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Posts under ‘Customer Service’

Dealing with Customer Disappointment

– By Andy Hanselman A few years ago, the BBC became a laughing stock when they produced a 964-page guide for TV licensing staff about how to handle complaints. According to this highly-scientific study, clues that someone isn’t happy include use of phrases like “idiots”, “shambles” or “useless”, “sort yourselves out!” or ‘”when will you […]

Customers or Competence?

– By Paul Sloane It’s a question that goes to the heart of your strategy. Should you base your new product or service development on your technical expertise, the things that your business is good at, or on the needs of your customers, even if those needs are in areas where you have little or […]

Case Study: The Power of Listening

Bonmarché, one of the UK’s largest womenswear value retailers, catering for women over 50, won the IPO of the Year Award at the 2014 Annual Small Cap Awards after is floatation on AIM in November 2013, having raised some £40m. What makes this so remarkable is that less than two years previously, the Wakefield-based company […]

Remember, the customer is always right . . .

Top tips – Understanding your most important customers

“Whilst telephone research, website surveys, questionnaires etc all have their place this is not good enough for key accounts – in the same way that members of staff get an annual appraisal, key accounts should get an annual face to face appraisal carried out by a senior executive.” says Phil Jesson of Key Account Specialists […]

‘Consistent and Persistent’ Drives Great Customer Service

Solutions4Cleaning won the Excellence in Customer Service Award at the British Chambers of Commerce business awards in 2011. The system that they operate, which helped them to win, is simple in its approach. It can be expressed as monitor, measure and manage. The magic is in the way in which it is applied consistently and […]

Customer loyalty obviously isn’t important to some… Derek Williams (WOW awards)

Derek Williams, founder of The WOW! Awards for Outstanding Customer Service We all know of organisations that don’t care about customer loyalty from their customers.  There are little signals:- The hotel restaurant that cannot serve breakfast to customers arriving at 9.05 am.  “We stop doing breakfasts at 9!” The supermarket where employees are more interested […]

Systematically Delighting Your Customers

Academy Team for The Bottom Line Solutions 4 Cleaning won the British Chambers of Commerce business award for Excellence in Customer Service in 2011 against considerable opposition which included Marriott Hotels and BT. Kevin Kerley, who has since exited the business but remains in close contact with them, explained to me that for a small, […]

Can serious business include fun? by Brian Chernett

Just the expression ‘serious business’ suggests that we need to have our faces set into a serious expression whilst we embrace the ‘work ethic’ and drive ourselves and our employees into the ground. What if it didn’t have to be that way? What if work was leavened with fun, indeed what if work was fun? […]