David Jackson's Blog

We have all walked away from a supplier because it has failed to provide the level of care we expect.

New research shows the growing importance of customer care and the role that the internet plays.

It seems that many marketers still struggle to build a rich picture of their customers. 

They could do worse than study the works of Georges Seurat, the famous French impressionist painter of the 19th century, whose techniques have interesting lessons for today’s 21st century marketers. 

The British Standards Institute (BSI) has just launched a standard addressing customer satisfaction, quoting research it commissioned to support the launch suggesting that the great British public is less than happy with much of the service they receive. 

But will a new standard help?

The fiasco that was the first month of Heathrow’s Terminal Five is a salutary lesson for any company introducing a new product or service. 

I sympathise greatly with the customers that have been delayed, lost luggage and generally experienced a level of service that few would wish on their biggest enemy but my real sympathies are reserved for another oft overlooked group – the staff.

It's doom and gloom, according to many of the economic commentators, but now is not the time to take your eye off the customer experience ball. 

When things get tight, a company needs any edge it can get and retaining the customers it has is one way of minimising the impact of any downturn. Here are a few things to try to hang on to those most valuable of assets – your customers.

From reading the business press it would be fair to assume that customer experience is high on the agenda of many business executives. 

But is that really the case or are too many senior managers just talking the talk and not walking the walk? Is your company one of those that is just paying lip service? 

Read on to see if your company passes this tongue in cheek test.

Many companies have invested heavily in the past twenty years in loyalty schemes, particularly in the retail and travel markets.

But recent research has suggested that this has had little impact - with only one in four UK consumers professing strong loyalty to their favourite brands. 

More interesting are the regional variations the research uncovers, with strong loyalty at 33% in the Tyne Tees area but only 20% in Scotland. Why is this?

There has been much discussion and comment recently about the quality of online customer experiences. Even small companies, run by specialists in their chosen field, need to provide a good online experience if they are to capture a share of the rapidly growing online spend. 

Here’s my novice's guide to improving the quality of your online experience... 

God provided a great model for communication when he gave us two ears and one mouth. But marketing - the function that leads customer dialogue - tends to focus on outbound communication. 

In today’s web connected world, is that still an appropriate model?

A number of reports have declared that 2007 is ‘the year of the customer’.  For many it is because every year is the year of the customer.  For others, it is because they are jumping on the latest fad. 

Being customer focused is a challenge, but many have succeeded.  In the blog post I'll reveal ten lessons from companies that have achieved award winning Service Excellence.