The swinging sixties

 It's been a week of birthdays. First the humble ATM machine clocked up its 44th year of existence (see previous blog post for more on that). And then Barclaycard announced that 45 years ago it introduced the UK's first credit cards.

My Dad is forever going on about the swinging sixties, greatest decade in the history of mankind (to quote the mighty Withnail and I). And so on...Looking at some of the facts and figures, I'm inclined to believe him. In the year that the credit card arrived, England won the World Cup, The Beatles and The Stones were riding high, the average price of a house was £3,840, petrol cost just 7p a litre and you could go to cinema for 10p - 10p! You need a bank loan to buy a ticket and popcorn these days, all for the privilege of seeing Shia Labeouf and a bunch of robots causing mayhem.

Within a year of the credit card launch, Barclaycard had attracted a million customers. Today the figure is 11.2 million of a total of 31.2 million (UK Cards Association, 2010) credit cardholders in the UK. Last year, two billion transactions were made to the tune of £136 billion. But the credit card's big day was somewhat undermined by figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), suggesting that cautious customers are increasingly turning to cash and debit cards. The proportion of transactions using credit cards fell by 12.9 per cent in a year while those involving debit cards rose by 15.8 per cent. Cash was used for a greater proportion of overall retail spending as the average amount spent in each cash transaction increased by 13 per cent to £12.93.

It seems that pesky old cash won't go away, despite the best efforts of those with power and influence to burn.

Happy birthday to the ATM

Forty four years ago this week, the world's first ATM was installed at a branch of Barclays in Enfield, north London. Reg Varney, from the bafflingly popular ITV sitcom On the Buses (74 episodes and three spin off films! I mean, what were the British public thinking?), was the first to withdraw cash. 

On the subject of ATMs, Ron Delnevo, managing director at Bank Machine, will be one of the speakers at our forthcoming payments conference. Ron will be discussing one of the hot topics of the day - 'cash vs contactless'. The conference will take place in London during November and we're holding it in conjunction with our sister title, Retail Systems. Paul Rodgers of Vendorcom will chair and there will also be speakers from the likes of Barclaycard, Best Buy UK and S1 Corporation.

We're currently putting the finishing touches to the website, but in the meantime if you would like further information on the agenda, speaker opportunities, time, place etc, feel free to drop me a line at: scott.thompson@fstech.co.uk

Lulz Security calls it a day

So. Farewell

Then

Lulz Security...

Just days after declaring war on the banking sector, hackers Lulz Security have announced they are to disband. The collective issued a statement over the weekend, in which it referred to its crew of six and said its 50 day adventure was done. More on that at our website.

I've recently introduced a Talking Point section in FStech magazine, which sets out a burning issue of the day and asks leading industry figures for their views. In the next issue, the question is: Lulz Security - freedom fighters or cyber terrorists? If you'd like to give your take, email me at: scott.thompson@fstech.co.uk

Happy birthday, dear IBM, happy birthday to you...

Happy birthday to International Business Machines, 100 years young today. It's certainly been a rollercoaster ride to this point, with the company rising from humble beginnings to biggest technology company in the world. Employees winning Nobel Prizes, a pioneering role in both the American New Deal on social security and in civil rights, yet also running into controversy when being accused of providing equipment to Nazi Germany.

From a dominant position, the firm lurched close to disaster in the 1980s when it failed to keep up with others' innovations. But it reinvented itself and once again became a world-leading firm.

What will the next 100 years bring? The company said recently that cloud services, analytics, its Smarter Planet initiative and growth markets will be the four key areas of focus for the near future. 

Things certainly won't be dull. As I write this, speculation is rife about who will succeed CEO, Sam Palmisano, when he turns 60 next month (the typical age of retirement of an IBM CEO). Palmisano has said he's going nowhere but that, of course, won't stop us from speculating. 

How happy are consumers with call centre service?

Guest blog post by Mark King, senior VP, Europe and Africa, Aspect 

Think back to your last conversation or email exchange with a contact centre agent. Did it resolve your query, leaving you feeling positive? Or did it fail to help, leaving you feeling frustrated? The Aspect Customer Service Trends 2011 survey set out to explore what European consumers really think about contact centres and its findings may surprise readers.

