Blog

UK travel sector demonstrates disconnect between web and email customer service

Published on: July 05, 2013
Author: Epticablog

The internet has transformed the travel sector, as holidaymakers can now book the separate components of their break online, rather than having to go through high street travel agencies. But in such a competitive market, customer service and fast responses to consumer enquiries across multiple channels are vital if travel companies are going to thrive.However research carried out as part of the Ep...

Improving the email customer experience

Published on: July 09, 2013
Author: Epticablog

Despite the explosion of new channels, email is still the first choice for many customers when they want to make contact. Showing the scale of the channel over 2.8 million emails are sent every second and it is predicted that there will be over 4 billion email accounts by the end of 2015.Consumers like the built-in audit trail that email provides, along with the fact that it is simple and straight...

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 ...

Has UK customer service stopped improving?

Published on: July 17, 2013
Author: Epticablog

New research from the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) shows that customer satisfaction with brands in the UK has slowed over the last year. The overall score in the July 2013 UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI) was 77.9 out of 100, down from 78 a year ago. This is the first time since the Index began in 2008 that levels have fallen, albeit by a small amount.The UKCSI is calculated from an o...

5 ways to collect customer feedback

Published on: July 23, 2013
Author: Epticablog

Companies now have access to huge amounts of data on their customers. Particularly online, they can see the entire customer journey, purchase history and the channels used across every transaction. The vast majority of companies  also collect customer feedback, which should provide the perfect opportunity to fine tune products and service in order to help the customer experience.But at the mo...

Dealing with a customer service crisis in a 24 hour world

Published on: July 24, 2013
Author: Epticablog

Modern consumer electronics are incredibly complex – essentially specialised computers that rely on the latest software to function. They need to interact with an increasing number of other devices around them to provide consumers with the experience they are looking for. And to compete with other vendors, manufacturers have to continually develop their functionality, which often means updat...

Don’t neglect email in an omnichannel world

Published on: July 26, 2013
Author: Epticablog

As companies embrace fast-growing channels such as social media there’s a perception that these essentially replace older methods of communication. In some cases this is true, but it is important to realise that consumers don’t automatically move to new channels just because they are there. After all, if that was the case no-one would be calling your contact centre any more.What consum...

Integrating showrooming into the customer experience

Published on: July 31, 2013
Author: Epticablog

Sales on the High Street continue to be squeezed by online rivals – and the growth of smartphones is opening another front in the battle for revenues. Increasingly shoppers are using mobiles while in-store to showroom, testing products and comparing offline and online prices before choosing where to spend their money.Research from TNS demonstrates the scale of showrooming – but also wh...

Are brands finally getting social customer service?

Published on: August 02, 2013
Author: Epticablog

New research from Social Bakers seems to point to a major step forward in social customer service, with more and more companies answering questions posed to them on Facebook and Twitter. Brands have more than doubled their response rates between Q2 2012 and Q2 2013, up from answering 30% of questions to 62%. Back in 2011 the figure was just 5%.Airlines led the way, answering 79% of queries, follow...

EasyCustomer Service?

Published on: August 07, 2013
Author: Epticablog

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of Easyjet has just announced he’ll be launching a new, low cost, supermarket. The first easyFoodstore will open in Croydon and will offer a limited range of tinned and packaged goods, avoiding selling products from big brands and focusing on day to day foodstuffs.While the grocery business appears crowded, the trend is for the market to become increasingly ...

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