This week is National Customer Services Week, or CSW, an opportunity to celebrate the relationship that all businesses have with their customers. I have been a member of the Institute of Customer Service for many years now and this week is one of the highlights of their calendar. More details can be found here. This … Continue reading Rise to the challenge
The Voice of the customer
This week is National Customer Services Week, or CSW, an opportunity to celebrate the relationship that all businesses have with their customers. I have been a member of the Institute of Customer Service for many years now and this week is one of the highlights of their calendar. More details can be found here. At … Continue reading The Voice of the customer
Channel shift again
When I look back through the canon of my blogs, there are over twelve hundred of them, a regular topic is channel management. It is something I keep coming back to. Well, you don’t expect me to write on a completely different topic every time do you? The reason I write about it regularly is … Continue reading Channel shift again
A woman at the chemists
The woman behind the counter asked me a very unusual question. You see, I had popped into Boots the chemist near the Monument in Newcastle. I wanted to buy some pain killers and for some peculiarly British tradition there is a ritual that we have to go through. The tablets contain codeine, which can be … Continue reading A woman at the chemists
Welcome pack
When I was in the office products trade I came up with what I thought was a cracking idea. At the time I was the general manager of the depot in Newcastle and it was my job, among others, to make sure that the business grew and returned a profit. The idea was not original, … Continue reading Welcome pack
Appropriate channel management
Is channel shift the way to go? For years now we have been obsessed which moving customer traffic from one channel to another. Cost has been the driver. Move your customers from the most expensive channels to lower cost ones, face to face, then telephone and then online. Clever people have worked out the transactional … Continue reading Appropriate channel management
Consumer Priorities
This week it is Customer Service Week, an opportunity to celebrate all that is customer related. Yes, I know that every week should be the week that we focus on our customers. They are of course the life blood of any organisation yet this week is like their birthday, we are going to mark each … Continue reading Consumer Priorities
Smart Stanley again
Smart Stanley seems to be going well. The idea is to have a number of small projects that use digital to enhance the experience of the town for everyone that lives there, works there or is a visitor. We made a major breakthrough with the launch of the web site a few weeks back. Daniel … Continue reading Smart Stanley again
Opening data
I think I’m finally beginning to win the argument over open data. It has been a long haul and there are many sceptics. They are quite right to be so, as it’s very hard to prove the benefits of opening up data for all to see. Some projects have done it very well and are … Continue reading Opening data
Judging the competition
You would think that judging a competition is easy, well let me tell you that you would be wrong. When I was asked to chair the panel for this year’s Dynamites 16, the North East Technology Awards event, I thought that it would be a piece of cake. I mean how hard can it be? … Continue reading Judging the competition
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 