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Customer Insight
Category: Case Studies
ContactEngine
By Mark K. Smith, CEO, ContactEngine
In recent editions we’ve featured a series of articles from the Natural Language Understanding experts at ContactEngine. The more we found out about the company, the more interesting we found their slightly leftfield take on the role of Machine Learning and AI in the customer experience, so we sat down with their charismatic CEO Prof. Mark K. Smith to find out more about ContactEngine, proac...
Whose Bias Is It Anyway?
By Stephen Hampshire, Client Manager, TLF Research
In September Pegasystems and UCL ran a virtual roundtable on the topic “Do AI biases and human biases overlap more than we think?”, presented by Peter van der Putten (an assistant professor of AI at Leiden University and director at Pegasystems) and Dr Lasana Harris (Senior Lecturer in Social Cognition at UCL).
It’s interesting to hear from the experts about both the potential an...
How Contact Agents Can Respond To Current Challenges
By Ian Moyse, EMEA Director, Natterbox
For those in the world of customer service, taking work home has been a big challenge to overcome. Contact agents, synonymous with working in call centres, have been badly hit, with concerns being voiced over the social distancing measures available1 in offices.
It is therefore vital that organisations recognise the new challenges that call agents are forced to deal with and offer them the tools a...
Now, Next and Later: Customer Relationships at Interserve
By Iain Shorthose, Director of Customer & Workplace Experience, Interserve
Now is a good time for all businesses to reflect on our priorities, our ways of working, and the nature of our relationships with customers. Will the pandemic change things forever, or will we go back to business as usual? How may customer needs, both practical and emotional, have shifted? What do we need to do to make sure that we meet those needs and keep our people safe?
We caught up with Iain ...
Igloo: In It For The Long Term
By Rebecca Smith, Director of Service and Culture at Igloo
Energy companies don’t have a great reputation for customer experience. The Utilities sector performs poorly in benchmarks such as the Institute of Customer Service’s UKCSI, and most people would tell you that companies prioritise acquisition over retention, tempting customers in with attractive tariffs while taking advantage of existing customers.
Igloo, a relatively new provider whic...
HouseMark's New STAR Framework
By Stephen Hampshire, Client Manager, TLF Research
In January HouseMark published its decisions on a new framework for STAR, based on extensive consultation and review involving 300 landlords and over 13,000 tenants and leaseholders. STAR, for those who are not familiar with the sector, is a framework which allows social landlords to benchmark their customer satisfaction against other landlords.
While not totally prescriptive, it sets out requirem...
The Chief Insights Officer: It's About Way More Than Data
By Janelle Estes, Chief Insights Officer, UserTesting
Many companies now have data dependence baked into their DNA. They collect and mine vast amounts of information on customers and prospects to uncover trends, patterns, and opportunities to sell products and services across multiple touchpoints. “Data obsession” is a thing. Google the term and the search engine returns page after page.
All of this increased reliance on customer data has...
Goodwood: An English Estate Like No Other
By Rachel Allen, Client Manager, TLF Research
Based on a recommendation, Goodwood approached TLF in 2019 to talk to us about conducting an employee survey. It was, of course, fabulous to be recommended. We are always delighted when our clients spread the word.
It was clear that Goodwood had a definite and clear vision of what they were looking for and how the results would be used to drive change. However, within that framework they were very...
Clicks and Mortar
By Tom Kiralfy, Panel Manager, TLF Research
If the news is to be believed, we could lose the – once mighty – retail juggernaut that is the British high street within the next 10 to 15 years. This seems a little pessimistic to me - as anyone that has been to a city centre recently will tell you, they’re still buzzing.
What it does highlight though, and the 20 or so major retail closures so far this year will testify to this...
Irish Life
"All the struggles and contests that I ever fought seem only playful games now..."1
Irish Life is an organisation we’ve followed for a long time in these pages. This is the third case study we’ve featured on the Irish provider of life assurance, health insurance, pensions and investments. That in itself reveals one of the secrets to their success – sustained commitment over the l...
