poor customer service experiences lead to increased service costs. The cost of failing to meet these expectations is high: 75 percent of consumers move to another channel when online customer service fails, incurring costs. Poor customer service experiences risk customer defection and revenue
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Research findings released by mobile workforce management firm Cognito show that 44% of service organisations believe as many as 50% of employees are not motivated by and nor have they bought into the idea of service excellence, while only 14% of service organisations have a system in place that accurately and automatically scores employees on performance in customer service.  The research was conducted among over 200 operations, IT and service directors by Redshift Research. Sectors included retail, distribution, manufacturing, construction and business/professional services.  Some 17% of these organisations believe their workforce is almost completely unmotivated by the idea of customer service
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Barclays is following the Co-operative Bank in making bonuses to front-line staff available purely through customer service satisfaction.  However, Barclays said it was going further than the Co-op by fully introducing the measure to all frontline staff, rather than doing so on a pilot basis. It is also eradicating commission on any products sold by its staff and claims an initial gradual move in this direction had seen positive business benefits.  A statement by the bank said: “Barclays has now decided to implement a new incentives programme for our UK frontline staff (branch and telephony) which will be wholly based on service.  ”From 1
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Barclays is following the Co-operative Bank in making bonuses to front-line staff available purely through customer service satisfaction.  However, Barclays said it was going further than the Co-op by fully introducing the measure to all frontline staff, rather than doing so on a pilot basis. It is also eradicating commission on any products sold by its staff and claims an initial gradual move in this direction had seen positive business benefits.  A statement by the bank said: “Barclays has now decided to implement a new incentives programme for our UK frontline staff (branch and telephony) which will be wholly based on service.  ”From 1
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CSN are pleased to include a site visit to Avios onto our 2012 calendar. Date: Thursday 20th September 2012 Location: Warrington Agenda:10.30 Refreshments and Introductions11.00 The Avios web centre journey to include; Web Chat, Social Media, Email, and Resource Plan.12.00 Spend Time in the Avios Web Centre13.00 Lunch 13.45 Web Centre Agent Progression Plan / Recruiting for a Web Centre Agent14.00 Open Forum Q+A15.00 Close  Cost:This event costs £250+VAT per person CSN Customers with an “Events Package” are eligible for one free place To book a place onto this event, please call 01902 311 641
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SDL the leader in Global Information Management, has today released a report commissioned with Forrester Consulting that explores the six disciplines that companies should follow to overcome the challenges faced when managing customer experience on a global scale. According to the research, successful global businesses use a framework approach to manage how they deliver locally relevant experiences. The framework is based around six key disciplines: customer understanding, measurement, governance, strategy, design and culture. Successful organisations that have achieved this have done so by: - Translating global brands into a local customer experience strategy - Developing a clear understanding of each local customer base -
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In a study of 1,000 UK consumers by customer service training firm, Results International, 47% of people said they think dentists have a good customer service attitude, compared with just 27% who voted for doctors and 30% for waiters. Bar staff were only rated by one in five (20%).  However, gym employees secured only 9% of the vote for good service and were more likely to be noted for their bad customer service approach by 12%, plunging them into the league of poorest performers. Hotel receptionists and hairdressers performed well in the customer service stakes, receiving nominations from 39% of people.
