Excellence in Multichannel Customer Service Celebrated at Eptica Customer Service Innovation Awards 2010

Haven, Republic and Capita recognised for using technology to raise the bar in customer service

Reading – 12 July 2010: UK customer service best practice has been recognised at the Eptica Customer Service Innovation Awards. The winners, including leading UK holiday company Haven and fashion retailer Republic Limited, were announced by Paul Barnes, UK & Eire MD for Eptica, at the company’s Annual Customer Summit at The Royal Horseguards Hotel, London.

Eptica, the leading provider of multichannel customer interaction software, created the awards to celebrate excellence and innovation in customer service. The awards are won by firms that have achieved outstanding business results and demonstrated a forward thinking approach and strategy in their use of Eptica technology.

‘Further Mile’ Award 2010 - Haven

Haven, the leading provider of UK family holidays and short breaks, scooped the Eptica ‘Further Mile’ Award 2010 for the significant results the company achieved in managing inbound enquiries to its contact centre through optimising the customer’s online experience. Deploying Eptica Self-service and Email Management has enabled Haven to reduce the volume of inbound emails by 46 per cent and cut email handling times by 40 per cent. In just four months, Haven’s strategy of diverting routine questions online and redeploying support staff to respond to holiday enquiries has seen the company increase its sales by 5 per cent.

Online Customer Service - Republic

Republic, the leading multi-brand fashion retailer, won the award for Online Customer Service. Republic.co.uk has adopted a self-service approach on its Top 10 Hitwise ecommerce site making the answers to customer questions easily accessible and instantly available online. To date, just 6.7 per cent of customers using Eptica Self-service on Republic’s website go on to submit an enquiry by email, thereby dramatically reducing the volume of incoming enquiries needing a response. The website’s customer self-service is also seamlessly integrated with Eptica Email Management. The technology accurately analyses the text of an inbound email customer enquiry to provide the customer services agent with the ‘best answer’ meaning that Republic’s agents have been able to reply to customers faster and more effectively. As a consequence 90 per cent of customers now have their enquiry resolved through their first email contact.

Best Service Improvement Project - Capita

Capita, the UK’s leading business process outsourcing and professional services company, won the award for Best Service Improvement Project for the efficiencies and quality of service enhancements it delivered to a major public sector contract. Handling more than 300,000 inbound calls and 20,000+ letters each month against a series of strict Key Performance Indicators, Capita deployed Eptica Contact Assistant to improve the consistency of its customer service. It was also required to increase customer satisfaction, increase first contact resolution rates and reduce operational costs. The centralised knowledge management system achieved this through providing agents with fast access to approved customer service content, enabling Capita to reduce call handling time from 180 to 160 seconds and cut agent training time by 20 per cent. The results are even more impressive when you consider that the project was scoped, implemented and up and running in just six weeks from the initial contract being signed.

Dee Roche, European Marketing Director at Eptica, commented: “With these awards we wanted to champion innovation within customer service and highlight the fantastic work that our customers are undertaking. Customer service is always important, but in an uncertain economic it is absolutely vital and can make or break a firm. Each of the winners has delivered tangible benefits that not only improves their company’s bottom-line, but will also make a real difference to the service that their customers experience.”

Eptica’s Multi-channel Customer Interaction Management software enables website and customer service channels to work together to improve quality of service, resolve enquiries faster, reduce costs and maximize every sales opportunity.

Eptica is based in the UK, France, Spain and Singapore and operates worldwide through its network of partners. Eptica was awarded the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA in 2009 for the third consecutive year.