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Customer service needs 'extreme makeover'

By Nadine Arendse
Johannesburg, 25 Aug 2011

The Internet is changing the way customers look for goods and services, and companies ignore this at their peril. To survive, businesses need to give their customer service strategies an 'extreme makeover'.

This is according to Peter Cheales, founder of consumer complaints site, Hellopeter.com. The site allows consumers to comment on poor service, and also allows companies to rectify any problems and respond to complaints online.

Cheales, who will be a keynote speaker at the ITWeb CRM 2.0 Summit in Johannesburg next week, notes that social media is the new, electronic word of mouth.

“With social media, people are getting the reality they crave - a real-life account of goods and services in real-time,” Cheales says.

“It is not surprising that the search function on Hellopeter.com is the most widely used function of the Web site, and has a huge influence on consumers' buying decisions. The power of the Web site is that it's a search engine for customer experience,” Cheales adds.

Hellopeter.com includes complaints against companies from a range of industry sectors. However, Cheales says not all companies respond to complaints. The site has 1 472 companies that actively respond to consumers, and 1 038 that do not.

ITWeb CRM 2.0 Summit

ITWeb CRM 2.0 Summit will take place at the Forum in Bryanston on 30 August. For more information and to reserve your seat, please click here

Cheales says it is important for all companies to personalise the customer experience, as well as their responses to customer complaints.

If an organisation is going to survive, then customer service needs to be at the forefront of the organisation, he notes.

Cheales will provide valuable insight into how businesses can adapt to a changing market and deliver better service in an age of online social networking. For more information about the ITWeb CRM 2.0 Summit, click here.

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