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Managing your customer experience

Managing Your Customer Experience: The Seven Deadly Sins

Caffeine's guide to managing your customer experience and the CX mistakes that hold the greatest potential to derail all other customer experience efforts.

John Lewis – the future of brand strategy starts now

John Lewis boss Peter Ruis has made headlines by announcing that ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’ is back – this time with AI helping to match its prices to those at 25 major retailers – including, for the
Holiday reading

Holiday Reading – a tale of the unexpected

From business insights to captivating novels, five books worth packing this summer for your holiday reading.
brand purpose and brand strategy

Why you exist is important but what you do is vital – getting brand purpose right

Brand purpose drives companies beyond profit. Patagonia focuses on environmental action, and LEGO fosters creativity, leading both to lasting success and positive impact.
AI Chatbots

AI chatbots have a customer experience problem

What are the critical elements missing from the AI chatbot experience? And how are companies like Lemonade setting the standard?
image showing retaining employees

Retaining Employees In The Era Of Well-Being

“Retaining employees is more cost-effective than recruiting.” A message we consistently see, and rightly so. But this is nothing new...

Hate presenting? Get over yourself

Hate presenting? Learn how to deliver impactful presentations without anxiety or sleepless nights.
Employee Experience - Young people interviewing for job

The employee experience starts with recruitment – and it needs a revamp.

A positive recruitment experience here can turn candidates into advocates, even if they don’t get the job. Anonymous applications, rigorous entry tests, and lack of feedback? Is it time for a change?
Luxury Brands

Luxury Brands: Combating the ‘Fast Experience’

As luxury brands reinvent retail in the age of fast fashion, here are strategies to combat the fast experience & create unforgettable in-store experiences.
Customer Experience

Customer Experience – it’s not worth the effort…is it?

Is poor Customer Experience costing your business? Learn why prioritising CX is a business imperative and how to stand out from the competition.
employee experience - people at work clapping and smiling

Five strategies to enhance the employee experience and accelerate organisational success

Just because something is common sense, doesn’t mean its common practice. Five key strategies that can accelerate your employee experience.
Customer Experience image

The Invisible Cost of Spam: Eroding Brand Reputation and Customer Experience

Shaun Smith explores how spam undermines customer experience, highlighting its detrimental impact on brand reputation in today’s digital environment. Spam, in its many forms, from unsolicited emails to intrusive ads, not only disrupts the customer’s digital

hotel christmas animation

No room at the inn? A festive look at some hotel horrors

Ahead of 'frantic Friday', Louisa Clarke shares her top 5 hotel horrors to avoid this Christmas
employee - 'what matters most to UK employees today'

Caffeine/Savanta 2023 Employee Pride Survey: The Key Findings

Uncover the stark realities of the UK employment landscape in our second annual Employee Pride survey. With only 21% of employees willing to recommend their workplace, a drastic drop from 30% a year ago, it's time
Employee Experience Amazon Strike - sign saying 'we deserve fair play'

Amazon’s Employee Experience: Navigating Tricky Waters 

Amazon staff have announced strike action over pay next month, hitting Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
customer experience

New Energy: The rise of the distinctive customer experience

Customers are expecting more of energy companies today than ever before. What does it take to create the building blocks of a great customer experience?
Positive Employee Experience

The power of a distinctive employee experience: Stand out and stand firm

An employee experience should be built on what matters most to employees, align with the business purpose, and support the delivery of the desired customer experience. But to truly bring it to life, there’s another key
Employee Experience image

The Magic Ingredient: Harnessing effort to create a Memorable Customer Experience

Shaun Smith looks at how the principle 'Effort Heuristic' can help your customer experience stand out from the crowd.
Robots working on laptops showing the Impact of AI on Customer Service

The Transformative Impact of AI on Customer Service

With the announcement that BT plans to replace 10,000 jobs with AI, Shaun Smith looks at how brands can embrace AI technology and still enhance their customer service.
Waves coming over the word entrepreneurship to interpret Lessons Learned the Hard Way

10 Lessons Learned the Hard Way

When starting a new business, there's a thin line between success and failure. Erik Bergman gives his 10 mistakes to avoid.
Paphos, Cyprus - December 19, 2013 Heap of Mars, Snickers, Milky Way, Galaxy, Bounty and Maltesers Teasers chocolate candies. All candies manufactured by Mars Incorporated. Studio shot - Brand-led Business Strategy

The purpose of chocolate: Why laughing at purpose misses the point

The idea that purpose and profit are entirely unrelated is nonsense. Your brand purpose is an articulation of what your brand is here to do.
Your Twitter is not your Brand. Post, by The Caffeine Partnership.

