Archive for the ‘Consumer matters’ Category
Delighted to hand over my role at South East Water to Zoe McLeod
December 5th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
For the past five years, I’ve had a consumer champion role at South East Water. For three years, I chaired the Customer Challenge Group which worked with the company on its business plan for the Price Review period 2015-2020. For the next two years, I chaired the Customer Panel which monitored how the company performed […]
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Against the clock: why more time is not the answer for consumers
November 30th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Citizens Advice has just published a report exploring how long it takes to follow a ‘good’ consumer decision-making process compared to what comes more naturally, and what impact this has on consumers. In “Against the clock: why more time is not the answer for consumers”, it is explained that: Following a ‘good’ decision-making process takes […]
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Four disruptions that will shake things up for energy consumers
November 29th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Citizens Advice has just published an interesting new report on the future of energy markets and how these changes might impact on consumers. You can access the full report, “The Disrupted Decade”, here. Meanwhile this is a summary: It has been said that people often overestimate what can happen in 2 years and underestimate the […]
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How can the consumer voice be better heard in the regulation of essential services?
October 27th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
In a week’s time, in my capacity as Chair of the Essential Services Access Network (ESAN), I will be chairing a major conference to be held at the BT Tower. The title of the event is “How can the consumer voice be better heard in the regulation of essential services?” and we will be looking mainly […]
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Cost of consumer detriment is £30 billion a year
October 3rd, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Citizens Advice has recently published a consumer report entitled ‘Consumer Detriment – counting the cost of consumer problems’. In summary, the researchers found that consumer problems cost UK consumers £22.9 billion in 2015 – on average £446 per UK adult. Consumers experienced 123 million problems and wasted 1.2 billion hours resolving these problems. More than half […]
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How can the consumer voice be better heard in the regulation of essential services?
September 20th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
The Essential Services Access Network (ESAN) – which I chair – will hold an important one day conference on Wednesday 2 November 2016 focusing on the consumer voice in the regulation of essential services such as water, energy, communications, financial services and transport. The event will be held at the BT Tower in central London. […]
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Consumer empowerment in the digital economy
September 7th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
The German government has committed to using their presidency of the G20 in 2017 to address the issue of consumer empowerment in the digital economy. Consumers International, the international federation of consumer organisations, and its German Member organisation (VZBV) are leading partners in the initiative. One of the key activities that the German government is […]
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What happens when consumers complain?
July 22nd, 2016 by Roger Darlington
A new report from Citizens Advice examines the consumer journey, from the stage when consumers experience a problem and intend to launch a complaint, through the complaint process, until the problem is solved (or not) across a selection of consumer and public services markets. The report finds that about half of all consumers who took […]
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Why I visit Snodland so often
July 15th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
You’ve probably never heard of Snodland which sounds like somewhere in a story of Noddy and Big Ears. In fact, Snodland is a village in Kent where the company South East Water is headquartered. For the last four or so years, I have chaired the company’s Customer Challenge Group – now called Customer Panel – […]
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How can we use behavioural economics to better understand customers ?
July 14th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
In my capacity as Chair of the South East Water Customer Panel, some months ago I met Julien Lancha, Chief Customer Officer and co-founder of a company called Advizzo which advises companies on how to use behavioural insights to better serve their customers. I’ve met him several times since and we’ve had some fascinating discussions. Following […]
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