The current wintry conditions are leading to treacherous driving conditions, travel disruption and the closure of thousands of schools across the UK. It is also having a major impact on customer service. Contact centres are receiving an increased volume of calls, emails and tweets from consumers looking for information, complaining about delays and seeking help.The weather doesn’t just impac...
As we enter 2013, it is a good time for companies (as well as individuals) to take stock of where they are and come up with New Year’s Resolutions. Commentators and analysts all agree that the customer experience is a vital part of business success, so what resolutions do you need to make to achieve it for your organisation?To help Eptica has come up with three key areas where you can focus ...
In the run up to Christmas shoppers naturally expect a high level of customer service from retailers. In store they want helpful staff, sufficient stock and no queues at the checkouts. Online they want a straightforward ordering process, a clear acknowledgement of their purchase and to be kept informed about delivery progress.As we’ve already found not all retailers are managing to provide t...
The Christmas shopping season is in full swing. We’ve had Mega Monday (where online orders reached an estimated £10,000 per second), and overall Christmas ecommerce is expected to exceed £4.6 billion, despite the recession.Festive sales are vital to hard-pressed retailers. Given the overall economic picture and the importance of Christmas, those companies that fail to generate re...
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...
Eptica and NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA), have won the Most Effective Use of Self Service category at the prestigious 2012 Customer Contact Association (CCA) Excellence Awards. NHS BSA has seen training time for new agents drop by 30% and first year savings of £121,000 since its Eptica-powered self-service knowledge management technology project called Sherlock went live.Sherlock...
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...
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...
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...