This week began rather inauspiciously with Blue Monday – proclaimed pseudo-scientifically to be the most depressing day of the year with the heady combination of bad weather, darkness, debt, New Year resolution failure and low motivation levels. In fairness, it does seem to have been a gloomy week. There have been more high profile retail organisations entering administration as the high street continues to face a battering. Consumer confidence has been reported to be at a ‘low ebb’ and the number of UK companies red flagged, as facing critical levels of financial distress, has increased by 24% on the same period of 2010[1]. At the same time as consumers we are expecting more for less. Dramatic discounts, offers, incentives and free delivery have all been offered up by businesses to boost their sales during recent months, but how far are these practices sustainable? In the end somebody has to pay.

Slashing prices ultimately ends in a ‘race to the bottom’ with organisations competing on cost and utilising business models which are not profitable. There needs to be increasing cooperation between businesses to help foster a long term vision of UK plc. Related to this is the need to value the role of the service sector in the UK which now provides 70% of the UK’s economic output[2]. The lack of tangibility of services can make it more challenging for consumers to see the value and there continues to be little understanding of the cost to serve. The cost of delivering services is rooted in the cost of labour and cutting costs undermines the nature of the employment of the sector. Whilst there are high profile complaints surrounding customer experience, for example in this week’s Channel 4 documentary from Richard Wilson ‘On Hold’[3], there is a lack of attention to the needs of workers in the sector.

The contact centre industry alone employees over 1 million people in the UK[4] and CCA are committed to improving the professionalism and opportunities of the sector. CCA have made representations to government regarding the importance of valuing of service sector workers and providing them with development opportunities. As youth unemployment shows no sign of abating, which has caused some to proclaim the possibility of a ‘lost generation’ we must look to our strengths and collaborate to build competitive advantage into our economy.

As ever, we would very much like to hear your views on this topic – please don’t hesitate to get in touch