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Research findings released by mobile workforce management firm Cognito show that 44% of service organisations believe as many as 50% of employees are not motivated by and nor have they bought into the idea of service excellence, while only 14% of service organisations have a system in place that accurately and automatically scores employees on performance in customer service.   The research was conducted among over 200 operations, IT and service directors by Redshift Research. Sectors included retail, distribution, manufacturing, construction and business/professional services.   Some 17% of these organisations believe their workforce is almost completely unmotivated by the idea of customer service
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By Derek du Preez, 27-Aug-2012 According to the analyst firm, technology roles have to align with sales and marketing to focus on customer experience. Analyst firm Forrester claims that customer experience is the greatest untapped source of profits in business today, and that projects commissioned to target this are putting pressure on technology departments. Harley Manning, co-author of ‘Outside In: The Power of Putting your Customers at the Centre of your Business’, told Computerworld UK that companies need to rethink how they approach customer experience.  “If you look at customer experience from the perspective of what it can do to decrease your costs, what
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In a study of 1,000 UK consumers by customer service training firm, Results International, 47% of people said they think dentists have a good customer service attitude, compared with just 27% who voted for doctors and 30% for waiters. Bar staff were only rated by one in five (20%). However, gym employees secured only 9% of the vote for good service and were more likely to be noted for their bad customer service approach by 12%, plunging them into the league of poorest performers. Hotel receptionists and hairdressers performed well in the customer service stakes, receiving nominations from 39% of people.
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CSN are running a series of Autumn Workshops to give you the practical tools and best practice methods to improve your customer experience without the need for a large budget. Dates/Venues 10 Oct 2012 – Customer Experience Measurement, Wolverhampton  8 Nov 2012 – Complaint Management, Wolverhampton  4 Dec 2012 – People Engagement, Hampshire    So ask yourself… • Do I know what my customer’s journey is like? • Do I know how much effort my customers have to make to deal with us? • Are we making the most effective use of customer feedback data? • Does our complaint management process keep customers or turn them away? • Are our
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CSN are running a series of Autumn Workshops to give you the practical tools and best practice methods to improve your customer experience without the need for a large budget. Dates/Venues 10 Oct 2012 – Customer Experience Measurement, Wolverhampton 8 Nov 2012 – Complaint Management, Wolverhampton 4 Dec 2012 – People Engagement, Hampshire   So ask yourself… • Do I know what my customer’s journey is like? • Do I know how much effort my customers have to make to deal with us? • Are we making the most effective use of customer feedback data? • Does our complaint management process keep customers or turn them away? • Are our
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The retail industry remains the strongest performing sector for customer service, with internet retailers stealing a march on their high street competitors, according to the latest UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI).  Online fashion retailer, ASOS, achieves the highest overall customer satisfaction in the Index, with almost 92 out of a maximum score of 100, equalling Amazon’s record high score set in January of this year. ASOS is closely followed by Amazon and online bank, First Direct, in the overall customer satisfaction stakes.  The picture across the UKCSI as a whole is positive, as customer service in the
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Published in Business on 16 Jul 2012   Customer satisfaction remains the top priority for UK service-led businesses, research from Trimble suggests.  The study, ‘The Road Ahead – The Future of Field Service Delivery,’ was conducted to find out what strategic priorities organisations were giving their managers. The report suggests customer focus is more important than cutting costs, with just 36% of respondents indicating that cost reduction was a focus.  Workforce productivity was also indicated as a key priority and investment in initiatives to achieve improved service delivery as a result.  Trimble suggest that these trends reflect how field-based workforces are now being perceived by the Board,
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The public sector needs to take a leaf out of the design industry’s book and understand how users experience services, says Mat Hunter. Last month I upgraded my satellite TV subscription to be ready for hours of HD London 2012 sporting action. I signed into my account over the internet, hit a couple of buttons and was done by the time my two-year-old daughter woke up from a nap. Later this week I intend to book a holiday, pay a few bills and do the food shopping, all via the internet, and I expect the experiences to be equally hassle