Of the survey’s 1,345 European participants, 70 per cent were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the service they received - a figure that rose to 76 per cent among the 278 UK respondents. These figures compare favourably with those recorded in the 2007 Aspect Customer Satisfaction Index survey when, asked the same question, just 53 per cent of European consumers and 55 per cent of UK consumers stated that they were 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied'.

65 per cent of European consumers said their inquiries were typically resolved on the first or second contact - and the ability to resolve queries rapidly was found to be a major influence on satisfaction, according to respondents to the 2011 survey. 70 per cent of those who were “very satisfied” or “satisfied” said their problems were usually resolved on first or second contact; and 40 per cent of those who were “dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” stated that their queries were not.

Communication preferences are changing rapidly according to the survey. 35 per cent of respondents used email for their last service inquiry, while 36 per cent phoned. A further eight per cent posted their last query, seven per cent used web self-service, and five per cent turned to social networks. Overall, 56 per cent of respondents used 'new media' channels (i.e. email, SMS, web self-service, social networks, smartphone apps, web chat, blogs and forums) for their last service query compared to 44 per cent who used 'traditional' channels (i.e. post and telephone).

When asked to state their 'requirements for good customer service', 73 per cent of respondents pointed to the 'secure handling of personal data', 69 per cent to a 'prompt response', 65 per cent to 'the friendliness of the service representative' and 35 per cent to 'being able to make customer service enquiries via smartphone apps, Twitter, web chat etc.'. However, there were some notable exceptions. In Germany, for example, the percentage of people stating that a 'prompt response' was a requirement rose to 91 per cent, while the availability of 'smartphone, Twitter, web chat etc. options' was a requirement for a significant 41 per cent of UK consumers.

For a free copy of the Aspect Customer Service Trends 2011 Executive Summary, visit: http://www.customerservicetrends.com/UKPR

Forthcoming FStech roundtables

Quick plug for three roundtables we’ve got coming up. Further info here.

If you're interested in coming along and contributing to the discussions, feel free to drop Tim Skinner in our events department a line at: timothy.skinner@fstech.co.uk. The roundtables are taking place during June/July at The Gherkin and Tower 42 - discussion lasts for around 90 minutes and is followed by a three course meal and a chance to network.

Hope to see you there!

Faster Payments anniversary update

Guest blog post by Marc Terry, director of transaction services, VocaLink

Last Friday was the third anniversary of the launch of the UK’s Faster Payments Service. Last week also saw the one billionth transaction being processed. So, what better time to look at how far the service has come and what lies ahead?

When VocaLink set up and launched the service on its real-time infrastructure in May 2008 on behalf of CHAPS Co., it’s fair to say that it was considered a regulatory headache. However, transaction volumes have increased year on year on year. 80 million Faster Payments transactions were made in the first year, nearly 300 million in 2009 and over 400 million in 2010. This year we expect to see half a billion.

The service has caught on quickly with consumers too. Half of regular standing orders have already migrated and individuals using the system are making ten million more one-off payments every month than they did before the system was set up. That’s why 13 banks and building societies have now signed up to the service.

Looking to the future, banks should view the Faster Payments Service as a critical component to their payments strategy. It provides a significant opportunity to differentiate and deliver high levels of customer service. As well as continuing to encourage customers to take advantage of the service, banks should think laterally and use the channel to support payments innovation.

Through our pioneering work to develop the real-time payments infrastructure for faster payments, we are developing the technology for our mobile payments proposition.  The unique element of our proposition is to link bank accounts to mobile phone numbers so that payment can be made instantly, without the need for the payee to reveal bank account details. So, with consumers increasingly expecting anything done over mobile to be instantaneous, VocaLink’s real-time payments infrastructure can play a key role in the success of this initiative. In research we carried out last year, consumers and sole traders even said they’d be willing to pay for this service.

Looking beyond our borders, the roll-out of the Faster Payments Service has positioned the UK at the forefront of the industry’s most significant payment innovation in decades. Other countries across the world have been following developments closely and in the coming months we expect banks across Europe and beyond to look to reap the benefits of real-time payments.