The supermarket sector is one of the most competitive sectors in the UK. A combination of new entrants, aggressive price cutting and changing shopping habits is affecting all food and drink retailers, from the largest to the smallest. As well as moving to discounters, consumers are increasingly looking for convenience alongside price, choice and quality by choosing to shop...
This week’s launch of the Apple iPhone 6S, iPad Pro and new Apple TV has focused attention on the consumer electronics market, and shows the importance of technology and gadgets to all our lives. The upcoming Christmas season is bound to see billions spent on the latest products, including smartphones, tablets and Ultra HD TVs.
The rise of the millennial generation (those born between the 1980s and 2000) is being felt around the world. As the spending power of millennials (also known as Generation Y) grows, companies are having to evolve in order to meet their particular needs. This is particularly true in Asia Pacific – by 2020 the region will be home to 60% of the world’s millennial population...
Twenty years ago, the majority of banking was carried out face-to-face through an extensive branch network and most consumers remained with the same bank for much of their lives.Three factors have dramatically changed this. Firstly, new channels such as the internet have transformed how consumers interact with their banks, while increasing the range of services that they can carry out themsel...
Consumers in Asia Pacific are becoming more and more demanding. They want to receive a superior customer experience, personalized to their needs, on their channel of choice, with their questions answered quickly and consistently. If they don’t get what they are looking for, they are not afraid to change supplier, while sharing their opinions on social media. How can companies operating in...
The growth in online channels has dramatically changed how customers interact with brands in every sector. They now demand a better experience, across more and more channels, and are far less loyal to companies that fail to deliver what they want. As digital natives, they are empowered by the information they find online and use the internet and social media as their primary means...
Despite the rise of digital channels and the growth of multichannel customer service, the telephone remains vital for businesses and consumers. In fact, while customers are certainly increasing their use of online self-service resources, web chat and social, research from Forrester indicates that 73% still use the phone for customer service. However, one of the biggest issues...
Employees are at the frontline of delivering the right experience to customers. No matter how strong your processes are, customer service comes down to the people who provide it. Staff who fail to show empathy or, even worse, are rude or sound bored risk damaging your brand and hitting customer loyalty. In comparison, agents who go the extra mile, being helpful...
Earlier this year Eptica released the 2015 UK Multichannel Customer Experience Study. Covering 10 sectors, it researched the strength of the customer experience delivered by 100 leading brands across the web, email, Twitter and chat channels. Some of the key findings were that:On average UK companies could answer less than half (48%) of all questions as...
The amount of time – and range of activities – that consumers carry out online continues to grow. It is now the first port of call for everything from shopping and banking, to researching and buying insurance policies, switching telecoms supplier or booking a holiday. No wonder that in 2014 UK ecommerce sales broke the £100 billion barrier for the first time, making up ...