New research from Ombudsman Services has found that retail is the most complained-about sector in the UK. According to the organization’s Consumer Action Monitor there were 18.5 million complaints to retailers in 2014, 28% of the UK’s total, split evenly between online and in-store transactions. Retail was far ahead of telecoms (15%) and energy (11%), when it came to attracting co...
The rise of internet and digital channels has radically changed how people research and buy insurance. It’s now extremely simple for consumers to shop around and get online quotes before renewing their policies – especially since the rise of price comparison websites.
Companies face two key challenges when it comes to delivering customer service today. First, consumer expectations are continually rising, with every organization, no matter what sector they are in, judged against the standards of the best. This means simply outshining your peers is not enough – you need to compete with every company that a consumer might interact with in order to win their ...
Customers today want to communicate with businesses on more and more channels – and the number is increasing all the time. The last few weeks have seen the launch of multiple new ways of communicating – all of which have the potential to impact customer service.Firstly, Periscope and Meerkat, two new live streaming services have been introduced. Sitting on top of Twitter, these apps al...
In today’s ultra-competitive markets, successful businesses understand that customer service is everyone’s job. Whether you are the CEO, staff the contact center, are a delivery driver or work in a store, you contribute to how consumers view your company. Brand reputation can be destroyed by factors as diverse as a security breach, poor public relations or even an ill-judged tweet by a...
Eptica recently released the 2015 Multichannel Customer Experience Study, looking at the state of customer service provided by leading UK brands across the web, email, Twitter and chat channels. We’ve already discussed the topline findings of the Study in a previous blog, and this week I’d like to focus on the email channel, and how this has changed over time.Despit...
Over the past four years Eptica has been benchmarking the UK customer experience by evaluating 100 leading brands on their ability to provide answers to routine questions via the web, email, Twitter and web chat.
We live in a multichannel world, where customers are demanding answers to their questions through an ever-increasing range of channels. It is therefore vital that brands are able to deliver the right experience, through the consumer’s channel of choice, if they want to retain customers, deepen relationships and build a strong, well-respected brand.At the same time, organizations have to ensu...
Social media has radically changed the relationship between brands and consumers. Today customers increasingly expect companies to quickly answer questions and queries via social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. Additionally, they are accustomed to leaving feedback through reviews sites such as TripAdvisor and Yelp. In fact, a J.D. Power study found that two thirds of customers who contacted...
If you ask consumers to list their main issues with poor customer service then receiving inaccurate, incomplete or plain wrong answers are normally at or near the top. Whatever channel they contact you through; consumers want a response that shows you understand their query and an answer that solves their problem. However, contacting a company can often resemble a lucky dip, with consumers re...