BeerBods: More People Drinking Better Beer
By Stephen Hampshire, Client Manager
Craft beer and subscription models are both huge trends right now, and they’re brought together in the beer subscription club BeerBods. We caught up with founder Matt Lane to talk about his approach to business, the strengths of the club model, and the company’s crowdfunding success.
The BeerBods story
The growth of the craft beer industry shows (thank goodness) no sign of slowing, eve...
Gousto: A Delicious Twist
Gousto is a subscription recipe box company, aiming to “deliver inspiration to every home-cook”. Founded in 2012, it has grown from four to over 500 employees, and has secured £75 million in investment. It has ambitious plans for the future, too—delivering almost 2 million meals every month, Gousto is on track to help UK families serve up 400 million meals by 2025. Customer...
Staycation vs Vacation
By Tom Kiralfy, Panel Manager, TLF Research
With holiday season well and truly upon us, we decided to see if the warm spells we’ve been having across the UK (this year we had the hottest Easter Monday on record) have influenced people’s decisions as to how they’ll be spending their time away this year from how often they’ll be going away, to how they’ll be booking their holiday, from where they’ll be goin...
Nordstrom Reinvent the High Street
By Nigel Hill, Chairman, TLF Research
Nordstrom Local's 3 Los Angeles stores have everything...Except products!
Most retailers, especially department stores, need to adapt to compete with online shopping. Nordstrom seems to have cottoned onto this before most. Its three recently-opened Nordstrom Local stores in Los Angeles are not retail shops as much as experiential locations that offer services like tailoring, manicures, returns, sa...
Trust in the Charity Sector
By Tom Kiralfy, Panel Manger, TLF Panel
‘Charity begins at home’, or so the saying goes, meaning you should take care of your own family and those close to you before caring for others. It’s a phrase often bandied around whenever charity is mentioned, and one I’m sure charities dread hearing.
2018 was a tough year for charities, and 2019 doesn’t look like it will be any easier. With the cost of living incre...
Fortune: The World's Most Admired Companies
By Stephen Hampshire, Client Manager, TLF Research
Every year since 1997 FORTUNE has published a list of the world’s most admired companies. The full list is available at: http://fortune.com/worlds-most-admired-companies. We thought it would be interesting to take a look at the top 10, and unpack what it is that makes them so admired. How do the FORTUNE results tally with other sources of information such as customer satisfaction benchm...
Biffa: Superbrand, So What?
By Guy Maddock, Group Head of Marketing, Biffa
Biffa was recently recognised as a UK business Superbrand. But what does this mean and how should a brand use this information within its own commercial activities?
From the outset I should state that Biffa is not a sexy brand, and it certainly doesn’t operate in a sexy sector, and yet for the 11th consecutive year Biffa was identified in the annual Superbrands index as the UK’s No.1 b...
Nationwide: Making the Connection
By Stephen Hampshire, Client Manager, TLF Research
Using technology to get closer to customers
It’s hard to avoid coverage of the impact of technology on customer experience. Whether it’s AI, digital channels, or augmented reality, technology is mounting an assault on the traditions of customer service.
Too often this is billed as being in opposition to the human-to-human interactions of traditional customer service: AI will replace ag...
Hanging on the Telephone
By Tom Kiralfy, Panel Manager, TLF Panel
Believe it or not, the idea of playing music whilst being on hold was actually discovered by accident. In 1962 a factory owner named Alfred Levy discovered that, due to loose wiring in the factory building he owned, the building had become a giant receiver which picked up the broadcast signal from a nearby radio station, and relayed it through the phone system whenever calls were put on hold. He p...
Loyalty: The Blueprint to Success
By Nigel Hill, Chairman, TLF Research
Customers across many companies feel aggrieved that their loyalty is not rewarded – hardly surprising when they see new customers getting all the best offers. This is not the scenario at Huddersfield Town Association Football Club (HTAFC) where the entire commercial strategy is based on rewarding loyalty. Here are some of the most eye catching examples.
The Premiership Pledge
Back in 2010 HT...
