You need to let update-alternatives to know that you have 2 C/C++ compilers,
create a record for each one, and then configure which one you want to use.
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.7 60 --slave /usr/bin/g++ g++ /usr/bin/g++-4.7
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.8 40 --slave /usr/bin/g++ g++ /usr/bin/g++-4.8
sudo update-alternatives --config gcc