Percepta Australia is pleased to announce that it has been selected as a finalist for the AHRI Diversity Awards. The AHRI Diversity Awards program highlights the achievements of Australian organisations that celebrate diversity in the workplace.Read on to find out more.

In April 2013 Percepta Australia’s HR team will visit its office in BangNa, Thailand to recruit a customer service team in preparation for the lead generation for the 34th annual Bangkok International Motor Show.

This feature in The Drum showcases the results of a recent survey conducted by benchmarking firm Global Reviews, which studies the behaviour of online customers seeking out a new current account provider. Click through to read more.

This article from Call Centre UK highlights self-service as a key trend in consumer behaviour, and the need for organisations to provide such support to their customers on the web, through mobile and social channels as well as IVR. The results are based on the 2012 Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report compiled by BPO solutions provider Merchants. Read on for more.

In July 2012 Percepta hosted its first Melbourne Business Practicum with the University of Melbourne. It is pleased to announce its second practicum, along with its objective. Read on to know more.

This Marketing Week article highlights the opportunities presented by complaining customers on social media, offering brands deeper customer insight. It also goes on to emphasise the importance of aligning customer services and marketing departments to deal with customer concerns on social channels. Read on to know more.

The AHRI Diversity Awards program highlights the achievements of Australian organisations that celebrate diversity in the workplace. Percepta Australia is pleased to announce its registration for the program’s Most Inclusive Workplace of the Year award for 2013. Read on to know more.

This article from Marketing Week contains an insightful summary of the trends and headlines from the retail sector in the UK this year. From multi-channel shopping and loyalty schemes to promoting 'Britishness' and the spirit of Christmas. Click through to read more.

Can employee engagement have a positive effect on your contact centre? This article on www.callcentre.co.uk highlights how Virgin Media and Asda are looking after their employees. Read on to find out how both brands are driving employee engagement in a bid to increase the performance of their contact centres.

In this callcentre.co.uk article, two advocates of social media customer service talk about how establishing a digital presence can benefit a business. Read on to find out how they have expanded their own businesses through social media and the challenges they have faced along the way.

This TechWeek Europe article contains an overview of financial service provider Barclays' intention of introducing iPads in certain branches to improve customer experience and reduce waiting times. This move aims to improve their services through the adoption of innovative technology, both online and in their branches. Read on for the rest of the story.

Energy Provider Npower has launched an online forum to facilitate customer interaction in an effort to increase transparency and improve brand experience. The company aims to pull together conversations from their social media channels and offer customers a destination to read reviews, share tips and keep abreast of news and updates. Click through to read the rest of the article on Marketing Week.

The Glasgow team participated in ‘Shop Wars’ to help raise money for our local charity, The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice. We took over three of the hospice shops for the day in a friendly competition to see who can raise the most amount of money for charity. Read on to discover who won and find out more about our fundraising efforts for the Hospice.

We are delighted to announce the successful launch of the ‘Pre-Sales Enquiry team’ in partnership with our global automotive client in China. This expansion marks a 41% increase to our staff in China. Read on to learn more about our growth and services undertaken in the region.

Percepta Germany's Managing Director, Christian Gondek, has been appointed to the position of Lecturer at the FOM Hochschule für Oekonomie & Management - University of Applied Sciences. Read on to learn more about Christian's association with the University and his role as a key member of Percepta's team. 

An article in this week's Marketing Week highlights the struggle faced by both financial institutions as well as retailers in gaining consumer trust in their financial services. While there is a huge opportunity for retailers to win over more customers, how will banks and other financial institutions fare in the competition? Read on for more.

 At the recent European Call Centres & Customer Service Awards held on the first evening of the Call Centre & Customer Management Expo, LV= won the award for best customer service in financial services. LV= was recognised for its excellent service attitude, focus on customer experience and continuous improvement, among other factors. Read on for information on the Expo and the Awards.

Energy regulator Ofgem are hoping to make energy bills clearer for customers by forcing providers to reveal their cheapest prices.  This article in The Telegraph reveals how the regulator aims to increase transparency in the market, and what effect this will have on energy customers.

Alan Bates, who leads service design and marketing for Percepta in Europe, Africa & Asia Pacific, will be speaking at the next 'How to...' event hosted by the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce. Alan will present a workshop to businesses across the city, encouraging discussion and debate on customer loyalty and its driving factors. The event will take place on the 26th of October 2012. Read on for more details.

