£2.1bn - Predicted tourist spend for London Olympics and Paralympics
What has 11m legs and a never ending list of demands? The expected daily visitors at this year’s London Olympics, of course!
Lloyds TSB estimate that the Olympic Games will generate £10bn in revenue for the British economy and visibility of our small island will skyrocket with an anticipated £4bn people watching the opening ceremony alone. The government hopes the Games will bolster the tourism and service industry, not only in terms of revenue but also in reputation, and seeks to galvanise business leaders and service industry workers into action and put paid to the perception that the British welcome is colder than its winters…
So, is the UK up to the challenge? The nation’s favourite blusterer, Mayor Boris Johnson, launched a Visitor Charter to encourage businesses to pledge fair pricing and practice during the Games, an enterprise that might induce the scoffing from some sceptics especially since, at time of writing, only 62 businesses, from Madame Tussauds to curry houses, have subscribed. Only a fool would expect to holiday in London at this time on a shoestring (even though a 2011 Mercer report ranked the capital as a mere 18th in its list of the world’s most expensive cities), but opportunistic greed is still evident in the findings from a report commissioned by Tessa Jowell, the Shadow Olympics Secretary, stating that hotel prices are anticipated to rise by an average of 315%. In addition, greedy landlords are routinely evicting tenants in order to gouge tourists to the tune of 15 times normal rental rates, with additional “penalty clauses” for extended stays.
Whether these bums on seats and heads on pillows belong to oligarchs or Joe Public, what can this barrage of visitors expect from the UK and its service provision? A survey by the People 1st Training Company found that 73% of business leaders have their doubts about the quality of UK customer service and only 14% think our approach to hospitality is a selling point. Grim assertions indeed especially as 86% of those interviewed admitted to making no business preparations for the Games yet a similar figure acknowledged the positive potential of doing so! (Do the maths…)
A Government Report revealed that the UK ranked sixth out of fifty countries in international tourist arrivals in 2009, ‘though one of the lowest scores in reasons for visitors to come to the UK was the anticipated welcome. With accessibility to global tourism sites such as Angkor Wat and Machu Picchu increasing, it’s time to up our game. If we are able to convince the world of the UK’s charms it can help us become a desirable location to tourists from growth markets such as China, Brazil, Russia and India. And let’s not forget the Cultural Olympiad featuring a plethora of post-modernistic entertainment from Damien Hirst to performances of 38 plays by Shakespeare. at the Globe from 38 different nations, in the same number of languages.
Sue Gill, head of skills and training at Tourism South East, told Personnel Today that all staff working in the service industry need to be coached in cultural diversity and preferably in an additional language, and employers should encourage staff to enrol in customer service courses and take part in best practice forums. A European Commission survey in 2001 found 65.9% of UK respondents only spoke their native tongue – by far the highest proportion among the EU countries polled. And though English is known as a second language by one third of the EU population, this does not take into account visitors from outside the EU, of which there will be many in 2012. In our global community, negotiating cultural boundaries and obstacles in a sensitive manner is of upmost importance – particularly when protecting brands and ensuring great customer experience. Linguistically we might not be chasing the tails of pentaglot Nick Clegg (look it up..) but we have some advantage due to the sheer number and variety of regional accents we are used to deciphering. Putting guidelines in place such as identifying colleagues with language skills, training staff on basic phrases such as “please hold/wait for a moment while I…etc” in a few of the most widely spoken languages and ultimately encouraging staff to exercise patience and courtesy can help dissipate cultural or language barriers considerably. Why not make use of some of the many online translation tools available, or consider offering chat, email or other print-based customer support alternatives.
The UK’s cultural diversity is one of the Government’s key selling points for optimising the economic benefits from the Games. In order to achieve this, improve global perceptions of the UK, and for visitors to be engaged and gain an appreciation of UK culture, those providing services must be culturally aware and able to meet the disparate needs of their clientele. Why not initiate a two-way cultural awareness education program across the industry enabling all parties involved to enjoy and benefit from the 2010 experience? Exhibiting empathy, suspending judgment and learning as much as possible about the cultural norms and values helps avoid misunderstandings and creates a fluid customer service transaction. But this should not be at the expense of exhibiting our own cultural identity. Surely the whole purpose of overseas travel is to see and experience different ways of life, so it is vital to strike the right balance between local and global culture. And as with many such vexations customer research and ethnographic insight strategies could be the answer.
