Engaging with customers is one of the key challenges facing businesses today. Building and maintaining strong relationships across multiple devices and channels requires a combination of reactive and proactive processes in order to meet the needs of demanding customers.Gartner has talked extensively about the Customer Engagement Center (CEC), the replacement for the Contact Centre that it believes...
Insurers in the UK are under unprecedented pressure. Margins have been slashed by the rise of the internet and price comparison sites, competition is growing, customer loyalty is at an all-time low and claim costs and regulation are both increasing.Against this backdrop,the balance of power is shifting overwhelmingly in favour of consumers. They expect more, for less – and want answers faste...
As part of its latest research into the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) market, Gartner identified the Internet of Things as the latest factor driving the increasing importance of CRM. Cheaper sensors coupled with the prevalence of Wi-Fi and broadband networks opens up new possibilities for customer engagement using previously ‘dumb’ electronics.At this year’s Mobile World...
Today, the public sector currently faces two major challenges. At a time of major pressure on budgets, the need to decrease costs and increase efficiency is paramount, whether your organisation is operating in central or local government or within the health or emergency services.Additionally, citizens and patients now want to contact the public sector through more and more digital channels. Wheth...
It can’t have escaped anyone’s notice that the 2014 FIFA World Cup kicks off in Brazil on Thursday. Whatever your interest in football, it is set to dominate the media for the next few weeks (or until England is knocked out).As with any major event, there is a corresponding effect on both businesses and consumers, particularly when it comes to the customer experience. I think the impac...
As part of a global company I see the increasing importance of the customer experience to businesses in different sectors, all around the world. However, there are also major differences when it comes to preferred local channels, specific requirements and, in some cases, technology.These differences are visible even between two mature markets such as the UK and France. Following the release of the...
Gamification – the use of game thinking and game mechanics to engage audiences and solve problems - is gaining traction across the world of business. According to Gartner by 2015, 40 percent of Global 1000 organisations will use gamification as the primary mechanism to transform business operations.So how does this work for the contact centre and how can operations benefit from the transform...
Web chat is growing rapidly in popularity with studies consistently showing that this service is highly valued by customers. For example, a 2013 survey by eConsultancy found that web chat had the highest satisfaction levels for any customer service channel, scoring 73%, compared with 61% for email and 44% for phone. Speed (79%) and efficiency (46%) were the top reasons given for its popularity. A ...
Engaging successfully with customers is central to business success today. Therefore it is not a surprise that research from Gartner shows that the market for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software grew by 13.7% globally last year, hitting $20.7 billion. Western Europe was the fastest growing region, with spending expanding by 15.2% between 2012 and 2013.Gartner highlighted three trends d...
With summer approaching (and another bank holiday imminent), getting away from it all is becoming uppermost in many people’s thoughts. And that means turning to the internet, which has radically changed the structure of the travel industry now that the majority of transactions happen online. Whether it is holidaymakers creating their own tailored trip or consumers comparing holiday companies...