Pleased to see this morning’s initiative by Celtic to provide people with a more visible and accessible complaints procedure, including an “Our commitment to you” section. I know it’s almost blasphemous to use the word ‘customer’ in a football context, but when it comes to levels of service, it is useful to benchmark the ‘customer experience’ at Celtic Park, which is patchy and often disappointing.
I’ve been meaning to pick up this topic for a while but there is a Supporters’ Forum coming up next month, where various supporters’ groups will be given a chance to put issues of concern to the club, and I planned to raise it directly with the club before writing about it here.
Celtic have a great brand (if you indulge me with another blasphemous but useful term), born to feed the hungry, champion of the underdog, fundraiser for the poor and needy in Scotland and across the globe. We still have the unique Seville legacy – which is 11 years old today – and on Saturday, 47 years after their own crowning moment, the remaining Lisbon Lions will cast their considerable shadow over European football, but a great deal of the ‘customer contact’ reflects a club weary from more recent skirmishes. It needed be this way.
We are one of the world’s unique brand properties, like Disney, but a lot smaller, of course. Every customer contact, every public-facing decision, should reflect this. Disney understand this. They make you pay ridiculous amounts for their tat, but you pay willingly, because every customer contact reflects the highest service levels achievable. None of this comes on minimum wage, you need to select, train and retain good staff, who remain in place irrespective of available alternatives.
Legendary customer service is expensive, but if you own a uniquely ethical brand, paying that expense can be profitable.
Look around at brand management elsewhere. BP throw an environmentally responsible ‘better use of energy’ message at you straight from their home page, and they are one of the world’s most notorious polluters. Barcelona give their ‘More than a club’ message the prime spot (top left) on their home page, without a notion of irony around their tax or Qatar cash transactions. Apple have “Apple and the environment” prominently on their home page. They have little to do with the environmental movement, but they know how important to their business it is to maintain their unique brand.
Ethically, Celtic are miles ahead of any of these outfits but you need to go hunt for our considerable ethical works on the club website.
What should Celtic do when training, match day stewards, or kiosk staff (don’t start me)? What should we do when faced with an expensive business decision? Consult the brand values. Brand values are absolutely sacrosanct and the cost of maintaining them should be looked on as an opportunity to invest in them. At the moment lots of areas are under-invested in, reflecting completely different values to those who rush into the ground on match day.
Our values are to build a great football club which improves Health, promotes Equality, encourages Learning and tackles Poverty. Celtic do this through the very real help they give to thousands of people through Celtic FC Foundation. This is where we are today but all of this should have a higher profile.
When you visit the Celtic web site two days before season ticket renewal deadline day (today), you should be smacked around the senses with our work on Health, Equality, Learning and Poverty. Do that and the drag-through to renewals or merchandise sales will follow, ask Apple or Disney.
We need confidence in this strategy. I know it’s expensive, things are tight and demands enormous, but these values, this unique brand, is why we will flourish for another century.
If you want to raise a question at the Supporters’ Forum leave a note below.
Order your signed copy of Tommy Gemmell’s All the Best below.
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Taurangabhoy
Believe it or not I am going to Nitra for two days tomorrow. Heading to the cinema, a Wine festival, markets, a cook off, shopping and a nice bar to watch the CL final.
Nitra rocks.
joe filippis haircut
09:52 on 22 May, 2014
I cannot believe some CQNers are being duped by the media…..Neil Lennon is going nowhere, and he is saying nothing since THAT is exactly what the hunmedia want…. any comment at all from Neil will be twisted to suit their agenda of subtly discrediting him to our fans, just like they did with WGS……..DIVIDE AND CONQUER…..have a nice, well-deserved, holiday, Neil……
This is a purely selfish opinion but I’ll put it anyway.
Like almost every Celtic fan, Henrik Larsson to me is the King of Kings, a player for us who was untouchable and should always be untouchable, in fact the first thing I see when I pick up my phone however many times a day is Henrik in the Hoops turning away with his arms outstretched having just scored another goal for the Celts.