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Organisations can register now for the new global customer service standard and take themselves to a world-class level. The International Standard for Service Excellence (TISSE) is a robust and rigorous accreditation of customer service and it’s new to the UK. TISSE is designed to help companies benchmark themselves against other organisations – both inside and outside their sector. It’s based on the 5Ps model  of policy, process, people, premises and product. Organisations that achieve the standard benefit from higher levels of customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy – and save money by concentrating on what really matters to their customers. Read
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By Catherine Burns  Business reporter, BBC News   We have all done it. Paid good money for bad service, and felt frustrated. Nowadays 76% of people are likely to complain about it. But what is the best way to do it? The Institute of Customer Service asks 26,000 people, twice a year, about the quality of customer service in the UK. It says people tend to find “putting it in writing” the least satisfying approach, rated by respondents at 68 out of 100. Phoning scores slightly higher, at 74 out of 100. But the most popular approaches are doing it on the web (scored 79 out of
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A new global standard for customer service excellence was launched in the UK last week when two leading customer service organisations announced their partnership. Customer Service Network (CSN) and The International Customer Service Institute (TICSI) hosted an event at Drummond Gate, London on Thursday 14 June when a number of organisations including UNICEF, Virgin Active, Legal & General, Welsh Water, McCain Foods and Philips attended to learn how
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Amazon delivery services could rise in popularity on the back of news that the online retailer has been ranked among the top companies in the UK for customer service. Cognito, a workforce performance management firm, commissioned a YouGov survey of more than 2,000 people to find the brands that serve their customers best, which resulted in Amazon sharing second place with Marks & Spencer after both won five per cent of the vote. John Lewis topped the poll, with nine per cent of respondents identifying the department store chain as the best customer service provider. Well-known brands like Tesco, Asda and Virgin also
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LONDON: John Lewis, Amazon and Marks & Spencer are the companies regarded as providing the best customer service by UK consumers, and could yield significant pricing benefits as a result. Cognito, the workforce performance management specialist, and YouGov, the survey firm, polled 2,084 adults, some 9% of which named John Lewis, the department store chain, as the number one player in this area. Amazon, the online pioneer, and Marks & Spencer, the high-street retailer, both recorded 5%, and thus shared second place. These operators were followed in the rankings by Tesco, the supermarket giant,
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UK customers are fifth happiest in world – second happiest in Europe! A new worldwide Customer Satisfaction Index suggests that UK customers are the fifth happiest globally, and second European wide, with the service they receive, with an 83% satisfaction rating. The happiest customers in the world are in Australia and Canada and the happiest in Europe are in Germany! Soctware company Zendesk creates the Customer Satisfaction Index by analysing data from 65 million customers in 137 countries via the Zendesk ‘Customer Satisfaction Rating’ feature.  After a customer service request is solved, Zendesk enables companies to automatically contact their customers to
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European Customer Experience World – the premier event for Customer Experience professionals in Europe – is being held at the new Hilton Hotel, Terminal 5, Heathrow, on the 22nd-23rd May. With over 40 speakers attending, and 29 hours of content crammed into two days, ECEW features presentations from some of the biggest brands: Ford, LV, innocent, Virgin Atlantic, Aviva, Sky, Marks & Spencers, Lloyds and Vodafone amongst many others. Keynote speeches will come from Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones aka the Black Farmer, and Dave Carroll, whose tale of the time United Airlines broke his guitar made him the first poster-boy of
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“This morning’s story on BBC Breakfast News, about UK customers wasting five working days a year waiting on hold to get through to busy UK customer call centres, yet again stressed the need for both commercial and public sector organisations to deliver better quality customer service.  Organisations listed in the ‘Worst Top 10’ can always call into question the validity of the research or point to their strong performance in other areas – but the reality is that lengthy queue times and expensive call charges continually top the list of issues that generate the highest levels of customer dissatisfaction.  Of course
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Shabby Tesco stores are to be revamped as part of a £1billion revival plan that will include hiring an extra 8,000 staff to improve customer service. Details were revealed yesterday as Britain’s biggest retailer confirmed sales in the UK continue to show an annual fall. The company is scaling back on building large supermarkets in favour of peppering the nation’s streets with hundreds more Express convenience stores. Tesco – slogan Every Little Helps – is planning new-look own-label ranges and hopes to build customer numbers by ‘carpet-bombing’ homes with money-off vouchers. Chief executive Philip Clarke admitted that Tesco had failed to pay sufficient
