The Forum

Customer service: The rise of the doom loop


Listen Later

The quality of customer service can make or break a company. That has always been true but the kind of customer experience we now expect when things go wrong with our purchases is vastly different from what we wanted half a century ago. 1960s answering services, the new organisations managing calls on behalf of businesses, relied on a single technology: the telephone. Now a firm needs to offer its customers multiple ways to contact it. But which one should a company prioritise, especially in these financially straitened times? The latest AI-enabled chatbots? Well-trained, empowered people in call centres? Or something else entirely? And how do these changes impact customer service representatives, the people who actually deliver the service to us every day?

Iszi Lawrence discusses these questions with Jo Causon, CEO of the Institute of Customer Service in the UK; call centre researchers Professors Premilla D’Cruz and Ernesto Noronha from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad; Franco-American service designer Matthew Marino and World Service listeners.

(Photo: A woman in jeans interacting with virtual contact icons on a screen. Credit: Umnat Seebuaphan/iStock/Getty Images)

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The ForumBy BBC World Service

  • 4.7
  • 4.7
  • 4.7
  • 4.7
  • 4.7

4.7

262 ratings


More shows like The Forum

View all
In Our Time by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time

5,412 Listeners

From Our Own Correspondent by BBC Radio 4

From Our Own Correspondent

381 Listeners

The Documentary Podcast by BBC World Service

The Documentary Podcast

1,843 Listeners

Start the Week by BBC Radio 4

Start the Week

162 Listeners

Global News Podcast by BBC World Service

Global News Podcast

7,914 Listeners

Arts & Ideas by BBC Radio 4

Arts & Ideas

296 Listeners

Thinking Allowed by BBC Radio 4

Thinking Allowed

308 Listeners

Great Lives by BBC Radio 4

Great Lives

500 Listeners

6 Minute English by BBC Radio

6 Minute English

1,782 Listeners

Learning English Conversations by BBC Radio

Learning English Conversations

1,050 Listeners

Science In Action by BBC World Service

Science In Action

344 Listeners

Discovery by BBC World Service

Discovery

955 Listeners

Witness History by BBC World Service

Witness History

963 Listeners

The Infinite Monkey Cage by BBC Radio 4

The Infinite Monkey Cage

1,925 Listeners

Newshour by BBC World Service

Newshour

1,081 Listeners

In Our Time: History by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: History

1,905 Listeners

In Our Time: Culture by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Culture

602 Listeners

In Our Time: Science by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Science

723 Listeners

In Our Time: Philosophy by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Philosophy

866 Listeners

The Inquiry by BBC World Service

The Inquiry

748 Listeners

13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle by BBC World Service

13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle

4,121 Listeners

Americast by BBC News

Americast

743 Listeners

You're Dead to Me by BBC Radio 4

You're Dead to Me

2,989 Listeners