Delivering agility in the experience economy

The pace and scale of technological innovation, and resulting societal transformation, are rapid and unprecedented.

It is driving significant behavioural change in consumers, who are demanding improved efficiency and automation while, conversely, also seeking out more authentic engagement with brands. This presents new challenges for businesses operating in a hyperconnected, transparent and always-on “experience economy”.

The emergence of digital and data technologies, such as artificial intelligence and deep machine-learning, is powering the rise of chatbots and proliferation of digital communication ecosystems. Omnichannel interaction hubs will become the strategic heartbeat of any truly customer-centric business in the future.

“The lack of a seamless, personalised service fuels bad consumer experiences,” says Fiona Whelan, managing director at CPM International Contact Centres, a global customer experience (CX) and sales company, which specialises in harnessing digital and human contact strategies to deliver omnichannel solutions.

“Customers expect brands to engage with them as individuals, based on an intimate understanding of their preferences and behaviours. They also demand and expect availability in multiple channels and to effortlessly move between digital and human interactions.”

Our vision is to be the premier provider of high-skill, customer-intimate CX and sales solutions across the globe

As a sign of the changing consumer landscape, more than 60 per cent of CPM’s contact centre activities now take place via digital channels, including chatbots, social media, live chat, ticketing and messenger apps.

These contact centre activities include CX support, technical helpdesk, consumer carelines and high-performance sales programmes for a range of global brands, such as Airbnb, Harley-Davidson, New Balance, ViaVan, Bentley and Diageo, to name a few.

While CPM operates across a diverse range of sectors, its recent success has been fuelled by the exponential growth of market disruptor clients and harnessing new technologies in the high-tech, consumer electronics and ecommerce space.

For these clients, enterprise agility is critical. As such, CPM’s focus is on ensuring speed to market, competency and scale through the delivery of integrated digital and human CX excellence, and high-performance sales solutions. Critically, this is underpinned by deep data insights and analytics to drive client competitive advantage and incremental revenue.

This success has enabled CPM to monetise digital sales and ecommerce solutions for its clients, achieving more than €2 million incremental revenue through this channel for one client alone. It has also helped CPM achieve record-breaking net promoter scores for clients throughout international markets and across both digital and human channels, a key measure of customer loyalty.

For one of its clients, a global leader in consumer electronics, CPM has driven more than €24 million in sales through a multi-lingual, multi-channel CX hub, where digital channel sales conversions are rapidly surpassing the more traditional phone and voice-based contact channels by 250 per cent. For Airbnb, a global travel tech innovator, CPM is its longest tenured partner and operates its largest single omnichannel CX hub with more than 1,000 multi-lingual specialists managing over two million bespoke customer contacts a year.

“We are extremely proud of the company we keep and the award-winning CX and sales solutions we have developed. We continue to grow exponentially and, through 3,000-plus employees across our international contact centres, currently service more than 30,000 customers on a daily basis in 71 markets and 26 languages,” says Ms Whelan.

“Ultimately, our vision is to be the premier provider of high-skill, customer-intimate CX and sales solutions across the globe, harnessing the power of digital capabilities and human contact in everything we do.

“Consumers will always place a premium on the ability to engage in personalised CX experiences, particularly for complex, nuanced and value-driven interactions, where trust, rapport and empathy are critical and hard to replicate.

“However, for brands and businesses alike, future success will be driven by their ability to harness both digital and human CX and sales capabilities, appropriately, optimally and excellently.”

For more information please visit cpm-int.com/icc