Having set her sights on improving customer service in the Island, Claire Boscq tells Emily Moore why making people feel warm and welcome would be a win for Jersey
“IN many ways, I feel like I’ve had an affair and have now come back to my true love.”
They are words which Claire Boscq has repeated many times since returning to Jersey last autumn but, while she may have been temporarily seduced by the bright lights and dizzying heights of Dubai, the customer service pioneer has not cheated on her home island.
Indeed, after ten months away, during which she spoke at 30 customer service conferences in cities across Asia, Africa and Europe, the former owner of The Busy Queen Bee is back, re-energised and with a renewed love and appreciation of the Island.
However, while she is delighted to be back by the sea, there are certain issues, prevalent before she set off for The Gulf, which she says still need to be addressed. And anyone who remembers her from her days as “The Busy Queen Bee” will not be surprised to know that she is still channelling all her energy into customer service.
“When I came back to Jersey, I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do but I knew that I wanted to do something for the Island,” explained the founder of the Jersey Customer Experience Alliance. “During my time away, I did a lot of travelling, speaking at conferences in India, the UAE and many other countries, but my mission – to inspire businesses to deliver better customer experiences – never changed.
“Before Covid, a lot of my work in Jersey had focused on mystery shopping and while I didn’t want to do that again, every conversation I was having with people revolved around how we could enhance customer service.
“That made me think that there was a gap in the market and that the best way to tackle this issue was to unite as many sectors and organisations as possible, so that we could elevate the subject.”
Underpinning Claire’s conviction that forming an alliance to approach customer service is important is, she says, “an overall feeling that customer service in Jersey is pretty average”.
“A lot of people seem to take it for granted that they are only going to give, and receive, an average level of service but that can’t be right,” she said. “When someone smiles at you, or wishes you a good day, it takes you by surprise and yet, a hello, a smile and some eye contact is the minimum that we should expect when we enter any business premises.
“A lot of businesses don’t have any customer service standards. While large organisations might have customer service departments, smaller businesses, trying to manage orders, selling and marketing, don’t have any resources or references. What we need to do, therefore, is ascertain exactly what we mean by ‘good’ customer service.”
To help her to come up with this definition, Claire is building a team of Jersey Customer Experience Alliance ambassadors.
“Through this team, we will start a conversation about what good looks like, what we mean by ‘good’ customer service and what the minimum acceptable standards are,” she explained.
“If a smile and a hello is a minimum standard for anywhere, from a call centre or a shop to a bank or a hospital, everyone should embrace that and then we can start building.
“While we recognise that the size of the business may influence the service delivered, we should be able to create a standard that will become recognised as the ‘Jersey experience’. From that, we can create a charter, to which businesses can sign up, affirming their commitment to delivering good customer service.”
Stressing that customer service applies to all businesses, Claire points out that there are two types of customer.
“Every single business has employees, who are its internal customers, and consumers, who are the external customers,” she said. “What we need to do is find ways of empowering teams to deliver better customer service for both groups. Not only does this make you feel good but it makes your business, your employees and your customers feel good which, in turn, helps the Island to thrive. It’s a win, win, win, win, win.”
With so many people set to “win” from good customer service, why is it not happening already?
“I think the pandemic has had an impact,” said Claire. “Everyone is struggling to find staff but that makes it even more important for businesses to look at the employee experience and to do everything they can to create a more caring service culture, so that staff want to stay.”
Suggesting that different generations may have different expectations when it comes to customer service, Claire added: “Part of the work I want the alliance to do revolves around how we can bring more care into organisations for our people, our environment and our customers.
“I also want to focus on different topics every week from now until the alliance’s official launch during Customer Service Week in October to understand what different age groups are looking for. While I think different demographics will have different expectations, I think the core – of wanting to be respected and to feel valued – will be consistent.”
Drawing on her many experiences of speaking at conferences, Claire will be launching the Jersey Customer Experience Alliance at just such an event at the Town Hall on 10 October.
“Launching during Customer Service Week is perfect, and I am confident that this collaborative approach is the way to go,” she said. “By uniting businesses, we can really activate change and make a difference on a bigger level. With this in mind, the conference will feature some fabulous keynote speakers including Alison Edgar – ‘the entrepreneurs’ godmother’ – and Andy Firth, the vice-president of the Mystery Shopping Professional Association for Africa and Europe.
“Alison, who spent a season in Jersey as a receptionist at the Pomme d’Or Hotel in 1991, will talk about the connection between customer service and productivity, while Andy will focus on how you measure customer service and outline some of the tools which businesses can use.
“Having seen a lot of good – and not so good – conferences during my 15 years in the industry, I think the secret to success is inspiring attendees and having speakers who make you think, feel and behave differently. That’s what I’m aiming to achieve on 10 October.”
As part of the Jersey Customer Experience Alliance, Claire has created three taskforces, one charged with focusing on standards, one looking at activity for Customer Service Week and the other concentrating on marketing and communications.
“Together, these taskforces form our circle of ambassadors, and the circles are growing as more and more people get involved,” she said. “We are now planning to engage individual businesses and groups such as Visit Jersey, Chamber of Commerce and Jersey Business, so that we bring more and more people together. With the initial feedback having been so positive, I think it will be like a snowball, building ever larger as more people get involved.”
Of course, it is not just the size of the alliance which Claire wants to see grow but, even more importantly, the quality of customer service across the Island.
“It is important that we are able to measure the success of the alliance,” she said. “I would therefore like to carry out a short benchmarking survey this month to gauge people’s views on customer service, and then repeat the survey next year to see what has happened.
“Ultimately, though, I will feel that the alliance has been a success if, this time next year, we can walk into ten different businesses, whether in St Helier, Gorey, St Aubin or any other retail hub, and feel welcome in each one. If you felt that you were walking into a warm place and being greeted with a smile and a friendly ‘hello’, that would be amazing.”