The thought of Henrik Larsson being slagged and pilloried on here or on any other media source if things did not go well as a potential Celtic manager would be hard for me and I’m sure many others to bear.
I say let’s keep the memories of the King as we all want to remember him.
AR
mcdowellcelt god bless wee oscar
10:05 on 22 May, 2014
Dooooooooohhhhhhhh…….the only smoke and fire should be up the media’s jacksy …. :)
I have voted in the ole Euros this morning.
No shortage of swivel-eyed loons to pick from on the ole slate.
Just an observation that over the last few days our manager being referred to by his surname, is the party indeed over…!
Ayrshire is Green and White
HH
The best candidate, if required, would be Steve Clarke. Woefully treated by WBA and very highly thought of at Chelski
Paulo boots. If an offer of over 8m comes in for vvd, PL will grab it to show off a healthy balance sheet at AGM(. Vics transfer money was not touched and was sold for AGM and our team suffered).
No more AGM balance sheet transfers
http://theshamrockglasgow.wordpress.com/2014/05/21/35-years-ago-today-ten-men-won-the-league-tra-la-la-la-la/
Mcdowell im with you I think if nl goes then coyle would be a disaster and id be fearful of henrik losing all if he was unsuccessful how many great players have failed in management?If neil goes he has pulled us away from debt and has done very well imo given the shambles after tony mowbray. Lenny was a pl gamble and it paid off while external events favourably benefited his learning curve. Imo lenny will have put us on a healthy learning curve with £78m from cl and player sales we need an experienced manager and to build on lennys good work. However will pl want another manager he can manipulate and call the shots with. If lenny has outgrown this environment then it says more about the constraints he is under and reflects poorly imo.
Great players who became great managers?
Not many.
Let’s wait and see what happens.
Let’s not give the unCelticminded the chance to see us runnin’ roun’ like ole headless chickens.
From last night….
______________
ElDiegoBhoy
21:37 on 21 May, 2014
Collins didn’t exactly leave us with best wishes ringing out loud for those who can remember that far back.
Would be seriously pissed off if he arrives at CP.
________________________________________
I hope yer well fella.
John Collins, in his last season with us, resisted being sold to
Derby County and, Middlesbrough by both manager Tommy Burns(RIP)
and, ‘frugal’ Fegus McCann and, by doing so….proved the point that he was,
of a higher standard and quality of player than was being recognised by his,
manager and chairman – imho.
JC went on to join Monaco and played in the CLSF, leaving TB with his favorit
midfield duo(clique ?) of, McStay who was done by that stage of his career and,
TB’s favorit player at the club – Peter Grant. That said it all for me.
John Collins should have been made the capt of Celtic immediately after his, heroic
capt performance v’s the huns at ipox in 1994 were there were ‘no’ Celtic fans present.
Paul McStay should have been moved to – front-sweeper – removing the shackles of the captaincy which he never looked comfortable with in the 1st place – imho.
Anyway, I said on here last year that I had heard that, Celtic had been asking about JC’s interest in the managers job at CP and, was pitchforked off the blog for saying so.
John Collins for Celtic manager would do me.
Hail Hail – Off oot – Bye.
Just thought I’d log into CQN to see what’s in the Sun and the Record this morning.
Sydneytim I agree but pl was lucky last year to stumble into cl qualifiers, where would the season and crowds be if we hadn, t think about that for a minute. Now if he does the same this year selling players not backing the manager imo then I would expect alot of heat in his direction. The marketing is poor and at £29 a seat for turning up on the day he, s out of touch in his ivory tower. Lets hope he has a plan or he’ll have to be shutting stands if that scenario occurs, I hope not time will tell.
Dbia,
I voted on the ole euros this morning too.
The recorded message said that the lines are closed and I may have been charged for the call.