Thomson Holidays - Making Memories
By Andy Butler, Client Manager, TLF Research
In November 2016, Neuromarketing specialists Mindlab International commissioned TLF to understand what makes experiences special for their client Thomson Holidays. Using the TLF Panel, we surveyed 2000 individuals to try to understand exactly what creates a positive experience and how much each factor influences how memorable the experience is.
Christmas is a time when childhood and family memorie...
It's Fresh
By Darren Wake, Business Development, TLF Research
Food Freshness Technology (FFT) is an innovations company that focuses on delivering solutions for food freshness. From a global population of approx. 6.5 billion people, 1 billion are still undernourished and to-date, there is a lack of effective, safe and ethical technology to help resolve this matter. The UN World Food Program, the world’s largest humanitarian agency, warned the world wil...
TLF Panel Case Study - Food for Thought
By Darren Wake, Business Development Manager, TLF Research
So said one respondent after completing the survey. Winterbotham Darby is an award-winning supplier of high quality chilled, frozen and ambient food products. Although the company supplies product across a wide range of categories including antipasti, bakery, chilled desserts, fresh pasta, frozen desserts, seafood and sausages, perhaps it was the photos of freshly baked brioche rolls that accompan...
TLF Panel Case Study - Ad Testing
By Darren Wake, Business Development, TLF Research
Healthcircle are a strategic and creative advertising and marketing agency specialising in the healthcare and Pharma industries with offices in London, New York and Singapore. Their client, Nature’s Way, produce multivitamin and healthcare products like pro-biotics and herbal supplements. The market for dietary supplements has been very strong over the last decade due to the ageing populatio...
Rackspace
By Zuzana Bielikova, European Communications Manager, Rackspace
Rackspace® (NYSE: RAX) is the open cloud company and founder of OpenStack, the standard open-source operating system for cloud computing. Headquartered in San Antonio, with data centres on four continents and offices across the globe, Rackspace delivers its renowned Fanatical Support® to more than 205,000 business customers. Rackspace is a leading provider of hybrid cloud, which enables bu...
TLF Panel Case Study - Product Testing for Pangea Laboratories
By Darren Wake, Business Development Manager, TLF Research
Pangaea Laboratories manufacture high-end personal care products. They produce a variety of products for men and women designed to reduce the signs of ageing and provide smoother and younger looking skin. Specifically their product range includes cleansers, moisturisers and serums. These products are regarded as high-end and used by skin care professionals when dealing with clients.
One particular...
TLF Panel Case Study - Advertising Perceptions Research
By TLF Research
WDMP, London’s leading independent direct, digital social agency, produce integrated and below the line campaigns for leading brands across a range of sectors.
WDMP were keen to understand public perceptions of a proposed Direct Response TV campaign for a leading vehicle finance company. They have a specific target audience and WDMP needed to obtain opinions from this target audience about t...
TLF Panel Case Study - Customer Perception Research for Monarch Airlines
By Darren Wake, Business Development Manager, TLF Research
Monarch Airlines was formed in 1967 and began commercial operations on 5 April 1968 with a charter flight from Luton to Madrid using a second hand Bristol 175 Britannia 300 turboprop plane. Based at Luton and flying from half a dozen UK airports, it now operates scheduled flights to over 50 destinations, mainly around the Mediterranean. Monarch also flies long haul to Orlando, Tobago and Goa and m...
Jurys Inn - Employee Engagement
By Iain Law, Client Manager, TLF Research
Last year one of our Customer Insight case studies featured Jurys Inn, owner of 32 hotels in city centre locations in the UK, Ireland and the Czech Republic. Jurys sees exceptional customer service as one of the main differentiating factors that sets it apart from other three star hotels, and its employees are the key to delivering that service consistently. Consequently, the company has placed HR...
Leeds Federated Housing - A New Approach to Customer Satisfaction in Social Housing
By Chris Elliot, Client Manager, TLF Research
Benchmarking performance against peers is hotly pursued in most business sectors and especially in social housing. Accounting for about 20% of UK households, until recently housing associations had a regulatory requirement to survey tenant satisfaction and report their results to the regulator. The compulsory questions (known as STATUS) provided a general overview of residents’ overall satis...
