In an increasingly multichannel world it is easy for organisations to think they know how customers want to be contacted and to force them to use certain channels for reasons of convenience or cost.The problems behind this approach are highlighted in some new research from data specialist Acxiom, which compared actual consumer contact preferences with how marketers thought they’d like to be ...
Two things used to be true about the telecoms sector – prices were always falling and companies across the market had a reputation for poor customer service. The news that BT is increasing call charges by up to 5% - its second rise this year - shows that even in a competitive market such as the UK, prices are now escalating, driven by inflation.So, if phone bills are rising has there b...
The continuing bad news from the UK retail sector, with sales growth slowing and more than one in ten high street shops vacant means retailers need to focus clearly on customer service if they are to successfully compete in a challenging market.Nowhere is this competition more intense than in the fashion sector, with sales of clothing and footwear actually declining in July. However one brig...
The internet has fundamentally changed how humans operate. The fact that we can access information and services at the click of our mouse has reduced our willingness to be patient or to wait for responses. If consumers can’t immediately find the information they are looking for on your web page they are likely to surf over to the competition – so ensuring you can combat this growing im...
When you think how many personal and business emails you receive every day, the number can be daunting.But multiply that by a factor of one hundred or more and you get an insight into how many emails the average contact centre receives. The sheer ease of writing and sending emails, whether via PCs or increasingly through smartphones or tablet computers means that, for many, they have replaced lett...
Delivering consistently high levels of customer service is a constant balancing act comparing resources against demand. While it can be relatively easy to deal with a small number of customers, when your sales increase you have to be able to scale customer service to cope.This is particularly true when your product or service moves from just being used by savvy early adopters who are happy to work...
Customer service is critical to all organisations, but understanding where things are going wrong can be difficult for managers to pinpoint and fix. Being able to experience it for themselves is a perfect first step to delivering better customer service, whatever industry you are in.That’s why the recent steps taken by npower’s UK COO Kevin McCullough provide a great lesson to ev...
UK banks are currently announcing their financial results for the first six months of the year, and lower profits caused by continued economic uncertainty are seeing further job cuts across the sector.Given this backdrop, it is a good time to look at how banks rate for customer service. The last ten years has seen a move away from branch based banking to people accessing their accounts and buying ...
In current economic conditions, finding new sources of revenue is a key area of focus for organisations. Most companies realise that, now more than ever, customer service is central to protecting sales and delivering increased turnover, so have focused on this area.Delivering good service obviously prevents customer churn and attracts new sales through word of mouth and social media recommendation...
With schools having broken up, the summer holiday season is now very much upon us. And with customers now having a bewildering range of destinations and providers to choose from (yak trekking in Mongolia anyone?) and an enormous range of user generated reviews, the pressure is on travel companies to deliver the highest levels of customer service.So, it is interesting to see how travel companies fa...