One of the things that caught my eye in the Institute of Customer Services UK’s (UKSCI) most recent report on customer satisfaction was the suggestion that a growing number of customers are prepared to pay more for improved service.

It doesn’t seem too long ago that the introduction of interactive voice response (IVR) received a rocky reception with many customers citing that they preferred to speak to a ‘real human’.

The second year of the pandemic has seen more people in the UK slide further into debt and organisations need to recalibrate their response through empathetic collections.

As digitisation and complex business problems continue to change the landscape of organisations, shared services providers need to find new ways to stay relevant and deliver what their clients and service users need, raising the bar with the creation of brilliant service experiences

During 2021, the Capita Institute is asking senior decision-makers critical questions relating to the state of their organisations as we emerge from the pandemic.

The ever-enduring search for new ways to increase productivity is challenging, but it’s crucial for freeing up human and financial resources so that organisations can focus on and succeed at what they do, as well as to grow.

Treating customers with empathy has been an increasingly important area of focus within the customer experience industry.

You have a problem. Someone else has been talking to your customer. The likes of Amazon, Apple, Nordstorm – and the other gods of customer service have been educating your customer in what excellent looks and feels like.

Customer loyalty is the holy grail of brand. Less than a decade ago, consumers told marketing research company IPSOS MORI that they trusted certain household brands (Heinz, John Lewis, Walmart) more than the Government.

A popular online brokerage prided itself on building a customer experience that made trading stocks as easy as swiping right or left to purchase a book online.