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...
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...
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 ...
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...
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...
Travel is an industry that has been revolutionised by the internet. Traditional providers such as high street travel agents have had to radically change their business models in order to compete with websites such as Expedia and direct sales from both airlines and accommodation providers such as hotels.At the same time the web has opened up a new channel for customer service, with travellers able ...
Customer services (Photo credit: gordon2208) On the Eptica blog we’ve regularly talked about how social media provides a megaphone for customers to talk about your brand – but despite this new research shows that companies simply aren’t listening.Our own 2012 Eptica Social Customer Service Study surveyed 2,000 consumers across the UK and France on their attitudes to using s...
Eptica has won the Social Media Customer Service category at the prestigious Asia Pacific Customer Service Consortium (APCSC) Expo International Awards. This award was in recognition of Eptica’s innovative social media customer interaction suite and its successful implementation at low cost airline AirAsia.By deploying Eptica as a centralised customer Self-service system, AirAsia is now...
When it comes to online retail, customers are obviously looking to buy products as cheaply as they can. However price is not the only factor, with a myriad of research studies demonstrating that customer service and the overall experience have a significant impact on where people buy online.A lot of this comes down to trust – customers want to be reassured that their order is going to be dis...
In its short life, the mobile telecoms industry has changed dramatically. From the introduction of brick-like handsets aimed at business people in the 1980s to mass market adoption and the emergence of smartphones, developments have been non-stop. And with 4G networks around the corner, change isn’t going to end anytime soon.The high speed nature of the mobile phone industry could explain it...