At the 2026 UK Customer Satisfaction Awards, hosted by the Institute of Customer Service, Abbott Lyon took home Best Customer Service Return on Investment. Jason Richardson, who leads Customer Experience at Abbott Lyon, collected the trophy on the night, representing a team that Abbott Lyon describes as going "above and beyond, always."
We’re delighted for Abbott Lyon, and we’re delighted that DigitalGenius was part of that journey.
More than just an award
Steve Davis, Director of Operations at Abbott Lyon, admitted on LinkedIn that he's always been a little sceptical about industry awards. But this one was different. The whole point of this category is demonstrating that investment in customer experience actually delivers measurable, tangible value to the business as well as to customers.
That's exactly what the Abbott Lyon team has spent the last couple of years proving. Better case management, clearer ownership of issues, smarter processes, and crucially, introducing automation through AI where it genuinely improves the experience rather than just cutting corners.
Steve put it best: "The two things people often assume are in tension, great customer experience and commercial efficiency, don't actually have to be. In many cases they reinforce each other."
If you simplify processes, remove friction, and invest in the right tooling, you reduce cost in the system. And that frees up time and effort to reinvest exactly where customers value it most.
Doing AI properly
When Abbott Lyon came to us, the brief wasn't "add AI to cut costs." It was to build something that genuinely worked for customers and for the business.
Jason was clear about what that meant in practice. Two things weren't up for negotiation. Their AI wouldn't pretend to be human, but it would feel human, warm, supportive, and like it actually cared about the person on the other end. And every interaction had to deliver real, painless solutions for the people reaching out, because AI that makes life easier for the company but worse for the customer just misses the point entirely.
It's a philosophy we share at DigitalGenius, and it's exactly how we approach every ecommerce brand we work with.
Meet Lucy
One of the outcomes we're most proud of is Lucy, Abbott Lyon's AI customer service assistant. Built to handle customer queries at scale without losing the human touch, Lucy now, in Jason's words, "considers herself an award-winning customer service professional, which is going to make her even more insufferable than I will be in my end of year review."
What this proves
This award is proof that AI-powered customer service, built the right way, delivers results that speak for themselves. Not just efficiency gains but genuine customer satisfaction improvements, recognised at the highest level in the UK.
For ecommerce brands wondering whether AI can coexist with great customer experience: it can. Abbott Lyon is the blueprint.
Huge congratulations to the entire Abbott Lyon Customer Service team, and to Antoine and Jason for leading with such a relentless focus on doing the right thing for their customers. This one's well deserved. 🏆
As Jason said, “I'm just really chuffed," – and with good reason! You can read more about our story together here.
Finally, a big shout out to DigitalGenius team members Edwin Thomas, Filipe Guedes, and Benji Stone for their work on this project. The team have demonstrated the value of having a true partnership between brand and supplier, rather than a traditional supplier relationship.
