Some restaurant-owners are grappling with abolishing tipping.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz
Restaurant tipping came to North America in the early 20th century and has become well-established here even as the practice is less common in the U.K. and Europe. Is it time to rethink it?
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Expect customer service to get worse as artificial intelligence steps in.
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Timing your call can be crucial to fend off frustration.
The crunch for platforms will come when labour market conditions improve and workers have more alternatives.
Neil Hall/Reuters
Today’s manifestations of the gig economy are tilted in favour of too few beneficiaries, and are not built to last.
Has someone tried switching it off and on again?
Denis Fischbacher-Smith
How not to handle it – British Airways have offered up a textbook example of getting almost everything wrong.
Customers who arrive on foot, by bicycle or by public transport contribute significantly more to the restaurant trade than the business owners realise.
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A new study shows that restaurateurs would be better off advocating for better public transport access to their precincts rather than for more parking.
Bernal Saborio
But standards of service are so low across the US airline industry that United may well get away with it.
c aec e o.
By responding to passenger violence by training staff, airline management fail to address fundamental issues with their low cost profit model.
Australia’s social security policy and service delivery system is not designed to put customer needs first.
AAP/Julian Smith
The extent of Centrelink’s customer service delivery problems is legendary – and it’s been getting worse in recent years.
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There are a range of linguistic strategies to build rapport with customers, but using their name is always the fall-back – with detrimental results.
Customer-facing roles may soon be taken over by cheaper, friendlier and more knowledgeable robotic retail assistants.
Thomas Peter/Reuters
Business Briefing: when robots and customers meet
The Conversation 17,8 MB (download)
Customers might prefer digital robots who don't judge for now but physical robots with empathy may be the customer service workers of the future.
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The ride-sharing app means different things in different countries. In Karachi and Lahore, it has highlighted economic inequalities.
Joking around with customers can improve satisfaction, as long as its the right jokes!
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Business Briefing: being funny with customers
The Conversation 16,2 MB (download)
New research shows that humour can relieve tension for employees and increase customer satisfaction, just don't make jokes when it comes to offering apologies!
Blind to the problems?
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Access to justice is still deeply unequal when it comes to low level disputes over bad service or faulty goods.
Get ready to wow them…
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While some companies get fined £18m, others have learned to “wow” the punters when things go wrong.
This isn’t going well.
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Phone trees drive you mad? Just want to talk to an actual person? You aren’t alone – despite the fact that most customer service journeys begin with automated interactive voice response systems.
Where’s my delivery?
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Online retail customers demand support from every party involved in the product supply chain, but few are keeping up.
Danger lurks when customers are the be all and end all.
From www.shutterstock.com/Jirsak
Putting the purchasing public at the heart of your business is getting harder and harder as technology drives ever more interaction.
When it comes to shopping for clothes many consumers like customer service staff to be a mirror of themselves.
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New evidence suggests retailers hiring for looks are not as shallow as it seems.
The smiling face of the person serving you is an important part of the retail experience that makes customers want to come back for more.
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A more likely reason for businesses’ current interest in happiness and wellbeing has to do with cold hard economics and shifts in the labour force. Happiness, in short, is good for business.