Talk of artificial intelligence and chatbots is currently everywhere in the customer experience market, with analysts, commentators and vendors all discussing the benefits that this type of technology can provide to brands and their customers. But what do the terms bot, chatbot and artificial intelligence actually mean – and how can they improve your customer experience?
Customers today want fast answers to their questions and to have a seamless, informed conversation with companies, whatever their request might be. This is especially true in Asia Pacific, with research finding that APAC consumers are far ahead of those in other regions.
Ahead of next week's Institute of Customer Service (ICS) annual conference, new research spells out the enormous cost of poor service to brands. Figures from the UK’s Ombudsman Service found that it registered 55 million complaints over the last 12 months - costing UK businesses £37 billion as customers vote with their feet and move to alternative suppliers.
Customer behavior has changed more in the last twenty years than in the previous twenty centuries! When the internet arrived, many thought that digitalization would remove the need for physical contact. However, in reality, this hasn’t been the case - consumers evolved, adopting technology to become autonomous, but didn’t abandon the real world...
The latest Institute of Customer Service (ICS) UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI) has a positive message for everyone involved in customer service. Overall, consumer satisfaction has risen to 77.8, up 0.8 compared to January 2016, marking the fourth straight improvement in results. Satisfaction is at its highest since July 2013...
The original aim of customer service was relatively transactional – a consumer made a query, an answer was provided by the company, the customer was satisfied and the interaction was completed. However, in today’s competitive markets this is no longer enough to win and retain customer loyalty....
As we move into 2017, now is a good time to review last year and use the insight to plan for the future. What were the big trends and how will they evolve moving forward? To help we’ve analyzed all 100+ posts published on the Eptica blog in 2016, and picked a top ten, based on a combination of readership and industry feedback.
Providing consistent accurate information when responding to queries is one of the key elements of good customer service. This is particularly important within regulated sectors such as insurance where - to avoid risk and ensure compliance - you need to be able to demonstrate that you provided customers with the same, approved information however they made contact.
This Christmas over £24 billion will be spent online on presents and gifts. And while some of these packages will be picked up instore through Click and Collect services, the vast majority will be delivered by the post and couriers. This last leg of the ecommerce customer experience has always been hard for retailers to control.
Christmas is a stressful time. It is stressful for consumers buying last minute presents or chasing up a missing delivery, but it is also stressful for the staff in stores and contact centers with the many customer enquiries that follow the season. The number of queries companies receive is enormous, and every single one matters to the consumer that sent it