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 current economic conditions, finding new sources of revenue is a key area of focus for organisations. Most companies realise that, now more than ever, customer service is central to protecting sales and delivering increased turnover, so have focused on this area.Delivering good service obviously prevents customer churn and attracts new sales through word of mouth and social media recommendation...
The advent of faster ways of connecting to the web means that it is now about much more than text. People are accessing an expanding amount of video content, as shown by the phenomenal growth of sites such as YouTube, which currently receives 3 billion hits per day and adds 48 hours of content every minute.Video consequently has huge potential for delivering customer service. If a picture is...
Businesses and individuals send and receive millions of emails every day. Yet when it comes to email customer service, companies seem to see it as a low priority in terms of speed and quality of service, either failing to answer queries or taking an age to respond.That’s what Eptica’s research into email customer service with 100 top UK companies found. The 2011 Eptica UK Multichannel ...
This week Scottish Power became the first of the big UK utilities to announce price increases, a move that its competitors are expected to follow shortly. At the same time, regulator OFGEM has criticised utilities for product and price complexity in its Retail Market Review.Both of these factors place a great emphasis on how utilities are performing when it comes to customer service – partic...
New research has found that more than three times as many Indians use social media for customer service compared to the UK and US. In the study, by analysts Ovum, nearly four in ten Indian consumers had embraced social media to raise customer service queries – in contrast, only 12 per cent of UK and US consumers have done so. Indian consumers both used it positively (to promote good se...
Understanding what your customers want is critical to company success. If you don’t offer the right products or services they will obviously head off elsewhere, hitting sales and ultimately hurting your company. But ensuring that the feedback you get is accurate and usable can be difficult. Just look at the fiasco when Coca Cola tried to change its formula – while customers liked the f...
It is an obvious thing to say, but companies need to make it as simple as possible for potential customers to buy their products or services. For example retailers with limited or confusing opening hours wouldn’t survive long nor would travel agents that didn’t give a clear price.The same is true when it comes to customer service – providing a clear, straightforward and consisten...