Many organizations are embracing digital transformation, making investments to enhance the customer experience they deliver on these digital channels, such as email, chat, the web and social media. However, new research from Accenture Strategy underlines the importance of offering a full range of channels to meet all consumer needs.
It may seem like a long time in the future for consumers, but as every retailer knows Christmas is coming – fast. Now is the period for finalizing plans and ensuring that the vital holiday season goes as well as possible. Customer service and the experience you offer consumers is a critical part of this, so what should companies be doing NOW to ready themselves?
Recent research highlighted by customer service guru Shep Hyken demonstrates the importance of delivering an experience that meets the needs of your customers. It found that businesses in the US are losing $62 billion every year, due to people switching following poor customer service. Just under half of customers (49%) said they switched after a bad experience....
People use a whole range of different words to refer to your products – many will differ from those words that your organization uses internally. For example, research found that there are 57 names for the humble TV remote control, including the flipper, the changer and even the doofangle. This wide range of language can create problems for customer service...
Today’s consumers want the freedom and flexibility to make contact using whichever channel they choose – and get a fast, helpful response to their query. They also want to be able to seamlessly move channels during the course of a conversation, without having to repeat themselves...
Companies understand that meeting customer needs is central to business success. But it can be more difficult to find out what consumers value most when it comes to the overall experience – and what drives them to switch to rivals. New research from the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) therefore provides some vital insight - read on to find out more...
Customer experience (CX) is moving rapidly towards the top of the CEO agenda as businesses realize its importance to the bottom line. This move is being driven by a change in the relationship between customers and companies – with increased competition, digital disruption and the rise of social media, the balance of power has shifted towards the consumer.....
While it is widely considered a mature channel, email is becoming more, not less important when it comes to customer service. Consumers value its ease of use and full audit trail, while the rise of mobile makes it even faster and simpler to contact companies using email. Expectations are high – customers demand fast, high quality responses that answer their questions. This puts a strain on...
Forrester has just published its 2016 US Customer Experience Index, providing an update on the state of CX across multiple sectors. Based on consumer research into how customer experience strengthens loyalty, it shows both individual company scores and how the wider economy is performing. Looking through the research, I can see four key trends for CX and customer service professionals...
Over the past month I’ve focused on the importance of knowledge management within customer service, looking at the challenges that need to be overcome, and the skills that a knowledge manager needs to succeed.In this post I’m going to look at the end result – the benefits that leading organizations have achieved by centralizing knowledge and making it available to their agents...