Next year’s London Olympics will put the UK in the spotlight. Millions of visitors are expected to come to the country, providing a much needed boost to the economy. And provided they enjoy the experience many of these tourists could turn into regular visitors, coming back year after year for holidays across the country. Outside the spectacle of the games themselves, what will make the ...
The problems that have beset customers of NatWest, RBS and Ulster Bank over the last few days couldn’t really have come at a worse time for the banking industry. An alleged technology upgrade at RBS that went wrong meant that many of its 17 million customers couldn’t access their accounts through online banking or ATMs and stopped many payments from processing.Many people and politicia...
Customers increasingly want to interact with companies through social media. Whether that’s getting their issues sorted quickly, asking basic questions or sharing their experiences of good or bad service/products, for many social media is now the channel of choice. Speed and ease of use are some of the factors driving this - our own 2012 Eptica Social Customer Service Study showed that 26% o...
christmas 2007 (Photo credit: paparutzi) It seems strange to be talking about Christmas in mid-summer, but plans for the festive season are well under way at most retailers. Decisions about key products are being currently made and programmes of store refurbishments are happening now as companies seek to be ready for their busiest time of the year. Current poor economic conditions really do ...
Delivering the best service is often about understanding what makes your customers tick – recognising them, knowing their likes/dislikes, what channels they prefer to be contacted by, and even on a basic level whether they prefer to be addressed formally or informally.In theory the huge amount of personal information now freely available online provides companies with the chance to deliver t...
Successful retailers understand that knowing your customer is a key part of delivering a tailored experience. In the offline world that can be quite straightforward – you can see the people coming into your shop, ask them questions about their needs and provide the right answers and products.Online it is more difficult – while you can look at the customer journey, it can be hard to bui...
When it comes to crisis situations social media is now the front line for customer service. Issues spread quickly on Twitter and Facebook (and company message boards) and are visible to the entire world, drawing in other people who might not even be affected by the original problem. So the risk of damage to a brand’s reputation amongst potential customers and the general public is extremely ...
In an era where organisations are looking to reduce expenditures wherever they can, it is vital that they don’t make cuts that actually lead to increased costs – or cause valuable customers to take their business elsewhere.This is particularly true when it comes to customer service – after all it is easy to believe that cutting corners in the contact centre won’t affect how...
electricity (Photo credit: Terry Freedman) The utility sector has often struggled with customer service but new figures seem to show that performance is improving. The latest quarterly statistics from Consumer Focus found that overall complaints about the six major energy companies fell by 7% in the first quarter of 2012. This meant that the average number of complaints was 77 per 100,000 cu...
For those of us that work in customer service, the need to invest in the skills, technology and processes to deliver a superior customer experience can appear obvious. Happier customers means greater retention, more sales and therefore more profits. So why won’t the board sign off on that new system/increased training budget? It all comes down to the business case. What seems a no-brain...