Customers want their queries answered accurately without having to make contact more than once. That makes achieving high First Contact Resolution (FCR) rates vital to the overall customer experience.
It’s been a busy few weeks in customer experience, with the Institute of Customer Service’s Annual Conference and the Call and Contact Centre Expo both happening in the UK. What do the events teach us about the state of UK CX?
As we move into the busiest part of the year for many contact centres, keeping staff morale high is even more crucial for delivering fast, efficient service. At the same time, contact centres are taking on extra staff to cope with demand, all of whom need to be motivated and trained to be ambassadors for your brand.Together, these factors add to the pressure on contact centre operations. How can y...
This week’s Eptica Customer Day brought together customer service professionals from multiple sectors, enabling them to compare best practice and learn from each other. It was also a great opportunity to tap into the experience that Eptica has gained working on multichannel customer experience strategies and implementations around the world. My thanks again to all those who attended, i...
Since they were first implemented contact centres have changed dramatically. Originally call centres that solely answered incoming telephone calls, they have expanded to cover multiple channels, from letters and faxes, to emails, social media and increasingly web chat.However, the speed at which new channels have emerged has caused problems within many contact centres. New systems have been added ...
Across the world customer satisfaction is getting worse – and younger generations are saying goodbye to the phone channel. These are just two of the headline findings from Dimension Data’s 2013/14 Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report. The 16th edition of the report is based on a worldwide survey of 817 companies in 11 industries and 79 countries. It paints a bleak picture of ...
The African contact centre sector is growing fast. Both local and international businesses are now benefiting from its skilled workforce with multiple languages and strong ties to Europe. Demonstrating its expansion, Morocco now has 50,000 agents working in the industry, up from zero just a decade ago.One trend that is particularly driving customer service in the continent is the explosion in the ...
Attempting to predict the future provides some fascinating insights and can help planning, whatever industry you are in. This is especially true when it comes to customer service, as it often feels that we’re in the midst of constant change. Thinking further ahead gives the chance to add perspective and to make more gradual, planned steps on the road to the future.So I read with interest a r...
We’re currently celebrating National Customer Service Week (NCSW). Organised in the UK by the Institute of Customer Service, it aims to raise awareness of customer service and the vital role it plays in the economy. Similar events are taking place around the globe.While it has been going for a few years, NCSW has never felt more relevant and necessary. Customer service has moved centre stage...
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...