In the early 1990s I lived in a very posh part of London called Highgate. Just down the road from my flat was one of the most famous cemeteries in the world, which contains the graves of some very important people, including perhaps the most influential philosopher of the last 150 years - Karl Marx. Karl Marx (1818 -1883) was a German-born philosopher, political theorist, economist, historian, sociologist, and journalist, best-known for the 1848 pamphlet The Communist Manifesto (written with Friedrich Engels) and the three-volume Das Kapital. Marx's ideas and their subsequent development, ha ..read more

I’m really not a fan of fast food. In fact, it’s extremely rare for me to ever visit a fast food restaurant or buy a takeaway meal. The only time I would ever go into a McDonalds or Burger King would be to use their toilets or (if I’m really desperate) to eat one of their vegetarian burgers while on holiday. And even then, I’d only buy food at one of these burger joints if there were no other eating options nearby. But if you happen to be the type of person that likes fast food, then you might have noticed something strange happening recently. It appears that many fast-food outlets are falli ..read more

Imagine walking through a bustling railway station. You’re in a hurry, weaving through the crowd, unaware that cameras are not just watching you but also recognising you. These days, our biometric data is valuable to businesses for security purposes, to enhance customer experience or to improve their own efficiency. Biometrics, are unique physical or behavioural traits, and are part of our everyday lives. Among these, facial recognition is the most common. Facial recognition technology stems from a branch of AI called computer vision and is akin to giving sight to computers. The technology s ..read more

Ticket sales have just opened for the Institute of Customer Service Annual Conference 2025, which takes place on 4th March 2025 at the London Hilton Hotel on Park Lane This year, the theme is ‘The Service Nation: Leading with Purpose’, emphasising the critical role of leadership in navigating today’s dynamic landscape and shaping a better tomorrow. This year’s event will be chaired by well-known TV presenter Amol Rajan, and it promises to be an inspiring experience, featuring a stellar speaker line-up. This will be a great opportunity to network with like-minded professionals and learn more ..read more

UK shoppers have specific preferences when it comes to their favourite supermarkets. M&S was voted as the best in a recent survey, followed closely by German discounter Aldi (Waitrose, Tesco and Sainsbury’s were next). Aldi’s position is evidence of how discount retailers are reshaping consumer perceptions and the sector as a whole. Consumers probably expect a budget supermarket to copy from more upmarket counterparts to signal quality to shoppers. We just need to look to the case of Aldi’s copycat caterpillar Cuthbert - a cheaper version of M&S’s Colin, to see that. But now we’re se ..read more

In my role as a lecturer in Business Studies, I am often asked who is my favourite female entrepreneur. My answer is Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, who tragically died in 2007. Business women like Karen Brady and Jacqueline Gold are often held up as examples of the best British female 'entrepreneurs'. But I would argue that both Brady and Gold were not entrepreneurs at all, having been born with ‘silver spoons’ in the mouths, and given ready-made successful companies to run (with a lot of help from hired managers and business executives!!) But Anita Roddick was a genuinely successf ..read more

Readers might be surprised to learn that I’m a big fan of William Shakespeare. I regularly attend Shakespeare plays all around the UK, and I was recently at Manchester Opera House watching Sir Ian McKellen (one of the UK’s most famous actors) play Falstaff in Henry IV parts 1 and 2. While watching these two plays in Manchester, it occurred to me that there are many quotes within Shakespeare’s plays that could be applied to business - giving inspiration and insight to entrepreneurs and people working in a corporate environment. So I have put together a list of my 20 favourite inspirational qu ..read more

Everyone loves John Lewis. Or do they? Its loyal customers certainly seem to love the business, and we are often told that its staff members (or ‘partners’ to be technically correct) also love working at John Lewis. But in recent years all has not been well with John Lewis and there have been various financial problems and job cuts. The John Lewis Partnership has been under financial pressure for several years, and in March 2023 they announced the second ever full-year loss, totalling £234 million. It also scrapped its staff bonus last year and closed 16 department stores, along wi ..read more

The price of stamps will rise yet again next month - the fourth increase in two years for the cost of sending a letter first class. Royal Mail has announced that the price of a first-class stamp will rise by 10p to £1.35 and second-class stamps will increase by 10p to 85p. The price rises come after a warning by the loss-making company over the impact of higher costs and lower demand for letters. Nick Landon, chief commercial officer at Royal Mail, said: "We always consider price changes very carefully, but we face a situation where letter volumes have reduced dramatically over recent years ..read more

The Customer Service Blog has featured several articles about Britannia Hotels and their terrible reputation with the British public. Readers of this blog will already know that Britannia are often ranked as the worst chain in the UK by the public. This has been confirmed yet again in a survey by Which? magazine, that has named them the worst hotel chain in the UK for the eleventh year running!! After surveying around 5,000 people, the Which? annual ranking of British hotel chains has once again placed them at the very bottom of the list. The chain, which operates 63 hotels across the UK, ha ..read more