Ventrica has built a huge reputation for offering exceptional customer experience to its clients over the last fifteen years. This month they have expanded their portfolio to launch a series of bespoke digital solutions into the marketplace.

Route 101, a leading provider of customer experience solutions, recently announced that it has been named the Zendesk Regional Partner of the Year for UK&I 2023 and the UK&I Collaboration Partner of the Year 2023. These prestigious awards recognise Route 101’s outstanding commitment to delivering exceptional customer experiences and driving innovation in the UK&I region.

For the next edition of our Tech editorial series, one of our guest tech experts, James Connors, focusses on how to choose the right technology vendor for your business. As businesses strive to provide exceptional customer experiences and enhance their contact centre operations, the selection of technology vendors becomes a critical decision. There is information readily available from all areas so one of the struggles I see is, how do you cut through the noise and understand who the best technology platforms are, do they align with what you are looking for and how do you know they’re credible?

Ascensos have announced the launch of 𝗔𝘀𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗼𝘀 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 which brings together proprietary and partner digital and AI-enabled solutions to accelerate the CX transformation programmes of retail and ecommerce brands.

Ascensos has partnered with ESG platform and services provider myConsole in a first for
BPO, to deliver on its business commitments for sustainability and governance. Ascensos CEO, John Devlin, commented: “The announcement of our partnership today with
myConsole demonstrates our continuing commitment to our clients, our colleagues, and the
communities in which we operate – building on our Ascensos Local model, our impact sourcing
strategy, and our adoption of sustainable energy initiatives at our sites.

Arvato CRM Solutions has partnered with real-time productivity, optimisation, and process mining platform, KYP.ai to continue driving its digital transformation and AI (artificial intelligence) offering.
The strategic partnership will enable Arvato to enhance its already established artificial intelligence and RPA (robotic process automation) solutions, providing clients with further scope for digital transformation through AI-powered intelligent automation.

A Birmingham-based business outsourcing specialist has committed to a monthly £1,000 donation to the city’s Children’s Hospital for the next 12 months. The team at Sigma Connected, which provides contact centre services for the utilities, retail, telecommunications and financial services sectors, have pledged the four-figure monthly sum for the hospital’s iMRI appeal, which is aiming to raise £1.5 million to invest into new brain surgery technology. The monthly pledge from the company builds on a six-year relationship during which time Sigma Connected has raised over £63,000 for the hospital, helping to support the care it provides for thousands of sick children every year.

Customer service outsourcing experts Kura underlined its global ambitions with the launch of a new site in South Africa. The new operation, which sits just north of Durban in Richefond Circle, opened at the end of June and is in addition to their existing sites in South Africa and in the UK. The independent outsourcer provides a range of technologically-advanced contact centre services and software solutions for some of the world’s most successful brands, and the new site complements its existing base which is also located in Durban suburbs, north of the city. The opening of Kura South Africa’s newest location comes hot on the heels of another milestone in the business’s storied history after celebrating five years in the country.

Route 101, a leading Systems Integrator specialising in Contact Centre and Customer Engagement solutions, proudly announces the launch of its comprehensive Zendesk training packages. A proud Zendesk Premier Partner since 2019, Route 101 already offers a range of Zendesk services including health checks, optimisation and configuration. With the new training packages, the business aims to empower users with the knowledge and experience needed to get the most from their Zendesk instance.

Kenya’s potential as a premier destination for Business Process Outsourcing continues to gain momentum, signified by the growth, and demand seen for CCI Kenya sites. With Over 3500 agents now supporting over 30 international brands across multiple sectors ranging from Travel & Hospitality to Retail & E-Commerce. CCI’s confidence in this growing demand is bolstered by their commitment to building a new, purpose built and sustainability focused site in Tatu City, Nairobi. A 5000-seat state of the art facility that aims to be ready in Q1 2024 to add to CCI Kenya’s global delivery network.

Editorial – BPO Market Consolidation This spring, there was a flurry of merger, acquisition and branding activity across the BPO sector globally, including TP acquiring

Teleperformance, a global leader in digital business services, recently announced that it has signed a multi-year, $185 million Azure Cloud commitment with Microsoft to deliver comprehensive Microsoft Cloud infrastructure solutions to clients. Through the partnership, Teleperformance is also leveraging Microsoft Azure artificial intelligence (AI) to launch TP GenAI, a new suite of AI solutions that enable faster, more efficient, and improved business processes that deliver enhanced customer experience.

In the modern digital age, customers are increasingly expecting seamless, personalised experiences. Customers are also more connected than ever, not just to businesses but also to each other, so how can someone tap into this and build an effective customer loyalty programme that embraces digital, connects companies and customer, and also provides actual value to customers that hopefully breeds brand loyalty?

The cost-of-living crisis has shifted the definition of “vulnerable customers” in the UK. Economic challenges are severely impacting people, meaning an increasing number are now

New Customer Journey Tracker improves how TPR and HGS analyse and engage with customers.