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CSN can announce the full speaker line up for our 15 March event as… Hilary Whitaker, Service Excellence Manager, NCFE In 2005, national awarding organisation NCFE had low customer and employee satisfaction scores and very high employee turnover. Their service excellence journey has transformed the business into a Top 100 company to Work For and winners of the UK Customer Experience Awards (medium sized organisations) in 2009 by focusing on the simple concept of ‘happy people = happy customers = £.’ Adam Stewart, Head of Insight and Development, Home Group As one of the UK’s largest social housing providers, Home are on their
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CSN can announce the full speaker line up for our 15 March event as… Hilary Whitaker, Service Excellence Manager, NCFE In 2005, national awarding organisation NCFE had low customer and employee satisfaction scores and very high employee turnover. Their service excellence journey has transformed the business into a Top 100 company to Work For and winners of the UK Customer Experience Awards (medium sized organisations) in 2009 by focusing on the simple concept of ‘happy people = happy customers = £.’ Adam Stewart, Head of Insight and Development, Home Group As one of the UK’s largest social housing providers, Home are on their
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Welcome to latest edition of CSN’s Newsletter on all areas of customer service excellence. How to make benchmarking effective for your organisation Just how good could your organisation be? To find out, make sure you book your seat at our next event in London on 28 February. “Benchmarking Your Organisation” will give you the insight you need to understand how to compare with the best – both inside and outside your sector.  Key speakers are David King from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and Tim Hughes from Welsh Water. “It’s all very well having data but it has to have some context.
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Yesterday, Mary Portas, Queen of Shops, issued her report on the future UK high street. Countless news programmes and radio phone-ins debated what she said and in amongst the opinions, agreeing and disagreeing with her ideas, one of the callers made a really important point. Or rather, they asked a really significant question: “Is shopping on the high street a positive experience?” So why ask this question? Because in the midst of the suggestions to boost footfall and bring people back into town and city centres, there was a fundamental issue. Consumers didn’t enjoy the experience and many callers made this
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Report by Paul Sawers is UK & Media Editor at The Next Web. Regulator Ofcom has released its latest report, highlighting the best and worst of customer service across the various UK communications industries. Thousands of consumers were interviewed in September this year, and they were each asked to rate their experiences of the different companies’ customers service, but only if they had been in contact with them in the previous three months. The customer service research is part of Ofcom’s programme of work to help consumers gain access to comparative information. Part of the programme also includes complaints data, and research
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Report by Paul Sawers is UK & Media Editor at The Next Web. Regulator Ofcom has released its latest report, highlighting the best and worst of customer service across the various UK communications industries. Thousands of consumers were interviewed in September this year, and they were each asked to rate their experiences of the different companies’ customers service, but only if they had been in contact with them in the previous three months. The customer service research is part of Ofcom’s programme of work to help consumers gain access to comparative information. Part of the programme also includes complaints data, and research
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UK businesses face £2bn war for customers 17 NOVEMBER 2011 UK firms fear losing 10% of their customer base over the next three years, at a cost of almost £2.25bn, a study by the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) reveals. As cash-strapped customers spend less and shop around more amid continuing economic turmoil, business leaders warn of an impending war for customers and identify customer retention and acquisition as critical to success. The study is based on research among senior decision-makers at 250 of the UK’s largest consumer firms, as well as 1,000 consumers. According to the study, the difficult economic climate leaves businesses
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Yesterday I spoke to my brother-in-law, who had a question about installing a new 3D TV he had just purchased. During the conversation he relayed the experience he had encountered during the decision process. It makes for, in my opinion, interesting reading on how customer service can differ so greatly. He lives in Nottingham, and there is a nearby retail park where there are large Best Buy, Comet and Currys stores. Perfect, he thought, for looking at a wide range of options and deals, so off he went, with a fairly clear idea of the TV he wanted. To compare
