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...
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 ...
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...
The growth of social media over the past few years has been phenomenal, providing completely new ways of communicating for both consumers and brands. By giving everyone a voice it opens up a fresh customer service channel that companies need to embrace.Whether you like it or not consumers will be talking about your company and its products –and you need to join the conversation. So how are t...
When it comes to delivering excellent customer service any organisation that deals with the public can cut response times and improve performance if they invest in the right technology.A great example of this is Eptica customer, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA). The world’s oldest and largest animal welfare charity is using Eptica’s leading web custome...
Last weekend the British arm of banking giant Santander became the latest company to announce plans to return its international contact centres to the UK. The aim is to improve customer service, after previous poor performance was highlighted by the industry ombudsman.This is obviously good news for the 500 new UK staff taken on to handle the estimated 1.5 million calls that will now be &lsq...
The Institute of Customer Service (ICS) has just published its latest UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI). Every six months the ICS surveys 26,000 UK adults and asks them questions about their experiences with UK organisations across all channels.Given Eptica recently completed its own research into online customer service it is fascinating to compare the two surveys. Here are the finding...
It is widely acknowledged that the UK is the largest online market in Europe – hitting £44 billion in 2010, and expected to reach £51 billion this year. However other countries are growing as fast, if not faster, with the entire European population turning to email and web channels. Forty per cent of EU consumers bought goods and services over the Internet in 2010, with sal...
Failing to answer customer service queries has an obvious impact on an organisation – customers and prospects get upset and vote with their wallets, leading to a loss of sales and a dent to the brand. Nowadays more and more consumers also broadcast their concerns on social media, generating further impact on company reputation.What is less well-explored is the other consequence of customer s...