Polishmilkmaids csc
im not scaremongering….im only putting out what i’ve been told (to keep quiet).
if it happens it will be my insider info to celtic gone anyway.
so ive nowt to lose by telling.
not wanting to be like those on here who give it the “I know something you don’t know”
Ernie @ 1020
I read an interesting theory on why that is. Wish I could fish it out.
Micktt – good spot. Sometimes it’s the little things.
Greenpinata:
Not so long ago I was the blindest Celtic Supporter in the world. I’d have defended the club until my last breath, not so much because I am a football supporter but more so, ever so much more so, with the help of my parents my heart beats the ethos of the club. At least it did.
I’m going to make a couple of assumptions here, please correct me if I am wrong, I believe that you, like me, believe that anti-Catholicism was ingrained in the Scottish establishment around the time Celtic was conceived. I also think you’d agree that over the course the establishment have been at best tolerant of us as a club, a demographic, a culture. Not a Catholic nor Irish entity per se but one heavily influenced by both.
Like the Church of Scotland used to preach from its pulpits: ‘The Menace of the Irish race to our Scottish Nationality’ (which to their credit the latterly apologised for) the establishment too viewed us as second class citizens. That bigotry has endured the test of time. At least in my eyes it has.
Along the way we were bound to box our corner and we did. The Tricolour farce being probably the most notable and latterly the forced relocation of Jim Farry.
Then we got this, from a man purportedly not to be messed with:
I took dogs abuse on here for standing up for John Reid.
But unfortunately mate, as far as I can see it was all just sound-bites; Rhetoric for the day, nothing more. His words and the words of the late Paul McBride gave me hope that the gloves were off and that Celtic would stand the line and fight for equality, equality for all.
Off late, I know I wasted so many heartbeats and hopes. It was all false. We never had it in us to fight for equality, we’re happy to live off the fights of our fathers. That is the way I see it.
I wish Dermot Desmond, another whom I have stood up for on countless occasions on here, I wish he’d been born in Glasgow and lived in the west of Scotland, then he’d understand. I know he knows all about the bigotry, I just don’t think he understands how much some from a particular demographic in Scotland detest the bigotry. And we have the muscle (albeit through his bank account) to fight the right of equality all the way to the European Court of Justice or the European Court of Human Rights. The fact that we don’t used to concern me.
Some say the back of the bus is better, maybe they’re right.
Kevjungle
JC ran down his contract and in his last six months, the effort expended in that period was lamentable and for that reason alone he will never be asked back to the club. He could easily have went to Monaco at any point but he wanted a larger signing-on fee which would have been diluted by a transfer fee.
HH
Ekbhoy,
Careful. You’ll run the risk of being labeled a bully with a pitchfork for simply replying to kev.
‘if it happens it will be my insider info to celtic gone anyway’
rrdh- are you Garry Parker ? ;/)
Gold Coast Tom
10:24 on 22 May, 2014
‘Just thought I’d log into CQN to see what’s in the Sun and the Record this morning.’
##
Must have missed the references to those.
The only paper I’ve seen mentioned is the Mirror, which is an England based paper. I’m not aware if they have an anti Celtic agenda. Is the journalist mentioned not a Celtic fan who used to post on here?
What about an experienced coach with the tactical nous to navigate the latter stages of the Europa League? Seville, Porto, Athletico, Ajax, Benfica etc. etc. seem to know how to do just that semi-regularly.
I would suggest that is exactly where we would fit in given present circumstances
and resources.
Nah….. go for Henrik Larrsson……. the fans will lap it up. We can fit wee speakers in the poles of the Celtic Way and pipe music from the Jungle Book out as we walk up to be greeted by Mhickey Mhouse and a munchkin parade pre-match, the kids will love it, we can then slope off to pay £4.50 for a pint. Razzamatastic
Sannabhoy and 2000 kids say Hail Hail to Pablo’s family
08:38 on
22 May, 2014
Vmhan. Another example of how time is fleeting. It’ll be 6 years in November (2008) since Martin took ill. Events took place through 2009 culminating in BMH race night in Nov 2009. Kano foundation started as a memorial to him and that campaign on 1st June 2010.