With a focus on coal powered energy generation, South Africa’s Power utility authorities are facing a difficult time in meeting demand while balancing future growth with its current infrastructure. However, the country has set up a separate entity to repurpose decommissioned sites as well as establish a new Nuclear facility that will produce and additional 2,500 megawatts of power with the government looking at new ways to fill the energy gap and alleviate the national gap for future success. These plans, however, will take 3 to 5 years to produce tangible outputs and the country has begun to adapt to a new energy deficient normal.

‘Where’s my order?’ (WISMO) or ‘where’s my return’ (WISMR) are some of the most common questions that customers need brands’ help to answer. Customers want retailers to tell them the status of an order or return immediately and on their channel of choice.
Managed well, it can help drive loyalty and repeat business. But managed poorly, it can strain relationships, tarnish experience and damage brand reputation – and even cause customers to abandon sales altogether. Not every brand is equipped to deliver. How can retailers adapt to make sure they’re ahead of the pack?

Research by travel aggregator, Hotwire found that nearly half (47%) of internet users would change to another product or service if it violated their personal values, with environmental protection topping the list. While it might not be the first thing that springs to mind when thinking about sustainability strategies, customer experience – supported by the right technology – has an important part to play in helping brands reduce their environmental footprint. Read the full article to find out how.

In 2020, ChatLingual was challenged by one of the Big Four professional service firms with a large-scale need that would test the very limits of the solution and its partner. They were looking to consolidate staff for a global network of firms with diverging languages, regional practices, and technologies. Their expectation was nothing short of achieving the highest level of internal support possible.

A quick look at LinkedIn and you find a plethora of CX experts wanting to strategise and theorise but often ignoring some of the fundamental basics needed to deliver sustainable best in class CX. Put simply, there’s no point building a house on foundations of sand.
Take a look at this article for a few simple questions you need to ask yourself as a business

It’s often said that culture starts from the top and has to be driven by the CEO and the most senior team in the organisation. I don’t disagree but there are also lots of ways that you can change culture from within your organisation, starting small and creating a ripple effect that gathers momentum and delivers real change.

In all areas of business there is a periodic question: should we consolidate our supply chain or should we consciously seek to diversify? All business operating models have been tested and altered since the start of the Covid–19 epidemic. Customer management and contact centre frameworks and approaches are no exception and the question of whether to consolidate or diversify suppliers is frequently addressed.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve come across lots of articles in the customer experience space that focus on topics such as the ideal organisational set-up to succeed at CX; what titles CX leaders should aspire to; what the ideal reporting line is for CX leaders, and so on. Whilst the different perspectives on this are interesting, I feel these points of view fall short of providing the kind of practical advice which can help customer experience leaders succeed in their roles, as the guidance centres on areas that fall outside of their individual control.

We spoke to Steve McSherry, Commercial Director of Daktela UK an industry expert in CX teams and technology, about the transformative power of channel connection. Recently becoming CXFO partners, Daktela, like us, are on a mission to maintain high standards across the CX industry for teams and customers.

We live in the year 2022. Over the many decades much has changed with the advent of technology. A constant that has been silently and relentlessly driving global economies has been you and I, the ever willing and loyal customer. That constant variable is you and I.

ChatLingual, the global, multilingual contact centre platform provider, today announced new UK Headquarters as it expands its innovative solution to enable agents to communicate in 100 languages in real time. The announcement follows news that ChatLingual recently closed a Series A funding led by Lewis & Clark Venture Capital.

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” is a famous quote from management consultant and writer Peter Drucker. Just to clarify, he didn’t mean that strategy was unimportant – but that having a clearly identifiable and inclusive culture was a better route to organisational success. This idea has long influenced my own thinking about what made some businesses more successful than others, particularly when it came to delivering a consistently memorable and sustainable customer experience (CX).

I read this recently in an article by a leading Customer Experience Management Consultant who was discussing whether the ‘customer feedback survey’ was dead or not. His conclusion was that the survey is still a very valuable tool for engaging with customers, but that businesses need to change the way they do it. Surveys should focus more on allowing customers to tell them about the things that are important to them, rather than forcing the customer to answer questions about things that are important to the business.

If you want to succeed in connecting your business purpose to the outcomes your customers crave and buy more of from you in preference to competitors… then you need to step up to the People (Not Customer) Experience plate and engage in the sort of business wide outcome orientated change that makes the most of your greatest asset – Your Colleagues – by engaging and aligning them to the things that deliver the greatest return on investment for all stakeholders – including Customers.

While many have taken a well-earned break this summer, the world of CX SaaS mergers and acquisitions has been operating full-steam ahead, with deals signed for values that are as long as telephone numbers. Qualtrics announced their purchase of Clarabridge for $1.125bn (1) and Medallia were taken into private hands for $6.4bn (2).

Pandemics are Darwinian. Attacking the weakest, only the fittest survive. Pandemics attack businesses in the same Darwinian way. Major organisations with deep pockets, strong products and ample resources are thriving in the current environment. But for others who are not so favourably endowed, survival depends on the ability to change and to do so quickly.