Martin Hill-Wilson
Trust Me! I’m A Brand
The 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer reports a downturn. So say 33,000 people from 28 countries. It makes dramatic reading. Even the executive summary is named ‘An Implosion of Trust’. Two-thirds of the surveyed countries are now “distrusters” i.e. under 50% trust in the mainstream institutions...
How To Balance Digital and Human Customer Support
The more we adopt self managed, digital channels which optimise our expectations for ‘always there’, real time delivery, we are also rediscovering the expectation for human engagement when it matters. We are complex in our needs and so customer relationships are tricky in terms...
Enough Of The Ideas, Where’s The Execution?
I’ve just had the pleasure of chairing a customer engagement conference. There were some great speakers. My favourites were Joana Van Den Brink-Quintanilha from Forrester and Stewart Bromley, from Atom Bank. Both spoke eloquently about the use of emotion in customer experience design. Things are...
Why Social Customer Service Is Your 1st Real Digital Milestone
I’m fond of pooh poohing those who think that adopting chat or another ‘new’ channel means they have gone digital. This is because classifying channels in this way is arbitrary and technically inaccurate. On the other hand I can recognise their intent when on a...
Social Is The Soul Of Digital
I’ve just returned from Florida. Loved the warmth of the swimming pools. Appreciated the ubiquity of common courtesy that America still maintains. Marvelled at the level to which Disney has problem solved in pursuit of creating the perfect Magic Kingdom. For instance, SeaWorld, which is...
Whatsup With Social Customer Service?
I’ve come across quite a few of the brands that offer social customer service here in the UK. Some have attended my masterclass. Others are regulars at the annual conferences hosted by Our Social Times. There are also award winners such as Barclays, Ocado and...
Underneath The Bonnet Of A Customer Hub
This is the third post of my series on customer hubs. I’ve previously explored how they provide a low risk way of developing greater responsiveness to current and emerging customer needs. This is achieved by co-locating and then coaching a cross section of specialist...
“Rub A Dub Dub” We’re In A Customer Hub
The aim of a Customer Hub is certainly more ambitious than just ‘ three men in a tub’. In the first post of this series on Customer Hubs, I explored why they solve many of the issues that operating in a digital context throws up...
Where We Are Really At In Omni-Channel
This post and those that follow over the summer will explore what this means. The ongoing conversation will be primarily suited for large organisations here in the UK. However all sources of intelligent debate will be equally welcome. So please join in when inspired! I’m...
P&Q: proving employee & customer engagement can be improved
Each time the P&Q Challenge completes, I summarise what’s been learnt before the next round kicks off. This time I want to focus on one of the key topics we get involved in during the six month challenge. The interplay between customer and employee engagement. This is a...
Why You Should Collect Your Customers’ Digital Profiles
OK, this post has an interesting origin. I was doing a webinar (Go Digital! Engagement Strategies for Contact Centres) with Emma Samuel (Global Corporate Marketing Director at NewVoiceMedia). Of course I should have anticipated it, given the webinar title was ‘Go Digital!’ and we...
Providing Live Service For Smart Products
The world of customer service is ever changing. The capability to deliver omni-channel, personalised customer engagement is now common. It has transformed how organisations from SMEs to global brands deliver their service strategies. Welcome to the next stage. A New Service Ecosystem Until now the…
2015: Tapping Into Big Changes Taking Place In Social Customer Service
Now we are entering 2015, I thought it would be interesting to review how social customer service has evolved during the last twelve months. In particular, any insights that can tell us what we might expect more of during this year. My own experiences from...
How To Move On From Silo Delivered Customer Experiences
I’m reading a great book on service design. It’s something I’m delighted to have stumbled across. Serendipity is a wonderful thing. The authors are at least 10-15 years into their game yet I only just found them. Even though I’ve been talking their language in a...
Social Customer Service: Talk Is Cheap, Action’s Much Tougher!
The growth in social customer service appears to have stalled. Now the early adopters are out and about, the expected next tranches are nowhere to be seen. New names remain scarce. That said, it remains a popular blogging topic. The same old ‘5 tips’ formula...
Why America Needs To Get Serious About Social Customer Care
In the process of getting the word out that I’m bringing my Master Class to the U.S., I’ve been mugging up (more than usual) on the state of play. The headline brands that pushed the envelope during the first wave of social customer care...
Why The P&Q Challenge Is So Relevant to Customer Experience Movers & Shakers
I just enjoyed the great pleasure of celebrating the third cohort to be accredited in the use of the P&Q strategic planning framework. As you can see it’s an ‘ecosystem’ way of thinking about service quality and people performance To accredit organisations, I have been taking...
Multi-Channel Experiences: Why Contact Centres Are Failing
There is currently much focus on multi-channel experience. Technologists frame the challenge as a move from multi-channel to cross channel. Those in retail talk about the need for omni-channel competency. Meanwhile the customer experience profession discuss customer journey mapping while service organisations ponder the value...
Social Customer Service: A Force For Change
Right now customers who engage via social channels for service are in a lottery. The odds on a good experience are mediocre. A great one is even more remote. Yet when the right competency shows up something great can happen. The evidence for this is...
What Digital Customer Engagement Really Demands
We are currently in the era of digital disruption. It is comparable to other great periods of social transformation, such as the Industrial Revolution and prior to that, the emancipation of knowledge catalysed by the printing press. In each period, the status quo was blown...