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I read an article today that said “Complaints are good. Complaints, or the lack of them, can be used to measure customer satisfaction”. Really? I think this is a sentence of two halves – to use the football commentator’s analogy – and the second half is not good. I totally agree that complaints are good. In fact, I love them and organisations should too. It’s a customer’s way of saying: “You got it wrong and now here is your one chance to make things better”. Provided it is made better, and quickly, then you may have created a really loyal
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CSN’s “How to get the best from your people” networking event won the seal of approval from its delegates – with 100% rating the day as “good or excellent”. Speakers at the London event included Tim Hadfield from Britannia Building Society who presented a Best Places to Work case study and Adam Truelove from Forest Holidays. Delegates rated both speakers highly and over 90% said they would recommend CSN to a customer or colleague and that the event had exceeded their expectations. Here are some of the quotes taken from our post-event survey: “A very interesting and productive day. I felt all
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Leading providers of customer interaction software, eGain, are sponsoring CSN’s Annual Conference in London on 16 November. UK customer service experts will be stating “The Business Case for Service Excellence” – showing organisations how they can boost their bottom line, even in these challenging times. Andrew McMillan – who led the John Lewis customer service programme – will be headlining the conference, which includes topics such as: • Winning new customers • Retaining your customers • Reducing operating costs • Bringing bottom line benefits to your business Dennis Fois, eGain’s Director of Sales, said: “We’re very pleased to be supporting the CSN conference at a time
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The energy regulator Ofgem has fined Npower £2m for failing to handle complaints properly. Ofgem said Npower had not recorded complaints properly or given dissatisfied complainers details of the Energy Ombudsman’s redress service. It added that Npower had now remedied all of the breaches of the regulations for which it was fined. A spokesman for NPower said: “We are very sorry, we let our high standards slip on this occasion.” “A small number of processes were not correctly adhered to. We have zero tolerance for this type of issue and we’ll continue to work hard to make sure our customers are put first.” Ofgem
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Do organisations really want to their customer service to be excellent? At a recent workshop with around 20 different UK organisations, I read some lines from their websites. All but one of them claimed that they ‘wanted to be excellent’ although not all in the same way – but the word excellent was still used. By simply attending the event, they were confirming their interest in delivering excellent service because this was the theme of the session. But in my opinion, many of them didn’t really mean it. I don’t mean they were lying – simply stretching the truth. After all,
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He was a devil to work with and he was right there in the details. No other chief executive of a corporation Apple’s size operated like Steve Jobs did. It was common, as news of his death sank in yesterday, to pay tribute to his visionary leadership. But it might not be this high-level guidance – spot on though it usually was – which Apple will find itself missing most. It is Mr Jobs, the details man, whose loss aches worst of all within his extraordinary company. “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work back to the
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He was a devil to work with and he was right there in the details. No other chief executive of a corporation Apple’s size operated like Steve Jobs did. It was common, as news of his death sank in yesterday, to pay tribute to his visionary leadership. But it might not be this high-level guidance – spot on though it usually was – which Apple will find itself missing most. It is Mr Jobs, the details man, whose loss aches worst of all within his extraordinary company. “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work back to the
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National Customer Service Week is an opportunity to raise awareness of customer service and the vital role it plays in successful business practice and the growth of the UK economy.  Don’t forget to vote in our poll.  How will social media effect the delivery of customer service?
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Best banks for customer service revealed: First Direct top, Santander bottom in Which? poll 29th September 2011 Top five: We round up the best banks for customer service First Direct has once again been voted the best bank in the UK for customer service by Which? magazine readers. The HSBC-owned telephone and internet bank clocked a satisfaction score of 84 per cent to top Which?’s poll, completing a hat-trick on the back of similar fetes in 2009 and 2010. First Direct edged ethically-focused The Co-operative Bank into second spot on 79 per cent, a score it shared with The One Account, which is an
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CSN’s new-look website is now live – why not check it out? It’s been improved to help you on your journey to service excellence. A really simple step-by-step guide takes visitors through each stage of the journey – from customer surveys to benchmarking. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re at the start or have already set out on your road to excellence – CSN can help,” said MD John Hughes.    
