Stuart Lauchlan's blog

When BT's customer service left him flummoxed, Stuart Lauchlan took it up with the CEO's office. So how does the executive level complaints team at a business giant like BT deal with such issues?

I've just come off the phone to my third BT call centre person of the week and I'm not a happy bunny.

Now I get it! For months and months I've listened to CRM vendors telling me how powerful Twitter can be as a customer service tool. I've seen RightNow buy its very own social networking firm; I've listened to Oracle's Anthony Lye talk about his Social CRM vision; and I've heard Salesforce.com's Marc Benioff tell how he shocks sceptical CEOs by getting them to do a search of Twitter for their own companies and watches them blanche when they see the results.

Another year, another Oracle OpenWorld. Rather frighteningly it's about 20 years since I went to my first big Oracle user gathering. Since then it's grown into probably the best run, most interesting vendor conference on the circuit. Next year, once they've swallowed up Sun Microsystems, it'll be even bigger - maybe encompassing JavaOne?

It's Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco next week. I shall be queuing up with the masses of Oracle customers and partners in the vast underground bunker that is the Moscone Conference Centre to hear the words of wisdom from the likes of Charles Phillips, Safra Catz and of course Larry Ellison himself. It's always an astonishingly well put together event and one of the highlights of the software industry calendar.

There's nothing like face to face contact apparently. According to research by Vertex, high street retail shops deliver better customer service than any other sector including their online counterparts. In sharp contrast, Central Government agencies are the least likely to offer good service. In fact, some 55% of people distrust Central Government agencies.