UK retail customer service hit a 14-year low in 2024. But is the problem really about better recovery, or is it about prevention?

In this episode, I share a personal story about three trips to fix a basic mistake, then examine the £7.3 billion monthly cost of preventable service failures across UK retail.

We look at why UK employees spend 20% of their time fixing problems that shouldn't have happened, explore the real sources of service failures (it's not what you think), and examine two retailers who've figured out prevention: Sainsbury's with 5% voluntary turnover, and Timpson with their two-rule approach to customer service.

In this episode:

• Why brilliant service recovery still loses 50-70% of customers
• The turnover quality spiral nobody talks about
• Three patterns for preventing failures: systems design, measuring what matters, and technology that prevents
• How to redirect recovery spending toward prevention
• What Saturday afternoon looks like in prevention mode vs crisis mode

Key insight: When a customer encounters even one service problem, satisfaction drops 20 points. We've got brilliant at recovery, but recovery happens after the damage is done. The retailers seeing sustained improvement aren't getting better at fixing things. They're redesigning systems so things don't break in the first place.

Did anything resonate with you from today's conversation? I'd love to know, particularly where you're seeing preventable service failures in your own organisation.

Get the full show notes with all frameworks and resources mentioned at https://wheresyourcustomer.com/10

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Something shifts when you step back from work, doesn't it?

Last summer, I had my first child, and whilst I knew maternity leave would be transformative personally, I didn't expect it to reshape the customer experience lessons I'd carry forward in my career.

Between feeds and nappies, I found pockets of time to read nine customer experience books. What struck me wasn't just the individual insights, but the patterns emerging between them. I found Customer experience lessons that most of us know but struggle to act on consistently.

Lesson 1: Reactive Customer Experience Is Already Too Late. Most businesses wait for customers to complain before taking action. But those winning customer loyalty build intelligence into operations so they can act before problems become customer problems.

Lesson 2: Culture Beats Strategy Every Time. Your culture determines CX, not your strategy. Employees need authority to solve problems in the moment.

Lesson 3: Customer Understanding Requires Discipline, Not Just Data. Having data isn't the same as understanding customers. Real insight comes from weaving together feedback, personas, and journey mapping.

Lesson 4: Customer Journey Maps Are Worthless Without Action. Beautiful maps become wall art without clear decisions and committed action. Know what your map will change before you create it.

Lesson 5: Excellence Lives in the Basics. Great Customer Experiences aren't built on surprise and delight tactics, they're created through consistency and removing friction from fundamental operations.

Lesson 6: Metrics Follow Experience, Not the Other Way Round. Fix the experience and metrics improve. Chase metrics and you often make experiences worse.

Lesson 7: Customers Decide With Emotion, Then Justify With Logic. Emotional triggers matter more than feature comparisons. Reduce cognitive effort rather than adding functionality.

Lesson 8: Physical Spaces Shape Behaviour. Every design choice influences how customers feel and act. Your environment tells a story, make sure it's the right one.

Lesson 9: CX Is Built in Everyday Moments. Customer loyalty is determined by small interactions: answered phones, kept promises, empowered teams who care.

These customer experience lessons reveal that CX isn't about tactics or technology, it's about people. Understanding customers deeply, empowering teams, and getting basics right consistently.

The nine books behind these customer experience lessons:

1. The New Customer Experience Management - Ivaylo Yorgov
2. The Customer of the Future - Blake Morgan
3. Store Design and Visual Merchandising - Claus Ebster & Marion Garaus
4. Creating a CX That Sings - Jennifer L. Clinehens
5. The Ten Principles Behind Great Customer Experiences - Matt Watkinson
6. Customers Know You Suck - Debbie Levitt
7. Decoded: The Science Behind Why We Buy - Phil Barden
8. Customer Understanding - Annette Franz
9. Moments of Truth - Jan Carlzon

Get the full show notes with all research sources and detailed insights at wheresyourcustomer.com/8

Which of these customer experience lessons resonated most with you? I'd love to know.

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Please leave a review – If you found value in this episode, a quick review helps other retail professionals discover these conversations too.

Connect with me – Find me on LinkedIn or visit whereyourcustomer.com for more customer experience resources and insights.