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Your customers world is connected, is yours?
Last week, we looked at how place, passion and personal economics shape the decisions customers make.
This week, we're looking at what happens when the organisations, services and brands around them don't quite join up.
From devolution and the risk of fragmented customer experiences, to loyalty ecosystems that cross traditional sector boundaries, the challenge is increasingly the same: how do you create better connections around the customer?
And because connection alone isn't enough, we're also looking at the role trust and value play in turning those connections into lasting relationships.
Here’s what caught our attention.
FEATURE
What happens when customers are left behind?
Last week, we explored why place matters. This week, we look at what happens when decisions about place, services and investment move further away from the people and communities they are meant to serve.
Devolution can bring power closer to local communities, but it can also create new gaps between policy, provision and lived experience. When responsibilities are divided across different organisations and regions, customers can be left navigating a system that feels fragmented, inconsistent and difficult to understand.
The opportunity is not simply to move decisions closer to people. It is to make sure those decisions are shaped around their needs, experiences and expectations.
So what does devolution mean for customers — and for the organisations responsible for serving them?
→ Read 'Place, why localisim matters for Britain's towns'
CustomerX
If customers don't think in sectors, why should loyalty?
A journey might involve travel, a hotel, shopping, food and experiences — yet the customer is often expected to navigate a different relationship, account and rewards programme for each.
At CustomerX, Sophia Laban of Eurostar and Fiona Greggains Perks of Collinson Group explore what happens when those boundaries start to disappear: how cross-sector loyalty ecosystems can connect different moments in the customer's life and create greater value for the customer — and every business involved.
→ View the session, full agenda and book tickets
LOYALTY & TRUST
But connection alone doesn't create loyalty. Trust does.
You can build the smartest ecosystem, offer the best rewards and appear in all the right places — but customers still need a reason to choose you.
And particularly when money is tight, value means far more than price. It means being fair, useful, consistent and clear about what your brand stands for.
Because loyalty can be rewarded. Trust has to be earned.