Happy Friday! ‘This week in CX’ brings you the latest roundup of industry news.
This week, we’ve been looking at the latest research in Gen Z attitudes as employees and customers, worker flexibility on their schedules and policies, and struggles that customers are having with the service they’re currently receiving.
We’re also discussing new research into Meta’s plans for its AI model training using customer data, why retail workers are unhappy, and more.
Key news
- Rail passengers found themselves unable to access wifi networks at stations across the UK this week after operators suspended them following a cybersecurity incident. Networks in London Euston, Manchester Piccadilly and Birmingham New Street were all taken offline on Wednesday evening and they were still down on Thursday morning. Network Rail said the wifi networks are operated by a third party, and that investigations are underway. Earlier this month, Transport for London was hacked.
CXM news stories
Here’s the full news stories that CXM have reported on in the past week. Learn all about the latest research in Gen Z attitudes as employees and customers, worker flexibility on their schedules and policies, and struggles that customers are having with the service they’re currently receiving.
Meta will use UK Facebook and Instagram posts to train its AI models
Meta has announced it will use customer data to train its AI models. The company stated that it “will begin training for AI at Meta using public content shared by adults on Facebook and Instagram in the UK over the coming months.”
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has not given regulatory approval for this plan.
Meta still has its AI plans for the EU paused, as of June 2024.
To make the new plans clearer to users, Meta will send in-app notifications to explain its plan and how you can access an objection form to object to your data being used to train its generative AI models. It will also give you a longer time frame to opt out.
As part of an update to its privacy policy, it said it would use customer information to ‘provide and curate artificial intelligence technology’ in its products.
This information would include anything you post (including photos and captions) and what others post about you. It doesn’t include private messages you send on Facebook or Instagram.
Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you have the right to object to your data being used. For more information on how and where on these apps to opt out of this, check out this article from Which?.
Retail staff are among the unhappiest workers in UK
According to a new study, 85% of retail staff feel undervalued, the largest annual survey of happiness in the workplace.
Love2shop, a UK gift voucher company, conducted a censuswide poll of 2,000 employed UK adults and revealed eight in 10 working in retail feel undervalued in the workplace.
Findings showed that around 6.5 million in the UK feel underappreciated by their boss and are actively looking to leave – up 1 million from 2023.
The survey also showed that 41% of employees feel their contribution to the business is not valued and 39% said they receive poor pay. Other reasons contributing to underappreciation were feelings that loyalty was one-sided and employers never saying thank you.
Love2shop’s director of business development Frank Creighton said “Thinking about this solely as a wage issue would be a mistake. We found 29% of people feel undervalued because ‘loyalty is a one-way street’ – meaning they feel employers demand their loyalty but will axe their jobs without a second thought. A quarter of people also cited the lack of a simple ‘thank you’ as a significant problem.”