It is fair to say that social media took many organisations by surprise. Suddenly their customers wanted to communicate and engage with them through the likes of Facebook and Twitter, as well as via more traditional channels. The social media journey has therefore seen companies go through a series of stages. Initially (often unofficially) individuals took on the role of being the company rep...
How will consumers interact with brands in the near future? What channels will they use and what sort of experience are they looking for? A new report, ‘The coming era of on-demand marketing’, from consultants McKinsey aims to shed light on these questions and to help companies prepare themselves for this changing world.Essentially McKinsey believes that emerging technologies will mean...
Insurers today are facing growing challenges. The rise of the internet, greater competition, diminished customer loyalty and increased claim costs all require a radical shift in approach if insurers are to survive. It is no exaggeration to compare the sector to retail – where the damage caused by changing consumer behaviour has decimated traditional high street players.Efficiently delivering...
Eptica has been named in Gartner’s February 2013 Magic Quadrant for CRM Web Customer Service (WCS) Applications, marking the third consecutive year that the company has been included in the Magic Quadrant which contains just 13 companies worldwide.This continued inclusion follows a year of accelerating growth for Eptica. In 2012 the company raised £5.7m in a new funding round from new ...
First Contact Resolution is a key metric for customer service teams. After all if you can satisfactorily deal with an incoming query or complaint quickly, without needing to follow up then it benefits everyone. The customer is happy as they have their answer and don’t need to escalate their query while the contact centre can close the file without needing to call back, delivering an efficien...
With 2012 now firmly upon us, what will it bring for customer service? The combination of the ongoing recession, increased reliance on the internet and the continuing growth of social media are the three major challenges that customer service needs to address.Here are Eptica’s views on how these trends will impact customer service in the year ahead:The recession Clearly there is no immediate...
National Customer Service Week (3-9th October) is now an established fixture in the UK business calendar, providing a real focus to demonstrate the importance of customer service and its impact on the UK economy. This year is no exception, with a whole range of activities planned by both the Institute of Customer Service and individual companies, both in the UK and around the world Eptic...
The 2011 edition of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for CRM Web Customer Service (WCS) is now out, and Eptica is one of just 13 companies worldwide that are positioned in it.Competition to get into the Magic Quadrant is always fierce, and Eptica’s inclusion follows impressive sales growth of 26% in 2010 and 22% in the first half of 2011. Eptica excels for its:Self-learning knowledgebas...
Customer service at the UK’s water companies is improving dramatically, according to new figures released by the Consumer Council for Water. Consumer complaints in 2010-11 fell by 4.5%, part of a trend which has seen a reduction of a third over the last three years. Overall there were 185,140 complaints to companies in England and Wales, compared to 193,824 in the previous 12 months.While th...
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 ...