While technology offers many opportunities to deliver a more proactive and efficient customer experience, it’s the human interactions between brands and their customers that often make the difference.

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.

As the rate of change increases, large established companies must be able to innovate at pace and scale, to keep one step ahead of start-ups and large technology companies that are moving into new sectors and markets.

While technology offers many opportunities in the quest to deliver a more proactive and efficient customer experience, it’s the human interactions between brands and their customers that often make the difference, writes Oli Freestone, Institute Lead at Capita.

To mark National Customer Service Week, Capita’s Customer Experience Design and Delivery Director, Charlie Whitworth, underlines the importance of understanding why customers are really contacting you.

We’ve just commissioned some independent research into “Fairness in Collections” to gain a deeper insight into the issues facing people who are in debt.

The pandemic has pushed disruptive trends like online shopping for groceries, virtual doctor appointments, and remote work into overdrive.

The impact of Covid-19 and the resulting social distancing has accelerated our online journey, pulling new businesses and customers onto digital platforms.