Telephone and internet contact with older customers

Date

27 May 2008

Speakers

Help the Aged, Brunel University, Barclays, BSkyB

Overview

This seminar, hosted by Legal & General, looked at how companies can use the telephone and internet to communicate with older customers.

Speakers/Agenda

Brunel University has Europe's leading research group into the issues around older people's web access to services. Ian Blackman, Department of Information Systems and Computing, showed how to apply the research coming out of Brunel and how to ensure that the business and technical group share a common objective.

Royd Whittington, Technical Architect at Barclays, discussed telephone banking and the older customer. His presentation covered the company's techniques for ensuring inclusion and accessibility, and concluded with a look at the future of telephone banking.

Louise Parkes, Head of Corporate at Help the Aged, spoke about the impact of an ageing society on a technologically advancing market place. She focused on demographic trends and market segmentation, drawing on issues raised by older people with Help the Aged in terms of telephone and internet access to companies.

Carmel Giblin, Corporate Responsibility and Accessibility at BSkyB, was the seminar's keynote speaker. She discussed how BSkyB ensure that their products and services are inclusive and accessible to consumers aged 50+, covering the company's communication principles for older customers, its accessibility customer care team, and issues like the digital switchover.

The presentations were followed by a lively round-table discussion focusing on issues and possible solutions for telephone and web access, how to best implement an overall strategy to contact the older consumer, ensuring delivery of the best possible service and maximising the potential of this ever-increasing market sector.