Your Twitter is not your Brand

Brand loyalty is real. It always has been and always will be. Every time you receive your monthly social messaging plan from your social media manager, ask yourself if the messages going out will incentivise, maintain
John Lewis' Brand: Back to the future? Post, by The Caffeine Partnership.

John Lewis’ Brand: Back to the future?

The retail landscape has changed dramatically, and John Lewis has faced increasing challenges to remain competitive. In our new blog, Shaun Smith outlines his recommendations for the brand.
The myth: branding is just about the logo and advertising. Post, by The Caffeine Partnership.

The myth: branding is just about the logo and advertising

For the modern brand builder in a multichannel world in which people are craving authentic and engaging experiences and not just entertaining advertising, remembering to build your brand on everything you say and everything you do
The secret to ensuring your customer experience strategy becomes a reality. Post, by The Caffeine Partnership.

The secret to ensuring your customer experience strategy becomes a reality

When implementing a CX strategy, it often requires the culture to become customer-centric and able to ‘Stand Firm’ in the face of competing pressures and agendas. Without the full sponsorship of the CEO and the board,
The Myth: A strong brand can be used to prop up a bad business. Post, by The Caffeine partnership.

The myth: A strong brand can be used to prop up a bad business

Brands are often credited with powers they simply don’t have. Chief among them is the idea that, a strong brand (or strong advertising) could mask the deficiencies of a bad business, acting as a sticking plaster

Fourth year in a row: The UK’s Leading Management Consultants 2023 by the FT

Caffeine has been awarded The UK’s Leading Management Consultants 2023 by the FT for the fourth year in a row.
Purpose, Pay or Perks? What Matters Most to UK Employees? Post, by The Caffeine Partnership.

Purpose, Pay or Perks? What Matters Most to UK Employees

With hundreds of thousands of workers striking over disputes in pay and conditions across the UK, Caffeine discusses the need for businesses to refocus.
Good News in Bad Times. Post, by The Caffeine Partnership.

Good News in Bad Times

Brand Trust: Brands, just like people, get things wrong. Yet mistakes can actually increase brand loyalty if the brand humanizes itself and takes steps to correct them.

How to beat a bear market? Invest in your customers.

We see many examples of companies panicking and cutting costs haphazardly, so here are our top tips for managing in a recession and emerging even stronger.
What's in a name? Post, by The Caffeine Partnership.

What’s in a name?

If you want to change your fortunes then you need to change your behaviour, not your brand name. Understand what your customers expect and invest in creating a great customer experience.
This Christmas, be a Muppet. Post, by The Caffeine Partnership.

This Christmas, be a Muppet

It’s perhaps overlooked that Kermit is a businessman – or businessfrog. He leads a team which is as about as diverse as you could imagine. What’s more, he’s constantly fighting crises on every front, to keep
Brands Behave or Beware. Post, by The Caffeine Partnership.

Brands Behave or Beware

Brands seem to struggle with striking a balance between bad behaviour and virtue-signalling. You don't need to be a saint, just have a moral compass.
We need to talk about the 'C' word. Post by The Caffeine Partnership.

We Need to Talk About the ‘C’ Word

The word ‘customer’ has moved from the fringes of the housing sector to the forefront of its marketing communications.
two people speaking to an audience at a CAFFE!NE event.

What Matters Most to UK Employees? Survey Launch

With a ‘war for talent’ in almost every sector in the UK, businesses should be doing everything they can to attract, develop and retain people.
Getting the measurement right. Post, by The Caffeine Partnership.

Getting the measurement right

As customer experience consultants it is great to see leading companies, SMEs and start-ups making CX a non-negotiable foundation of their business operations.
Do you deserve to be followed? Post, by The Caffeine Partnership.

Do you deserve to be followed?

