This week’s Eptica Multichannel Customer Experience Conference brought together leading businesses and industry experts to help share best practice when it comes to multichannel customer service.As well as insightful presentations from Domestic & General, Thomson Holidays and the Customer Contact Association, delegates heard from Paul Barnes, Eptica’s UK managing director on the tr...
The maze of different tariffs and deals offered by utility companies has long been criticised for confusing consumers and making it difficult for them to find the best deal for their particular needs. Two new announcements, from the Prime Minister David Cameron and industry regulator Ofgem aim to make it simpler – and in doing so increase the importance of customer service in the sector.&nbs...
A recent check of retail UK websites found that more than a third could be breaking the law. The research, by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) uncovered issues at 62 of 156 sites, ranging from unlawful restrictions on refunds, failure to notify buyers about additional charges such as for delivery and not providing email contact details.Following the survey, the OFT has asked sites to change t...
Happy customers are at the heart of successful businesses. While this sounds obvious, in today’s fast moving, multichannel world keeping customers satisfied – and winning new ones - is much more of a challenge than ever before.Companies need to look at their overall strategy and ensure that the processes and technology within their organisations are allowing customer service teams to d...
Our last post talked about the strains facing companies as consumers demand faster and faster responses to their queries. However it isn’t just speed that customers value – they want to be able to get an answer through whatever channel they choose, whether online or offline. And if you don’t provide the right experience they’ll simply take their custom elsewhere.To help Asi...
When it comes to customer service, consumer expectations only move in one direction – upwards. The combination of excellent service from market leading companies and increasingly high standards are continually raising the bar. This means companies need to be continually investing in improving their service to delight customers and match their peers.The perfect example of these increased expe...
We’re currently part way through National Customer Service Week (1-7 October), which acts as a focus for the importance of customer service to UK businesses. Led by the Institute of Customer Service, each day during the week has a separate theme - from Bringing your Strategy to Life to Improving Processes and The Future.The sheer breadth of subjects covered and the enormous number of o...
In the current economic climate, the public sector, like all industries, needs to increase efficiency so that it can operate within tighter budgets. But what is vital is that all citizens still receive a high quality customer service that meets their specific needs.The positive news is that technology has the power to deliver this combination of efficiency and good service. As the population switc...
Paris Exposition: Eiffel Tower, Paris, France, 1900 (Photo credit: Brooklyn Museum) As the clock ticks down towards Christmas, there is still time for retailers to make final changes to their websites in time for their busiest period. Continuing economic woes around the world mean that customers are demanding the highest levels of online service – if not, they will simply click across ...
Organisations today operate in a multi-channel world. Consumers want the freedom to be able to contact them through a whole variety of channels – the web, email, phone, social media, chat and letter. And they want to be able to use different channels for different interactions – so they might ask a general question on a company website and call or email with a specific enquiry about th...