Barclays Wealth
By TLF Research
As we all know, Barclays is a major global financial services provider engaged in retail banking, credit cards, corporate and investment banking and wealth management with an extensive international presence in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. With over 300 years of history and expertise in banking, Barclays operates in over 50 countries and employs over 145,000 people. Barclays Wealth is th...
Metro Bank
By Nigel Hill,TLF Research
A few days after Metro Bank celebrated its first birthday, I walked into its Holborn branch to interview Chairman and co-founder Anthony Thompson. Outside, with its bright red and blue livery, and inside with smiling staff quickly walking over to greet me and offer assistance, it didn’t seem like a bank but more like a hotel reception or up-market retailer. Close to where I was met was the M...
Richmond Housing
By Mark McCall, Client Manager, TLF Research
RHP – a housing provider in Richmond – has always believed that putting customers at the heart of its business strategy was the right thing to do. They own and manage 9,500 homes for people in need, including affordable rented housing, housing for older people and key workers and provide a variety of home ownership opportunities. Although providing and maintaining affordable homes is a...
Nominet
By Rachel Allen, Client Manager, TLF Research
Nominet is not a company that everyone will be familiar with but it affects nearly everyone in the country in one way or another. In this article, Juliette Dalitz shares the Nominet philosophy and explains why both customer and staff satisfaction are central to the success of the organisation.
Nominet operates at the heart of e-commerce in the UK, running one of the world’s largest Internet...
Co-operative Bank - Customer Satisfaction
By TLF Research
With over 300 employees and 20 Corporate Banking Centres around the UK, The Co-operative Bank’s Corporate Banking Division puts much of its success in recent years down to its fanatical focus on customer service. The bank knows from its customer satisfaction survey data that more satisfied customers are more likely to use more of the bank’s products and are more likely to recommend &nd...
O2 - Customer Satisfaction
By TLF Research
Most people have a mobile phone or a smartphone (or more than one), so with little new business available, O2 works hard on existing customers. The industry norm is that about 14% of customers switch regularly based on price. It’s difficult (and arguably not desirable) to retain these most price-sensitive customers, as they tend to come and go, opting for whoever seems cheapest at the time. ...
EAL - Customer Satisfaction
By TLF Research
EAL (EMTA Awards Limited) is a leading UK Awarding Organisation for vocational qualifications in the Engineering, Manufacturing and Building Services Sectors.
With more than 40 years experience, EAL’s qualifications are recognised as representing the highest standard of practical achievement and are delivered by over 800 educational centres including colleges, training providers and major em...
Cougar Automation
By TLF Research
When Clive Hutchinson bought Cougar Automation 8 years ago, the company was in trouble. Six months after he took over, they posted a substantial loss. Clive started addressing the issues step by step and once the financial situation was sorted he focused on customer service. From 2003 to 2009 turnover has increased by 168% and profit by 245%. When Cougar entered The UK customer experience award in...
Affinity Sutton
By Nigel Hill,TLF Research
Housing Associations have two purposes:
1. To improve the lives of their residents by improving the quality of their homes, neighbourhoods and communities. Some, like Affinity Sutton, even have declared objectives to improve wider aspects of residents’ lives such as helping them with skills training for jobs, child care and access to low cost finance such as credit unions.
2. To invest in de...
Carclo
By Nigel Hill, TLF Research
Carclo’s story symbolises the rise and decline of British manufacturing and the re-birth, of at least parts of it, over the last couple of decades. For most of the post-war years it’s a story of high labour input and low value-added, of fierce financial control generating cash to fund generous dividends for shareholders – but little or no investment in the future. According to Tr...
NCFE - Customers don't come first... employees come first.
By TLF Research
"Customers don't come first....employees come first”
at least according to Richard Branson. NCFE, the North Eastbased awarding body, agree; and that goes to the heart of their strategy to improve the customer experience. We spoke to Hilary Whitaker, Service Excellence Manager, about NCFE’s approach to building customer satisfaction, starting with their internal culture and processes.
N...
