Surveys show that the current recession is increasing debt amongst Britons. Research shows that nearly half (46%) of the population have some sort of non-mortgage debt or arrears, with those aged between 25-34 struggling most with their finances.Against this backdrop what is interesting is that more and more people want to be able to manage their debts, and repay money online or via mobile devices...
Delivering excellent customer service is a central part of business today, whatever industry you are in. While sectors such as retail may be very visible when it comes to customer service initiatives, improving service can deliver huge benefits in other, more traditional, sectors such as insurance.The perfect example of this is Ageas Insurance Solutions (AIS), one of the UK’s leading persona...
The Virgin brand is known for doing things differently and for putting the customer first, whichever market it is operating in. So last week’s news that the UK government has sold Northern Rock to Virgin Money could potentially have a big impact on the banking market.Northern Rock will be rebranded as Virgin Money, with the company pledging to increase the number of branches it has and to ad...
Last week’s IT problems at HSBC demonstrate how quickly a customer service issue can develop in the age of social media. On Friday afternoon the bank suffered an IT outage on its mainframe which affected online banking, ATM and some customers using debit cards in stores. While the problems lasted just over 2 hours, Friday afternoons are amongst the busiest time for banks, with HSBC’s 1...
Figures just released by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) show that the number of complaints made by consumers increased by 24% in the third quarter. 31,386 complaints were made to the FOS, which deals with issues escalated by consumers beyond their financial services provider, between July and September 2011.Commentators have highlighted factors such as the worsening economic situation for t...
Eptica’s International Customer Service Summit highlighted customer service excellence through the second annual Eptica Customer Service Innovation awards. Dixons, AirAsia and Ageas were amongst the companies to receive awards for service transformation based around Eptica’s multichannel customer interaction management software. Winners achieved outstanding results in the ca...
This week the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) released its long-awaited report on reforming the banking system. It has two main aims - firstly to protect us all from potential future financial crises by splitting bank’s retail and investment arms but importantly to increase competition within the UK banking sector.In fact the report states that it wants a market where “ba...
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 ...
Last week Apple announced record quarterly results, with revenues of nearly $30 billion. The figures include sales of 9.2 million iPads, triple the number sold a year ago. Apple also revealed that 47% of Global Fortune 500 companies were testing the tablet ahead of potential adoption.Clearly, the iPad in particular and tablet computers in general are here to stay. So what does this mean for custom...
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...