The original aim of customer service was relatively transactional – a consumer made a query, an answer was provided by the company, the customer was satisfied and the interaction was completed. However, in today’s competitive markets this is no longer enough to win and retain customer loyalty....
There are multiple factors that feed into the customer experience. At a basic level companies need to deliver the information that consumers want, as quickly, accurately and consistently as possible. However, to drive loyalty you need to go beyond that, as Forrester Research, points out in a new report...
The rise of the smartphone has transformed how people interact with each other, brands and the world around them. Rather than being tied to a PC or landline phone, smartphones empower users by putting a computer in their pocket. Last Christmas Amazon reported that 70% of its customers shopped through a mobile device, for example.
Providing customer service through social media has multiple advantages for both consumers and companies. Customers want the convenience and simplicity of being able to contact companies through Twitter and Facebook, without needing to call or email a business. Done well, social customer service also benefits brands.
Good customer service leads to happier, more loyal customers who stay with you longer, spend more and are more likely to recommend your business to family and friends. However, it can be difficult to measure the exact impact of individual customer service interactions on these metrics, leading to the contact center being seen as a cost, rather than a department that boosts the bottom line.
Earlier this month, we published the 2016 Eptica Insurance Multichannel Customer Experience Study, which evaluated how insurers in the US, across ten sectors are meeting the challenge of new digital channels for customer service. To do this, we researched their ability to answer routine questions on five digital channels....
One of the most talked about current trends in customer experience is the rise of chatbots, with many companies investigating using them to interact with customers on messaging apps. Is it really time for your company to embrace them?
While it is widely considered a mature channel, email is becoming more, not less important when it comes to customer service. Consumers value its ease of use and full audit trail, while the rise of mobile makes it even faster and simpler to contact companies using email. Expectations are high – customers demand fast, high quality responses that answer their questions. This puts a strain on...
Over the past month I’ve focused on the importance of knowledge management within customer service, looking at the challenges that need to be overcome, and the skills that a knowledge manager needs to succeed.In this post I’m going to look at the end result – the benefits that leading organizations have achieved by centralizing knowledge and making it available to their agents...
Imagine having a conversation in a pitch black room. You can’t see the person you are talking to and their tone of voice shows no emotion at all. You can’t tell if they are happy, angry or sad, or even why they are talking to you. You might as well be talking to a robot. Building empathy – or even understanding them clearly – is almost impossible.Sound far-fetched? For most...