There has been much discussion about the physical legacy of the Games; what will happen to all those arenas, O2 can’t take them ALL over, surely!? But this is a great opportunity for our businesses and services to truly shine and to improve the perception of London, and the UK, as a tourist destination. The UK can’t rely on its traditional draws of heritage and culture to sustain tourism and must look to up its game in the areas that lack in quality such as welcome and value for money. Tourism chiefs are hoping for an extra four million visitors to the UK in the next four years as a result of the Games, so our re-energised welcome needs to be sustained and integrated.
Visitors to the Games are hoping for a holistically seamless and satisfying experience, from transportation to accommodation, gastronomic to aesthetic. In Sydney, urban legend goes that premier John Howard sought to arrange the city’s traffic lights to go green as the 2000 Olympic Committee traversed the city. The veracity of this is, of course, doubtful and the possibility of such tactics working in our choked, miasmic capital, non-existent. But it is entirely within the realm of possibility for the UK to prove the naysayers wrong and show that the UK’s customer service is second to none and our welcome is warm and inviting – even if the weather is not.
Expolink Europe is delighted to announce the appointment of Carol Workman as our new Contact Centre Manager
A Contact Centre Manager with over 20 years’ experience, Carol has a proven record of success in building, managing and delivering outstanding call centre services.
Carol originally worked as a Scientific Officer in South Wales before commencing her contact centre career with a direct insurance company in Bristol. From there she moved to a life insurance company to set up the outbound function, gaining a certificate in financial planning along the way. Carol has spent the last 11 years as Contact Centre Manager for a leading Bristol-based outsource company, growing the call centre from ten to 100 seats and expanding her experience working within highly regulated industries such as financial, government and utilities.
Carol brings to Expolink Europe a wealth of knowledge of managing a range of inbound, outbound and back office functions. Along with a an interest in how technology can aid and enhance the customer offering, she is passionate about developing the call centre team and strives to achieve and maintain a learning and empowering work place.
Outside of work Carol’s has recently completed a round-the-world trip, taking in USA and Australia before returning via Hong Kong. She has also grown to like a range of sports including cricket, succumbing to the consensus of a very male household! To relax she likes nothing better than settling down with a good chick lit novel.
Email: carol.workman@expolink.co.uk
LinkedIn: Carol’s Profile
The new cookie compliance legislation is due in May this year and the ICO has expressed concern that businesses are not as prepared as they should be – what do these new laws mean for the average UK business and how can they ensure they are prepared?
The cookie compliance law – more accurately known as the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 – is designed to ensure that visitors to websites can decide whether or not a website collects information about them. Most websites use cookies: this is a small file that is downloaded onto a PC or laptop when a user accesses a website which then sends information back to that site on subsequent visits. Probably the most commonly used cookie for the average UK business is Google Analytics, which simply counts visitors to websites and provides the website owner with stats about its use. Cookies are all over the web – from an ecommerce site that stores address and delivery details to speed up the checkout process to far less scrupulous uses. Google makes great use of cookies to personalise its search results and adverts based on, amongst other things, what you have searched for in the past and your location.
Under the new cookie compliance legislation businesses must tell users about the cookies on their website, what the cookie is doing, and – this is the new bit – gain consent to use that cookie. There are some exemptions, but the general rule is that businesses must actively seek consent. This has significant implications for both website owners and users of those sites which is why implementation has been controversial. Businesses (and indeed government) websites have been slow in facing up to changes as they have been hoping for a less clumsy solution to the very real privacy issue.
In short, we should all be making changes to our website before May to ensure compliance with the regulation. The ICO guidance is very helpful on what preparations are required.
The DMA has expressed concern about the EU’s new Data Protection Regulations in terms of the negative impact to the direct marketing industry. Do you have any similar concerns for digital marketing and communications?
If fully implemented, the change in legislation will make a significant difference. Few of us realise the extent to which our experience of the web is shaped by our search history, particularly adverts and search results. The traditional marketing industry uses market intelligence to sell us more stuff; the digital marketing industry uses online data and cookies in the same way. Without this data, then the user experience is bound to be affected.
