In an era where social media, self-service and chat are being increasingly used for customer service, it is easy for organisations to overlook email or to not provide the channel with sufficient resources. Yet new research from analysts Contact Babel in The 2015 UK Contact Centre Decision-Maker’s Guide emphasise its importance while evaluating cost and time taken to answer...
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...
When customer service first rose to prominence within organisations it was straightforward to define. It was a physical department, normally including a call centre, that dealt with all incoming customer communications (mainly via telephone and letter), and provided help and support. As the number of channels used by customers began to expand, the web, email...
Many studies show that people are much more emotional and less rational than we like to think. Research by Nobel prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman, indicates that we have an intuitive, emotional side and a rational side when we are making decisions – and the rational side is less influential. Similarly, Steve Peters, a high profile sports psychiatrist and author...
Communications technology is now central to everyone’s lives. Whereas twenty years ago most people just had a fixed telephone line, today consumers rely on a combination of mobile phones, broadband, and wireless data, to communicate with the world, work remotely and stay in touch with loved ones. As the importance of telecoms has grown, so has the significance of the customer service...
Fast access to the right information, in the right form, is an essential part of delivering excellent customer service. Whether it is through self-service systems on the web, or providing agents on the phone, email, social media or chat channels with consistent and accurate information, knowledge is the cornerstone of a successful customer experience.A company’s knowledge base...
Last week Google updated its search algorithm, rewarding mobile-friendly sites with higher rankings in search results. This is a further demonstration that we’re reaching a tipping point when it comes to how consumers interact with brands digitally. In fact, eMarketer estimates that this year UK adults will spend more time every day (2 hours 26 minutes) with their mobile devices, s...
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...
Back office activities may be unglamorous, but they are vital. Whether ensuring that customers receive the right paperwork, taking payments, making amendments to accounts or organising the dispatch of products, failures lead to frustrated and angry customers, and additional strain on the contact centre.From a customer point of view, requests to the back office appear simple and straightforward. Ex...