Companies now have access to huge amounts of data on their customers. Particularly online, they can see the entire customer journey, purchase history and the channels used across every transaction. The vast majority of companies also collect customer feedback, which should provide the perfect opportunity to fine tune products and service in order to help the customer experience.But at the mo...
The internet has transformed the travel sector, as holidaymakers can now book the separate components of their break online, rather than having to go through high street travel agencies. But in such a competitive market, customer service and fast responses to consumer enquiries across multiple channels are vital if travel companies are going to thrive.However research carried out as part of the Ep...
We’re now less than six months from Christmas, and the majority of retailers are well-advanced in planning how they will handle their busiest time. And with economic conditions little better than in 2012, competition is expected to be intense as shoppers demand more for their money.So what do retailers need to focus on to ensure that Christmas 2013 is a happy one?New research by L2 into spec...
Channels, such as email and social media, have increased the pressure on organisations to deliver a fast, accurate response. Whereas consumers would have happily waited at least for a week for a reply to a letter, expectations for email are that queries will be answered with 48 hours (although our own Eptica Multichannel Customer Service Study found that many companies are much slower than this.)S...
Delivering the best customer experience has never been more critical to business success. And it has never been more complex. The growth in the number of channels involved, increasing customer impatience, greater competition and a need to be able to scale are amongst the factors that organisations have to take into account when designing the best experience for their customers.Much of the customer...
Navigating phone menus when you call a contact centre is a source of much frustration for consumers. Done well, the concept of phone menus should help improve the customer experience. You’ll be directed to the best agent to deal with your enquiry and they will be able to use the information you’ve typed in to give a head start on solving your problem, without needing to transfer you ar...
In an ever more competitive economic environment, businesses in every sector are looking for ways to increase sales and unlock additional revenues. There are many ways to do this, including raising the spend of existing customers, upselling, avoiding abandoned online shopping carts and delivering a superior experience to avoid customer defections.With its combination of real time response, and per...
How will consumers interact with brands in the near future? What channels will they use and what sort of experience are they looking for? A new report, ‘The coming era of on-demand marketing’, from consultants McKinsey aims to shed light on these questions and to help companies prepare themselves for this changing world.Essentially McKinsey believes that emerging technologies will mean...
Insurers have traditionally been slower than other industries when it comes to establishing themselves on social media. Worries about breaking regulations mean that they have been wary about launching onto Twitter and Facebook. Backing this up, own 2012 Eptica Multichannel Customer Experience Study found that just one insurer out of the UK’s top 10 had clear links displayed to Twitter and Fa...
This month we’re celebrating two years of publishing the Eptica Customer Experience blog, which began back in April 2011.From the start the aim has been to provide updates and opinions on the customer service market, highlight best practice and show how customer needs are changing. And the market has definitely been transformed. We’ve moved from multichannel to omnichannel and new (at ...