Q&A: Pluck's Stephanie Himoff on social media for publishers

… a place to vent these concerns and deal with dissatisfaction makes a lot of sense, and some companies are managing to reduce calls to customer call centres as a result.

Unhappy customers turn to social media: survey

… than last year, with just 25% posting a complaint on a company's website, and 35% phoning a call centre, down from 29% and 42% respectively. Almost as many (48%) will share their experience with friends and family …

Social media ROI: is it worth waiting for?

… see a coup within the bigger companies. The totalitarian regime that governs many a customer services / call centre needs to be deposed. Customer services staff must be your greatest asset in the battle for …

The 27 varieties of tweet used by retailers

… everything in my power to avoid telephoning a call centre.  However I think there is a real opportunity here. By answering questions in … for u we need the store location, please call us at 18009266299 Explaining payment limitations (@threadless …

Love your customer service staff, love your customers

… the state of the average hold time whenever I call up my friendly ‘service’ centre. These are unloved and undernourished departments, sometimes viewed as … ). Small businesses do not operate the dreary call centres that make customers chooses from a …

How can etailers handle the Christmas rush?

… encounter a problem and your web hosting company hasn’t called you, call them immediately. They will more than likely be aware of … load balance and/or direct the traffic to the closest data centre. For example, we have a large travel company client that …

Corporate blogs and other bad habits

… in talking to and engaging with your customers. More importantly, listening to your customers. A bit like a call centre or retail customer service desk. If that is the case, get a plan together, resource it …

Social Media Engagement - Good habits are hard to start!

… imagine the early telephone adopters calling each other up and saying … another phone number that takes incoming calls as well as outgoing calls and therefore needs to be manned (or womanned!) in the same way. A call centre that also communicates via …

The Tony Soprano guide to social media

… this article is retweeted 500 times then I may write another one called ‘The Paully Walnuts Guide To SEO’. “It's my mess. … to resist the temptation. Commit to putting your customers at the centre of your business and stay on that path. “You equate love …

Interview with John Squire of Coremetrics on web analytics

… “Businesses can also augment this data with offline information from point-of-sales, catalogues and call centres, and even attitudinal research, to better understand their target audience and allocate their marketing …

Retailers need to focus on online customer service

… section, and just 19% preferred to call customer services. The biggest frustrations for customers are being stuck in a call centre queue (66%), 52% would be … a telephone number, or charged customers for calling. Email options were poor too, with …

Next website can't handle sales traffic

… the next sale!! What the hell is going on?? On-line queues!!! What a joke- the site CRASHED!! The call centre is swamped.  We are sat here trying to spend money in a recession; I am going to take my …

Is consumer trust online misplaced? Can brands do anything to change this?

… delivery and support of their products and services; offline/face to face channels such as in store, call centres etc; and all online channels. This sounds obvious, but a high priority focus of hitting aggressive sales …

Apple's customer service fail

… a major issue, and providing effective support and information online here can reduce pressure on stores and call centres. In my case, rebooting my laptop and connecting to iTunes again solved the problem, but I …

Marketing: when the government gets it oh-so wrong

… do what they want under their own identity but when they align themselves with their employer's brand, some rules are called for. Otherwise, you end up with situations like the Dominoes debacle or the Ryanair ridiculousness. Despite this, the government …