Google is the single largest online supplier of search results and adverts – in 2011 Google made $37.9 billion in revenue of which 96% came from advertising. They have a vested interest in ensuring European legislation does not harm their revenue stream and have recently asked everyone with a Gmail or Google+ account to consent to revised terms of use. If Google has its way – and it has the influence to do so – then the impact may well be less than expected.
What are the main points to consider for effective website management?
Website management is important if you want your website to rank highly in search engines like Google. The way search engines work is to ‘crawl’ your website on a regular basis to see if the site is suitable to be shown in its search results. Part of the management task is to ensure the site is error free, loads quickly and efficiently and has suitable links between it and other websites – there are a number of tools you can use to check this.
Decent web hosting makes a significant difference to a site’s performance. It’s surprising how many businesses scrimp on hosting when their website is business critical, this is a false economy. We would recommend ‘optimising’ the site for search engines, so that search engines have sufficient information to understand your website and when it should show in search results. More generally Google wants users to find websites that are useful and provide a good user experience, which means a key management task is to ensure the site is accessible, easy to use and contains fresh relevant information.
What are your social media recommendations for 2012; B2B and B2C?
The single biggest recommendation for social media – for both B2B and B2C – is to be authentic. Partly this means being clear about your brand values and how they translate as a ‘tone of voice’ to an online audience. Being authentic as a business can be very different to being authentic as an individual so make sure that everyone using social media in your business is on-message, and then relax and let them get creative! Social media is designed to be an interactive medium (that’s the ‘social’ bit), but too many companies use it as just another channel to broadcast sales information. The point of it is to create a community that is receptive to you and you do that through conversation and interaction. This takes time and commitment – it’s not for every business.
Facebook and Twitter are probably the most popular social media used by businesses, but depending on your sector and type of work there are other options which may have a greater business benefit. For example we have started using Pinterest (pinterest.com) to create visual snapshots of our clients and their business sector as a way to inspire creative approaches to their digital marketing.
PPC, SEO? What’s the craic?
So many acronyms, so little time! Every industry has its jargon and digital marketing is no exception. There is so much of it that it’s easy to get blinded or indeed hoodwinked into parting with cash you don’t need to.
There are some great reference materials out there. We would always recommend SEOMoz for their beginners guide to SEO. Matt Cutts, the Head of Google’s Web Spam Team, does brilliant video questions and answers that are available on YouTube or Google Webmaster Help for more techie issues. For PPC (pay per click for those not in the know) you can’t beat Google’s own help materials. If you want the jargon decoded in a more human way, we’d love to help!
What digital trends would you identify for the coming year?
The digital trend of the moment is Google Search plus Your World. If you have yet to join Google+ you will notice there is a +You option at the top of the menu in Google search results which invites you to register. Google+ works on the idea of Circles – a more sophisticated version of Facebook friends – and the delivers search result based on what your circle of friends and acquaintances are searching for. It’s the next level of personalisation of search.
If you combine personalised search with the increased use of smart phones then you can see we will all be carrying around a ‘community’ of people, brands and interests that we can interact with from almost anywhere at any time. Eventually when you walk into your favourite store, you will receive notification of their deals of the day and what your friends bought. When you search for a restaurant or café you’ll see recommendations from people you know. Arguably we will be ever more connected. However, to go back to the changes to the cookie laws, it’s reassuring to know that Government is considering the long term privacy implications of this.
How far do you reckon the ‘Olympic effect’ will extend across the UK in terms of business?
Hopefully the wave of national joy brought about by an unprecedented number of gold medals won by Team GB will boost our national morale so the Olympics will affect all businesses in a very positive way!
Corporate conferences – cliquey, shameless excuses for days of work or important part of PR/sales/marketing strategy?
It depends on the corporate conference and the corporate culture of course. A day away from the routine, focusing on the future, setting out company and brand values, injecting some creativity and zest into the mundane and reflecting on the customer experience has to be important to any company that is serious about continuous improvement, customer service and their bottom line.
A cliquey, day off work? What kind of corporate conferences have you been to?! - Note from Editor; only the latter option of the question! 
Tell us a joke…..
Why was six against seven? Because seven eight nine.
Noisy Little Monkey is a digital marketing collective specialising in the full gamut of online solutions for any kind of business. Contact them here.
