Rob Dermott, Director of psd’s Customer Contact practice, recently judged the UK 2016 Customer Experience Awards. This is one of the most important events in the calendar for Customer Experience (CX) professionals across the UK.

psd was involved in judging the finalists in the ‘Experience / Design – Improvement’ category, which included Sainsbury’s, Barclays, EC Language Schools and Rackspace. This was a diverse category and showcased how very different organisations have been focusing on their customer experience improvements, providing a range of solutions.

Sainsbury’s wanted to get the experience right for all customers by providing a truly multi-channel experience that started in-store and made shopping easier.  EC Language schools focused very much on the overall experience, looking at the journey a student will take from the initial booking of an English Language course, through to arrival, host experience, student integration and finally the follow up. Barclays had two entries focused very much on how the contact centre can be used to streamline processes and combat challenging situations in fraud or bereavement.

The winner was Barclays Bereavement Services. They installed a programme to deliver a more empathetic approach to help its customers notify the death of a loved one, and understand the financial issues this causes. They were a worthy winner.

The overall experience was great and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting many of the finalists and other judges, discussing how customer experience has been key in delivering customer loyalty, and the benefits to employee engagement, alongside profit drivers.