Square learns that customer service in the payments space is a tough job
Technology has disrupted a seemingly countless number of industries over the past decade, from advertising to real estate. When looking at the industries grappling with technology-driven change, however, arguably few have been more affected than the multi-trillion dollar payments space.
The advent of mobile phone, and the smartphone in particular, has created significant opportunities, many of which upstarts like Square are trying to exploit.
Will mobile be the saviour of the high street?
Since as much as 50% of smartphone users use their phones instore today, mobile on the high street is clearly going to be a key element of retailers’ success or failure over the next five years.
However, as well as offering significant opportunities for brands to bridge the gap between online and the high street, mobile makes it easier for customers to be more promiscuous.
The future of customer service and social media: infographic
According to Zendesk's new infographic, 62% of customers are looking for more support through social media. Compare that to research by MarketTools at the end of 2011 which shows only 23% of US companies provide customer service via Facebook and 12% provide support via Twitter.
This highlights the continued divide between what customers are expecting and companies are giving.
The rise of the social customer
Two weeks ago we presented the findings of a report, commissioned by first direct from social media think-tank ItsOpen, on the future of customer service at the Social Media Leadership Forum in London.
These regular events bring together organisations that have a track record of innovation, success and progressive thinking in engaging with stakeholders through social media.
Customer service, since the beginning of recorded history, has been very simple. It is just about information and the power to control it.
Why social customer service will come of age in 2012
Social media and customer service would seem to be a match made in heaven. In 2012, more and more brands will commit beyond simply responding to customers on Twitter.
Brands are actively recruiting customers into online communities to help them develop products, give feedback and report issues.
First Direct’s ‘Live’ community discusses openly anything from savings rates to charitable donations, and includes a (very brave) sentiment tracker on the front page to show, live, what people think about the brand (it’s overwhelmingly positive at the time of writing).
Facebook rolls out private messages for Pages
The world's largest social network has begun rolling out functionality that allows Page owners and individual Facebook users to exchange private messages.
Unlike on Twitter, where either party can initiate a direct message, Facebook is requiring that the individual initiate the conversation for now at least.
Customer service is all important for retailers: survey
Consumers believe customer service is the most important area for retailers to focus on, rating it higher than product quality and low prices.
Almost three quarters of consumers would recommend a retail brand based on a good customer experience.
With the help of TolunaQuick, we surveyed 5,000 UK consumers in September as part of our research for the Econsultancy / Foviance Multichannel Customer Experience Report.
Here are some of the findings from the retail section of the consumer survey report.
How will the demise of the Facebook Discussion tab affect brands?
Changes to Facebook pages could be bad news for customer service.
It was interesting to see the new study by Martiz Research, which showed that 71% of customers who tweeted a gripe said they never heard back from the company, despite the fact that most of them would have liked to.
Why online customer service is important: infographic
Despite the importance of the internet, online customer service often leaves a lot to be desired.
According to a recent Econsultancy/Toluna survey, 48% of UK consumers find the telephone the most frustrating customer service channel, while 44% prefer to contact firms by email.
In this infographic by customer service vendor zendesk, tha stats show that 58% of US consumers prefer email as a customer service channel...
Why is multichannel customer service important?
The aim of multichannel customer service is to provide customers with options for how they would like to communicate with a brand if they have a query or a complaint to make.
It is also about providing a seamless experience to the customer, regardless of which channel they choose to use.
Behind the scenes, many companies may not have joined up customer service channels, but as far as customers are concerned, they are dealing with a single company, whether online, by telephone, or in a local store.
