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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Neil Lennon has given us many happy memories as a player and a manager. Sad to see him leave the club and I hope it’s not for reasons around team budget as being portrayed.
Regardless, he’s a Celtic hero and I wish him every success for the future.
Hail Hail Neil Francis Lennon
Manager – Stevie Clarke (good wealth of knowledge/experience in European Football)
Assistant – Peter Houston (good experienced domestic coach)
1st Team Coach – John Kennedy (learn, develop and takeover in due course)
The closest to an explanation for those of us floundering for a reason comes from :
thomthethim for Oscar OK
12:35 on
22 May, 2014
Oh no, not the John Beattie thick as mince debate again.
new article posted.
Gotta get back to work, will catch up later.
I will miss Neil.
His replacement has big boots to fill.
Going down to the bookies it must be Stuart Baxter.
twists n turns
12:40 on
22 May, 2014
By ‘Midas touch’ do you mean 30% win rate and taking a team from promotion contenders to relegation strugglers and them mid-table mediocrity?
Doc… I am sure there will be a queue of candidates with that criteria… I know nothing about anything so if Fatty was to leave deidco then I might apply for that…. :)
Paul67
12:50 on 22 May, 2014
new article posted.
####
Let me guess.
Regardless of who the club decide to bring in, we have the players at the club at the moment who in both the 7-0 Hearts match and the 5-0 Motherwell match, played some of the best football that I have seen any Celtic team play in the past few years. A new coach with a good degree of tactical nous and the ability to motivate, should look to both of those games as the consistent level that the team should strive to achieve.
AR
Davie Soup Take rProvan really does talk some pish. Almmost offensively.
‘Celtic unable to compete at the very top-line in Europe’.
What’s two successive years in the CL, ya rocket?
Prick.
Pardon me, CQN.
Thank you very much Lenny.
Best wishes for your future.
Henrik with a decent budget for me.
EC67
So, the bigots have won again , what’s new,eh? Maybe Neil fell out with the board, we’ll never know.
Thank you Neil, for all you’ve given us, best of luck in the future wherever that may be, but at least you won’t have to endure the kind of crap you’ve had in Scotland.
We need an experienced hand on the tiller, Henke, Jackie, Malky, sorry.I’d go back for Strachan or maybe David Moyes, but what do I know.
I’m of the opinion that I love Scotland but detest the people, thank goodness I don’t live there now.
Hail Hail
KUNGLuBO
Ernie- i agree a “Wikipedia” presenter,of which there are many.It was his point of view on NL being ” constantly aggressive in public” line i was annoyed about.
Moyes 7/1.
John Kennedy 20/1.
The rest are mediocre at best, they don’t know how to win anything, and that includes Moyes.
Henke 4/5. Insanity.
John Kennedy, or better still… get those two mugs Desmond and Lawwell away before they manage to ruin this bid for 10-in-a-row.
WTF, go for lunch and come back to find Lenny has gone.
Good luck NFL I wish you every success in the future, but life goes on.
No man or individual is greater than Celtic Football Club!
The PLC? Well that’s another matter!
As I said last night Owen Coyle has been hanging about recently like a fly round a number 2.
The Malky for me.
Hail! Hail! PMTYH
The board will surely have known about this and will already have taken steps to ensure the quickest, smoothest possible succession.
That’s not to say that there won’t be condemnation of their decision, just as there was of Neil Lennon’s appointment.
Bit of a worry though, with CL qualifiers only weeks away.
Still, I wish Lenny all the best. He has been a great manager for us in very difficult circumstances. He will not face the same persecution from bigots and a bigot media outwith Scotland.
Awe-naw. While people harp on about dwindling income and live within our means
Our PLC has been making record profits and our CEO has been getting paid more and more while at the same time the standard and entertainment on the park has been diminishing
Time for a change
Ernie lynch 12:21 on 22 May, 2014
The immediate concern has to be which players will now leave.
……………………..
Damn it, you had to say that. Wee Jamsie will be for the off. I’ve only just got my “Forrest Fire” painting up on the bhoy’s wall this morning too.
