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...
With 2012 now firmly upon us, what will it bring for customer service? The combination of the ongoing recession, increased reliance on the internet and the continuing growth of social media are the three major challenges that customer service needs to address.Here are Eptica’s views on how these trends will impact customer service in the year ahead:The recession Clearly there is no immediate...
Most organisations today have a multi-channel strategy, allowing customers to contact them by email, phone, the web, branch and increasingly social media. Ensuring that you can respond to them via the channel of their choice is a key part of delivering high levels of customer service. After all, if you begin a conversation on email you don’t want to be forced to call the contact centre ...
Telecoms companies have historically had a poor reputation for customer service, something that our own research unfortunately verifies. Previously with little difference between service levels amongst telcos, customers didn’t have much choice, so there was little incentive to invest.However this is changing as new entrants and technologies disrupt the traditional telecoms market. On the bac...
Last week’s IT problems at HSBC demonstrate how quickly a customer service issue can develop in the age of social media. On Friday afternoon the bank suffered an IT outage on its mainframe which affected online banking, ATM and some customers using debit cards in stores. While the problems lasted just over 2 hours, Friday afternoons are amongst the busiest time for banks, with HSBC’s 1...
The increasing use of mobile phones for a wide range of activities beyond voice calls is being extensively written about at the moment. A report from the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) and Cap Gemini, for example, has found that the proportion of mobile based online shopping in the UK has jumped by more than 800 per cent over the past year. Over the same period in the US the mobile ...
Figures just released by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) show that the number of complaints made by consumers increased by 24% in the third quarter. 31,386 complaints were made to the FOS, which deals with issues escalated by consumers beyond their financial services provider, between July and September 2011.Commentators have highlighted factors such as the worsening economic situation for t...
Eptica’s International Customer Service Summit highlighted customer service excellence through the second annual Eptica Customer Service Innovation awards. Dixons, AirAsia and Ageas were amongst the companies to receive awards for service transformation based around Eptica’s multichannel customer interaction management software. Winners achieved outstanding results in the ca...
Last Friday’s Eptica International Customer Service Summit in Paris provided a perfect opportunity for 200+ Eptica customers, partners and staff to review current and future developments in the customer service market. As part of his presentation, Paul Barnes, managing director of Eptica UK Ltd, outlined ten key trends that the company sees driving the market in the near future. Th...
The internet has been buzzing this week about a major customer service failure by Australian fashion retailer Gasp. The story started when bride-to-be Keira O’Neill visited the Gasp store in Melbourne. After trying on a wedding dress and resisting the hard sell of the shop assistant he was apparently rude to her and her friends. Unsurprisingly Keira complained, politely, by email to the...