*****************
Thanks for the correction and Kitalba was correct innaw.
My memory is fading fast dot com :¬)
V
dbbina…lol no.
just a nobody who knows a somebody
Good morning fellow Tims from a very warm Sweden.
Not sure if Henke has what it takes to manage Celtic but his newly promoted Falkenbergs outfit are sitting a pretty respectable 11 out of 16 in the Allsvenskan, with the same points as Helsingborgs. Not too shabby this year, perhaps his time as assistant for Högaborgs IF has taught him something after his rather humiliating speel at Landskrona BoIS.
Would love to see him back at Paradise for old times sake but am fairly certain he is bookies favourite simply due to the volume of bets being placed upon him.
I guess it’s also possible that him and his son Jordan will both come over :) Apparently Jordan has dreams of spending time in Scotland.
If lenny does consider norwich as his next destination then id wish him all the luck in the world, he’ll need it. Also his choice would leave me scratching my head at what kind of working environment was so bad at celtic that he chose this option. Relegared club with a chairman who lacks common decency when you look at how he treated chris hughton allegedly going behind his back for other managers, does lenny think this wont happen to him, this chairman I believe used to be at celtic what a bunch of vipers comes to mind! Bought a jersey the other day £53 its been a while so was a little shocked at the price , noticed it was made by Nike in Bangladesh hope their factories and treatment of workers is up to scratch.
I should add a disclaimer that my last post is purely based on If’s and But’s
Relegarded = relegated
monteblanco
don’t ye get it its all about the brand now…not our club.
horrible to say but losing the heart by the day.
its not like it was when I was young…we had a soul.
maybe I was just naïve back then.
Vmhan:
You had me counting the fingers on my hands and my CV to boot. I used to work down in the Simpson Desert, I left there three days before the end of my contract to go see Kano in his hospital room. I sat there with Kano and Ramie and stared at the clock on the wall.
When we left the hospital Ramie drove us to a pub, on the way he asked me: “What can we do?”
I replied “fecked if I know but I’ll be fecked if he stays in there”.
Daily record hotline must be busy.
Geordie- not as busy as the Polish Milkmaids Hotline.
The reason I went to Perth was because Ramie asked me to, at that time I never had a scobbie as to just how ill Kano was.
At that time – Gordon_J – (if I remember correctly) was running a quiz night and generously offered to donate all profits to Kano.
That’s how it all started, we all know how it ended. You’re right, it would be nice if come this Christmas some on here could remember Kano by maybe dropping him a Christmas card. After all, Kano has now broken all records for surviving as long as he has with his ailments, or so I am led to believe, and I believe.
Neil Lennon has had the opportunity to kill off any speculation that he is off but hasn’t done so. I don’t think he has a job to go to yet but is hedging his bets. He is perfectly within his right to do that.
The Celtic Board on the other hand need to know who their manager is for next season now. Not next week, next month or after the World Cup. Our manager for next season, whether that be NL or someone else, needs to be working on pre season training, games and signings for next season’s campaign which begins 7 weeks on Tuesday. The likelihood is we will be several players short the first round of CL qualifying at least, those playing in the WC won’t be back by then, and we have given away our home advantage for the first two rounds. Its going to be a tough ask to get through three rounds like last season when we gambled and got lucky.
The ball is in Celtic’s court. NL has a one year rolling contract, Celtic need to know if he’s staying. If the answer is yes then great, get on with planning for next season and don’t entertain any approaches for him over the next couple of months. If the answer is maybes aye maybes naw, then find a replacement, quickly, pay NL his year’s salary and let him move on.
Kitalba what happened with kana has become a catalyst for many good works in subsequent years. Look at wee oscar, dambhoys and now 3 schools in malawi. The kano situation pricked so many consciences and imo began a movement for good its been my pleasure to meet so many “kindred spirits” on this blog
.