Want to add my thanks to Neil Lennon
When he first took the job I was worried that if he got things horribly wrong like Tony Mowbray did, that the support would turn on him, !! and for a man who had already suffered horrendous abuse and death threats just for playing for Celtic, I feared for him.
Well, Lenny stood up to the bigots, the bomb threats, intimidation, bullets in the post, abuse on the street and physical assault OFF and ON the pitch and Lenny succeeded
I am GUTTED that he has called time on his career at Celtic once more but also very proud of what he achieved as manager of our great club
Thank You Neil Lennon YNWA
Was off today and was going to do the stadium tour so at tge park now. Tv vans and media just arrived from stv and bbc. Not a good day.
twists n turns
12:40 on
22 May, 2014
Macjay
I could never envisage Henrik as a managerial failure.
But that`s a possibility,so I would never want him as a manager.
starry plough
Sorry for the delay bud but I just went a wee walk to gather my thoughts on the news.
I was told on monday that Houston was being made No 2.
Seemingly ,allegedly, made up I dont know but was told it was all over Huddle board and celtic minded.
I’m gutted he is leaving but everything moves on bud I remember seeing our line up in cup game and thinking Nooooooooooooo Neil.
NFL is celtic to the core and will not have taken this decision lightly and he goes with my heartfelt thanks for all he has done for us.
Maybe now his family life can have a semblance of normality away from the bigots who attacked and threatened at every opportunity because they feared him.
Neil Francis Lennon thank you ,Hail Hail & YNWA
Who will take over
We’ll see.
Till tomorrow all
All the best for the future Neil, thanks for the memories! You’ll always get a welcome from kdc.
Lambo or Malky please board.
Sorry to hear that Neil is going, it looks as though 4 years is about the right time in the modern game to be managing Celtic, wee Gordon thought likewise.
What we need is a tough character who can handle the Glasgow media and put out team to play tough professional football.
We failed with Mowbray who was a bit of a dreamer about flowing football and from what I have seen of Dundee Utd, wee Jackie has them wide open.
I believe that this is a good opportunity for David Moyes to rehabilitate his reputation and he would have more freedom to play a more expansive game than he did at Everton. Next choice would be Paul Lambert , as I suspect he will be available shortly, however Paul has stated frequently that he would not prefer the hassle of living in Scotland and being Scotland Manager.
Thanks Neil, all the very best in your new job, wherever that may be. I hope you enjoy being treated like a human being from now on, and not as a pariah by the “peepel”
HH
P.S., Paul Lambert for me please!
Phil MacGiollaBhain@Pmacgiollabhain · 56m
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXGc3TtBBIM …
http://www.philmacgiollabhain.ie/the-other-neil-lennon/ …
http://www.philmacgiollabhain.ie/the-neil-lennon-problem/ …
The portrayal of Neil Lennon by the SMSM has been shameful.
Lennybhoy are you simply to be known as bhoy until we get a new manager:-)
emdy remember LENNON saying of BIG SAMMY” he’s the type of player who will get you sacked”
good luck NEIL FRANCIS wherever you go.
Walker on SSN at least pointing out the pressures NL was under off the field, mentioning bullets through the post and death threats specifically.
His managerial achievements should always be assessed in this context.
Now Neil will know how Julius Caesar felt!!!
Shocked n stunned and astounded of forehead as well.
Sorry to see Neil go, but life goes on.
Imo Malky Mackay will be offered the job. No compensation to a current employer to worry about!
HH!!
New article up about half an hour ago!!!
Keep ur powder dry Neil!!
Nags…..sorry…I’ll be quick…
Genny Wren goes to Towcester tomorrow night ( 7 50pm) in a 3 mile hurdle. She’s had an awful lot of health problems but seems to be over them. She was scoped this morning and scoped clean. She is running well at home and could just surprise tomorrow night. Would love to be a bit more positive but her history prevents me from going in heavy even though I think tomorrow just may be her night.
I’ll have a moderate each way bet, and wouldn’t put anyone off having a small to moderate bet if they like a flutter. I seen the Commander as an investment, I see Genny Wren as worth risking a few quid each way assuming you can afford to lose it. Might just bring you a nice return for low stakes.
Ok, sorry, I’ll clear the way now for the more important stuff.