Two thirds of brands say that social media is vital to their overall business strategy, according to new research by E-Consultancy and Adobe.  Read on to find out how many are using social media for both brand awareness, and as a customer service tool.

Almost 2 thirds of UK broadband customers would never return to a provider they experienced problems with.  This study by ISPreview.co.uk demonstrates the need for superior customer service in the utilities sector, and highlights the number of customers willing to switch providers after a poor experience. Read on for more.

Customer feedback can influence a business in many ways.  In this Marketing Week article, six professionals across six different industries explain how important customer data is to them, and how insight has shaped their business strategies and processes.

Percepta continues to inspire hope, help save lives, and raise resources to end breast cancer forever.

Brands are now using social media to help them drive loyalty amongst their customers, a recent Marketing Week article explains. Read on to find out how brands such as Costa Coffee, Play.com and HMV are adding apps and social media platforms to enhance their customer data and create a better service for their customers.

An article in MarketingWeek about online entertainment retailer Play.com and its Facebook fans, who are worth 24% more in direct sales to the company than non-fans. An interesting insight into the value of social customers for online brands. This article provides a degree of understanding into the debate around the RoI for social media and quantifying online customers.

Percepta have been announced as finalists in the Best Employer of a Student or Graduate category of the 2012 Glasgow Business Awards. The award is designed to acknowledge and reward organisations that offer exceptional employment opportunities to higher education students or graduates.

Percepta is pleased to announce an expansion of its team in Shanghai, China. The Customer Contact Centre located in Shanghai’s Jinqiao district, will now include a number of dedicated specialist teams to address customer enquiries and complaints for Percepta's global client partners. The launch is scheduled for October 2012.

Press Release from the Customer Contact Association (CCA) - Percepta has been shortlisted for CCA Excellence Awards 2012 in the Best Outsourcing Partnership category. The CCA Excellence Awards programme is designed to recognise achievements of individuals and organisations committed to delivering outstanding customer service.

The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice in Glasgow will become the official charity of Percepta’s regional headquarters in Glasgow. Employees based in the office have committed to undertake events to support and help shape the future of the charity.

Bangkok office to focus on serving four new markets—Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

New office generating high customer satisfaction ratings for clients

Knowing who your customers actually are has never been more important. MarketingWeek reveals that 55% of people have switched brands in the last year — meaning that treating customers well to encourage loyalty is key. A study has also shown that 45% of respondents would not accept a lower price in return for lower standards of service. Read more of this article from Lucy Handley.

Percepta attracts attention as it presents contact center and loyalty services in first appearance at major industry conference.

Often as a consumer, you may experience a different standard of service or experience than you expected. This could be due to the way in which a company wants to be perceived versus the service it actually delivers. It could also suggest that company representatives have not bought in to the company’s message. Russell Parsons shared his views in this MarketingWeek article.

CEO Ron Chmara thanks employees for their contributions to Percepta’s success.

In this short MarketingWeek article, Ruth Mortimer shares the story of a successful, apparently customer-focused small business that had been held in high regard for it's brilliant customer experience and how its great image has been tarnished by one or two comments. Do you live your values every day? How do you protect yourself from negative perception? Can you ruin your reputation entirely overnight? This is a real lesson on brand protection and how the external image you build can be exposed and knocked down in no time at all.

Assessments provide attendees with feedback about their customer service programs.

In this short article for MyCustomer.com, Mike McMaster explores customer insight, what it means to the customer and for the business, and if companies are really getting the best from their 'research'.

Percepta, the global customer experience and loyalty business, today announced the opening of its newest in-market office, continuing rapid growth in the Asia Pacific region.

This announcement gives Percepta an in-market presence in 13 countries, serving customers in six other markets, speaking over 17 languages.

Percepta has announced it will present its customer contact center and loyalty services in booth 319 at the ICMI’s (International Customer Management Institute) 2012 Annual Call Center Exhibition (ACCE) May 7-10, at the Exhibition Hall in Seattle. Click the title to read more...

Barclaycard are due to launch a mobile phone accessory encouraging contactless payments for their customers.  Read this MarketingWeek article to see how the firm hopes this release will affect their customers’ experience and the industry as a whole.

