Customer satisfaction is the key to loyalty

Customer expectations are changing and growing just as rapidly as the technology customers use to engage. On average, 97 percent of global customers say customer service is a key differentiator in their decisions to use—or abandon—a company. In fact, 63% of the British have stopped doing business with a brand due to bad customer service

Quality self-service is a must

To consumers, being able to find a resolution to an issue or an answer to a question online is increasingly important, with 90 percent of worldwide customers expecting it. In fact, 72% of the British have searched for an answer for their issue online and 92% expects a brand or a company to have a self-service customer support portal or a FAQ page. There are still room for improvement with 26% not finding information they are looking for.

Don’t be silent in social

Customer expectations have moved along the times: 51% of the British expect brand to respond in social media within 24 hours and 14% expect them to answer in less than an hour. But social media is not just a place where customers go to vent; in fact, our survey revealed that more UK customers use social to praise brands’ customer service than to complain about it! Instead of dreading conversations on social, see it as an opportunity to turn negative sentiment into positive: 43% of the British have a more positive view of a brand or company who answers them in social.

Hold music plays on

It’s always enlightening to find out just how long customers are willing to wait on hold. Turns out consumers in the United States have the most stamina. 18% of the Americans are prepared to stay on hold for more than 10 minutes, while 56% of the British hang up after 5 minutes.

However, being on hold is not the most frustrating aspect for the British – being passed between agents and having to contact a brand or company multiple times for the same issue results much more annoying on this side of the pond.

In conclusion, wherever business is done, in whichever corner of the world, customers not only deserve a company’s best efforts, they expect it.

Customer service is not a department, it’s everyone’s job.

Download the free report for the full statistics and insights

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They’re paperless, living documents that can be updated at any time, which means it’s easy for companies to provide up-to-date information on products, problems, or solutions for customers as well as employees.

Here are our top 3 tips for improving your knowledge management across different channels:

1. Provide consistent knowledge across channels

Deliver your customer service content consistently across channels via your corporate website, social media properties, virtual agents, and email responses—all originating from one knowledge base.

2. Empower employees with information they need

Your customer-facing knowledge base isn’t just for customers. Give employees and agents access to an internal knowledge base that’s connected to your self-service portal. This will help them deliver consistent, current answers and information on first contact.

3. Never be content with your content

Feedback and reporting tools will tell you which content is working and which needs improvement. Continue to add and update information, and this will improve the customer’s self-service experience, deflect calls and emails, and increase contact rep efficiency.

Download a free e-book and uncover the other 9 Customer Service Trends to Watch in 2016

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New developments in cloud services, mobile devices and social media have opened up a whole new chapter for financial services businesses. They’ve put customers in charge, and given forward-thinking banks a chance to deliver better services to those customers than ever before.

You know your bank needs a radical digital overhaul. You see new entrants to the market poaching clients and getting headlines for good service. In this fast-changing environment, there’s no better time to digitally transform your business.

Your customers are arguably your best employees. They are motivated to handle their own processes, they are informed about their own situation and, best of all, they’re not on your payroll.

A vision for the digital bank

Microsoft shares its thoughts and views on the challenges facing banks today, the digital technologies that address these challenges and its vision for the Digital Bank. Click here to find out more.

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What became clear is that for retail leaders, today’s complex global environment is bringing a wide range of challenges. Modern consumers are well informed and always connected. They are sophisticated, with high expectations about service, value, offers, and choice. Customers move from social networks, to online stores, to in-store experiences, and they expect seamless and consistent engagement with the retailer. This is a true omni-channel experience.

But what does this omni-channel experience mean for retailers especially during peak seasons? How can retailers stay ahead with ever increasing customer expectations?

Don’t miss out on our highly popular Retail Week and Microsoft webinar with all the information you need to define a clear and robust strategy which meets the challenges and opportunities for 2016 and beyond.

Our panel of retail experts looked ahead and gave tips into how retailers can better deliver the peaks to come, whether that’s Easter, Back to School or Christmas.

Expert Panel includes House of Fraser, Dixons Carphone, Retail Week, Microsoft and Practicology.

Watch the on-demand webinar for retail insights

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Hardware such as mobile devices, laptops and tablets mean we are always able to interact, while developments such as the Cloud enable us to work or access our information anywhere in the world.

With such transformation comes the expectation that every aspect of a citizen’s life should be easy to access online. Just as a citizen expects to be able to transfer money online, so too do they expect to be able to access public services online.

Last year, prime minister David Cameron set out his vision for a ‘Smarter State’ that, like a business, is “constantly adapting and changing, using new technology or new methods of delivery, to improve their products and reduce their costs.”

But what does that look like in reality? Using the health sector as an example, we take a look at how technology can help public services meet the rising digital expectations of citizens.

Improving the patient experience

Ensuring that citizens have a positive experience of care is critical for today’s healthcare providers.

The benefits of a positive experience of care in terms of outcomes are well documented, but measuring and understanding patient, carer and staff experiences can be difficult. Without this information, targeting specific areas for improvement is very hard.

As you will see in the video below, using digital solutions can improve the patient experience by adding in a more interactive service.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=pdYF6yCGjvg

By using the software in the video, Greg has been able to respond quickly to Harry’s feedback and has been able to personalise the service, giving Harry a better patient experience.

But digital solutions can do much more as you will see in the next video.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=qBI0TkWzjgA

By using software that enables social listening, hospitals can monitor and respond to feedback in real time and can use the feedback to make changes to a service quickly.

Both scenarios saw how Microsoft Dynamics can help the public sector.

Find out more about how Microsoft Dynamics can help the public sector here

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