Johnsons Apparelmaster
By TLF Research
Johnsons Apparelmaster is a leading UK provider of workwear services with nearly 40,000 customers ranging from SMEs with less than 10 employees to sites of large multi-national operations. The company clothes over 1 million people at work. Ensuring that the right garments are cleaned, maintained and delivered back to the customer in good condition is essential, so customer service is paramount.
Th...
James Walker puts itself in the customers shoes
By Rachel Allen, Client Manager, TLF Research
James Walker Group is a dynamic global manufacturing organisation that supplies a vast range of products and services to virtually every sector of industry. State-ofthe- art skills in materials technology are central to the Group’s success with the main business areas encompassing High Performance fluid sealing products and Railway products and services. James Walker Group comprises a worldw...
Leighs Paints
By TLF Research
Leighs Paints: re-engineering the British manufacturing company. A great transformation story.
A common theme in the media is the difficulty of manufacturing in the UK. If you believe what you read and hear you’d think there were no factories left in the UK because it’s just not possible for manufacturers to be competitive here. Well there are and it is, and Leighs Paints in Bolton is...
Manchester United FC
By TLF Research
Anthony is Head of Human Resources at Manchester United. He has worked there for 11 years, experiencing the company as a PLC and now back in private ownership. He is responsible for HR across MUFC's commercial functions, corporate services, venue operations and MUTV as well as the football club. When not on a busman's holiday watching the Reds, Anthony is partial to a bit of golf.
Being successfu...
Emotional experience at Build-a-Bear
By Sarah Stainthorpe, TLF Research
In the last issue of Stakeholder Satisfaction I presented the results of new research from the YourSayPays panel that shed new light on UK consumers’ views about emotional engagement with the organisations they deal with. If you missed this article go to: www.stakeholdermagazine.comThe main conclusion was that customers are much more likely to become emotionally engaged when they have bad ra...
RAC
By Sarah Stainthorpe, Client Manager, TLF Research
Mel Cartwright, RAC’s Customer Care Operations Manager, gives us an insight into RAC’s complaint handling system, which is not only completely customer centric, but moreover is profitable too. In 2006 they were named Customer Service Complaints Team of the Year in the National Customer Service Awards.
At the heart of RAC’s success is the fact that they put great emphasis on recr...
Prudential
By TLF Research
Jackie Lindsay, Head of Voice at Prudential, explains how Prudential re-built their call centre around the customer. Moving away from a typical call centre set up, based on products and processes, Prudential set about designing an environment where customers could contact them easily (and for free), get straight through to a member of staff (instead of press 1 for this, press 2 for that) who was t...
Intouch with Stakeholders at Irish Life
By Stephen Hampshire, Client Manager, TLF Research
Irish Life’s successful programme of improvements in customer satisfaction showcases a number of valuable lessons: senior management must be on side; employees must be engaged and excited about the process; improving customer satisfaction is a long term game. None of these things are spectacular revelations, but Irish Life have shown that sustained commitment in the right areas will deliver ...
Visa - What we call results are beginnings
By Stephen Hampshire, Client Manager, TLF Research
Visa Europe has a commitment to providing excellent customer support for its bank members. This was put to the test in 2004 when they commissioned The Leadership Factor to carry out an ongoing customer satisfaction measurement study on their behalf. The crunch came last summer when a large-scale update survey revealed the extent to which Visa had been able to improve in key areas. The good news wa...
Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate
By TLF Research
Bettys and Taylors is a traditional family company based in the heart of North Yorkshire. This unique business is devoted to many of life's pleasures; handmade cakes, mouth watering chocolates, beautiful Café Tea Rooms, rare and exclusive coffees and fine teas.
However, being successful to Bettys and Taylors means more than just great sales. This is a business that believes in trading fair...
David Lloyd Leisure
By TLF Research
David Lloyd Leisure (David Lloyd) is the UK and Ireland’s market leader in Racquets, Health and Fitness Clubs. Its mission is “Inspire for life”. Currently 67 clubs provide facilities that include indoor and outdoor tennis courts, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, state-of-the-art gymnasiums, group fitness sessions, beauty salons, cafés restaurants and crèche facil...