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Customer Service Network (CSN) has been chosen by Home Group, a major UK affordable housing organisation, to join them on their journey to customer service excellence. Home Group is partnering with CSN to deliver a customer service improvement programme. CSN will be making 1,500 calls per month to customers about repairs, complaints, gas servicing and other customer touch points. Darren Young, CSN’s Business Development Director, said: “They wanted to partner with someone who will not only measure customer feedback, but analyse it, and help to make actual improvements.” Adam Stewart, Head of Customer Insight and Development at Home Group, said: “We are
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John Hughes, Managing Director of CSN, will be leading the debate on the relationship between customer service and quality at a national conference. He will be joining Daisy McAndrew, Economics Editor at ITN news on the panel at the Chartered Quality Institute Conference 2011 on 30 November. Andrew McMillan, leader of John Lewis’s award-winning customer service programme, will also be on the panel. John will be giving his views on some of the hot topics in the customer service sector and sharing his recent experience of working alongside some UK organisations with ground-breaking ideas. For more information on the conference, go to
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TalkTalk was the most complained about telephone and broadband provider in the first six months of 2011, according to telecoms regulator Ofcom. The company, which currently sponsors ITV’s The X-Factor, had more complaints about its phone service between April and June than BSkyB, BT Retail and Virgin. More of its broadband customers also complained during that period than those of BSkyB, BT Retail, Virgin and Orange. Virgin was the least complained about provider in both cases. This was the second quarter running that TalkTalk topped Ofcom’s complaints list for both services. TalkTalk’s landline service had 0.8 complaints for every 1,000 customers, while
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Retailers are seen as providing the best customer service levels in the UK, but banks, car-makers and utilities firms lag behind in this area, a study has found. Econsultancy, the insights group, surveyed 2,000 consumers in the country to gain an understanding of their experiences with companies in various industry sectors. Overall, 47% of respondents suggested that retailers demonstrated the strongest credentials, with this category considerably ahead of the others assessed in the study. In evidence of this, retail banks scored a modest 16% on the same metric, while the travel industry logged 15%. Automakers trailed even further
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When it comes to customer service excellence, there really is no silver bullet – the principles and practice are well laid out but there’s no single, guaranteed solution. What does make the difference is the desire to deliver it. The more I judge customer service awards, the more convinced I am. It doesn’t matter what model you choose, Charter mark, ICS, BSI – it’s the “seeing it through” that counts. A couple of organisations I have come across lately have really nailed their colours to the mast and embedded customer service excellence in their licence to operate. If they
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Poor customer service could cost UK plc £850bn by Chloe Rigby    UK plc could be missing out on close to £850bn in sales because of poor customer service, according to a new study. The survey, carried out for multichannel retailer Best Buy UK, found that some 85% of consumers would go out of their way to shop somewhere with better service. The research suggests that businesses with poor service could therefore be missing out on their share of trade from those consumers – representing 85%, or £847bn, of the £995,832 spent each year with the UK’s
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LONDON—U.K. gas and electricity market regulator Ofgem said Wednesday it has finedCentrica PLC’s retail unit British Gas £2.5 million ($4.1 million) for failing to properly address customer complaints. British Gas has already improved how it handles complaints. However, the regulator said in a statement “the fine is a warning from Ofgem that all energy companies must take complaint handling seriously and treat their customers fairly.” Ofgem found that Centrica had failed to reopen issues that were not resolved on the first complaint, did not provide customers with details of the redress service offered by the Energy
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Santander has become the latest UK company to bring its international call centres back to the UK. The bank, which has performed poorly over complaints according to the industry ombudsman, says it has made the move in order to improve customer service. (more…)
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