Recent research from charity Citizens Advice found major differences between how UK utilities handle customer service. The top performing utility (SSE) received just 47 complaints per 100,000 customers, yet another had 944 – over 20 times more. A further four companies had over 400 complaints per 100,000, within the three months between April and June 2015.
In an era of ever-more demanding consumers, organizations need to understand and engage with customers if they are to retain their business and loyalty. Research backs up this need for empathy. An Eptica study found that 78% of consumers said they had been frustrated by responses that didn’t answer their question, while nearly a third (31%) complained that replies from companies failed to...
In previous decades an organization’s brand was something it controlled, with how it was perceived in the market driven by expensive advertising and marketing campaigns. The rise of social media and increasingly demanding customers has changed all of this. In highly competitive markets brand reputation and values are built on the experience that consumers receive and share on social media.
In the past contact centers were often viewed as a cost center, meaning that the primary goal of companies was to run them as efficiently as possible while still responding to customers competently. As companies are becoming more customer-centric, this is approach is changing. Now businesses realize that they need to use the customer experience as a differentiating factor if they want...
The supermarket sector is one of the most competitive sectors in the UK. A combination of new entrants, aggressive price cutting and changing shopping habits is affecting all food and drink retailers, from the largest to the smallest. As well as moving to discounters, consumers are increasingly looking for convenience alongside price, choice and quality by choosing to shop...
Customer service teams are currently faced with multiple challenges. Consumers are asking an increasing number of questions and are demanding faster service, across more and more channels. At the same time budgets for coping with this growing volume of interactions are often flat or even shrinking. So how can companies deliver faster service to more queries, while improving efficiency?
The spread of digital customer service channels, from email and chat to social media, can provide organizations with significant benefits. According to McKinsey, if done well it boosts customer satisfaction by 33% while reducing contact center call volume, and generating savings of 25-30%. However, the complexity of multiple digital channels and increasingly...
This week’s launch of the Apple iPhone 6S, iPad Pro and new Apple TV has focused attention on the consumer electronics market, and shows the importance of technology and gadgets to all our lives. The upcoming Christmas season is bound to see billions spent on the latest products, including smartphones, tablets and Ultra HD TVs.
The immediacy and reach of Twitter means it has become a vital channel for customer service. According to Nielsen, nearly half of US consumers use social media to ask questions and Twitter’s own analysis shows that tweets to major brands have increased 2.5 times over the past two years. That makes over 4.5 million tweets every month sent to B2C companies.Consumers value...
In competitive markets, customer service is often the most important differentiator. This is especially true if companies are selling similar products, at similar prices – and for service businesses such as utilities and financial services where there is no physical product to create a differentiation. When customer service is the main source of competitive advantage, it’s essential to...