Organisations across the world are grappling with how to best use social media for customer service. In an era where consumers are increasingly using networks such as Facebook and Twitter to share their experiences, good and bad, how should companies respond? Who should handle enquiries? How can processes be changed to ensure that enquiries are dealt with quickly to keep customers happy, while sti...
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...
The Christmas shopping season was bruising for some retailers, with high street names such as Hawkins’ Bazaar, La Senza and Black’s Leisure all plunging into bankruptcy. Overall sales were up by just 2.2% on December 2010 according to the British Retail Consortium, while e-commerce continued its rise, with online sales up by 30% compared to the previous year.One of the key trends highl...
We’ve talked a lot in the past about the emerging importance of social media to customer service and how companies across all industries need to incorporate networks such as Facebook and Twitterinto their strategy. Businesses must understand the opportunities and threats that social media brings to customer service and then put in place the systems to listen and act on what their custom...
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...
The growth of social media over the past few years has been phenomenal, providing completely new ways of communicating for both consumers and brands. By giving everyone a voice it opens up a fresh customer service channel that companies need to embrace.Whether you like it or not consumers will be talking about your company and its products –and you need to join the conversation. So how are t...
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a technology that has been around for a considerable amount of time. Because of its complexity it has often proved difficult to get right – Gartner estimate that fewer than 10 per cent of organisations have optimised the management of their customer relationships.The bad news for companies struggling with CRMis that the rocketing adoption of social m...