Archive for 2011

What can happen if you don’t take the trouble to see things from a customer’s point of view…

Thursday December 1st 2011

One of the supposed traits of being British is that we don’t like to complain; it ranks up alongside our love of queuing.  Maybe being Scottish I have always felt the need to take a polar view as I have always found constructive complaining to be at least therapeutic and often fruitful. Today, though, I think British people have learned the knack of complaining and are actually becoming pretty good at it. Read full article »

Posted in Consumer Behaviour, Customer Centricity, Customer Experience | No Comments »

People buy people first

Thursday November 24th 2011

How do we find out what customers really want?

‘Ah’ I hear you shout, ‘that’s obvious, just ask them!’ Read full article »

Posted in Business Transformation, Customer Centricity, Customer Experience, Manufacturing | No Comments »

How to care for older people properly

Wednesday November 23rd 2011

We are told today that the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) have discovered that some older people are not cared for in a dignified and respectful way and that as a result their human rights are not being met.  To those close to the industry, this is no surprise at all.  In fact the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in their last report 2010/11 stated that “One of the outcomes we look at covers ‘effective, safe and appropriate care’. For both NHS and adult social care providers, failure to meet the regulations on this outcome was one of the three most common reasons why we served compliance actions”. Read full article »

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Posted in Business Transformation, Customer Centricity, Customer Experience, Local government & health, Organisational Change, Savings, Service companies, Strategy | No Comments »

Caring for our future: shared ambitions for care and support – turning ambitions into realities

Tuesday November 15th 2011

I am actively contributing to the consultation on the Social Care Reform white paper call ‘Caring for our future’. In my view there is an encouraging vision for the future which is getting hampered by policy makers holding onto some ineffective ideas about how markets operate, as well as an absence of blueprint for how to make this vision practical.  However we believe we have a virtually proven design for a system which could deliver this vision consistently across the country. Read full article »

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Posted in Customer Centricity, Customer Experience, Local government & health, Public Sector | No Comments »

Charteris brings local authorities insight, savings, greater efficiencies – and bird nesting-boxes – at the National Children and Adult Services Conference (NCASC)

Tuesday November 15th 2011

Today, local authorities simply have no alternative but to find ways to improve service quality while cutting costs. Read full article »

Posted in Business Transformation, Customer Centricity, Customer Experience, Local government & health, Public Sector | No Comments »

Are we still paying chimney sweeps to sit in third class?

Wednesday November 9th 2011

The popular TV knowledge quiz ‘QI’ recently featured a question about rail travel in Britain in the early twentieth century. Read full article »

Posted in Business Transformation, Customer Centricity, Customer Experience, Service companies | No Comments »

Adult Social Care – Making triangles out of boxes

Monday November 7th 2011

We have proved that by asking a simple but slightly enigmatic question really significant improvements can be made.  The question is: are you delivering boxes or triangles?

Read full article »

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Posted in Customer Centricity, Customer Experience, Local government & health, Public Sector, Savings | No Comments »

A Customer is for life, not just for Christmas

Monday October 31st 2011

Christmas is on the way and consumers’ minds are turning towards preparations for the holiday season.  Children and adults alike are thinking about and planning present lists, party invitation lists and of course, shopping lists. Read full article »

Posted in Consumer Behaviour, Customer Centricity, Customer Experience, Retail, Retail & Distribution | No Comments »

What can running a small business teach people about being customer-centric?

Tuesday October 18th 2011

Many of us have at some point in our careers helped to run a small business, or a semi-autonomous department of a larger business, which can amount to much the same thing.

Don’t you remember the buzz you had when you went to work? The excitement on Sunday evening of looking forward to getting in on Monday morning and making things happen? Read full article »

Posted in Manufacturing | No Comments »

What it really means to be ‘customer-centric’

Tuesday October 11th 2011

It’s much easier for organisations to pay lip-service to the notion that their customers should be at the centre of their attentions, than for organisations actually to put that philosophy into practice.
Paying lip-service to the ‘customers-first’ philosophy is easy; implementing it is more difficult. It requires a real imaginative effort, and often an emotional investment, to understand and empathise wholeheartedly with your customers’ agenda. Read full article »

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