It is fair to say that social media took many organisations by surprise. Suddenly their customers wanted to communicate and engage with them through the likes of Facebook and Twitter, as well as via more traditional channels. The social media journey has therefore seen companies go through a series of stages. Initially (often unofficially) individuals took on the role of being the company rep...
The UK insurance market is one of the most competitive in the world. The rise of comparison sites, increased regulation, low customer loyalty and an explosion in distribution channels have all combined to decrease margins for insurers. Recent research from Accenture found that UK home and car policyholders are amongst the least loyal in the world, with 57% looking to switch provider in the next ye...
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 ...
We Britons have a reputation for politeness, which extends to not complaining when we suffer poor service. According to this stereotype, we just mutter under our breath and then ensure we don’t visit that particular restaurant or shop again.However it has been clear for many years that things have changed. As in other countries, Britons are complaining more and demanding a better experience ...
This month, Facebook is ten years old and has celebrated its birthday by hitting 1.23 billion active users and delivering 2013 revenues of $7.87 billion. While it was no means the first social network (and won’t be the last) it has radically changed not just how people interact with each other, but more importantly how they engage with brands, particularly when it comes to customer service.B...
There’s widespread agreement that customer satisfaction is vital to every organisation. A Gartner poll found that 80% of executives thought it was more important than three years ago, with 95% seeing it as the key way of differentiating from competitors. Where there’s less togetherness is how you measure the customer experience. For example, many of the traditional metrics used...
Showing the importance of technology to the banking customer experience, IT issues caused problems for some Lloyds Banking Group customers trying to use their debit cards on Sunday. The group, which also includes TSB, Bank of Scotland and Halifax, has 30 million customers across the UK, although only a minority were affected by the glitch, which lasted 3 hours.Lloyds has since confirmed that the p...
Citizens today are increasingly embracing digital channels, such as the web, email and social media. Led by central government and its Digital by Default agenda, the public sector is therefore changing how it communicates to match the needs of citizens, patients and other audiences. More and more services can now be completed online, from renewing a tax disc to registering children for school.Digi...
An ever-increasing amount of customer contact is coming through digital channels such as email, social media and the web. Companies need to understand these queries and respond quickly and accurately if they are to win and retain customers. However an estimated 80% of this contact is unstructured (not organised in a pre-defined format), making it difficult and time consuming to analyse and act upo...
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...