web self-service

Making telephone service more efficient as UK Government cuts off costly calls

Published on: May 02, 2014
Author: Lloyd Buxton - Business Development

Despite the rise of new channels, most organisations understand that the telephone is still vital for customer service. Whether it is to discuss details of an order or to get to the bottom of a query, it is still the number one channel of choice for many consumers.However, telephone service is expensive – and it could be about to get even more costly in the UK. From 13 June 2014, companies w...

Smiles and Systems – why good customer experience needs both

Published on: April 04, 2014
Author: Pauline Ashenden - Demand Generation Manager

Organisations can find it difficult to deliver a consistently good customer experience across every channel and every interaction. Customer expectations are constantly rising, and the growth in enquiries, often through unstructured digital channels, increases the pressure on businesses to perform, time after time.A good starting point for meeting these needs is to break the customer experience dow...

Is there anyone delivering an excellent customer experience?

Published on: April 02, 2014
Author: Lloyd Buxton - Business Development

Everyone understands the importance of the customer experience to increasing loyalty and attracting new business, but how do UK brands fare in practice? Not that well, according to the first Forrester UK Customer Experience Index (CXi). Most of the 2,000 UK consumers it researched rated their experiences with 28 leading brands between ‘very poor’ and ‘OK’ – and no bra...

Hastings Direct enhances customer service with centralised knowledge

Published on: December 05, 2013
Author: Eptica

As companies expand, delivering the same, personal, high quality service is vital to their continued growth. Customer service teams can be spread across multiple locations and have to cover multiple brands and a greater range of products. This means that traditional methods of collecting and sharing knowledge (such as physical folders or handbooks) no longer provide fast answers to staff, leading ...

The rise of Generation Y and what it means to the customer experience

Published on: November 22, 2013
Author: Eptica

Across the world customer satisfaction is getting worse – and younger generations are saying goodbye to the phone channel. These are just two of the headline findings from Dimension Data’s 2013/14 Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report. The 16th edition of the report is based on a worldwide survey of 817 companies in 11 industries and 79 countries. It paints a bleak picture of ...

Looking into the customer service crystal ball

Published on: October 30, 2013
Author: Eptica

Attempting to predict the future provides some fascinating insights and can help planning, whatever industry you are in. This is especially true when it comes to customer service, as it often feels that we’re in the midst of constant change. Thinking further ahead gives the chance to add perspective and to make more gradual, planned steps on the road to the future.So I read with interest a r...

Delivering a global customer experience

Published on: July 12, 2013
Author: Epticablog

The web provides the opportunity for completely new business models, enabling small, lean organisations to compete against much larger players. To succeed they have to be able to deliver what customers want and be responsive to their needs. Consequently service and the customer experience are central to how they must operate.A great example of how customer service innovation is driving success is ...

Christmas is coming…………

Published on: June 28, 2013
Author: Eptica

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...

Make it mobile

Published on: June 12, 2013
Author: Epticablog

Mobile commerce is growing rapidly. Figures from performance marketing network Affiliate Window showed it made up 18.16% of its UK online sales in May 2013, increasing from 16.48% in April. That’s an enormous 572 sales per hour. Backing this up, the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index saw 2012 mobile sales triple (up 304%) from 2011. More importantly, conversion rates on mobile have doubled,...

Press 1 for………………..

Published on: May 31, 2013
Author: Epticablog

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...

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