Rise to the challenge

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

Time to come out of the shadows

In too many organisations ICT Is something that happens in the background. It is an unseen force that keeps things going that people don’t think about until it goes wrong. It is a bit like electricity, it is just there. You flick the switch and on it comes and you don’t stop to think of … Continue reading Time to come out of the shadows

Social Trust

According to the The Behavioural Insights Team, social trust is one of the most important measures that most people have never heard of. Until a few days ago I was one of them. I first came across the term in the book ‘The Social Animal’ by David Brooks. I would recommend it highly by the … Continue reading Social Trust

Back to school

It was a very weird experience, sitting in front of a class full of students from my old school. OK, it was a long long time ago since I sat in its drab and dusty classrooms and we were sitting in Campus North rather than the school itself yet it was still an odd experience. … Continue reading Back to school

Intellectual property

I’m meeting some interesting people these days. My recent blog about wearing out shoe leather tramping the streets, in order to see people nudged Helen to get back in touch. She told me about Lucy who had had a similar experience. She really had worn out a pair of shoes and has kept them in … Continue reading Intellectual property

Don’t bury people under pyramids

Five thousand years ago the Egyptians buried people under pyramids. Businesses have been doing the same ever since. It is an old joke. The first time I ever heard it though was from Stephen Kelly, CEO of Sage and he was giving the keynote presentation at that year’s Dynamo conference. Everyone laughed yet it is … Continue reading Don’t bury people under pyramids

Three types of fun

There are three types of fun. I heard this on Countryfile (don’t judge me) but I did not catch the presenter’s name. Type 1 fun is something that is fun all the time, from start to finish, fun now and fun later. Type 2 fun however is something that doesn’t seem like fun at all … Continue reading Three types of fun

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