Managing multi language, multichannel customer service
Businesses today operate globally, but need to provide a local service if they are to deliver the customer experience that consumers rightly demand. That means providing information, answers and support in local languages, at the time that customers want it, and of course through their channel of choice.
Managing global customer service is therefore a challenge, particularly for web-based businesses who don’t have physical branches. The customer experience is a key factor in winning and retaining business, whatever sector you operate in. Organisations need to ensure that their operations are efficient, effective and consistent wherever the customer is located.
Eptica customer Easyroommate is the perfect case study on how you can balance delivering a local service with increased efficiency. Originally founded in the US nearly 15 years ago, Easyroommate is now the world’s number one flatshare and houseshare website. It operates in 37 countries and 12 languages, matching potential tenants with available flatshare or houseshare accommodation. With Easyroommate, landlords can advertise rooms or property for rent, while tenants can search for accommodation or post details of their requirements.
With user numbers growing by 30% over the last year, Easyroommate needed to scale operations to provide fast, consistent service to customers. It selected Eptica’s multichannel customer interaction suite as it provided a multilingual, multi-brand platform for both Easyroommate and sister brand Vivastreet, which provides local online classified adverts in 19 countries. Eptica has been rolled out across the email and web channels for both brands.
Eptica’s software is used by 60 agents split between Easyroommate’s main contact centre in London, outsourced partners and teams in Africa, Asia and Latin America who provide local language and time zone support. The platform provided by Eptica ensures that, no matter which part of the extended customer service team a customer interacts with, they’ll get a consistent, high quality experience.
On the web channel, Easyroommate has deployed Eptica’s intelligent web self-service. This enables customers to ask questions online, receiving instant answers that mean they don’t need to switch to other channels. After implementing Eptica calls have reduced by 75% and emails dropped by 15%, despite a 30% increase in users. Over half (53%) of all interactions are now via web self-service, which is available in eight languages on Easyroommate sites for the UK, France, Italy, Spain, USA, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Netherlands, Poland and Germany.
Easyroommate now uses Eptica Email Management to handle its 20,000 monthly emails. This has dramatically reduced the average time to answer, more than halving (58%) it from 48 hours to 20. 80% of emails are now answered within 12 hours. All incoming emails are now automatically analysed and sent to the agent with the best skills to answer them, along with a suggested response in one of 11 local languages. Average time to answer Vivastreet emails has reduced by 66%, to 12 hours, allowing agents to focus on providing a personal service for complex enquiries via the phone channel.
The new Eptica implementation has increased First Contact Resolution rates to above 90% and has provided Easyroommate with greater management control of its operations. It can now analyse all its customer interactions to spot trends and potential issues in real time, enabling it to optimise the customer experience at all times.
On the web the customer experience is vital to growing your business, by retaining existing customers and winning new ones. As Easyroommate’s experience shows, multichannel, multilingual and multi-brand customer service is at the heart of global success.
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