Global natural health and footwear brand VIVOBAREFOOT has partnered with Arvato CRM Solutions to deliver customer experience for its consumers and to support its growth in the UK and overseas. The three-year partnership – which has the option for a two-year extension – will see Arvato support both VIVOBAREFOOT’s core retail business and its ReVivo service, which refurbishes, reconditions and recycles worn VIVOBAREFOOT shoes.

Arvato CRM Solutions has expanded its footprint into South Africa and secured its first customer experience contract to be delivered from the country with international e-commerce platform company, Techsembly. The move will see the Slough-headquartered business offer its services from Cape Town.

Webhelp, a leading global customer experience BPO player, has announced the appointment of Benjamin Faes as CEO of the UK to further spearhead growth in the region. Benjamin, whose experience includes 13 years at Google and CEO of AOL France, was VP of Global Sales and Marketing at Webhelp prior to his promotion.

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.