National Customer Service Week (3-9th October) is now an established fixture in the UK business calendar, providing a real focus to demonstrate the importance of customer service and its impact on the UK economy. This year is no exception, with a whole range of activities planned by both the Institute of Customer Service and individual companies, both in the UK and around the world Eptic...
The 2011 edition of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for CRM Web Customer Service (WCS) is now out, and Eptica is one of just 13 companies worldwide that are positioned in it.Competition to get into the Magic Quadrant is always fierce, and Eptica’s inclusion follows impressive sales growth of 26% in 2010 and 22% in the first half of 2011. Eptica excels for its:Self-learning knowledgebas...
News that Rochdale Council is proposing to cut £10 million of the services it provides, including a £3.1 million reduction in what it spends on customer service demonstrate the pressures that public sector are under. The council is looking to save £64 million by 2015, forcing it to make tough and often unpopular choices. Rochdale is not alone, as councils up and down the UK look ...
Customer service at the UK’s water companies is improving dramatically, according to new figures released by the Consumer Council for Water. Consumer complaints in 2010-11 fell by 4.5%, part of a trend which has seen a reduction of a third over the last three years. Overall there were 185,140 complaints to companies in England and Wales, compared to 193,824 in the previous 12 months.While th...
A new mystery shopper study from eDigital Research points to increasing levels of customer satisfaction with online shopping. The research, conducted in August, compared the customer journey on 51 UK retail websites, ranking them on a number of criteria. Overall the results showed that customers were happier than they have ever been, due to investment in website improvements (particularly search) ...
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...
In an increasingly multichannel world it is easy for organisations to think they know how customers want to be contacted and to force them to use certain channels for reasons of convenience or cost.The problems behind this approach are highlighted in some new research from data specialist Acxiom, which compared actual consumer contact preferences with how marketers thought they’d like to be ...
Senior management have often been accused of being ambivalent about customer service, committing in public to delivering an excellent experience to consumers, but then either cutting the customer service budget or failing to provide the board level support needed to excel.New research from the Economist Intelligence Unit seems to point to a change, with managers waking up to the bottom line impact...
Two things used to be true about the telecoms sector – prices were always falling and companies across the market had a reputation for poor customer service. The news that BT is increasing call charges by up to 5% - its second rise this year - shows that even in a competitive market such as the UK, prices are now escalating, driven by inflation.So, if phone bills are rising has there b...
In a recession companies look to cut costs wherever they can – and unfortunately customer service is often a target. After all, if there are fewer customers to service then surely you don’t need to invest as much in looking after them?The folly of this attitude is shown by some recent international research from American Express, neatly summarised in this infographic on the Get Satisfa...