Building a consumer brand from scratch - Cobra Beer
By TLF Research
Chartered Management Institute National Convention 27th and 28th October 2005, LeedsAt the end of October several hundred managers descended on the Queens Hotel in Leeds for the Institute's first National Convention. It was a very intensive two days with 41 workshop options, a formal dinner, breakfast sessions and three keynote speeches, not to mention the now ubiquitous 'networking opportunities'...
Traidcraft - The business case for social accounts
By TLF Research
Today, it has grown into the UK’s leading fair trade organisation, with a turnover of more than £15 million and an international reputation for delivering practical help to small businesses across the developing world. Traidcraft’s trading company deals in hundreds of food, craft and textile products from thousands of producers in more than 30 developing countries, and lists Brit...
Norwich Union - transforming good customer service into great
By TLF Research
With 13,000 employees and total annual premiums of almost £8 billion, Norwich Union Insurance is the second largest UK insurance company after Lloyds. JOHN WILLMOTT, Director of Customer Service, explains how Norwich Union is implementing a new technique to effect a paradigm shift in the quality of service it offers via its customer contact centres.
At Norwich Union Insurance we have always ...
YHA - Be Inspired
By Rachel Allen, Client Manager, TLF Research
With over 200 properties, 1,200 staff, 2,000 volunteers and a turnover of more than £38.5m, YHA is one of Britain’s top 50 charities. Now over 80 years old, YHA has more than 200,000 members, as well as many non-members, who enjoy its facilities. Customers could range from a group of retired people climbing the hills of the Lake District to a group of young people visiting London for t...
Irish Life
By Iain Law, Client Manager, TLF Research
Everyone knows about British Cycling and their growing success at the Olympic Games from Sydney onwards culminating in complete dominance on the track in Beijing plus a gold and silver from the four road events. Nobody thought they could match it in London but they did. Not only that but in the meantime, they had entered professional road racing (as Team Sky) with Performance Director Dave Brailsf...
Superquinn
By Nigel Hill
Founder of The Leadership Factor and editor of Customer Insight
Last October the Institute of Customer Service held its annual conference at Heathrow and on the second morning the 400 delegates were treated to a wonderful talk by Feargal Quinn, founder of Superquinn and more latterly Chairman of An Post, author and independent Irish senator. Fergal’s not one of those hyped-up conference speakers promoting his own flavour-of-themonth consultancy, he&rsquo...
Jurys Inn - Delivering an Exceptional Experience
By Nigel Hill, TLF Research
Jurys Inn is an international hotel group founded in Ireland with hospitality in its DNA. There are 32 Jurys Inn hotels in city centre locations throughout the UK, Ireland the Czech Republic. The employees strive to make the exceptional everyday through their commitment to service. Guests rate the group higher than its three star status due to the consistency and quality of service and some ...
TLF Panel Case Study
By Darren Wake, Business Development Manager, TLF Research
Made in Britain Campaign – Stoves
'41% of UK adults wrongly believe HP sauce is manufactured in the UK’Four decades after the “I’m backing Britain” campaign tried to revive the fortunes of UK companies, a contemporary counterpart spearheaded by cooker manufacturer Stoves has once again sought to boost patriotic enthusiasm for UK made products. Stoves commissioned YSP ...
TLF Panel Case Study - PR Survey for The British Egg Council
By Darren Wake, Business Development Manager, TLF Research
The British Egg Council represents the egg industry, providing standards for eggs and using the ‘lion mark’ mark to denote quality. As well as understanding more about consumers’ egg preferences and behaviours, the British Egg Council wanted to generate some interesting facts to drive a PR campaign about their work.
Eggs and personality!
At the end of last year, a represent...
TLF Panel Case Study - Winterbotham Darby
By Darren Wake, Business Development Manager, TLF Research
Most of us enjoy eating croissants now and again. Perhaps as a treat or when we’re on holiday, or maybe as a change from the usual breakfast or snack. But the companies who bake croissants would love us to purchase and consume even more!
Winterbotham Darby, is an award winning supplier of food products across the UK and Europe. Primarily for supermarket own label, its products include ...
