Professional Services

Consistently delivering great customer experience requires motivated and engaged employees

Ramanan Ramakrishna

Customer expectations have shifted dramatically in the last few years as disruptors across countless industries have focused on scaling new heights in terms of customer experience (CX). It’s widely accepted that it’s vital to offer excellent CX if you expect to stand out from the competition.

Sodexo Engage, specialists in employee and consumer engagement, has announced the appointment of Burcin Ressamoglu as Chief Executive Officer.

Burcin joins the UK team from her previous position as CEO of Sodexo Benefits & Rewards in Turkey. As CEO, she aims to build on the success of Sodexo Engage since its rebrand in August 2017 following the acquisition and integration of Motivcom. She will spend the next three months transitioning into the role.

Research conducted by Coleman Parkes, commissioned by Ricoh Europe, looks at how small and large companies are working to realise a fully digitised business future. The financial services industry clearly sees reaching a state of digital maturity as a money-maker, with 73 percent anticipating that it will have a positive effect on organic business growth. In addition, 69 percent say that it will make them more attractive to investors or potential buyers, suggesting that digital maturity could be a deciding factor in takeovers and mergers.

Top performers do much more than dream. They develop a series of realistic goals that will propel them to where they want to be. They continue raising the bar, setting increasingly ambitious goals, until they achieve their ultimate vision of success. Then they start the process all over again. In every case, this process begins with a realistic self-assessment of their current skills and capabilities.

The wearable technology market is beginning to gain traction with consumers and in the enterprise. A wide range of fitness tracking gadgets has hit the market already and they’re generating new data streams that represent huge untapped potential. Many of the big mobile players are unveiling smart watches and we’re seeing other categories like smart glasses offering unique solutions to common business problems.

Walking into a crowded networking event where you recognise no one can daunt even the most sociable business professionals.

Understanding why you’re networking and how to maximise any potential contacts you make is vital to help a business grow.

Here CEO of OfficeBroker.com Chris Meredith gives his top tips on overcoming networking event fears, and getting the most out of them for your business.

Tesco this year has seen its share price fall by 25% and eight directors have been suspended following the over reporting of profits by £250m. The Financial Conduct Authority is looking into the matter and now even the Serious Fraud office has expressed an interest in the situation. All this is on top of the premature exit of the previous CEO. How can a business the scale of Tesco and operating under close financial and investor scrutiny get itself into such a mess? How did PwC, its auditors not spot and act upon the risk of flaws in accounting?

Talent retention and engagement, as Deloitte’s 2014 Global Human Capital Trends survey recently confirmed, remain on-going human capital issues. According to Deloitte’s survey, 79 percent of business and HR leaders worldwide still believe retention and engagement are key issues they need to address. 

That raises the question: Should we be approaching this challenge in a new way?

People spend a large part of their lives at work and conflict between people and teams can have a serious impact on how they feel about their work and their motivation. Conflict can impact staff retention and result in talented people leaving organisations because they just can’t put up with it any longer. But what can managers and business owners do to better manage conflict in the workplace?