Social Media

5 key customer service skills – and how technology can help improve them

Published on: November 06, 2015
Author: Anne-Merete Jensen - Senior Business Consultant

Recruiting and retaining high quality customer service staff is one of the cornerstones of keeping consumers happy and loyal. Even with the rise of self-service options, for the majority of channels (email, social media, chat, phone, face to face) the experience created by the people you employ is crucial to the success or failure of the customer relationship. Gartner predicts...

What’s the best channel for U.S. retail customer service?

Published on: November 04, 2015
Author: Robin Tandon - Senior Product Marketing Director

As we approach the holiday shopping season, retailers are getting ready for their busiest time of the year. So at Eptica we thought it would be a good time to look at how they perform when it comes to the customer experience. The 2015 Eptica Retail Customer Experience Study therefore evaluated 500 U.S. retailers, in 15 sectors, on their ability to provide answers to 10 questions...

3 ways of reducing customer query volumes

Published on: October 20, 2015
Author: Pauline Ashenden - Marketing Manager

Consumers are sending an increasing number of questions to companies, across more and more channels. This rising volume of customer interactions, covering everything from questions about products and post-sales queries, to complaints and positive feedback, threatens to overwhelm many organizations.The numbers are vast. Over 1 million people view tweets about customer service...

The rise of the customer hub

Published on: October 14, 2015
Author: Derek Lewis

At a time when customer experience is becoming everyone’s job, it is vital that organizations break down any internal barriers that disrupt the customer journey. Only by working together,across departments, will customers receive the right levels of service and consequently remain loyal to a business.However, many companies remain organized in a traditional departmental...

Don’t neglect the positive side of customer service

Published on: October 09, 2015
Author: Anne-Merete Jensen - Senior Business Consultant

We’re now coming to the end of National Customer Service Week, which highlights the vital importance of customer service to businesses and puts the spotlight on the great work done by those in this sector. It also looks at sharing best practice to further improve standards, ultimately benefiting consumers everywhere.On that note, let us focus on the positive side of customer...

How to prevent utility customer service delivering a shock

Published on: October 06, 2015
Author: Eptica

Recent research from charity Citizens Advice found major differences between how UK utilities handle customer service. The top performing utility (SSE) received just 47 complaints per 100,000 customers, yet another had 944 – over 20 times more. A further four companies had over 400 complaints per 100,000, within the three months between April and June 2015.

The widening UK customer experience gap

Published on: September 30, 2015
Author: Derek Lewis

In previous decades an organization’s brand was something it controlled, with how it was perceived in the market driven by expensive advertising and marketing campaigns. The rise of social media and increasingly demanding customers has changed all of this. In highly competitive markets brand reputation and values are built on the experience that consumers receive and share on social media.

Why customer service is still vital in the supermarket price war

Published on: September 23, 2015
Author: Dharmesh Ghedia

The supermarket sector is one of the most competitive sectors in the UK. A combination of new entrants, aggressive price cutting and changing shopping habits is affecting all food and drink retailers, from the largest to the smallest. As well as moving to discounters, consumers are increasingly looking for convenience alongside price, choice and quality by choosing to shop...

Why aren’t organizations embracing digital customer service?

Published on: September 16, 2015
Author: Steve Nattress

The spread of digital customer service channels, from email and chat to social media, can provide organizations with significant benefits. According to McKinsey, if done well it boosts customer satisfaction by 33% while reducing contact center call volume, and generating savings of 25-30%. However, the complexity of multiple digital channels and increasingly...

What the latest Apple launch tells us about customer service

Published on: September 11, 2015
Author: Derek Lewis

This week’s launch of the Apple iPhone 6S, iPad Pro and new Apple TV has focused attention on the consumer electronics market, and shows the importance of technology and gadgets to all our lives. The upcoming Christmas season is bound to see billions spent on the latest products, including smartphones, tablets and Ultra HD TVs.

Pages