Warnings this week that some organisations intend to cut plans for growth, especially around headcount and hiring, are both concerning and hard to ignore. The Government has come under increasing pressure from businesses post-budget, but is so far standing firm. For…
When was the last time things felt ‘normal’? Most of us would probably agree that conditions have felt anything but ordinary ever since the Brexit referendum of 2016. Since then, it’s been a whirlwind of political change, the Covid-19 pandemic,…
After a decade of unprecedented challenges and disruptions, the Prime Minister’s announcement of the “green shoots of recovery” last week should be a cause for optimism for businesses across the UK. But with the ongoing pressures of rising costs, supply…
We’ve recently had the news that the ‘R’ word is back. It may only be a technical recession, but nevertheless it is a blow to confidence and morale as 2024 gets going. On the positive side, the size of the…
Parliament is well and truly back in session, and the health of the economy is a key area of concern as we prepare to enter an election year – particularly given the news this week of a larger than expected…
For many, the banking crisis of 2007-8 hit home the hardest when high street stores began to disappear. A perfect storm of rising costs, the growth of online shopping and dwindling footfall has seen many of our nation’s high streets…
Signs of a drop in customer satisfaction levels have been gathering over the last few months, as I have warned about in recent blogs – and now the evidence is all before us in the Institute’s latest UK Customer Satisfaction…
It’s been a busy couple of weeks since our latest UK Customer Satisfaction Index was published, showing the sharpest drop in customer satisfaction since 2008 – and the worst score on the index since 2015. We should have perhaps expected some of…
Last month, the Bank of England confirmed what many of us had feared: inflation continues at record rates. The media has been quick to highlight the impact of inflation – and the resulting rate rises aimed at stemming it – on…
We often talk about the UK as a 'Service Nation', but what do we mean by this? For me, it is a way of encapsulating the world we want to see - one where the true value of service across…
