The annual Equiniti Charter User Group once again brought together our customer focused clients for a day of key industry discussions, sharing best practice approaches and product updates. Topics this year included understanding the complaint culture, improving customer insight, and finding the right balance between maximising automation and retaining the human touch.
Understanding the Complaint Culture
Jonathan Britten, Head of Solution Design at Equiniti, kicked things off discussing how the complaint culture has grown in recent years. Empowered and emboldened by the PPI scandal and the many claims management companies clamouring to complain on their behalf, consumers are far more aware of their rights and confident in complaining to organisations than ever before. Expectations of customer service have increased significantly and businesses are expected to not just deal with increasing volumes of complaints, but also to continually improve the quality and personal service they provide to each and every consumer.
Technology trends shaping the way we work and live
Equiniti Charter Managing Director Andy Edler looked to the future in his presentation, reviewing how technology trends are shaping the way we work and live. With technology now firmly embedded in our home lives as well as at work, Andy discussed how this has changed the way we engage with the wider world, as well as what it means for the future of the workplace. As automation, cognitive technologies, and artificial intelligence gain traction, companies may need to reinvent worker roles, assigning some to humans, others to machines, and still others to a hybrid model in which technology augments human performance. Managing both humans and machines will present new challenges to the human resources organisation but getting the balance right is vital.
Product Roadmap and Demonstration
The always popular product update session was hosted by Head of Technology Matt Hendy, who not only highlighted how our solutions currently enables best practice, but also showcased upcoming functionality within MMX from our product roadmap. With such a highly configurable system, Equiniti Charter has the luxury of taking our product in many different directions according to market demand and customer feedback, and our clients play a key role in helping us shape our software.
The Human Voice of Complaints
Our special guest speaker Neil Martin, Director of The First Word, led a fascinating and thought provoking session on the human voice of complaints, and how vital is it that in this age of automation, we not only retain but prioritise the human element, both from the consumer side and the company side. This allows staff to be heard within their organisations and to be able to use their own judgement within given guidelines rather than mechanically following a script. Neil also warned against the one side fits all approach to customer communication that only serves to alienate the majority. Underlying it all is the understanding of appropriate language and thoughtful communication skills through the variety of emails, letters and texts that customers and clients exchange. Whilst data remains king within customer analysis, that work goes to waste if it does not lead to appropriate and engaging communications that show the understanding and personality that consumers now expect and demand from the businesses they engage with.
We were delighted to welcome our clients to this year's user group. We work closely with all our customers to create topical, interesting and entertaining events that add real value to their day to day and were thrilled when the feedback we received said that 100% of our attendees would recommend our user group to their colleagues and peers.
— Kristi Schlenk, Service Delivery Manager
Attendee Feedback:
- "Interesting insight with what's happening in the industry."
- "Great to see the MMX roadmap and the networking aspect was extremely valuable."
- "Speakers and presentations were very informative and it was good to discuss complaints with other businesses."
- "A lot of value, got to see and experience different opinions of the industry"
- "Good to meet other clients and interesting to learn about the new functionality of the product."
- "Interesting to hear about challenges faced by other customers and how they were overcome."
