Social media

Moving from monologue to dialogue with customers

Published on: September 10, 2014
Author: Pauline Ashenden - Demand Generation Manager

Organisations need to radically change how they interact with their customers proclaimed Jo Causon, CEO of the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) in a recent speech.  In her state of the nation address, she highlighted how the balance of power has shifted dramatically from companies to their customers. While many organisations see this swing as a threat, it can actually deliver benefits to t...

The viral impact of poor customer service

Published on: July 18, 2014
Author: Pauline Ashenden - Demand Generation Manager

Social media has radically changed the relationship between customers and companies, tilting the balance of power towards the consumer. Poor experiences can now be transmitted around the world in seconds, hurting brand reputation and potential revenues.US cable company Comcast is the latest business to find itself in the global spotlight, after a simple request from a customer to cancel his i...

How the G-Cloud helps make the public sector digital by default

Published on: June 13, 2014
Author: Pauline Ashenden - Demand Generation Manager

Today, the public sector currently faces two major challenges. At a time of major pressure on budgets, the need to decrease costs and increase efficiency is paramount, whether your organisation is operating in central or local government or within the health or emergency services.Additionally, citizens and patients now want to contact the public sector through more and more digital channels. Wheth...

Winning the customer experience World Cup

Published on: June 11, 2014
Author: Lloyd Buxton - Business Development

It can’t have escaped anyone’s notice that the 2014 FIFA World Cup kicks off in Brazil on Thursday. Whatever your interest in football, it is set to dominate the media for the next few weeks (or until England is knocked out).As with any major event, there is a corresponding effect on both businesses and consumers, particularly when it comes to the customer experience. I think the impac...

Voice, text and video – the fundamentals of all customer service channels

Published on: June 04, 2014
Author: Derek Lewis

The number of channels through which customers expect to reach you is ever-increasing. In many ways this is a positive step as it provides greater opportunity to engage with customers, solve their problems and understand their needs and motivations. However, as hard-pressed contact centre teams already know, managing the growth in channels can add to complexity and cost.‘Old’ channels ...

Creating customer advocates – why it starts with service

Published on: May 09, 2014
Author: Lloyd Buxton - Business Development

Personal recommendation is one of the most powerful sales tools in the world. People naturally listen to the experiences of their friends and family and take them on board when making similar purchases. And the rise of the internet and the potentially limitless choice it brings has made recommendation even more important. How do you choose between hundreds of similar products, when you are being c...

The 7 characteristics of the customer of 2015

Published on: April 16, 2014
Author: Pauline Ashenden - Demand Generation Manager

The one constant in customer experience is that consumer expectations are continually rising. This means that even the most respected brands and their customer service teams need to be always alert in order to innovate and respond to changing market conditions. At the heart of delivering the right customer experience is understanding what makes consumers tick, now and in the future. After all...

What are the 4 key attributes of successful customer engagement?

Published on: April 08, 2014
Author: Pauline Ashenden - Marketing Manager

In an era of increased competition and more demanding consumers, engaging with customers is critical to driving a long term, loyal relationship. Engagement moves beyond transactional, potentially cost-based, interactions to build deeper ties between a brand and its customers. This makes companies more successful in two ways. Firstly, happy, engaged customers are likely to remain loyal and potentia...

What’s the state of the UK customer experience? 8 Key Findings

Published on: March 26, 2014
Author: Olivier Njamfa - CEO & Co-Founder

In an increasingly competitive economy, delivering the best customer experience is crucial for organisations looking to win new business and retain existing customers. However it has never been more difficult. Customers are demanding more, across an increasing range of channels and are swift to punish those that don’t deliver – either via social media or by moving their business elsewh...

The changing face of financial services

Published on: March 21, 2014
Author: Lloyd Buxton - Business Development

A generation ago, financial services products were primarily sold face to face, either in branches or door to door, with documents manually filled in and posted to their destination. Customer service was dealt with through the same, physical, channels. This has changed radically, with the introduction of first the phone, then the web, and now social media, as sales and support channels. Managing t...

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