The technology behind better managing customer interactions is now a top 10 priority for CIOs, according to a new survey from Gartner. This rise up the rankings is being driven by a focus on improving the customer experience, particularly in the current recession, as well as the growing need to factor social media into company strategies. There’s also a major growth in the deployment of cust...
Competition in retail has never been harder – and the pace of change is ever accelerating. Just as traditional bricks and mortar shops have evolved to have a web presence, they are now faced with the challenge of integrating other new channels, such as social commerce and mobile into their strategies.While social commerce is still in its infancy, customers are increasingly looking to interac...
In a difficult economic climate, raising new investment is notoriously hard, even for successful companies. So the news that Eptica has raised £5.7 million in a new funding round is a strong endorsement of the market need for our solutions and ability to grow. The funding comes from new shareholder Auriga Partners, alongside existing investor Omnes Capital (formerly Crédit Agricole Private ...
Whatever sector you are in successfully managing customer service across multiple channels is a key differentiator in today’s competitive business environment. Customers want the ability to contact you – and get answers to their questions – whether they are using the web, email, phone or social media. And they want these answers to be delivered quickly or they will simply go else...
In the past the UK utility industry has had a poor reputation for customer service. This has led to tough action from regulator Ofgem, for example fining npower £2 million and British Gas £2.5m for mishandling customer complaints in 2011.This week the government launched a new raft of planned measures that will tighten protection for consumers even further. These include direct compens...
Online retail is becoming ever more competitive, meaning that for retailers the experience and service they provide for their customers is crucial to winning and retaining business.So new research from Experian should act as a wake-up call to ecommerce companies. It found that an estimated £1.02bn of online shopping transactions were abandoned by UK consumers in 2011, with 20% giving up on t...
Whatever industry you are in, customer service revolves around providing fast, accurate answers to customer queries. However ensuring that your agents have the up to date information needed to deliver these answers can be difficult, as it is scattered across multiple IT systems, stored in physical folders or even kept in agents’ heads. The key to delivering excellent customer...
From the BBC iPlayer to YouTube, video is one of the fastest growing ways for consumers to access content on the web. Faster broadband connection speeds and wifi on mobiles make video simple and quick to view wherever we may be.Part of the reason for the growth of video is the power it has to get a message across in a highly visual, simple to understand manner. This makes it perfect for customer s...
The current recession is claiming more victims amongst hard-pressed retailers, with Game the latest company to file for administration. And new figures show that it is not just bricks and mortar retailers that are suffering, as UK ecommerce growth is also slowing. While UK shoppers spent £5.4 billion online in February 2012, this was the weakest growth since January 2010, with sales only cli...
On the Eptica blog we’ve extensively covered the impact of social media on customer service and the real time opportunity that it provides for consumers to complain (or even praise) your company. There’s now even a social media network dedicated solely to handling customer complaints. Called Gripevine, it promises to connect dissatisfied customers directly with companies, allowing...