Manufacturing in the UK may be on the rise once more, with fewer firms facing insolvency than at the start of the year. Find out what a study by Begbie Traynor, a firm who monitors company financial stress, have found, and what they predict for the manufacturing industry in the coming months!

With the global banking industry under ever-increasing srutiny, CBA - one of the big four banks - reveals it's pledge to become the best for customer satisfaction.  Read more of the article on how the bank intends to move from third to top position.

A call to a customer service department can sometimes send a customer's blood pressure rocketing. What are businesses doing to cause that reaction? Or to prevent it? Find out what Joe Mont of The Street has to offer about the worst and best in customer support. 

You receive an angry call or visit from an irate customer. How should you respond? Incensed customers can be a challenge, but Eilene Zimmerman’s article “Accentuating the Positive to Angry Customers” in The New York Times presents techniques industry experts use to defuse tense situations — techniques that Percepta contact center representatives consistently apply.

In this Forbes article, Brenna Sniderman of Forbes Insights explores a recent study that isolates and identifies five major personalities crucial to fostering a healthy atmosphere of innovation within an organization. Read more to find out which one fits you best.

Working long hours may have become a sign of commitment to your company, job, or your colleagues. But is it the right thing to do all of the time? In this article, freelance writer Jessica Stillman explores why the average 55-hour working week may not be as productive as once thought.

In this article on MarketingWeek, Ruth Mortimer highlights the flurry of responses to another recent article on the rebrand of marketing. More and more people are talking about a holistic view of the business and seeing marketing as a hub of communication and engagement, rather than a department that just shares company messages. We agree. Awareness, engagement, and experience are outlined in our very own regional marketing strategy.

Many consumer-focused organisations have adopted — or at least thought about — a multichannel communication strategy for their business.  Some have implemented very well, but others have followed a trend without really thinking how best to serve their customers.  In this article on MyCustomer.com, Kurt Bager explores how to adopt online customer service and how to implement it effectively.

At a time when the economic situation has forced many businesses to focus on price to attract and retain customers, how has the environment changed the mindset of employees toward their employer? It is true that there are other companies that have chosen to promote quality and experience over price, not wishing to undervalue their products or services. Has this also made a difference to how they have chosen to retain a good workforce? In this article from MarketingWeek, employee engagement and values are explored against price — do people still move for money over anything else?

Today we are pleased to announce that Percepta has created a partnership with Qualtrics, the industry leading provider of online survey software, for our soon-to-launch survey and customer insight service.

Ernst & Young have issued a report titled “Voice of the Customer, Time for Insurers to Rethink Their Relationships 2012″. This report is based on a survey of 27,000 customers across 7 regions and covering 23 countries. In this article on MyCustomer.com, Maz Iqbal explores the results of the research and what it means for the F&I industry.

In the week that mobile technology company O2 announced a complete overhaul of its website to create a better online customer experience, Sally Cowdry, marketing and consumer director, talks with MarketingWeek online magazine about future plans. As a business also going through brand and strategy changes that reflect more of our customer experience and customer loyalty services, we were keen to read what Sally had to say in this short interview. For those familiar with the brand, we are sure you will find the technology ideas and focus on customer impact just as interesting.

As an advocate of better customer insight, we were pleased to hear that some big brands are increasing their efforts to understand more about their customers and product experiences. Interestingly, some big global names are choosing to do this directly rather than through retailers, using online camparison sites.

Britain’s top retailer plans to boost sales and customer experience by investing in more staff. As reported in HR Magazine, they also hope to help the wider issue of youth unemployment as the biggest private sector employer by focusing on training and creating opportunities for young people.

After 12 years of working in Scotland’s largest city, Percepta has joined the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce.

Over the past few months, we have spent some time establishing our new look and website. During this revamp, we know that all has been quiet from the Percepta team – until now!

Percepta makes the move into the world's second largest economy.

After several months of work from our multidiscipline team, on 12 October we launched our office in Shanghai, China, taking Percepta into one of the most exciting growth economies in the world and strengthening our relationship in a long-term client partnership.

Physical activity and employee wellness are very important priorities here at Percepta, and we encourage all of our employees to participate in a healthy lifestyle.

