Survey reveals Web Self-service is firmly on the agenda for European contact centres

In a recent survey conducted by online customer service solutions provider Eptica, web self-service was stated as the feature that most interested businesses in the future development of their customer contact centres. Over 63% of respondents expressed an interest in web solutions ahead of other channels such as SMS and chat.

The survey was conducted amongst Eptica's existing European customers with a view to evaluating the role of online customer services within corporate strategies, examining existing priorities and anticipated future needs. Eptica's customers span many market sectors including retail, financial services, telecoms, local government, travel, leisure and education. 96% of respondents surveyed stated that customer service is a crucial element in their company's global strategy. This supports recent findings by The Aberdeen Group who reported that a well-crafted customer self-service strategy can have a demonstrable impact on financial and growth objectives.

Over 86% of Eptica's customers surveyed said they anticipate their customers' requirements by learning from in-bound queries and asking customers direct through surveys and interviews. Respondents go on to say that 56% of their customers view consistency, accuracy and speed of response to be the key components of successful online customer service.

Web self-service puts powerful, intelligent functionality in the hands of customers so that they can quickly access relevant answers. However, Eptica warns that a successful online customer service strategy does not focus solely on directing customers to the web to drive down costs and reduce call centre agent hours. It is more about giving the customer options to service their own needs through the channel of their choice and providing consistency across these channels.

Respondents were asked to list the principal benefits they had achieved since deploying Eptica. These were found to be:

• Improved accuracy of initial response
• Enhanced customer service level - Increased agent productivity
• Reduced operational costs

Paul Barnes, Managing Director Eptica UK, commented: “This survey has highlighted that web self-service will be at the top of the contact centre agenda for many businesses in 2007 and beyond. At Eptica we encourage our customers to view web self-service as a way to both enhance service levels and empower customers”. 

About Eptica

Eptica is a leading provider of online customer service software. Eptica solutions enable all aspects of online customer interactions to be managed more effectively, providing an enhanced experience for customers and a more efficient, flexible and powerful solution for the organisation. Eptica software comprises a number of modules with capabilities such as:

• Web self-service; enabling customers to get fast answers through FAQs and searchable knowledge bases
• Email management; automating simple responses and increasing agent effectiveness with the more complex
• Live interaction; enabling real time communication through a website Eptica's software modules integrate seamlessly to create a unique self-learning effect where improvements made in one module ripple throughout all aspects of the online customer service solution

Eptica has over 150 clients in many sectors such as: - Financial Services: ING Direct, Barclays Bank, Société Générale, - Public Sector: Brent Council - Retail: La Redoute, IKEA, Carrefour - Travel & Tourism: TUI, Opodo - Utilities & Manufacturing: Renault, Mobal, Total, Gaz de France

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