As we approach the end of 2012 we’re firmly into the awards season as the customer service industry highlights good practice across the sector. As part of this Eptica customer the NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA) has already been honoured at both the CCA and North East Contact Centre Association Awards.Amidst all the good news, there is inevitably a spotlight on those that are not p...
Today, the customer really is king. The combination of ever increasing competition and greater customer expectation mean you need to deliver higher and higher levels of service, whatever sector you operate in.And, to be fair, most organisations understand the importance of customer service but many are failing to deliver what consumers actually want. This could be down to a lack of budget, not lis...
It is fair to say that the rise of social media worries many organisations. It provides a very public way for customers to communicate with you and to complain. And unlike traditional channels such as email and phone, what customers say (and how you respond) is visible to the entire world. This, and the widespread belief that social media is solely used for negative comments mean some companies ha...
Eptica today announced that it has acquired multilingual semantic search engine and sentiment analysis software developer Lingway. The addition of Lingway’s advanced search technology will further strengthen Eptica’s multichannel customer service suite, improving the experience for consumers. Following on from its successful fund raising round earlier in 2012, the new acquisition demon...
There are lots of ways of measuring the customer experience, from First Contact Resolution rates to Net Promoter Scores. While these deliver useful data, companies also need to step into their customers’ shoes and see for themselves how good service is. Visit your own website and ask the same basic questions that customers do – is it easy to find the right information and do your onlin...
The devastation brought by Superstorm Sandy to the North East United States has impacted huge numbers of people. As well as loss of life, millions have been without power and hundreds of thousands more have had to evacuate their homes and abandon their possessions. And as previous natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, have shown, cleaning up the aftermath and getting life back to norm...
Solving customer problems and delivering the highest levels of service is seen as central to successful businesses. But a recent musing from DeWitt Clinton of Google raised the question – does service scale when you have billions of users across the globe?Clinton posted this thought: “If you have a billion users, and a mere 0.1% of them have an issue that requires support on a gi...
This week’s Eptica Multichannel Customer Experience Conference brought together leading businesses and industry experts to help share best practice when it comes to multichannel customer service.As well as insightful presentations from Domestic & General, Thomson Holidays and the Customer Contact Association, delegates heard from Paul Barnes, Eptica’s UK managing director on the tr...
The maze of different tariffs and deals offered by utility companies has long been criticised for confusing consumers and making it difficult for them to find the best deal for their particular needs. Two new announcements, from the Prime Minister David Cameron and industry regulator Ofgem aim to make it simpler – and in doing so increase the importance of customer service in the sector.&nbs...
A recent check of retail UK websites found that more than a third could be breaking the law. The research, by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) uncovered issues at 62 of 156 sites, ranging from unlawful restrictions on refunds, failure to notify buyers about additional charges such as for delivery and not providing email contact details.Following the survey, the OFT has asked sites to change t...