“Why should anyone be led by you?” was the chilling headline of a McKinsey award-winning Harvard Business Review article (subsequently becoming a book) in 2000. Fast forward two decades and perhaps that headline should now be,
Being The Brand. Post, by The Caffeine Partnership.

Being The Brand

When the strain upon the operations of a company is too much for the system itself, what hope is there for a brand to inspire or maintain customer loyalty? The last line of defence for the
Richer Experiences Make Richer Brands. Post by, The Caffeine Partnership.

Richer Experiences Make Richer Brands

There’s no such thing as the perfect brand. However, our decades working with leading brands to help them with their brand experience, have shown us that there are clear winners across every market and in every
The Employer Brand. Post by The Caffeine Partnership.

The Employer Brand

Work culture is a vital ingredient to sustaining success, but how does a brand create and then sustain that culture? The answer is through creating an employee experience that mirrors the customer experience. Ronan Dunne, former
Employee Loyalty = Customer Loyalty. Post by The Caffeine Partnership.

Employee Loyalty = Customer Loyalty

It is a common myth across the business community that brands have a lot to do with what happens on the outside of a business and not very much to do with what goes on inside.
Good PR for your HR won't compensate for a poor Customer Experience. Post, by The Caffeine Partnership.

Good PR for your HR won’t compensate for a poor Customer Experience

This month, telecoms giant Virgin Media O2, announced that it would offer staff free gender transition therapy in order to provide “support and allyship to people from marginalised communities”. Unfortunately for the customers of Virgin Media
Four questions to ask your agency in the pitch, post by The Caffeine Partnership.

Four questions to ask your agency in the pitch

Earlier this month the extraordinary case of a fake marketing agency was the feature of a BBC expose. Mad Bird was created entirely online, the people hired were not salaried, had never worked with each other
Thomas J. Williams Radio Station, a component in his brand

What are the Key Components of a Brand?

This year is the 100th anniversary of the first radio commercial. In the succeeding century, business marketing has evolved to almost unrecognizable levels and brands, in particular, have transformed their role and importance. But though there
FT UK's Leading Management Consultants 2022 - The Caffeine Partnership

What Matters Most

Our work to help clients to identify and deliver what matters most has led to Caffeine partner Smith+Co being awarded The UK’s Leading Management Consultants 2022 by the FT. This is the 3rd year in a
Brand purpose, BS detector from The Caffeine Partnership

The purpose of brands

“Brand purpose truly is a bunch of crap, because it’s disingenuous. You’re saying, ‘My purpose is to make the world a better place’. No, your purpose is to make money". So said YUM! brands CMO Ken
Benefits of talking to strangers post by The Caffeine Partnership

‘There are no customers in the office’ – the benefits of talking to strangers.

Fear of rejection stops us from making the first move. It stops us from speaking to people we don’t know. But think about the first time you met your best friend, your life partner, your long-standing
The time is now to grow your business with The Caffeine Partnership

The time is NOW

Learn how 175 year old law firm William Fry acted like a start up to launch two brand new propositions in ten weeks.
Delivering great results for your business growth with The Caffeine Partnership

How to act like a start-up and deliver a GREAT! result

Over the past few months, we’ve been working with a group of highly successful entrepreneurs and investors, on the creation of a new channel brand to support the launch of the UK’s most exciting free movie

Brand purpose by The Caffeine Partnership

Great brand stories have one purpose

This week The Story Museum opened in Oxford. A wonderful and inventive experience for all ages, it especially focuses on young people, encouraging them to explore the joy of storytelling. Oxford is a city of stories.

abrdn logo on The Caffeine Partnership website

Abrdn stands out but will it stand up?

This week an eye-catching new brand identity was launched - eye-catching both because it changed the name of an organisation that had existed for over 100 years, and because it happened in the normally conservative sector
Man by van showing brand purpose

Being human will be at the heart of brand purpose

We are entering a new era, one that will require new approaches to marketing and customer experience, but it will go way beyond that. It will challenge the very way we think about brands and corporations.

