Delivering the best service is often about understanding what makes your customers tick – recognising them, knowing their likes/dislikes, what channels they prefer to be contacted by, and even on a basic level whether they prefer to be addressed formally or informally.In theory the huge amount of personal information now freely available online provides companies with the chance to deliver t...
In an era where organisations are looking to reduce expenditures wherever they can, it is vital that they don’t make cuts that actually lead to increased costs – or cause valuable customers to take their business elsewhere.This is particularly true when it comes to customer service – after all it is easy to believe that cutting corners in the contact centre won’t affect how...
christmas 2007 (Photo credit: paparutzi) It seems strange to be talking about Christmas in mid-summer, but plans for the festive season are well under way at most retailers. Decisions about key products are being currently made and programmes of store refurbishments are happening now as companies seek to be ready for their busiest time of the year. Current poor economic conditions really do ...
The problems that have beset customers of NatWest, RBS and Ulster Bank over the last few days couldn’t really have come at a worse time for the banking industry. An alleged technology upgrade at RBS that went wrong meant that many of its 17 million customers couldn’t access their accounts through online banking or ATMs and stopped many payments from processing.Many people and politicia...
Customer services (Photo credit: gordon2208) On the Eptica blog we’ve regularly talked about how social media provides a megaphone for customers to talk about your brand – but despite this new research shows that companies simply aren’t listening.Our own 2012 Eptica Social Customer Service Study surveyed 2,000 consumers across the UK and France on their attitudes to using s...
Eptica has won the Social Media Customer Service category at the prestigious Asia Pacific Customer Service Consortium (APCSC) Expo International Awards. This award was in recognition of Eptica’s innovative social media customer interaction suite and its successful implementation at low cost airline AirAsia.By deploying Eptica as a centralised customer Self-service system, AirAsia is now...
A lot of people in the UK pick a bank in their teens and then stay with them for the rest of their days. They may grumble – and even seek compensation when miss-sold products such as Payment Protection Insurance (PPI), but generally changing is seen as an unnecessary hassle, particularly as what banks offer is viewed as pretty similar.However new research shows that customer patience is wear...
Organisations across the world are grappling with how to best use social media for customer service. In an era where consumers are increasingly using networks such as Facebook and Twitter to share their experiences, good and bad, how should companies respond? Who should handle enquiries? How can processes be changed to ensure that enquiries are dealt with quickly to keep customers happy, while sti...
Water is a constant topic of conversation across the UK. We complain about having either too much or too little rain and currently seem to have the worst of both worlds, with the wettest drought on record.Leaving the weather aside, utilities in the water sector are now facing tougher sanctions if they don’t deliver excellent customer service. Industry regulator Ofwat has introduced the Servi...
The technology behind better managing customer interactions is now a top 10 priority for CIOs, according to a new survey from Gartner. This rise up the rankings is being driven by a focus on improving the customer experience, particularly in the current recession, as well as the growing need to factor social media into company strategies. There’s also a major growth in the deployment of cust...