Searching For Excellence and Geisha Recruiters???

I was recently lucky enough to visit Japan, a fascinating country with a diverse, rich and unique culture, much in contrast to the West.  I was particularly drawn to the tradition and history of Japan; the Geisha, the Samurai, the wonder of the bamboo forests, the might of Mount Fuji but I was also struck by how they strive for perfection and how they master their profession and or art.

Whether it be the fact that all their trains are on time.  They have the most 3* Michelin restaurants in the world. The lack of rubbish, or that a Maiko (Geisha apprentice), will train for 5 years to achieve the status of Geiko.  During this time, they will have no access to a TV, Facebook, or any other technology.  They receive no wage.  It is hard to imagine that such young women, Maiko are typically aged between 14 and 17, volunteer for this, mainly due to a sense of honour, to preserve and maintain such traditions. This apprenticeship and service to a trade is not unique, a Sushi Chef will also generally serve as an apprentice for 5 years, working with a master itamae before they are given their first job, preparation of the sushi rice and so it continues across professions. 

Is Customer Experience Really Dead?

This is a subject that I have been pondering on for a long while, and it is a subject that seems to really be at the forefront now in the face of our global crisis.

• 

There is so much talk around what ‘Customer Experience’ means exactly. What actually does make up a Customer Experience leader? Is there need for ‘Customer Experience’ leadership or should all members of a leadership team embrace the customer and therefore drive customer centric values across each and every business function? As an industry, is this something that we are doing effectively?

The New Customer and Employee Landscape

What a few months, outside of the movies, I don’t think the majority of us could have ever planned or thought the country would be in lockdown, or in the grip of pandemic as we are.

On the whole, we have coped admirably well, everyone is trying to be upbeat, positive, kinder, more helpful, but the future is likely to look and be very different to the past, especially across the customer, employee and contact landscape.

As we look beyond lockdown and a gradual return to work, of sorts, what sort of change are we likely to see in the world of customer led organisations, customer experience, employee engagement and contact centres:

Remote working

Emergency Measures and The Future

I have had the pleasure of talking to some great senior managers across different industries throughout the UK over the last week.

Having listened to several individuals and teams which have been implementing ‘emergency measures’ across their customer functions driven because of Covid-19, there have been many inspirational stories.

Top Tips For Your CV Writing

Whether you’ve got time on your hands and you’re giving your CV a ‘spring clean’ or whether you’re actively pursuing a new role, there’s no doubt that investing time and effort into crafting a CV that you are proud to have your name atop, is energy well spent.

The skill in writing an eye catching, relevant and representative resume of your achievements and capabilities is not one that many of us find easy. After all, writing about ourselves whilst not appearing arrogant or over-egging our experience is a challenge. And of course, there is the fact that most of us are our own worst critics so find it difficult to work out exactly what it is that we are great at and how we should be depicting our key skills and successes.

But get over this we must if we are to craft and share a CV that we are proud of and that gets us onto the shortlist for interview. Read on for some top tips to help you on your way.

Tip 1) Make two lists.

How Will Business Planning Change?

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve had some interesting conversations with senior leaders particularly those operating in the planning space.

Several conversations have been around Covid-19 and the impact it has had on their operations with lots of operations having to work from home. For some organisations this has been a logistical nightmare.

Different organisations have seen different challenges so far in their process including:

Accelerated Digital Transformations

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve had some interesting conversations with senior leaders particularly those operating in the digital transformation space.

A number of conversations have gravitated to the lack of ‘red tape’ during the latest digital transformation projects aimed to get teams working effectively but remotely.

A number of businesses have seen large scale transformation projects, expected to take months or years, accelerated to happen almost over night. The need for an increase in urgency when taking business from a BAU busy contact centre, to throwing all efforts (particularly from the IT teams) into directing a large volume of team members to work from home.

6 Top Tips For Video Interviews

With the nations home-working in full swing, there have been a number of changes for us all day to day.

From battling with the youngest family members, prioritising home-schooling over spending time out in the garden whilst the sun is shining, to sharing work space with other family members who are also working from home every day, it is certainly bringing new challenges to the fore.

A big change that’s hit the world of recruitment has been the need to utilise technology for interviewing for roles with the inability to travel to sites for face to face meetings.

