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...
With large hikes in energy prices being announced by major UK utilities the spotlight is currently firmly on the sector. Politicians have condemned the rises, with Labour leader Ed Miliband threatening to impose a price freeze and ex-Prime Minister John Major calling for a windfall tax on utility profits. At the same time utilities have received major fines for past misselling and misleading custo...
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...
Effective knowledge management is a key element of delivering customer service and that’s why we’ve been focusing on this important area in recent weeks.In our first post we discussed how to get started - outlining the different stages of knowledge management within customer service operations. Following this we covered building a business case, outlining the benefits your organisation...
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...
In our first blog post in our series on knowledge management we talked about the different stages of collecting and sharing information across the contact centre.So, once you’ve identified where your organisation is now, how do you move forward and create a strategy to implement knowledge management? And what are the business benefits that you’ll receive?Starting with the benefits, the...
When customer service became formalised into a specific department the primary channels were the telephone and post. Hence staff were organised in a call centre, as a large part of their job was answering telephone calls, along with responding to letters from customers.A lot has changed since then, with a plethora of new channels now available for customers. The rise of email, the web, social medi...
More and more of us are using mobile devices to interact with companies online. The combination of the ease of use of tablets and the fact that we always have our smartphones to hand, mean that for many it is fast becoming the default way of accessing the internet. Backing this up, consultancy IDATE predicts that by the middle of next year more people will get online through smartphones and tablet...
Knowledge is at the heart of delivering a successful, consistent and efficient customer experience whatever type of organisation you are in. Collecting and sharing information, incorporating feedback and keeping centralised knowledge updated is central to delivering superior customer service.However while most managers understand the importance of knowledge, many are simply not sure where to start...