It pays to be bold – how investing in brand purpose creates rapid returns, brand-led business strategy

It pays to be bold – how investing in brand purpose creates rapid returns

We help companies build a brand and customer experience that reflects the scale and ambitions of the business and helps simplify increasing complexity as they grow. These are companies that have a logo and a ‘look’

“The Biden brand is suited to the moment”: The Power of the Personal Brand post by The Caffeine partnership

“The Biden brand is suited to the moment”: The Power of the Personal Brand

More than any previous political event, the 2020 US Presidential Election was a battle between two brands. Trump and Biden offered very different visions of the future, represented by two distinct personalities making succinct promises. Each

Congratulations to Rita Clifton CBE post by The Caffeine Partnership

Congratulations to Rita Clifton CBE

We are delighted that Rita Clifton CBE has been appointed the Deputy Chair of John Lewis Partnership. It’s a perfect match. Rita is a great believer in purpose-led, values-driven brands which empower their people to deliver

Depp & Dior: A Savage Arrangement blog by The Caffeine Partnership

Depp & Dior: A Savage Arrangement

Last weekend, Caffeine’s Managing Partner Simon Bailey contributed to a Sky News piece on Dior’s decision to continue to employ Johnny Depp as celebrity endorser of its Sauvage fragrance, despite a UK court finding it ‘substantially

Covid notice at The Caffeine Partnership, London, UK

Why COVID is not a valid excuse (and other musings from a crazy year) Part Two

In my last blog I reflected on how customer experience has been impacted by the Covid-19 crisis and which brands are succeeding in spite of it. One of the hardest hit sectors in the is the

“We’re just about delivering happiness” Tony Hsieh Partnership with The Caffeine Partnership

“We’re just about delivering happiness” Tony Hsieh

Tony Hsieh, 46, the former CEO of Zappos, died on Friday from head injuries sustained during a house fire whilst he was visiting friends in Connecticut. He was an inspirational thinker who will be sadly missed.

Covid notice at The Caffeine Partnership, London, UK

Why COVID is not a valid excuse (and other musings from a crazy year) Part One

It has been a crazy year. Smith+Co were honoured by being awarded ‘UK’s Leading Management Consultants 2020’ following independent research by Statista. That was a great start! We followed it up by merging with Caffeine, the

On Purpose Book Mock Up, Business book

On Purpose Interactive Assessment Tool

Welcome to the On Purpose Interactive Assessment Tool. You can use this tool to measure how purposeful your business is. It’s also a chance to find out how your brand compares to the brands featured in
Employee Experience Survey Image for The Caffeine Partnership

The Employee Experience Measurement Survey

The Employee Experience Measurement Survey is a simple, quick tool to help you identify what helps or hinders your organisation in delivering a distinctive customer experience.
Jim Henson Memorial, be a muppet by The Caffeine partnership, brand-led business strategy

This Christmas, be a Muppet

The Muppet Christmas Carol is one of my favourite films. It’s a wonderful, irreverent, but faithful adaptation, in turns funny, moving and uplifting with some great songs along the way. The special guest star (Michael Caine)

What’s the purpose of housing? post by The Caffeine Partnership

What’s the purpose of housing?

I recently attended the UK’s biggest conference on housing. Government, local governments, housing associations, developers, construction companies, outsourcing consultancies, mortgagers, homeless charities – they were all there. The Grenfell Tower disaster provided a tragic backdrop to

Mankind is our business, brand-led business strategy by The Caffeine Partnership

Mankind is our business – a lesson not just for Scrooge but for everyone

“But you were always a good man of business, Jacob” faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself. “Business!” cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. “Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and

coffee beans

If the cap fits – the role of the trusted advisor

We see the year out – and what a year – in a fog of unreason and contrary forces: more rejection this week of the liberal establishment with the defeat by Italian voters of Matteo Renzi’s

coffee beans

Dinner Party Shame: A story of Brand Pride

This week I’ve been a Dragon. It’s been fun. I’ve been part of a judging panel on a ‘Going Further’ competition where students from the 157 Group of Further Education Colleges pitch to redesign their brand

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Fourth year in a row: The UK's Leading Management Consultants 2023 by the FT. Post, by The Caffeine Partnership.

Awarded the UK’s
Leading Management Consultants 2023
by the Financial Times.

Purpose, Pay or Perks?
What Matters Most to Employees.

Download our FREE White Paper.

We commissioned an independent survey of 1000 UK employees with the objective of understanding how expectations around what they want or expect from work have changed since the pandemic.

Fill in the form below to download our report.