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Anton Savage: Why CEOs need to ditch the data and start listening to whingeing grannies

Sending a chief executive to get shouted at in a call centre for half a day a week would have a far bigger impact on service quality than net promoter scores

Anton Savage: ‘If you want excellence, send the chief executive to get shouted at in a call centre for half a day a week, and see how quickly things improve’

Eir is quite good at customer care. The company’s average call-answering time is two minutes and the number of customers who complain is less than 0.01 per cent, according to Oliver Loomes, its chief executive.

Loomes’ claims about the quality of Eir’s service were broadcast by Joe Duffy on Liveline this week.

Duffy wove audio recording of Loomes’ positive numbers between livid callers alleging that their grannies had been wrongly put in Stubbs Gazette as ...