As the Former COO of NHS Direct, and Director of 111, it breaks my heart to see the state that call handling in the NHS has disintegrated into. bit.ly/3QxZXdI.

I’ve had the always harrowing experience of moving home the last couple of months, and its been very interesting to see how much Technology and People have, or haven’t, supported…

So, we had the latest Gartner Magic Quadrant report for BPO Contact Centres released a week or two ago. How much attention do organisations actually pay to it? Is it a bit like the awards, in that it means more to those in it than those not in it?

I decided it was time for a new car a few weeks ago. This should be a moment and time of excitement and joyous anticipation, but nothing could be further removed. When did buying a car from a main dealership become such a soulless, dull, de-personalised transaction? And I say transaction deliberately, because that’s literally all it was, no sense of customer experience whatsoever, just a cold and joyless process. Or maybe this is just BMW.

Went away last weekend for the bank holiday, and arrived at the hotel at 2.30pm. We were told our room wasn’t ready, and wouldn’t be ready for another hour and half. Ok, no problem we thought, we will sit and have a drink. About an hour went by, and no sign of our room, but plenty of other guests arriving and being checked in. Beginning to get a bit annoyed, I went to enquire. I thought I’d try the self-service check in, but they had all been switched off. What’s the point of having self-service check in terminals, if you’re going to switch them off, and make your guests queue outside?

When are insurance companies going to wake up and realise it’s no longer the 90s? I needed to amend 2 policies this week, both with Saga. For some reason, my wife’s car is on my policy and my car is on her policy, and they need to be swapped over. As they are both with saga, and both in the online account, you would think, and hope, this would be not on do-able, but relatively straightforward? How wrong we can be.

Am pleased to write about some great experiences this week following my house move. We are quick to share our bad experiences and call out organisations when they get it wrong, and rightly so, but I feel it’s only fair to highlight where companies have got it working really well, particularly in situations where we often expect a drama or a fight.

How hard do you think it is to buy a Fridge? The answer, if you want to buy it from Curry’s or Creation Finance, is almost impossible. You wouldn’t believe any company could make it so hard for you to give them your money. Moved house this week, and had space for a new Fridge Freezer. Have always had a decent experience with Curry’s before, so went on their website. 9.30am. Found the right one, priced match, and then up comes an offer for interest free finance. Great, always happy to use someone else’s money before I start on my own. However, here’s where the trouble starts.

Have been selling a house recently, and am in the middle of moving everything this week, and it’s been enlightening to see the self-serve and digital journey offerings of some of the big utility providers, and the contrast in CX between British Gas and E-on could not be greater. Part of selling the house is we need to have the boiler serviced. No problem, I have Homecare with British Gas. Go online 3 or 4 months ago and book it. All good. Appointment date was 6 weeks ago, waited in all day. No one arrived. No text, no email, nada.

It is 480 days since the first lockdown was announced in March last year. This is longer than it took for the Empire State Building to be built and Robin Knox-Johnston to sail single-handedly around the world. Yet we still have many organisations blaming Covid for truly shocking levels of customer service and appalling wait times. But its now getting even worse. We now have companies telling us not to even bother ringing them at all