It's just over a year since utellus started to revolutionise customer service.  We've spoken with senior management in some of the UK's biggest companies and attracted the attention of partners around the world.  In that time we've processed a lot of feedback, seen some very satisfied consumers, some focussed companies and learned a lot.  We've taken care to listen to what our users and the companies to whom they have sent feedback, have told us, and today utellus launches its enhanced service. So, what improvements did you tell us you wanted to see?

• Consumers and companies alike remain suspicious of email, and worry that sensitive information might go astray
• Different companies require different information in order to investigate and report back on feedback
• Consumers want to see a response tailored to them - "email response #5" simply isn't good enough

And what have we done?

• We now provide a secure internet portal through which all companies can respond to feedback.  Email is now only used to let you know that there is an update to your feedback - no information is sent in this way.  Added to this, there's no longer scope for the "we didn't get your email" excuse which consumers hear from companies far too often
• Whilst we will still provide a standard feedback form for every company on our database, each company can contact us to request specific information.  This might be required to satisfy their own Data Protection requirements, or simply to facilitate a quick response
• Customer-specific information will help companies to better address your concerns - some will still do a poor job, but experience shows that they'll be the ones to lose customers.  We will, however, provide the tools to help them do a better job

And the best news of all? It's always free for the consumer. And our basic service is free for the company.  There's no excuse for not signing up, no excuse for ignoring customers' needs.  What are you waiting for? 

Companies looking to learn more should click here.

Many people will know that 2007 was the year of the Rugby World Cup in France.  Thousands of fans bought tickets for the many matches stages across France, Wales and Scotland.  Not surprisingly, with the competition on our doorstep, a huge number of these fans were Scottish, English and Welsh.

One of our directors bought two Team Packs from the official distributor, Ticketmaster, which entitled him to a pair of tickets for each of Wales’ pool games, plus the right to 1/4 final and 1/2 final tickets should Wales progress that far.

The process was simple - Ticketmaster charged for all tickets, including the knockout stages, and promised that “if the team chosen for the Team Pack did not qualify for the quarter- and/or semi finals, the price of the corresponding ticket(s) would be fully reimbursed within six weeks of the Rugby World Cup Final.”  The final was held on 20th October, so six weeks took us to 1 December.

On 1 December he received an email from Ticketmaster which said “Due to some administrative delays from the Organising Committee, there has been a slight delay to the processing of refunds.  We are aiming to have all refunds processed by 15 December.”

On 15 December he received another email:  “We have experienced further delays subsequently preventing us being able to issue your refunds by the previously stated 15 December. We expect to be in a position to refund you shortly, we will contact you as soon as we have completed the refund procedure.”

utellus wonders - where has the money gone, how many fans are affected, and what is happening to the interest on the tens of thousands of pounds owed to those loyal individuals?

Today, we’ve announced the first in a series of tools which will help companies of all sizes offer customer service excellence. For starters, we’re focusing on the SME market with the launch of utellus:commit, a simple customer service tool for small and medium sized businesses looking to reinforce their commitment to the highest levels of customer service.

To celebrate our appearance as a finalist in the 2007 Western Mail Business Awards, we’re offering SMEs a free 12-month subscription to this service, for a limited time.

Phillipe de Wilde, CEO of utellus Limited, says: “This is a really simple way for SMEs to get ahead of the competition. Subscriber companies put our logo on the ‘contact us’ page of their website – clicking our logo takes the customer into an easy-to-use feedback form which they complete and submit.”

“There are two key advantages to the SME: firstly by using an independent and neutral service to process their feedback, the customer is reassured that their opinions really do matter; second, utellus will chase companies where feedback is not answered, helping them to ensure that they always address their customers’ comments in a timely and effective way. The company’s responses are stored in the customer’s personalised message centre in utellus.co.uk, which makes it easy for them to see progress.”

Since we launched in December 2006, utellus has in the last two months entered into arrangements to provide tailored feedback services for household names like Vodafone, Avis and Cunard.

De Wilde adds: “Our goal is to help businesses of all sizes improve their customer service. We all know that many of our largest companies struggle to keep a personal relationship with their customers. However, as they grow, many smaller businesses find it increasingly difficult to maintain previous high standards of customer service. We can help them keep their eyes on the ball – simply email us at commit@utellus.co.uk.”

Vodafone has been in touch with us to ensure that your feedback to them gets addressed as quickly as possible by the most appropriate team. At their request we made a few changes to the Vodafone feedback form, and we’ve now completed a series of tests to ensure that your utellus feedback gets to the right people.

Phillipe de Wilde, utellus CEO, says: “Large companies spend huge amounts of money trawling the web looking for unhappy customers on blogs and chatrooms. utellus now gives those customers the opportunity to express their concerns in the knowledge that their feedback will be taken seriously. Additionally Vodafone has asked that we let them know if your feedback is going unanswered, which we will do.”

If you have feedback for Vodafone, either good or bad, we can direct it for you. All we ask is utellus.

Transparency is key to earning customers’ trust; open and clear communication is one of the building blocks of transparency, clear organisational structure is another.

Any company which deals with the public should have a nominated and named contact. A terrific example of this kind of openness — not just in terms of sharing of information but also willingness to communicate with the customer base — can be seen in Warburton’s recent television campaign which give you the name and email address of Jonathan and Brett Warburton, currently at the helm of the family-owned business.

How can a company claim to be committed to customer service when the policy handed down from the ivory tower of Human Resources states that customers should not be informed of the name of their customer service manager? It seems almost unthinkable in the current business climate that a company would take such a defensive position to a fairly innocent enquiry, and yet this is the route that a major dairy foods provider, Dairy Crest Ltd, has opted for. Little wonder then that its customers are turning to utellus to resolve their customer service issues, and utellus is on the case.

If you have an example of superb commitment to customer service, please drop me a mail.

Our April award for customer service excellence goes to Rosemary Chan of on-line retailer www.buyaswatch.co.uk.

Our user takes up the story:  “A few years ago, I bought a watch from buyaswatch.co.uk which I subsequently lost. I was trying to find a replacement and it was no longer available from the site. With no information of the design name or model number, I contacted BuyASwatch.co.uk on 16 April 2007 at around 6pm with a description and the best photograph I had of my beloved watch, in the hope that they would be able to sell me one just like it.    

By 11:30 on 17 April, I received a very helpful response from Rosemary Chan who pointed me in the direction of an online retailer specialising in past ranges of Swatch watches.”

Congratulations to Rosemary - your certificate is on the way to you