 A number of our clients here at Douglas Jackson are opting to use video interviews to alleviate the pressure whilst hiring for business critical roles during this unprecedented period.

Continued Support

The team at Douglas Jackson share your concerns about the spread of COVID-19, and its impact on the country, our daily lives and our friends and family.

The health, safety and wellbeing of our employees and our customers; clients and candidates are our top priority.

We have, for the time being reverted to virtual interviews and behavioural profiling, for ongoing roles, interviews and virtual meetings with our client customers. We are working to support our customers with the same.

Our employees are all able to work from home and can access all the tools and technologies to do their roles and serve our customers as usual, continuing the high level of professionalism, speed, quality of care and support you require. 

We are continuing to monitor the changing situation on an ongoing basis and following advice from the UK Government and World Health Organisation.

We understand that there is alot of disruption right now and many people may want to talk to us for our support, equally your priorities may lie elsewhere. Please do just let us know if we reach out to you, or, if we can offer any advice or support, you can contact us on 0345 620 9720 or email; mail@douglas-jackson.com.

Our advice is free as always and we are available to offer this to anyone who needs it.

Personalisation Of The Customer Journey – CCMA Seminar

I attended another great CCMA seminar in London, focused on the customer journey and how personalising the approach with customers can affect productivity within the contact centre.

The afternoon kicked off at the De Vere Connaught Rooms in Holborn with an informative presentation by Stephen Yap of Intuit who delved into research surrounding the personalisation of the customer journey and the knock on effect for customers.

 

With the consumer now expecting the same level of speed, agility, convenience and experience that corporate giants like Amazon are able to provide (both across B2B and B2C sectors), this ignited the afternoon’s discussions around the definition, design and implementation of personalisation, and the subsequent affects for both the customer and employees internally across the contact centres.

The Future of The Contact Centre Conference

I attended The Future of the Contact Centre conference in London last week, and I must say, I came away from the event absolutely buzzing.

A big theme for me, taken from the conference, other events, and from talking to great senior Leaders, is the big emphasis now on inclusion across all demographics and personality types, and individuality. The rise of the robots is also seeing the rise in humans as individuals. What do you think about this? I’m all up for it to be honest. I believe that we should embrace our individuality.

Anyway, back to the conference specifically…

Attracting and Retaining The Skills For The Future.

I was at a recent event and talking to a Director of Customer Experience about the changing roles within the customer market, as well as the perception vs the reality of the pace of change, given that voice is still a prominent and, in many organisations, still the leading channel of contact.

For me, the biggest challenge to organisations across our sector is attracting the individuals we need to deliver the future workforce, those that will deliver the cross-channel customer experience today, whilst retaining and developing this talent for the future to take on new and varied roles.

Customer Experience Stars

The start of a New Year, we don’t know about you but it always brings about a time of self reflection, of improvement, of new beginnings, even for those of us who strive for continued development and leanings throughout the year.

At the end of last year, Douglas Jackson received an amazing and unexpected accolade.

The Customer Experience Magazine published its Top 50 CX Stars.  Hannah Louise Cox, Executive Search Consultant, was announced in the Top 25 Customer Experience Professionals, the only recruitment professional to make this list and the only non-recruitment business owner to make the top 50 and Michelle Ansell, Managing Partner, was announced No 8 in the Customer Experience Influencers list, amongst the top 3 female influencers and the highest ranking recruitment industry professional within the list.

Stability In a Changing Market

Well, we are hours away from yet another time in our economic climate whereby decisions of our country are going to be remembered in history. Whatever your opinions on what has happened, is happening, or about to happen, there is no doubt that what we are facing as a country has an effect on us day to day in business.

How has the current economic situation affected your business, or business area?

Europe’s finest- ECCCSAs 2019

It was the biggest yet, with 1300 attendees from over 24 countries arriving at the Battersea Evolution for the 2019 European Contact Centre and Customer Service Awards.

This year the event was hosted once again by Fiona Bruce, who was joined by boxing legend Frank Bruno, who was funny, warm and a pleasure to meet. Frank also talked about his thoughts on dealing with mental health issues and his charitable work to help others through the Frank Bruno Foundation.