Listening to the voice of your customer sounds simple enough, but do you really understand the feedback you receive and how you can use it to improve service delivery in your business? Here, Rachel Fielding talks about recent studies that show not listening to your customer (or not understanding the real cause of poor service) is still losing us all business.

Customer journey mapping is a core part of Percepta's services providing a detailed perspective of your customer's potential interaction with the brand along with strategic recommendations designed to enhance customer satisfaction and boost customer loyalty. Discover customer journey mapping and why author and strategic marketing expert Adam Richardson claims this process is the "first essential step of improving the experience you deliver" in this post on Harvard Business Review's blog.

Percepta further expands into Asia Pacific through a successful partnership with Jaguar Land Rover.

Africa is a choice for offshoring with Percepta at the forefront.

Think you can just run your business like you used to? In this post, Mickie Kennedy talks about how social media and other online experiences have changed the face of customer service. Consumers are much savvier than they were just a few years ago…with a wealth of information at their fingertips. Percepta understands this too. Social media continues to be an increasingly important component in interacting with a brand, creating a conversation and supporting a brand's promise to its customers.

The members of the Dearborn-based Percepta team discovered they could feed hungry people not just by donating canned goods, but also by taking some time from their weekend to roll up their sleeves and help.

In Ari Sharp's article entitled "Push to keep Australian call centers here," he highlights key consumer data pointing to keeping things local while recognizing that this may be at the cost of services to the customer in call centres hiring low-skilled employees.  

He cites a survey that found that 91 percent of bank customers would choose a bank that would not send their information to an overseas call centre. This builds a strong case for Australian-based call centres and further strengthens the proposition for setting up in-house call centres.

At Percepta, we've found that quality brands understand that the interaction with the brand's contact centre might be the caller's first and last interaction. Building a long-term relationship with the brand depends on recruiting people who can transform call centres into customer relationship centres.

Percepta celebrates cultural diversity, embracing the many different cultures that make Percepta a great place to work. 

The words "outsourcing" and "offshoring" have grown to mean the same thing to many people. In fact, many of the best-performing outsourcing partnerships happen in-market, emphasising a desire to collborate expertise as well as to reduce cost. Some even consider and operate an "insourcing" model, where the service provider comes into the client business. Percepta was a finalist in the CCA Excellence Awards for Best Outsource Partnership with this model in 2010. Martyn Hart, posting on outsourcemagazine.co.uk, talks about a major brand bringing its customer service back home with its outsource partner.

The Western Bulldogs report they will place a major focus on customer service in 2012 in their feature article entitled "Putting Members First." The report states that the Western Bulldogs plan to accomplish this by bringing their customer service in-house next month "in response to a disappointing year of membership fulfillment and the customer service provided by an external provider."

Insourcing or on-site support services are trending up, allowing brands to integrate professional customer relationship service expertise in-house and realising greater efficiencies to contact centre operating costs, providing expanded or enhanced services to customers and improving overall customer loyalty. 

In partnership with the Centre for Scottish Public Policy's (CSPP) "Adopt an Intern" scheme, two new marketing graduates have been given the opportunity to work with Percepta’s UK and European teams, focusing on creative design, digital, market intelligence, research, and analytics.

Using social media to connect with customers to deliver a service remains new for many organisations, but many others are realising great successes — reduced operating costs and improved customer satisfaction to name just two. Paul Hopkins writes about how best to engage your customer using Facebook.

Or so says new research, writes The Daily Mail. Experts found callers' stress levels and blood pressure rise dangerously high as they become frustrated with the delay in getting through. 

Research does not need to remind consumers of the time and frustration that likely awaits them when dialing customer service. When customer service is the first and maybe only interaction with a brand, failing to provide the right resources and training to your customer service department can result in consumer abandonment or, even worse, consumers bad-mouthing your brand.

Read the report on DailyMail.co.uk or visit our Services section to find out more about building your brand's customer loyalty.

Percepta is delighted to announce the further expansion of our successful South African business operations with the launch of a new Retailer Champion programme.

The team are back this year and aiming higher with an all-new alliance (or Mo-alition) with Percepta sites across the UK.

Our team in South Africa have once again contributed and made a difference in their community.

Percepta announces 40 new customer service advisor and team leader jobs in Daventry.