“Success is falling nine times and getting up ten.” Jon Bon Jovi “Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.” George S Patton “Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.” Coco Chanel “Success is not a good teacher, failure makes you humble.” Shah Rukh Khan “Failure is success, if we learn from it.” Malcolm Forbes “A minute’s success pays the failure of years.” Robert Browning “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavour.” Truman Capote “Success is only meaningful and enjoyable if it feels like your own.” Michelle Obama “I’ve failed over ..read more

New ‘consumer duty’ rules introduced by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) aim to set clear standards for the protection of financial consumers. Banks, building societies, investment and insurance firms, as well as many other types of business, are being told to “put their customers’ needs first”. The timing couldn’t be better. Amid a cost of living crisis, the UK regulator’s new rules should hopefully address the increasing recognition by consumer groups that people cannot always solve the financial problems they face. Consumers are under pressure and need more support. Yet, trust in fin ..read more

Renters in the UK are facing a difficult time to find somewhere to live, with demand outweighing supply for houses and flats across the country, resulting in rental prices being pushed up. Many university students live away from their family home in private rental properties. Recent research shows that average student rents went up by 14.6% in the last year. But now scammers are taking advantage of the lucrative and competitive student rental market, by posing as legitimate landlords. These criminals are demanding deposits and advanced rent payments for properties that don’t even exist. BBC ..read more

It's time to celebrate! This month, The Customer Service Blog hit the amazing milestone of 300,000 readers! Official figures confirm that on 25th October 2023 we had 302,340 readers. This includes around 55,000 people in the UK and around 86,000 people in the USA. So far in 2023 we have acquired just over 50,000 new readers across Europe and in places further afield such as Hong Kong (where we now have around 29,000 readers) and Germany (where we have around 20,000 readers). But the really big success story has been the USA, where our readership has doubled in the last few years. In fact we ..read more

Welcome to National Customer Service Week (NCSW). This year, NCSW runs from Monday 2nd to Friday 6th October 2023, and it presents the opportunity for businesses and other organisations to celebrate customer service with a series of themes and prepared activities for each day, in addition to some helpful resources. For anyone running their own business, National Customer Service Week is a great opportunity to recognise and celebrate excellence in customer service, and to give recognition to your staff members who deliver it. MondayThe Future of AI TuesdayService with Respect Day WednesdayCu ..read more

As many readers will already know, when I’m not editing The Customer Service Blog, I also do university lecturing in the disciplines of Marketing, Management and Business Studies.  One of my areas of expertise is pricing strategy, and how this can be used within marketing to maximise profitability. So I was very interested to read a recent media story about how the ‘Slug & Lettuce’ chain of pubs is going to charge different prices at different times, depending on how busy the pub is. The technical name for this strategy is ‘dynamic pricing’, and although the story has gained a lot o ..read more

A major part of M&S’s return to the FTSE 100 last week (along with a share price rise of over 70%) can be credited to the retailer’s significant investments in customer service. Stuart Machin, who took over as CEO in 2022, himself put the focus on customer experience as a key driver of M&S’s strategy, saying: “We’re only as good as our customers shopping with us today tell us we are. That’s what matters, and if we do right by our customers, we’ll do right by our shareholders.” Since the beginning of M&S’s shake-up in 2022, the retail giant has been vocal about its focus ..read more

Most people in the world have heard of Amazon and know about its incredible rise over the last few decades. But what do you know about its founder, Jeff Bezos? Jeffrey Preston Bezos (born 12 January 1964) is an American business magnate, media proprietor, and investor. He is the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce and cloud computing company. At the age of 30, Bezos abandoned a successful career on Wall Street to start his own business. In 1994, he stepped down as senior vice president of investment firm DE Shaw & Co and move ..read more

The summer of 2023 started well for airlines, after a tumultuous few years following COVID lockdowns in most countries. Passenger numbers were up 30% in the northern hemisphere in June 2023, versus the previous year. But air travel in July and August has been disrupted once again, not only by air traffic control strikes, but also by devastating wildfires in typical tourist hot spots such as Greece, Maui, Tenerife and Canada. The latest problem - a UK air traffic control fault - has left thousands of passengers stranded after more than one-quarter of UK flights were cancelled on one of the bu ..read more

Being a good listener means having empathy. But empathy is one of the most misunderstood listening skills. Empathy is what we feel when we are trying to understand the world from the perspective of another person. One of the common misconceptions about empathy is that you need to have lived through what the other person has experienced to understand them. Simply having the same experiences as another person is not enough to understand them. Two people can face the same challenges or difficulties, but respond in completely different ways. Your experiences are unique to you and no one else can ..read more