This blog rounds up another packed week of events in the CCA calendar. On Tuesday I chaired an Inside Government event in London. It was a content rich day which emphasised the influence of the digital world on public service provision. This week also saw the second part of our two day Social Media Masterclass in Dublin hosted by Bord Gáis Networks. The day offered a packed programme of useful information.  A large part of the session focused on the legal issues and David Hoey a Partner at BTO Solicitors came along and gave a really insightful presentation including case studies and examples of employment tribunal judgement papers. 

Aspect, a Platinum member of CCA Supplier Council, sponsored CCA dinner event for Customer Experience Council members on the evening of 29th February. The discussion offered the opportunity to discuss some of the crucial issues around customer experience measurement, what metrics make sense and how insights be interpreted in a constructive way for the wider enterprise. 
 
The 1st of March saw Customer Experience Convention, hosted by MBNA and chaired by Liz Barclay, Broadcaster and Journalist and CCA Special Advisor, follow on these themes. It provided a lively day of discussion highlighting the big issues for customer experience during 2012. Social media was at the top of the agenda again and John Ashworth presented a fascinating account of Tesco’s engagement in this area. He emphasised the importance of tone as well as the complexity of selecting an approach which reflects the brand. The keynote panel which followed highlighted the level of member interest in this area which clearly reflects an appetite for researching this area more and learning from best practice. We would love to hear your experiences in this area or questions you might have – so please get in touch.
 
There were also two facilitated round table sessions, supported by RESPONSE, Plantronics, Sabio & NewVoiceMedia, which provided an opportunity to share ideas around how to capture customer insights in a time of stretched budgets and also how best to refine our customer experience measurement process.  In the afternoon, MBNA’s Justin Barrett and Joanne Weigh offered up an interesting insight into their operations demonstrating their approach to achieving excellent customer service. Following this Philip Vanhoutte, Managing Director, Plantronics shared the findings of our latest research report, sponsored by Plantronics, on how departments connect with the contact centre and what improvements could be made to ensure that the customer is truly at the heart of the business. Jon Moon, a leading authority on document clarity and impact, rounded up the day with his presentation technique ‘WiT’ which he asserts is a much more compelling alternative to bullets. The emphasis on Plain English was a theme throughout the day with member discussions emphasising the importance of clarity and transparency in feeding back customer experience data whether it be to frontline staff or to the board. 
 
Much of the discussion of the week focused on the perennial issues around measuring and valuing customer experience as well as capitalising on opportunities associated with new forms of contact. Our current research is focused on probing these issues and we will be presenting scenarios, derived in collaboration with senior Industry Council members, around this at Convention 2012 on the 6th November which promises to be valuable. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch to hear more about the research agenda for 2012.